On June 11th, 2025, Joseph and I landed in Bucharest, and Josh gave us a ride down to Shumen. One of the first ministries that I got to participate in twice was helping out with the English classes held at the church. One of which was with ETEAM. I did not have any evangelism opportunities, but they had already been exposed previously to the gospel through Josh.
Our second main ministry opportunity was through ETEAM. Every day from Monday through Friday, we went to two Muslim villages, Venets and Osenovets. In each village, we worked on painting a fence, then met with the kids of the village to play games and tell a Bible lesson. All told, our group of kids grew from four or five on the first day to at least forty! I connected with one of the older kids more than the others and met with him a couple of times, once one-on-one and once with some of his friends. The first time, I was able to give him a whole Gospel presentation and talk about how Christianity solves Islam’s holes! He seemed really interested in learning about Christianity.
On my Bulgarian Sundays, I went to three churches in three villages in the Shumen Province. The first church was the biggest church of about forty people, located in downtown Shumen. In this church, I played piano for the church. In the other two churches, I functioned as a regular congregant for the most part, trying to help in small ways if I could. Although often times in the other two other churches, I was without a translator. On my final Sunday, I got the opportunity to preach at all three churches! From what I heard from the Heaths afterwards, it appears that God used my sermon to reach someone who was struggling at the third church.
We also had several other smaller ministries such as helping the Shumen Deacon and his family move into their new house, assemble furniture, and paint their walls. The hardest job was one where we cleaned up a stinky house of a man who had brain damage, which kept him from keeping his house clean or go to the bathroom properly. My small ministry that was closest to my heart was one in Vehtovo. We worked with kids in a village to clean up the streets, then played with them. I then had the opportunity of telling them the story of David and Goliath with Josh as a translator, to which they seemed extremely attentive.
The second bigger ministry opportunity that I had was through a church camp in Lyaskovets. We got together with kids from Pleven, Svishtov, Kaspichan, Shumen, and missionaries from some of those locations and Varna. Every day that week, we spent time worshiping God, studying the Bible as a group and individually, playing games, swimming, and so much more!
But there are two aspects that I will remember best. Firstly, I because of my parents’ divorce a couple of years ago, I was able to sympathize with and witness to one of the kids there whose parents had gotten a divorce while he was at camp. Although it was tough for me to go through my parents’ divorce a couple of years ago, this moment has made it worth it. At the end of the week, the boy gave his life to Christ! Secondly, even though I hardly know any Bulgarian, I was able to connect with the kids who spoke about as much English as I did Bulgarian. God helped me to be able to communicate non-verbally in order to connect with the kids!
All told, I learned a lot about ministry, missions, and living a life of reliance on God. I had more opportunities than I had expected to reach the people of Bulgaria, and I hope I made an impact on the people that I interacted with through the power of God!”
– Phillip Gedeon