Monday, January 28, 2008
Friday, April 27, 2007
Krassy's Ministry Profile
MINISTRY HISTORY:
1987-1990 in Church of God, (underground church) Dobrich, Bulgaria
a) member of INRI Ministries (Christian youth organization)
b) involved in personal evangelism and city outreach
c) distributing Bibles AND Christian material
d) 3 mission trips throughout Bulgaria
e) Arrested for mission outreach into the Turkish community
1990-1993 in Christian Community, Reutlingen, Germany
a) mission work among Bulgarian, Rumanian, Turkish Emigrants
b) actively involved in INRI Ministries (translation & production of Christian material – literature, audio & video programs)
c) leading BG Home Church (+20 members)
1993 - 1995 in Church of God, Sofia, Bulgaria
a) involved in registering INRI Ministries in Bulgaria
b) production and distribution of 20 audio and 4 video testimonials
c) personal evangelism
d) leader of prayer group (+10 members)
1995-present in Full Gospel Church of God, Airfield, South Africa
a) Director of INRI Ministries International (registered in SA)
b) Personal evangelism and outreach programs for Bulgarian emigrants in SA
c) Leading Bulgarian home church under the umbrella of FGCG, SA (+30 members)
d) Leading Children’s and Youth ministry in the House of the Lord, Airfield
e) Actively involved in the missions outreach programs of the House of the Lord, Airfield
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION:
INSTITUTION ATTENDED: Hebron Bible College, SA (Correspondence)
PERIOD: 1996 -1998
QUALIFICATION: Minister’s Diploma (Certificate of Theology)
INSTITUTION ATTENDED: W.E.C. International
PERIOD: 1999
COURSE: World Evangelisation Course (Certificate)
INSTITUTION ATTENDED: World Outreach International
PERIOD: 2001
COURSE: World Perspectives Course (Certificate)
Vessy's Ministry Profile
MINISTRY HISTORY
NAME OF MINISTRY : INRI Films, Sofia, BG
PERIOD: 1989 - 1996
JOB DESCRIPTION: Office Administration, Public Relations, Fundraising, Communications, Advertising Publication Department (Translations, Editing, Graphic Design, Publishing)
PROJECTS
1) Translation of novel “The Last Seven Years” by Carol Balizet (English to Bulgarian)
2) Translation of manual “From the beginning” by YwaM, Germany (German to Bulgarian)
3) Writing and Translation of Training Material (English to Bulgarian)
4) Writing, Editing, and Publishing of ministry’s periodical
5) Writing of Magazine Articles
6) Script editing for Video Documentaries, Audio Programs, and Music videos
NAME OF MINISTRY: Full Gospel Church of God, SA
PERIOD: 1998 - 2002
POSITION HELD: Sunday School Superintendent
JOB DESCRIPTION: Project Management, Administration, Accounting, Marketing, Public Relations, Training, Networking
PROJECTS:
1) Sunday school Program (Creating & Implementation)
2) City Outreach Program
3) Children’s Ministers Network (teaching & equipping Children's ministers)
4) Community Projects for underprivileged children
5) Family Support Programs
6) Fundraising Programs
8) Periodical Bulletin Publications
9) Talent Shows & Fun Days
10) Drama Play & Puppet show productions
11) Holiday Clubs & Camps
NAME OF MINISTRY: INRI Ministries International
PERIOD: 2002 - present
POSITION HELD: Managing Director
JOB DESCRIPTION: Administration, Accounting, Public Relations, Marketing, Project Management, Programs Development, Training & Supervision, Publishing
PROJECTS:
1) After Care Centre
2) Lay Counselling Program
3) Community Center (for HIV positive and orphan children)
4) City Wide Schools Campaign (Book of Hope, SA)
5) Fundraising (East Rand Harley Davidson Club Fundraiser)
6) Youth Community Services
7) Short term outreaches
8) English language adult classes
9) Translation and publishing of Christian literature
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
1
COLLEGE ATTENDED : Hebron Bible College
PERIOD: 1996 - 1998
SUBJECTS: Evangelist’s Course (in English), Sunday school Course (in English), Minister’s Course (in English)
HIGHEST STANDARD: Certificate in Theology (Minister’s Diploma)
2
INSTITUTION ATTENDED : W.E.C. International
PERIOD: 1999
SUBJECTS: World Evangelisation Course (in English)
HIGHEST STANDARD: Diploma in World Evangelisation
3
INSTITUTION ATTENDED: School of Tomorrow
PERIOD: 2000
SUBJECTS: ABC Supervisor’s course (in English)
HIGHEST STANDARD: Certificate of School of Tomorrow Education
4
INSTITUTION ATTENDED: World Outreach, SA
PERIOD: 2001
SUBJECTS: World Perspective Course (in English)
HIGHEST STANDARD: Certificate
5
INSTITUTION ATTENDED: University of Pretoria, SA / Faculty of Theology
PERIOD: 2003-2004
SUBJECTS: Christian Lay Counselling
HIGHEST STANDARD: Certificate
Saturday, March 10, 2007
The first two miracle babies!
