{"id":8072,"date":"2019-09-04T08:40:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T08:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/?post_type=conexion&#038;p=8072"},"modified":"2019-11-11T16:15:48","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T16:15:48","slug":"bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"conexion","link":"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/","title":{"rendered":"How student work began in Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">September 1992.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A two-week trip to Eastern Europe earlier that year had changed everything for the Fillingham family \u2013 Rick, Jane and their two young sons. The Iron Curtain had fallen. New doors were open. They sensed God\u2019s call. That same year, the family moved into a seventh floor flat in inner-city Sofia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They only had one telephone contact in the city, a physics student called Oleg. Through Oleg, Rick met a small group of Christian students who had started meeting to the study the Bible. In March the following year, 20 students gathered to hear Rick explain the vision of a national student movement, and BCSU was born.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick and Jane came to love the country and its people deeply. Rick spent the next few years traveling between cities in Bulgaria, discipling students and encouraging them to form their own Bible study groups.&nbsp;Growth was difficult but steady. Bulgaria was still a dangerous place for local believers.&nbsp;For missionaries, life&nbsp;was full of inexplicable and difficult bureaucracy from the old regime.&nbsp;Rick and Jane had to leave the country every three months to renew their visa, and sometimes found getting back in not straightforward. The family came up with&nbsp;a system at the&nbsp;border:&nbsp;if the questioning of Rick was becoming too intense, the boys would start to cry and scream, until the officials had enough of the noise and let them&nbsp;continue on&nbsp;their&nbsp;way!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today there are 60 students actively involved with BCSU Bulgaria, including 22 international students.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":8071,"template":"","area":[555,458],"theme":[1218],"class_list":["post-8072","conexion","type-conexion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","area-bulgaria","area-europe","theme-history-of-movements"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How student work began in Bulgaria &#183; IFES Conexi\u00f3n Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 1992.&nbsp; A two-week trip to Eastern Europe earlier that year had changed everything for the Fillingham family \u2013 Rick, Jane and their two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How student work began in Bulgaria &#183; IFES Conexi\u00f3n Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 1992.&nbsp; A two-week trip to Eastern Europe earlier that year had changed everything for the Fillingham family \u2013 Rick, Jane and their two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-11T16:15:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190904-Con-Bulgaria.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/\",\"name\":\"How student work began in Bulgaria &#183; IFES Conexi\u00f3n Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190904-Con-Bulgaria.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-04T08:40:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-11T16:15:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"September 1992.&nbsp; A two-week trip to Eastern Europe earlier that year had changed everything for the Fillingham family \u2013 Rick, Jane and their two\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190904-Con-Bulgaria.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190904-Con-Bulgaria.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"190904 - Con - Bulgaria\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/bulgaria\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Conexi\u00f3n\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"How student work began in Bulgaria\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/\",\"name\":\"IFES\",\"description\":\"A movement of students sharing and living out the good news of Jesus Christ. 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