Dear Friends and Family,

  I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas from Sevlievo, Bulgaria!  I pray that you and your family and loved ones will have a joyous Christmas season as you celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel—God with us, into the world.

  This past year has been quite an adventure for me as no other year in my life.  It was a year of new places, sadness, disappointment, redirection, and clarification in my ministry here in Bulgaria.  Though I still don’t understand the “why” of everything, I can certainly see the hand of God in directing me to this point.  The utter peace, joy and expectation (that mixture of hope and faith, vision and belief) that I have at this time is a testimony to that.

  I came to Bulgaria in the middle of last December to get our new soup kitchen, Stantzia Nedezhda (Station Hope) up and running.  Much work and preparation had gone into getting it running, and we opened the kitchen on January 2, and things seemed to be going well.  There were positive responses, and much excitement.  We were feeding mostly elderly people and some mentally ill. Unfortunately, as I was trying to renew my visa I was told that I had to leave the country immediately.  So on January 28, I packed up to go to Skopje, Macedonia to apply for my new visa, thinking that it would take three or four days.  It turned into nearly three months!  I now call it my period of exile.

  During that time I traveled to many different countries, and the Lord began opening doors for me in ministering to children.  I had never done much work with children in the past except during my years as a youth pastor when I was developing children’s ministries in the church, but it had mostly been a hands-off, facilitating approach.  As I waited for approval of my visa in Macedonia I did my first children’s service, and loved it!  From Macedonia I went to Hungary, and then went with a friend back to Romania, where I did another children’s service.  God was speaking!  On to Albania I went.  There again I was involved in children’s ministries in different cities.  Something was stirring in my heart.  Upon returning to Macedonia again, I saw that it would be another month so I flew to Slovenia and on to the USA.

  I was in Clarion the month that I was in the States.  Obedient Life Ministries had been temporarily approved as a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation by the IRS (the US tax service), and we were to be reviewed after five years, and that time had come.  Praise the Lord; we received word that we had been permanently approved, but I knew that there were serious problems back in Bulgaria that I was going to have to face.

  When I got back to Bulgaria in mid-April the kitchen seemed to be going well on the outside, the number of people we were feeding had tripled.  Part-time staff was now full-time, and another cook had been brought on.  We were in a new office, and had a new computer.  The problem was that much of this had been done without my knowledge, and/or against my directions.  It was taking everything that we had to keep this afloat, and every week was a financial challenge.  In an attempt to save the work I ordered a two-week shutdown of the kitchen beginning May 5 in order to find alternative, cheaper ways to operate.  After more delays in opening it became apparent that it would be impossible to operate with the vision and staff that we had, and it was decided to close the soup kitchen and lay off all the staff.  It was a very painful, confusing time.  I wondered how something that started with such promise and good intention could end so badly, and had to face the fact that I committed myself to the wrong plan of action.  There was one glimmer of hope in all of this, the children—the very reason I first had come to Bulgaria.

  As all that drama was being unleashed, it seemed that something else was opening to me—church ministry.  It was strange, but since the time that I began working on the foundation in Lovech, except for two or three occasions, I never had any opportunities to teach or preach in Bulgaria.  I would literally have to leave the country to do this.  Now I started preaching and teaching every weekend!  I was not asking for speaking engagements, they were calling me.

  Perhaps the most significant event was running into an old friend of mine at the at a festival in Lovech on Palm Sunday.  He used to live in Lovech, but had moved to Sevlievo.  His family was with another family from Sevlievo, and they invited me to spend Easter with them there.  A couple of days later they called to see if I would preach.  That started a wonderful relationship that developed into many friendships and fellowship that I had been missing so much up to that point.  A couple weeks later I was invited back again, and this time I was asked if I would consider coming to work with the youth of the church there.  I really wanted to, but I was torn.  I did not want to leave Lovech just to make myself more comfortable, and escape a bad situation.  I wanted to make sure that I had the right motive before I would make such a move.

  June brought a real ray of sunshine—a mission team from home!  Three ladies from the Clarion, PA area came to Bulgaria for three weeks to do VBS’s, and to train people to do their own VBS programs and Kid’s Bible Clubs.  In all they did six VBS programs in different towns and neighborhoods.  The biggest one was in a Turkish neighborhood in Sevlievo.  What started out as a group of fifty children swelled to over ninety over the four day VBS, and the fruit remained.  This immediately became a weekly Kid’s Bible Club in that Moslem neighborhood the next Friday, and it remains even today running between 40 and 70 children each week.  Even more exciting, the church in Sevlievo had brought in a Turkish pastor to start a church plant some months before, and this sudden interest in the neighborhood children has allowed them to go from being a weekly home bible study to a full-fledged church.  While the team was in Bulgaria, they asked me several times why I didn’t move to Sevlievo, but I was still unsure of my motives.  I was not ready to throw in the towel, and leave Lovech.  Looking back, I think that pride was playing a part.  Leaving Lovech would be saying that I had pursued the wrong path.  It had seemed so right at the time I set out, but I had to come to grips with it.