Samuela is our first miracle! God was so merciful and gracious to me, that I was able to fall pregnant in the first weeks of my married life. I did not even know that i was pregnant, when God spoke to me and asked me to call my first child with the name that Hannah gave to her son - Samuel!
Rafaela was even a greater miracle! When I was pregnant with her, the doctors did all sorts of tests on me and twice came to the same horrifying conclusion - the child is sick with the Syndrome of Down and needed to be aborted. There was but 5% change of her not being sick. They were convinced that the best way to go was abortion, but Krassy and I were sure that our prayers can prevail much. We asked all people we knew to pray with us and for 7 months we went through the agony of the unknown and uncertain future. It was not an easy time! Your faith can swing up and down and in all direction when you are waiting for so long to find out the answer of your prayers. One week before she was born, I had a dream: Somebody came up to me and asked me what is the name of my child. I hesitated at first, not really knowing what to call her, but then, to my own surprise, I said, "Raphael" and then woke up. When I checked in the Bible Concordance for the name Rafael, i found out 9for the first time in my life!) that the name comes from one of God's names - Jehovah-Raphe - "God is my healer" (1.Chr.26:7)
râphâ' râphâh
raw-faw', raw-faw'
Meaning : properly to mend, to cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, make whole.
רפאל
rephâ'êl
ref-aw-ale' - God has cured - Rephael
Praise the Lord! As you can imagine, Rafaela was born perfectly healthy - healed by our God, who can properly mend all our imperfections and cure all our diseases. She is not just healthy, but she is the healthiest baby we ever had. If ever, she would be sick just for a day or even half a day, and then she would be fine. We worshipped God in that delivery room, right in front of the doctor, who insisted on the abortion. God made sure that he was there to see this miracle.
Rafaela is the living testimony for our great God and His mighty power! She has a gift of healing and prays for people with such strong faith, that we stand amazed.
It is such a blessing to know that god has given them these wonderful names, which reflect his plan and purpose for their lives. God is great!
A bit of History (or ... a lot!)
We became Christians and started doing mission work during the last Communist years in Bulgaria (1988 - 1990). We were part of a vast national youth underground organization, which was translating and distributing Bibles, Christian literature and audio- and video material, which was smuggled into Bulgaria by West-European and American missionaries. Some have no idea what it meant to have a Bible or any part of it in those days. Our first Bibles were given to us from the Pastor of our home church - the Church of God in Bulgaria! It was a glorious day for each of us when the pastor called us and gave us a Bible each - it meant something like - "The Lord sees that your are really committed to Him and wants to bless you" That is how we accepted our first Bibles - as an honour! There were so many, who did not have their personal Bibles or song books. It wasn't like we could just run to the store and buy them. What times, ha?!
