The Theological College

My first experience teaching abroad outside a US Territory came in 2006.  During the fall of 2005 two pastors from Stara Zagora Bulgaria (about 150 miles East of Sofia) visited our church in San Ramon CA where they shared about their ministry at a Bible college that they had founded there. The desire to go abroad was rekindled.  We went out for coffee to discuss the ministry there in central Bulgaria. During that time they asked me to come and teach a two week intensive theology class at  the college in Stara Zagora, about 150 miles east of the capital in Sofia. 

Kay & I were able to go the next year and for seven years following that initial trip.  Teaching six hours a day for 2 weeks through an interpreter was exhilarating and exhausting. I I loved it. (You can see what the experience was by watching a lecture recorded in one of my classes.)  

Over the years our relationship with Dinko the founder and president of the college and his wife Petia grew.  During our third year there Petia was finishing up her Ph.D. in theology at a seminary in Prague. She had to get to Prague to meet with her  Ph.D. adviser– but they had the vehicle but no funds to make the trip. Kay & I looked at each other and said in unison– “You provide the vehicle and we will supply the gas and hotel costs for the trip. After finishing my two weeks of teaching we got to travel across central central Europe,  including Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy (including 3 hours for dinner in Venice northern Italy, on to Milan overnight, in the morning visiting the cathedral then on to Lake Como for the night. Switzerland, & Liechtenstein (we crossed the river to get gas so we could say that we had been there.)  continuing on to Munich overnight. The next day was on to Salzburg, Austria where we saw Mozart’s home. The next day we reached Prague, which was utterly beautiful. While we were in Prague we learned that it was the one city in central Europe that was only bombed once by the Allies, and that was by mistake. Hitler had planned to make Prague his capital after the war–so to preserve its beauty he made sure that there were no military targets close to the city. After 2 days in Prague it was back to the US.

We went to Bulgaria every year for the next eight years. The last couple of times the economy had gotten very desperate and finally the college was forced to close its doors in Stara Zagora  

But Dinko, continued in vision for a Bible College.  He & Petia moved to the capital in Sofia where he had started a  new college.  The students in Sophia as in Stara Zagora were eager, but after two years the economy was in such  bad shape forced that new college to close as well.  

Today Dinko is working with the Gypsy population in Sofia. He has had some small initial success in his outreach. The Gypsy/Roma population is despised by the Bulgarian people.  As they are throughout the rest of Europe, Australia and the Americas.  The song “Gypsies Tramps and Thieves” was an accurate description. They are a separate ethnic population that originated in the Indian subcontinent about 1500 years ago. They have spread throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Australia and the American continents as well. But they have never assimilated. 

We continue to have contact with Dinko, but unfortunately the nature of his current ministry doesn’t fit with my ministry as a theologian.