By Randal Dick
Superintendent of missions
LOCH LOMOND, Scotland--Greetings from the bonny banks of Loch Lomond.
I thought I would give you a report from some of the places I visited in late July and early August. I am sitting in a caravan, or trailer, looking out over some of Scotland's finest beauty. Sailboats are scudding across the water in the stiff breeze.
Our Summer Educational Programs are some of the most important facets of our fellowship. While observing the camps in action, whether in Orr, Minnesota, Scotland or Australia, one can see a microcosm of who we are as a people of God.
This year in Scotland, at the European SEP, are more than 160 young people, from 17 countries, ranging in age from 13 to 18. From the outset, camp director Andrew Silcox and other ministers here to serve the young people have leveled with them--making it clear that they "are the future of the WCG in Europe."
The entire camp, set in a relaxed atmosphere, is reflective of a love for God and the calling that he has given. The beauty of life at camp is that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish where theology leaves off and life begins. They are beautifully integrated during the two weeks of SEP. It seems to me that this is the way it should be in our daily lives.
Christ can manifest himself more effectively when we live a life where our upward, our inward and our outward are well integrated.
The staff members here are all volunteer. It is edifying to see almost as many adults, moms and dads, and some grandmothers and grandfathers, who camp in tents or tiny campers for nearly three weeks--arranging for time off from work so they may make this investment in the future of the church.
This is the second year that SEP Scotland has implemented the Bring a Friend program, where campers can bring a friend as a guest. If the guest likes SEP, then he or she can return the following year and bring a new friend. This year 25 of the campers are friends, or friends of friends.
I worshiped with members from Northern Italy July 28 to 31. The church in Italy, though small, is alive and well.
The church in Italy now has about 11 small congregations in Italy and Sicily, as well as one family in Sardinia.
I spent two days with the national leader in Italy, Daniel Bosch, his wife, Columba, and their son, Alessandro. Together with John Halford, regional director for Europe, we reviewed the opportunities and challenges that have presented themselves to the Italian church, and discussed how the church might be effective instruments in the hands of Jesus Christ.
The challenge of presenting the gospel in Italy is a little different than in most other places. Every Italian sees himself or herself as being "in the church" because of the absolute majority of Catholicism.
Yet, it is generally accepted that in behavior, the Italian culture is secular. So, there is a national religious culture of being a Christian but not practicing its tenets.
Another challenge arises from the fact that the WCG Italy is relatively new and was almost totally the result of an intense media campaign.
Since we have had to curtail our media efforts, Italian members must take up the responsibility of being the medium whereby God calls additional servants. This has taken time, but is now beginning to happen.
In the last Window on the World (August) I wrote about a miraculous intervention that took place in Bulgaria in May.
I mentioned a man from Bulgaria who is a friend and brother in Christ named Nikolay Nikolov. When I was in Bonn, Germany, July 24 to 27 for a meeting of the board of directors, Nikolay arrived from Bulgaria. I was able to understand better what God is doing through Nikolay in Bulgaria.
Nikolay was born into a Christian home in 1952. The communist system was already in place at the time in Bulgaria, and life as a practicing Christian was not easy.
Even today Bulgaria does not give as much freedom to practice one's religion as most Christians would desire. If you go to Nikolay's city, he will show you where his church meets. He can also show you where the church building has been bulldozed six times over the years by the previous governments.
One step the communist regime took in the 1950s was to force all Christians in a given area to meet in one place. This threw Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Evangelicals and Pentecostals all into the same congregation. The government would then select a person to serve as pastor.
This forced all the denominations to band together as one, emphasize their similarities and bond into one fellowship in order to survive. It is sad that in Bulgaria today, schisms are starting to arise over matters of worship style and other issues less important than the gospel.
Nikolay is saddened by this, and is working to promote harmony and renewed focus on spreading the gospel to the unreached.
Nikolay has felt for years that the children are the future of Christianity in Bulgaria. He feels that Bulgaria, given a population that is ethnically diverse and divided between Christianity and Islam, could end up like Kosovo.
He has a burden to spread the gospel to the Bulgarian people in order to avoid such a calamity. For years Nikolay has been working on preparing a children's Bible. No such resource was available in Bulgaria, until now.
Nikolay, during a time when he had to flee his home, ran across a copy of Klar & Wahr, the former German magazine. When the time was right to produce the children's Bible, he approached the Bonn Office and asked for help.
Nikolay is a printer by trade, and all he needed to complete the project was paper. German members rallied to help buy paper, and within a few weeks the Bulgarian children's Bible was a reality.
It has been widely received, especially by orphanages, which are begging for additional copies. The German members have continued to help with the paper, and the Bibles continue to be greatly sought after.
In addition, Nikolay and his team have produced a monthly magazine. It also is being widely distributed, with about 75,000 copies in circulation so far.
Nikolay's current goal is to translate and print a parallel Gospel in Bulgarian and Turkish. He feels that these people may be quite receptive to the gospel and wishes to sow seeds of peace between the two ethnic groups through Scripture.
In addition, Nikolay has been impressed with the quality and depth of celebration experienced at our festivals. He and the Germans are exploring the possibility of a joint fall festival site in Bulgaria, on the shores of the Black Sea in 2000.
I will revisit Nikolay's progress, and tell you more about the spreading of the gospel in Bulgaria in a future issue of Windows.
In the August issue, an error in a subhead attributed the final five paragraphs as "A final note from Santiago." However, the comments were from Mr. Dick.
SEP LIFE--Lasting friendships formed at SEP.
SEP SCOTLAND--Campers relax before the
day's activities. [Photos by Randal Dick]
NORTHERN ITALY--Greetings from members.
PASTOR--Pastor Daniel Bosch with his
wife, Columba, and their son, Alessandro,
in Bergamo, Italy.
MEMBERS IN ITALY--Women from Northern
Italian congregations, which met for combined service July 31.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1999