Many of us lost our jobs, were arrested, or even went to prison for this "illegal" activity. We were called American spies. Krassy was taken into custody after one evangelisation in the Turkish suburb. He decided to follow the apostle's example and just worship and praise God in heavenly tongues. The policeman, who was keeping guard, was so "sick and tired" of listening to him and his friends witnessing, that they let them go under the condition that they would sign a declaration that they would not believe in Jesus, or go to church, or preach to Gospel. Krassy set down at the desk and wrote at the bottom of the declaration: "I do not agree with the written above" and signed. Although the policeman was outraged, he let them go. A miracle? It must have been! Many Christians died in prisons and work camps in Bulgarian and many other Communist countries for similar activities. Some in China, for example, are still horribly persecuted and killed for their faith in our Lord Jesus! We should not forget to pray for them - maybe at night, before sleeping away into dream land in our cozy beds, content with what we have and surrounded by our loved ones!
Vessy, on the other hand, was found to read her Bible at her work place (during break, of course!) and was punished to work with the cleaning ladies for three months. but this was not a problem really, since that opened even a bigger door for evangelism in the work place. Yes, you can see! We were young and on fire! We met every day for prayer meetings, worked weekends for the multiplication and distribution of Christian material, crowed in a small literary "upper" room in the Gypsy suburb on Sundays, to worship and learn more about this God, who loves us so much, that he would willingly sacrifice his own most beloved son for us. There was nothing that could stop us to serve the Lord, who took us out of the literal darkness and opened our eyes to see him. We considered it a great privilege and our duty to serve the One, who was willing to die for us even before we were born; to make a plan for the cleansing of our filthy hearts even before we asked for forgiveness; to save us even before we realised how much we needed salvation! Oh, what grace and mercy it is to let a sinner see his sins and then to give him a chance to wash them away! How could we not but serve such a great, loving God!
Something funny: The only time we could worship the Lord with loud voices in the "upper room" was when the airplanes from the nearby airport would fly over the house. Then the Pastor would say, "Now shout to the Lord with a voice of joy!" It was a glorious moment!
The Open Door:
In 1989 the Lord opened a miraculous door for us to immigrate to Germany (West Germany at this time), where we were able to continue freely with our activities and to send more material and help to our brethren in Bulgaria. There the Lord gave us the passion and the opportunity to work among Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, Kurdish, etc. emigrants. What a privilege to be able to share the Gospel with the people around you without the fear of being arrested or ridiculed for your faith and witness.
Many of you would like to know how we got to West Germany. I'll tell you the story of this miracle, which we still don't understand. It was in the summer of 1989, that the Lord said to us (a small group of young Christians in Sofia), "I am opening a door for you to leave the country in the next 30 days. I will take you to Germany, where you will work for Me!" To back up and give you a bit of background - we Bulgarians (just like all citizens of Communist countries at that time0 were not allowed to travel just like that out of the country. We didn't even have proper passports, to begin with. But the thing is - we did not even know that we needed something more than the ID papers (which in Bulgarian were called "passports") to be able to go out and into another country. The only countries we were allowed to go to (and that is only after a special permission for a specific period of time) were the other Communist countries. so we received a permission to go to Hungary. At the very same time, Billy Graham was running a huge (very huge) evangelisation on a very big stadium. We went there and were taken care of by the local church in Hungary (Note: Hungarian Christians was much more free than any other Christians in the Communist block! They were the lucky ones!) There we meat a Hungarian brother, married and living in Germany, who we befriended. We were so full of faith, that we asked him to take our big language (our audio-video studio equipment) into his car and to Germany. We assured him that we will get there and come to fetch it. and we did - few weeks later. Imagine the surprise on his face! He must have thought that we were loosing it, but did not wanted to say it. Anyway, the Lord proved him wrong!
After the conference in Hungary was over, we left with a train for Bulgaria. But in stead of traveling back to Sofia, we got off the train in Belgrad (former Yugoslavia), where we were welcomed and accepted to spend few weeks in the Church of God. What hospital people! We still remember them with gratitude in our hearts. They helped us to buy bus tickets to Germany (Belgrad to Stuttgart) and sent us off with their blessings. Now, they probably did not know what we also did not know! We, Bulgarians, needed a visa to enter into Austria and Germany. It is getting very interesting, hey!?
