God first opened a door to Kazanluk in 2014, we were at a Christian meeting in Bristol, where we met a Bulgarian Roma pastor named , Dimitar. He invited us to his church in Kazanluk. In Dimitar’s church, they have church every evening and a prayer meeting every morning because his church oversees about five thousand people in this village. On our next trip to Bulgaria, we took him up on his invitation and went to Kazanluk. While we established our friendship with Dimitar, we were shown around the Roma village and Steve, Adonna, along with our friend, Freda, shared their testimonies with the church.
In the Easter and summer of 2016, we went back to the Roma village in Kazanluk. At the evening meetings Steve and Adonna were invited to speak to the church and all of us were able to pray for the people. We also brought children’s clothes and shoes with us that we laid out on the stage in the church. The children came in, picked out what they needed and left with bundles of clothes and shoes in their hands and smiles on their faces.
While on our Easter trip in 2016, we were shown around a building that was given to Dimitar by the local municipality. The building is very run down and derelict. He has plans to use this building for a bible school, feeding/medical centre, missionary accommodation and an orphanage. When he was first given the building it only had doors and a roof, but no windows, electricity or heating. So we felt God said to put electric into the building.
On our Summer trip in 2016, we went into this new village where Dimitar had just started a church. In this village, the people lived with out water and electric for about twenty years and would have to walk about two kilometers everyday to get water. We heard God say to run water pipes into the village and the people in both villages put money together to run electric at the same time. So now the people have two taps in the center of the village.
In the summer of 2017 we went back to Kazanluk. The evening church meetings were outside because of the heat. While waiting for church to start, a mum asked Adonna and Samuel to pray for her son who couldn’t walk. The little boy had one leg shorter then the other, as Adonna and Samuel prayed for his legs, the short one started to grow in Adonna’s hand. As soon as Adonna and Samuel walk back to us, a young man came running down the road to Dimitar. The man asked Dimitar to quickly come to his house as there was an old man who was dying. Dimitar asked us all to come too. When we got there the old man looked gray and his breathing was really crackly. We all started to pray and then Adonna saw a picture of a pair of lungs that had darkness over them, fire came from heaven, it started to fill the lungs and burnt away the darkness. Adonna explained what she saw to our interpreter and he told the pastor and the man. We carried on praying for the man. When we finished praying the old man was breathing normally and had colour back in his face again. While on the same trip, we went to see the taps that had been plumbed in. We saw that drainage was needed around the taps as well as it needed to be paved, which we were able to provided.
We returned in April 2019, this time we brought four of our friends, Andy, Andrew, Richard and Danny. On the first night there, Danny preached, at the end of his preach all of us prayed for people. Adonna and Richard had words of knowledge about breathing problems and some other health problems. Many people responded to these words of knowledge and many were healed and set free from different things that night.
The next morning we went into the villages to see what needed to be fixed or done, While there I brought my camera with me and all these children came running asking for a photo so they could see themselves on the camera screen. They were beaming with smiles at seeing their pictures. It was so sweet. Later the same day, we laid the clothes and shoes on the stage again. The children came in and left with clothes for themselves and their families.
The last night in the Roma village Andy and Andrew preached; at the end of their preach, we all prayed for the people again. People were still coming up for prayer about the words of knowledge that was given the night before and was still being healed. I was stood on the stage trying to work out what to take a photo of first, as on one side there were people being set free from anger issues, in the middle people were being healed by God and on the other side there was people being touched by God. While looking through the crowd, this little girl stood out to me and I heard God say,” Go pray for her.” At this point in time I was scared to pray for people, so my instant reaction was, ” Oh, no!! I can’t go up to pray for her.” But God reminded me that we are just a funnel that God just pours through to them and it’s not about if we pray a fancy prayer or a short simple prayer because it is Him not us. So I started to walk towards her and God showed me a picture of her heart, that one of the valves wasn’t working properly. I turned to her mum and asked in very broken Bulgarian if her daughter’s heart wasn’t working properly, the mum said yes, the word was right. So I knelt down to the little girl and started to pray for her, I hugged her and got up not knowing if she was healed or not. But a few days later, Dimitar messaged us to say that the little girl went back to the hospital and it has come back that she is completely healed. After hearing that this little girl was healed God showed me that when you listen to and obey what God is saying, it doesn’t just change someone else’s life, but also it changes the way you think and you end up not fearing praying for people.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7