Josiah Venture Bulgaria

Bulgaria’s population of 7.5 million people has two main religious categories: Orthodoxy (80%) and Islam (12%). As with many other post-Christian nations, the majority of those who call themselves Christians do so as means of national identity, rather than as an expression of personal belief. Evangelical Christians are less than 2%, or 150,000 people. Within the youth demographic this is less than 1%, approximately 15,000 youth nationwide are following Christ as Lord.

Nowadays, 35 years after the fall of Communism, there is a new generation of parents – people who were youth in the 1980s and did not inherit much of the atheistic spirit of that age. Because of that, the environment teenagers grow in today is wildly open to all kinds of spiritualities, including Christianity. The harvest is plentiful!

Unfortunately, the second part of Matthew 9:37 – the workers are few – represents the church reality in Bulgaria. There is a revival on the way, but most churches are not ready. There is a lack of vision, environment for new believers, training and workers. Around 20-30 churches in the country are an exception to this, but we need hundreds more. This is where Josiah Venture in Bulgaria (Fondatsia Istinski Horizonti) steps in.

Our mission is to partner with churches who have the vision, but lack resources and training. We seek out local churches (or they find us) who have the vision and desire to reach and work with youth. We build a relationship with the leadership through multiple visits in person and we make a commitment to walk with them through the steps of building a healthy youth ministry with evangelistic focus. This process consists of us showing them, taking them through trainings about ministry foundations, leadership teams + strategic ministry, discipleship and ministry specifics – depending on what they choose to use as their tools – music and arts, sports, wilderness and camps. We start by doing it with them and moving from “I do it, you watch” to “you do it, I support you” to them doing it on their own. It takes 3-5 years as a whole. We also train young emerging leaders via two programs: a summer Internship – for university aged students, and Next – a high school aged focus. 

We are in love with the bride of Christ and want to see it flourish by welcoming the young generation home. We are a small team and our hope is through your prayers and funds to train and equip many more local churches across Bulgaria. The funds raised will go towards boosting our youth ministries with quality equipment such as bikes, musical instruments, sports gear, rock-climbing and camping gear, training materials, conferences for youth leaders and training seminars + courses, and scholarships for the training programs and camps. 

Thank you for your desire to #PrayPedalRepeat and #PrayServeRepeat for the youth of Bulgaria and Josiah Venture Bulgaria. We are blessed to partner with you to empower churches in Bulgaria to reach the youth of their cities with the love of Jesus.