  July and August were months of ministry and travel.  Nearly every Sunday I preached somewhere.  I spent two weeks in Romania, and a couple of weeks later I went to Hungary and Ukraine.  During that time I began to come to grips with the facts of what had happened in Lovech, and also saw the glaring contrast between my times with good friends in those other places, and the fact that I was pretty much alone in Lovech.  On top of that, I had been unable to find even three English speaking board members in Lovech with whom I had a somewhat open relationship, and felt that I could move on from where the foundation was to where I saw it going.  After much prayer and discussion with my more experienced missionary friends in those places, I had the peace I needed to move to Sevlievo.

  In September a very fast transition took place.  I found an apartment, had a new board, ended my leases in Lovech, and had moved.  I really thought that it might be November before I could move, but by the last week of September everything was set, and I was living in a lovely apartment right in the center of Sevlievo.

  Sevlievo has been such a positive move for me.  I have many close friends, and a real church family, and that really was especially a comfort when my grandmother died just a few weeks ago, and I wasn’t able to go home for the funeral.  Not only that, but I am on the leadership team here.  I preach here quite often, and am working with Sunday School.  Presently in the area of Christian Education I am developing a structured Sunday School curriculum for children on Christian character that is being translated into Bulgarian even now, and am helping to develop a discipleship program for adults.  In the local church here, I am helping the leadership team develop their mission and vision statements along with long and short term goals.  After the New Year I have been asked to preach for a new Sunday evening service directed toward the young adults in the area.  I am doing teacher training seminars, as well as doing praise and worship seminars and preaching in other cities.  Obedient Life has also given help in the way of teaching, music and craft materials to three different Sunday Schools and Kid’s Bible Clubs in the last couple months.  This is something that we really want to see expanded here in the Balkan Peninsula.

  All of this has helped me clarify my vision and work here in Bulgarian and the Balkans.  I see now that since I have come to work with children, this is absolutely what I must do.  Right now I am able to work without hindrance with children in the local churches, and I would like to help facilitate children’s ministries in this part of the world.  As far as the foundation goes, we have located a Christian social worker, and plan to locally start working with children at risk, and see where that takes us.  We will center our concentration on children ages 7 to 12, as this is the age group of the children in the local elementary schools.  As we ascertain their needs, and see the trends that develop there, we will expand our programs as we are financially able.  I would still like to see a children’s home built, but that will come in the future.  Right now there is important work that we can do that can eventually develop into that kind of facility.  I understand more clearly the financial and legal implications that such an endeavor involves and see that we are not in a position to do that as of yet without some financial miracle.  Of course, God can do all things!

  Presently we are making some minor changes in our documents (new board members and new address), and will likely be changing our name to Balkan Hope Foundation.  In the past many people have said to me that we have a very strange, or interesting, name, but I didn’t understand what they were saying.  The people on our new board have told me that it would be best if we changed our name, because our present name, Foundation Life of Obedience (in Bulgarian), makes Bulgarians wonder if we are a cult trying to force people into obeying our principles.  Since they are Bulgarian, they understand the culture more than I do.  Many here are distrustful of evangelicals, protestants, and any organization that is not secular or of the Orthodox Church here.  They often view others as a sect, or cult.  Our bylaws allow us to freely share our faith in all of our activities, but we have to get in the door first.  The new board believes that changing our name will allow that to happen more freely. 

  I look toward the New Year, 2007, brimming with hope!  I will spend Christmas here in Sevlievo with my church family, and then will go to Romania and Bulgaria for New Year’s.  I have a renewed, clarified vision, a wonderful team of people excited about what we are ready to do, and greater faith in what God can do than ever before.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and so can you!  Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we need fear no evil, for Christ, the Good Shepherd, is with us.  The prophet, Isaiah, in foretelling of the coming Messiah wrote, wrote so eloquently by the Holy Ghost in chapter 9, verse 2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”  I see that scripture on a deeper level approaching this Christmas season.  I have come out of a dark place, and into His glorious light.  Jesus truly is the Light of the World!  His coming past and future is truly something to celebrate!

  I would like to again thank all of you for your faithful prayers and financial support.  If you would like to make a tax-exempt donation to support our work you may send it to Obedient Life Ministries, P.O. Box 267, Clarion, PA 16214, or you may make a donation by credit card by using our secure PayPal link from our website, www.obedientlife.org.  This is the perfect time to make that end of the year donation to bring your charitable giving up to your desired level.

Be blessed in Jesus’ Name!

Merry Christmas!

Martin Sutton