Peter Ruck was invited with Tim Grant from England to speak in Bulgaria at the “Tent 100” mission schools. Tim and Peter met up at Gatwick with a 4.00am check in for a flight to Sofia. They were arriving after colleagues from Denmark and Estonia who had been serving the week.
Georgi from ‘Tent 100’ in Bulgaria picked them up at the airport and took them to meet up with team. Sofi Encheav was leading the initiative and we were staying at her office, which had everything we needed for the week: beds, shower, kettle and food in the fridge. We would be based here in Sofia but the plan was that we would be serving in two other cities: Blagoevgrad and Pazardzik, which we would alternate between. Everyday we would set off in the early evening and then arrive back around midnight from the over 200km round trip each night. The students were extremely enthusiastic in both groups and it was real pleasure to serve in the mission schools.
Peter used the material from the “Ignite” program developed with Zeal. ‘FATOS’ is always his favourite to begin with, as it is something he developed through being inspired by the teaching of a great inspiration and mentor to him, Dr T L Osborn. The importance of evangelists and missionaries are to be “Faithful Available Teachable Obedient Servants”. This he follows up with the “Care and Share” series of three modules. The important messages from these emphasize love and prayer and the impact they make.
“The Fruits of the Spirit” module is always the final session looking at the nine fruits of the Spirit. Typically the final slide message is “Remember you could be the only Jesus some will ever see.”
Both groups were treated to practical evenings that were geared around delivering Peter’s personal testimony. The “Tear and Share” origami always is a very focused message that grabs people’s attention, especially when the words HELL and LOVE are shown and finally the CROSS.
Peter was invited to be the midweek church speaker at Antioch Church in Blagoevgrad. Pastor Simeon asked Peter if could share his testimony and carry on the teaching in the church after the service. Peter had planned for everyone to do “matchstick” testimonies as a finale for the evening. The idea is for everyone to tell their own story in just over three minutes. It can really focus the mind: people enjoy this challenge and at same time find it fun. Interestingly many of those not on the course stayed on after to enjoy the program.
Peter shared his testimony and used a movie clip from the jungle mission to show what it means to be a ‘FATOS’, telling the story of being “available and obedient” from his 2008 trip to the Asian jungle. He shared how God had told him to buy a pint of milk and how that one act of obedience had seen a little girl receive a miracle from God. Today 150 of this tribe have become Christians.
It was wonderful to see people’s lives touched in their body, soul and spirit, at the end of the service in Blagoevgrad. Later in the week in Pazardzik we again saw people physically touched as the Holy Spirit worked amongst them.
Our week was soon over and we were ‘passing the baton’ on to our counterparts Andre and Yauheni from Russia and the ‘Tent 100’ team.
For more information on the ‘Ignite’ training programme, please contact: info@zealoutreachministries.co.uk
