Current

We're in Madrid, Spain and it's awesome to watch what God is doing among the Bulgarian immigrant community. To our knowledge, this is the only real functioning Bulgarian church in Madrid, planted by pastor Yanko Strehin and his wife Vania in 2004. They started as a small group of believers seeking fellowship.

In 2005, a member of our church in Sofia who moved to Madrid, was instrumental in connecting our ministry with the pastor of the newly founded Bulgarian church. It became clear that there was a clear need for leadership input in pastor Yanko's life and church. The main connection was with pastor Kaloyan Kourdomanov, who is one of the presbyters of our church in Sofia. Pastor Kaloyan has already made several trips to Madrid since 2005 and has clearly established a bridge and an apostolic connection with the church in Madrid.

In March of 2007 I was invited by pastor Yanko to visit the church and this marked the official beginning of our Kingdom relationship. Since the time of our ministry in '07 many things have happened, but most importantly, the core of the church became consolidated and they are now poised for growth.

"Last year, while you were speaking, I experienced the fire of God literally burning up in me, setting me on fire. It was like spiritual embers being stirred in me all over again in me", said pastor Yanko when I asked him how did the meetings impact him last year.

He went on to tell me how God had been working intensely in the lives of the believers since last year. Several people got saved at these meetings, but one in particular became a real demonstration of God's power and deliverance.

Another young man told me: "Last year, when you spoke a prophetic word over me, it broke something over my life. Years of wandering and carnality were broken", said Stoyan, who is a young man, whose life has been totally changed. "I was born-again and at the same time I was going to bars getting drunk and doing bad things. I was unsure if I'll ever be able to serve God". All this changed after the prophetic word was released over him last year. He became a changed man and is now testifying to many people every week and people are responding.

During this ministry trip mine and pastor Kaloyan's teaching focused on the Kingdom of God and the role the Church has to advance His Kingdom. The response was fantastic! We saw tears of healing rolling down people's faces as the Holy Spirit directed me to speak into the hearts of these precious disciples of Jesus. We saw encouragement, new fire and new boldness visibly change many people who came hungry for the word of God.

Today (Sunday) we traveled outside of Madrid and went to a nearby lake, where we baptized 6 believers in water. It was glorious and the presence of God was with us. One of the baptized was pastor Yanko's 5 year old boy - David. He was so serious and dedicated to the Lord!

To our knowledge this is the first time a Bulgarian church in Spain has given water baptism to Bulgarians or anybody for that matter. It certainly was the first time pastor Yanko gave water baptism to people.

Thank you everyone who prayed and supported us on this trip! Tomorrow I'll spend a good part of the day ministering to the pastor and his wife, building them up in the Lord and we will also strategize the next step in reaching the 50,000 strong Bulgarian community here in Madrid. This is a mission's field and we definitely have an open door as a ministry dedicated to the advancement of the Kingdom, leadership development and the deployment of believers into the destiny and purpose God has for them in this region.