Advent Reflections

Nazarenes on the Eurasia Region share their Christmas memories and reflections in the November/December edition of Holiness Today.


Monica Boseff, pastor, Bucharest, Romania
My favorite Christmas story goes back to the revolution days in 1989. The former dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife were tried and executed on December 25 that year. Their people were puzzled and angry, shooting everything and everybody. I was at the emergency hospital in Bucharest where I had gone two days before, wanting to help in the best way I knew. Late at night, the lights had to be turned off for security reasons and we had to remain wherever we were in the hospital, in pitch darkness. Some were whispering, some were snoozing. Suddenly, someone said "Hush. Listen—something's wrong!" We all froze. Then we realized someone was playing a radio. It was softly playing Christmas carols—something we had not heard in 18 years. We cried tears of joy.

Southeastern Europe Changes Leadership

Jay Sunberg to Begin As Field Strategy Coordinator in January

Eurasia Region––After nearly five years serving Southeastern Europe (SEE) as Field Strategy Coordinator, Joel and Sara Mullen will be transferring to the Western Mediterranean Field to resume ministry in Italy, where they first began working with Eurasia when they joined the region in 2001. Beginning on 1 January, the role of Field Strategy Coordinator for SEE will be filled by Jay Sunberg, who, with his wife Teanna and four daughters, have been missionaries to Bulgaria for more than 10 years.

Source: Where Worlds Meet – Year 5, Issue 10 - November 2008

Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary Partner in Church Planting Consultation

Razgrad, Bulgaria––Cristi Boseff doesn’t like games. He especially dislikes serious games. So when the Romanian pastor and 40 others were split into teams to play one during a weekend gathering for church planters from Eastern Europe, he wasn’t excited. “I thought I was going to be bored to death,” said Boseff, pastor of the Blessing Church in Bucharest, Romania. “But it was very unexpected. God works in unexpected ways.”

The game: plant a church in the fictional Eastern European country of Lower Slabobia, in and around a city named Sikigrad. Every five minutes that passed represented a month in the life of the game. Teams were required to make decisions on deadlines, create budgets and develop ministry plans for their churches. Like life, the game brought changes such as budget adjustments and natural disasters for the teams to work through.

“Everyone was looking at me,” said Boseff, who was chosen as the leader for his team, “and I said, ‘God I am looking at you.’ Things came into order, in a way I can’t explain now. Without realizing, we started to come up with a plan.”

It was a group of nearly 40 church planters and leaders from Bulgaria (24), Romania (5) and Hungary (8) playing the four-hour game, which capped off a gathering in Razgrad, Bulgaria from 22-24 September. The weekend included discussions on how specific Eastern European pastors handle finances, facilities, church planting, etc. in their respective churches, and enabled the group to share about their common experiences.

This unity carried into the game: with representatives from all three countries mixed on each team, many expected a significant challenges between languages, experiences and cultural perspectives. Still, people found that their own life experiences pushed them to take the game seriously, and began utilizing one another’s gifts to create a plan for the church.

“We forgot it was a game,” said one woman, who nurtures several village churches near Stubel, Bulgaria. “We were ready to really go and plant a church in this town.”

“I was very impressed in the midst of the work,” said another participant. “We were different, we were from different languages, but when the team started to work, I think the unity was more important than anything. Everybody understood what everyone else had to do. And we learned that where God is, there is faith, love and action.”

By the end of the weekend, the group developed a church-planting covenant of 12 principles that everyone agreed to use as a guide for their pastoral ministries.

It affirms a passionate, prayer-centered, team approach to ministry. It stresses the importance of creativity and moving toward interdependence.

The covenant helped voice an uncharacteristic unity for countries that have seen so much tension and conflict. Participants say they gained new perspectives on church planting, and felt connected to one another through common experiences.

Though the game was a theoretical experience, it was designed to reflect reality.

In that case, Boseff’s experience with the game speaks to increasing hope in Southeastern Europe.

“We had a small amount of money, we had God on our side, and we had a church in an unknown place,” said Boseff. “That was our beginning.”

Source: Where Worlds Meet – Year 5, Issue 10 - November 2008. Reprinted in NCN News, Wednesday, Nov. 12.