Bulgaria holds the key to healing our broken world.

IN PLOVDIV, BULGARIA, THERE IS A MINISTRY CALLED “AGAPE FAITH UNITED.”



Agape exists to provide an English-language worship community for foreign-born medical students at a local university.



These students come from all corners of the world, but from primarily English-speaking backgrounds. MOST of them hold British passports, but their families originate in various African nations or virtually all of the islands of the Caribbean.



In recent years, though, numbers have also increased from South Asia and even Western Europe.



Each story is different, of course. But each student has chosen to reside in Plovdiv for 4-5 years of study.



After their time in Bulgaria, they will return home, be that to the place they grew up, or the place their parents grew up. They will literally cover the earth…



From a street sign in Plovdiv.



As Global Strategy’s Project Advocate (Agape Student & Refugee Ministries), I think this ministry is one of the Church of God’s best-kept secrets. What other ministry has the potential to literally impact all corners of the world?!?





The way I see it, we have a repeating 4-5 year window of time to impact these students’ lives:



-To introduce them to the Loving God made known through Jesus Christ;



-To encourage them to grow into a deeper relationship with God;



-To give them opportunities to grow in leadership and service;



-To help them integrate their faith with their daily practices;



-To remind them there is a Divine Healer who can work miracles even when modern medicine reaches its limits;



-To instill in them Judeo-Christian virtues and values;



-To help them create a fellowship of colleagues and mentors they can depend on for the rest of their lives and careers;





Agape was created to meet a felt and expressed need. There was no English-language ministry  in Plovdiv. Certainly there was none that was intentional about connecting with medical students. Agape began as a Bible Study in the apartment of retired missionaries Dave & Kathy Simpson (see picture below). From its humble beginnings, it has blossomed into something much larger.



Would you help further the work of Agape Faith United with a one-time gift or with sustained monthly giving of any amount?



This is an opportunity for your gift to literally impact the entire world. And for your gift to literally help bring healing (in body and mind) to the very broken world we live in.



ARCHIVAL clipping from December 2014 “Plovdiv Perspectives,” newsletter of Dave & Kathy Simpson