UniShow World: Shining the Light in Bulgaria

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Shining the Light in Bulgaria

It's been four years since we've been to Bulgaria and it was wonderful to be back. Not only do they have the best Shopska salads around, but the people are beautiful and welcoming.

The performances combined Dustin's world champion unicycling with Adrian Van Vactor's international award-winning illusions. It was an impressive show which audiences loved.

We partnered with friends who are specifically reaching out to the 700,000 Turkish background Bulgarians. Most mornings we did presentations in different villages on their weekly market day. In the evenings we did presentations in Turkish communities or city centers.

In Salistra we were hosted by a local church who has a very active youth group. The students added a dance to our street outreach, one of them translated for us, and others were inviting students in the audience to youth group. It's exciting to see young people using their gifts to make a difference. During our street shows Saturday, people were invited to church Sunday morning. About 20 people came to church as a result of our outreaches and 5 new students came to youth group. This was the first time this church has done open air outreaches and we thank God for the results.

One special presentation was at an orphanage. The precious children were so receptive and enthusiastic and clung to us, not wanting us to leave at the end. We were encouraged to learn that the message of hope we shared was building on ministry the locals do regularly there.

During each presentation we shared the Good News in full and invited people to respond. Surveys were handed out after each show for people to request more information. Hundreds heard the powerful message of God's love, most for the very first time. Some were deeply touched through our presentations. We noticed tears in some people's eyes; others were very interested in the message, nodding along, eagerly raising their hands, then wanting the location of the local church. Please pray with us for each of these people to grow in their faith.

A pastor in a village who organized a few events for us has planted 10 churches and is going strong. He shared with us his powerful testimony of how God dramatically changed his life. He had been the town drunk and had almost died several times both from drug and alcohol poisoning and from trying to hang himself. He lived near a church and would throw rocks at believers who were headed there. One night he was walking home drunk when a bright light dropped him to his knees, the heavens opened and he saw a hand reach down and throw a lightening bolt into his heart. He heard a voice say "I am the Way, Truth and Life." Suddenly he started saying many verses from the Bible that he hadn't know before. He was on his knees for a long time in the middle of town while God worked on him and people stared at him like he was crazy. What an amazing story of how God is still in the business of changing people's lives.