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by Howard Culbertson
Dedicated to members of the first three teams of volunteers into Bulgaria:
- Jim Smith (a pseudonym)
- Todd Brant
- Rob Burgess
- Keith Cummings
- Damon Guinn
- Tom and Elizabeth Hicker
- John and Shelley Knight
- Don, Cynthia, David and Brent Moore
- Jessica Morris
- Maggie Neustadt
- Mark, Cari, Angela and Tessa Ogden
- Shari Overstreet
- Rudy Reyes
- Donna Reynolds
- Scot Riggins
- Matt and Shela Robertson
- Philip Rodebush
- Ted Snoddy
- Jason Worthington
- Jim Zink
- Miles Zinn
It's too bad we cannot have a book dedicated to the adventures of each one!
Chapter 1: Weaving the tapestry
To Olympics' fans, Bulgaria evokes images of dark haired wrestlers and swarthy weight lifters. Health food fanatics may know that one story about yogurt's origin concerns Bulgaria. History channel junkies may remember that in 1981 Bulgarian authorities were accused of hiring a hit-man to kill the Pope. Lovers of the intrigue know Bulgaria as a stop for the famed Orient Express train. Most people, however, know practically nothing about Bulgaria. About all they know is that it was formerly behind the Iron Curtain.
After World War II, this Tennessee-sized country fell under communist domination. Attempting to eliminate Christianity, Bulgaria's new Soviet puppet leaders unleashed four decades of heavy-handed oppression. The gospel was maligned. Churches were closed. Christian leaders were harassed. The communists thought they could erase Christianity from the fabric of Bulgarian society. They miscalculated.
Let's imagine the unfolding of Bulgarian cultural history as the weaving of a tapestry. For a long time, it looked like a red communist star would dominate its design. That's no longer true. With time, the emerging design has taken on a new look. In fact, the Church of the Nazarene has shown up in the Bulgarian tapestry. To weave Nazarenes into it, the Lord is using threads from an assortment of people. Those various strands arrived at the loom through a variety of divinely ordered circumstances.
Actually, tapestry weaving is an ideal metaphor for talking about anything Bulgarian. Bulgaria is renowned for its rugs, tapestries and needle work. Two museums in the capital city of Sofia feature displays of Bulgarian weaving and needlework. Admittedly, the first thing tourists buy are little wooden dolls containing rose oil containers. However, let those tourists wander through the outdoor markets and into gift shops. What they wind up lingering over the longest are the brilliantly-colored embroidery and needle-work pieces.
In this book we'll look at a Bulgarian tapestry. It's a tapestry in which many threads involve the Church of the Nazarene. Some of those threads go a long way back. So, we'll need to jump around a bit in time. Several threads say "Made in the USA." However, some come from Germany and Mexico. There's even a knotted thread that once was broken. So, come. Let's walk over to the loom. Let's see how the weaving is going. . . . [ continue reading ]
A Presidential thread
The sports evangelism strands in this tapestry go back to the 1960's . . . [ read more ]
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2002 - Last Updated: February 22, 2009 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/tape.htm
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Article by Howard Culbertson. For more original content like this, visit: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert
