Day 3 - Lom

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, the group returned from Lom to Sofia. The group was then split up into four groups and sent out to four separate churches for Sunday morning services. I heard that there were wild worship services that morning. I will have more information on that for you by tomorrow maybe.
Georgian, Winnie, Georgians secretary Karen and myself (I am Niki by the way -- Hi!--im the photographer/webmaster for Georgian) - we stayed overnight in Lom so that Georgian could preach at Mitko's gypsy church Sunday morning.

So Sunday morning the church service was packed out - so many of the faces we had seen the day before at the celebration where there eagerly wanting to learn more of the Lord. Pastor Mitko's church is located in a small former grocery store. The backdrop of the stage is a reproduction of one of Tim Halls paintings of people in the river of joy. The service was wild and lots of fun.

While Geogian was standing on a bench telling the people about Jesus the day before at the meetings in the Gypsy village - He spoke of God reaching out His hand to us - and as he said that, Georgian illustrated by reaching down from the bench he was standing on and grabbing the hand of a Gypsy gentleman. This man it turns out is the pastor of the other church in the village. This pastor and pastor Mitko are what you would call the opposite of friends. This pastors church does not allow dancing or clapping -they are very religious and find the freedom in Mitkos church offensive. These beliefs have separated the two groups for decades.

Well this Pastor saw what was taking place in the field - the healings - the miracles - he knew these people that were getting healed personally. He knew their miracles were real and he was unable to deny the very presence of God in that place. The members of his chruch that were there in the field with us began asking him why they were not allowed to dance like these people were. They started questioning him why it was wrong. He approached Georgian after the celebration and asked if Georgian would visit his church that Sunday morning to pray a prayer that would pass on this annointing to him and his church.

So after our meeting at Pator Mitkos church - we drove to the other side of the village and entered this church filled with somber songs and hardened faces, with loud singing and drums. The people joined us and we sang and rejoiced! Then Georgian took one of Mitkos hands in his, and the other pastors hand in his hand, and he made the two pastors face eachother and hold hands as well. He told the people that they all served the same God - that there needed to be unity in vision and purpose - that Christ came for all! (He was speaking in Bulgarian so I only have the cliff notes of the prayer )

When he was done the two pastors embraced. We left the church singing and the entire chruch followed us out to our van smiling, waving and gratefully thanking us for our visit.

Pastor Mitko then informed us that we had one more stop to make before joining his family for lunch.
There was a 12 year old blind boy who had had a dream that Americans were going to come and pray for him and he would be healed. Being Americans ourselves we thought we would pay the boy a visit and offer prayer. We pulled up to a house that was located right where we had been singing and praising the Lord the day before as we unloaded off of the bus and started our parade into the village.

Passing through the curtain door of the adobe hut house, our eyes had to adjust to the darkness of the small dirty room with the dirt floor and low ceiling. A young boy sat in a very old wheelchair. His legs were twisted and crippled. Behind him was an old gypsy woman with a very hard face. Her hand rested on the boys shoulder protectively. Pastor Mitko introduced us as Americans and asked permission to pray for the boy. The woman nodded. Georgian asked the boy what he would like. The boy said more than anything he would like to be allowed to go outside and play. We told him that we were going to pray for him and we layed our hands upon him praising the Lord for his power and love for this child.

A few moments passed as we prayed and the boy began to giggle and squeal in laughter as if someone was tickling him. We continued to pray. We then began to lay hands on the old gypsy woman. She remained tense, but did not push us away. Soon tears were streaming down her face and she wiped them away stifly with old bent fingers.

Then we heard a sound from the other room. Georgian pulled back the curtain and there were two people standing there watching us. An gypsy man in his 40s who looked competely mean and evil and a young beautiful girl, maybe 18 or 20. The room they were in was wallpapered in pornography.
Pastor mitko introduced her to us and said that the girl was a former member of his church. In fact he had baptized her as a baby. Georgian asked if she still went to chruch. She looked to the ground ashamed and said no. Georgian said to her - who cares about chruch? Who cares about religion? Do you want to have a relationship with Jesus again - the girl looked up with tears in her eyes and said yes. Georgain said "very well! How about now?!" the girl said Yes!
Georgian then asked the man. The man looked very uncomfortable with the whole situation, and mumbled some reply. We all held hands in a circle and Georgian led the girl and the man to salvation we layed hands on them a long while praying and the girl began to sway back and forth, crying intensely.

When we were finished saying our goodbyes we walked outside into the bright light. A large crowd had formed around the house and the people stared in amazement at us.
When we got into the car Pastor Mitko began telling us that that girl was the most beautiful girl in teh village - she was the pride of the town and her family. She was married to a wonderful man and everyone was happy. THen she had met that other man - the one we had prayed iwth - she left her husband and her family and began living iwth him. The mother was devistated - she went to her daughter and said how could you put this curse on my family? if you do not leave him i will kill myself. the daughter did not leave him.
the mother showed at the house, poured gasoline all over herself and set herself on fire - killing herself right in front of the dauther.

the daugher still did not leave this man.

As it turns out - the man, and the older gypsy woman with the blind child were the most wicked and dangerous people in the town. They ran the prostitution ring and were terrible evil people. The girl we prayed with that day said she had had a vision and the Lord showed her one foot covered in flowers and her other foot looking like the claw of a dragon. The Lord said that if she would follow Him, he would turn the other foot and the rest of her into flowers and goodness. She said she wanted to follow Him but was unable to leave the evil man. She prayed for the Lord to send someone to help her and pray for her.
The Lord sent us!!

That evening back in Sofia - Zhorros and Marianas chruch organized the rental of a large stage located in the cities park. There is no preacing allowed in Sofia - so we got the permit for use of the stage by saying that we were a fundraiser for one of Georgians orphanage. The orphans performed a few songs onstage - but the majority was the band from Zhorros church and they rocked out - they performed a ton of Delirious songs and we had a huge crowd watching us. Then Georgian got everyone from the mission trip onstage and we danced and sang and played our instuments for an hour or so while the crowd cheered us on and danced in the park to our worshiping!

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