April 12th, 2006
Dear Friends & Family,
I hope that you are all doing well. It has been around a month since I last wrote to you. As the subject of this email update suggests, I am back in Bulgaria after a period of banishment. I went back to the United States on March 9. At that point I still had not been able to get my visa from Bulgaria, and needed to return to the U.S. to fill out some IRS forms for the ministry. Obedient Life Ministries is a non-profit/tax exempt corporation under the 501(c)3 status of the IRS, but we still must file reports on our income, and how we spent our donations. 2005 marked five years since we were granted our tax exempt status, and so we had to file a report on the donations and expenditures over last five years. That was quite a lot of work, and that was pretty much all that I got accomplished while back home. Even though I do not enjoy that kind of work at all, I am so glad to have been able to look at what the Lord has done through Obedient Life Ministries, because of the faithfulness of His people to partner with us to share the Gospel and the love of Christ. Over the last five years have served literally tens of thousands of meals, distributed nearly 7,000 Bibles, sent twelve mission teams, taught twenty-five leadership and ministry training schools, and touched countless lives at home and abroad in twenty nations throughout the world. To God be the glory!
As you must have figured, I finally got my Bulgarian visa. Two weeks after I got back to the States it was ready for me in Macedonia. So I flew there on April 4, and came on to Lovech, Bulgaria from there. There are still some little glitches that you can help me pray about. When I got the visa its validity dates were from Feb. 1 to May 2, 2006. It was half-way to the expiration date before it was even available to me! So now I have applied for an national ID card, and will know if that is approved sometime early next week. It took me (actually Christalina) two days to get the documents together for that. Then I must immediately try to get my visa extended. Pray that all goes smoothly in that department.
Stantzia Nedezhda (Station Hope) is doing remarkably! God is so faithful!
There are many new people that are going there now for meals and Bible study. I can see such a change in many of the ones that I knew, and I know that it is the transforming power of God's love and His Word that is bringing about that change. The ones that were so dirty and unkempt are now cleaner, and in a better frame of mind. I know that it is the Word of God that does that. The daily Bible studies are powerful. They are presently going through the Book of Acts. I get to teach on Friday! They are going verse by verse so I am not exactly sure what my text will be, but I will be prepared. I believe that what we are doing right here in Lovech is very similar to the church in the Acts of the Apostles. We are meeting people's physical needs. We are sharing the truth of Scripture. We lay hands on the sick and pray for them. As a matter of fact, Wednesday is a day we have specially appointed as a day to lay hands on the sick and pray for them. Of course, any time someone asks for prayer we will gladly do so.
One new service recently initiated is blood pressure screening every Mon., Wed., and Fri. This will help to monitor many of the elderly people's health. Just yesterday, Nicola came in very sick. Some of you may remember me mentioning an old man who is deaf, and did not socialize with the others, but eventually came out of his shell as we greeted him with love and a smile every day--that is Nicola. Even though he was quite sick he came to Stantzia Nedezhda early. He was vomiting, had severe abdominal cramps, and was in a cold sweat. They took his blood pressure, and it was high. They called the ambulance, and two of our staff went with him to the hospital.
He has no one to care for him, no family at all of whom we are aware. The doctors think that he might have an abdominal embolism. So please be in prayer for Nicola. I will report on him again later.
Another person many people have asked me about is Silvana. She is the young gypsy woman who grew up in an orphanage, and was considering giving her baby up for adoption. Well, some of you felt such compassion for Silvana and her baby (she also has a three year old son) that you sent in money designated for them in particular. Yesterday I got to see Silvana and hold her baby, Antoinetta, and she is a very beautiful, sweet baby! Silvana took me immediately into the hall outside the soup kitchen to show me the stroller that we provided for her. She was so thankful for all that we have done. We have not given her all of the money in a lump sum, which would not be wise, but we are buying her milk, diapers and other needed things as they come up. Thank you so much for caring for someone that you never even met!
There are so many other special people that are part of our Station Hope ministry. We have seven or eight other young women just like Silvana. They grew up in an orphanage, and at age 18 they were just put out into the streets. Like a drowning person, they often are grabbing for anything that might keep them afloat, and more often than not they end up in a horrible situation. Many of these young women have already made bad decisions out of desperation and wanting to be loved, and their lives, already difficult, must bear the sad consequences. Some of these girls bring their children to the center, and others have left children in various places looking for a secure life to which to bring them home. Sadly they often never can get their children back, and leave them abandoned just as they had been. Many of these girls turn to prostitution, which is not illegal in Bulgaria, in order to eat. Once they have gone into this their self-esteem is so ravaged that they often never get out of that cycle. There are at two or three girls coming to the kitchen that are prostituting themselves to to prisoners in the work-release program at the large prison here in Lovech. Two of the girls in the program have been raped recently, one only last week. Having nobody to watch out for them, and often living high risk lifestyles, these girls are easy prey for the worst kind of people in a community.
Just yesterday Christalina was in tears in the office saying that we must do something to save them. They have their whole lives ahead of them, but they must make serious adjustments to their thinking and lifestyles if they are going to break out of their self-destructive cylcles. We know that Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy, but that Jesus Christ has come that we might have an abundant life (John 10:10). We know that Jesus Christ is the answer, but we need the mind of Christ to lead them to that abundant life that He has for them. Pray for us that we will be used by God in a strategic way to defeat Satan's plans, and that we will be able to firmly establish them upon the Solid Rock, Jesus Christ.
We do have an exciting new way for you to get involved with our work here in Lovech. You can sponsor one of our clients for only $30 a month. This will help provide them with all of our services--daily Bible studies, blood pressure screening, emergency medical help (such as paying for dental procedures and anti-biotics if needed), social assistance, and a large, nutritious meal every weekday. (When there are long weekends, we provide them with bags of food to take home so that they will not miss one of their normal meals.) If you will commit to sending $30 a month, we will send you a picture of the person you are sending along with a brief biography. We will be able to give you quarterly updates on their progress, and even help translate any special correspondence that you might exchange. If you, your Church, Sunday School Class, or Home Group is interested in sponsoring one of our special people here please send us your first month's offering, your statement of commitment, and your contact information to Obedient Life Ministrie, SPONSORSHIP, P.O. Box 267, Clarion, PA 16214. Your sponsorship will be tax deductable.
We certainly do appreciate all of your faithful prayers and generous giving. If you would like to support our general ministry, or one of the things that I have mentioned in this email, please send your tax-exempt donation to Obedient Life Ministries, P.O. Box 267, Clarion, PA 16214.
Be blessed in Jesus' Name!
Martin Sutton