So, we are in the bus - 4 of us! - and are going are leaving Yugoslavia. At the Austrian border, the man comes into the bus and asks us, "Passports, please!" I, Vessy, was the only one speaking German, so I hand him all the passports (our BG passports, which are written only in Bulgarian and are actually only IDs - as we figured it out much later).
The Australian man asks me,
"What is this?"
I answers, truthfully and sincerely (not knowing that this was in fact not true),
"Bulgarian passports!"
The man looks at us, looks at the passports, looks at us, looks at the passports, etc.
We wonder what could be the problem. Finally he asks,
"Where do I put the stamp?"
I am not prepared for this question (hence, we have never left the country before!), but quickly look through the passport and find a page at the back, where the Communist government would put stamps for our residential address and place of work (just so that they knew at all times where we were and what were we supposed to be doing). I showed him the page and he stamped our passports and left.
until this day we don't know if he was blinded by God and didn't know what he was doing or he simply helped us to cross into freedom. But either ways, God had opened a door for us to go and nobody was able to close it. On the German border the bus was not inspected, because they apparently had the practice to do so, if there were no problems on the Austrian border. the bus driver simply said, "No problems!" to the guard, and we drove into Germany, praising god silently. That morning, at 8am, we were in Stuttgart and woke up our Hungarian friend! He did not know what hot him! i think that if he has ever doubted God before, now all unbelief was gone! Praise the Lord! to be honest with you, we didn't even know why we were thee, but we were following in god's footsteps, as he was leading us. It felt like being Abraham or the Israelites in the dessert. it is a glorious feeling to sense God's guidance and protection over you at such uncertain times. That is when you feel the closest to the Lord, because - let's face it - who else is there to help you and look after you in a foreign country, without the financial and moral backing and support of your home church. In those day (and until today) our home church was in a greater need than us. All "so called" laws of modern missions work were violated in our lives, but we could not care less, since God was and still is with us, wherever we go. Hint: That only works if we are there, where God wants us to be! When people would accuse of not being "real missionaries", we did not know what to say, but, "God sent us here and we are ready to serve Him in any way He pleases to use us!" And God did use us in many ways among the immigrants in Germany until 1993, when we felt led by Him to go back home. Now we know (Thank God for History books!) that we were simply from the movement of one of the first and great man of God, the British Methodist missionary (physician-preacher), J. Hudson Taylor, who founded the China Inland Mission. He was called "The father of Faith Missions", because of his determination to depend on god alone rather than on missionary agencies for his needs. The other name for this kind of missionary work is the "tent maker" - Paul was a missionary, but throughout his outreaches he would work, making tents, to provide for his needs. That was god's way of taking care of him while Paul was taking care of God's work. But whatever anyone would say, we are but just God's servants and we cannot tell Him what to do with us and how to lead us. All we need and owed to do is follow. Amen to that!
So our first mission trip to Germany was finished in 1993, when we went back home, already married with Krassy, and with two wonderful most beautiful daughters - Samuela and Rafaela, which God gave us while in Germany. They are real miracles, too. Do you want to hear about that, too? ... I knew it! Well, brace yourself for another two miracles! (see "The first two miracle babies!"
Bulgarian Missionary Family
We are the Dimitrovs family
Meet Krassy, Vessy, Sam, Rafy, Anna, Ioan, Gaby, and finally - Mali! All Dimitrovs! All Bulgarians! All God's children! All sold out for the Lord!
Missionaries since 1990, we have been privileged to minister to many different peoples in Bulgaria, Germany, and South Africa. Our main work is in Family, Children's and Youth Ministry. Our main objective has always been and still is to help people find salvation, and grow spiritually while becoming more and more like Jesus.
We are very reluctant to give numbers and statistics on how many people were saved through our ministry, since we cannot possibly know that. This is only up to the Lord to decide, according to the teachings of His Gospel, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So than neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are God's fellow workers!..." (1.Cor.3:6-9a) What we know for sure is that we were blessed to have open doors for ministry to hundreds of families and thousands of children over the last 17 years. Many of those we ministered to, are still our friends and are growing strong in the Lord. They are a fraction of the rewards, which God has promised His labourers, which the Lord is so gracious t show us now, to keep us strong and motivated.
