"Do not wait for leaders; Do it alone, person to person." ~Mother Teresa
In August of 2004, World Missions Possible assisted The Rock Worship Center in Napa, Caliofornia, in sending a team member on a trip led by Global Celebration Ministries to feed thousands of Gypsies in Bulgaria.
In each small village the 70-person team visited, there were dozens, sometimes hundreds of people who came to greet and meet the team. Oftentimes, upon the team’s arrival, Gypsy women began circulating the crowd bearing glass bowls of honey and large loaves of soft bread - to be dipped into the honey and eaten - A traditional Bulgarian welcome! In Kazanluk, as the massive crowd of team members and Gypsies moved through the gate and towards the center of the community, shirtless Gypsy men appeared throughout the crowd carrying large sheep around their necks. Sheep were marked for slaughter with black tar crosses on their fur, for our Bar-B-Q. For several days, the team and the villagers feasted on the meats and local delicacies.
Global Celebration Ministries is also currently planning to establish a Gypsy Cultural Center in Kazanluk, Bulgaria, which will reach Gypsy populations in the ten surrounding countries of Eastern Europe. The facility will provide a place where Gypsies can meet and receive skills training in language, arts, computers and theological studies. In one night alone, over sixteen thousand dollars was raised towards the purchase of the site for the Gypsy Cultural Center. The monies came mostly from the American team members, but many of the Bulgarians pledged monies also.
Even though the overall amount the Bulgarians contributed was a smaller fraction of the whole, it was very costly for them. When a Bulgarian makes a contribution, we need to multiply that amount by 10 to understand how much money that would be in an American’s life. So a Bulgarian contributing 50 U.S. dollars would be like an American contributing 500 dollars. Since the average Bulgarian wage is the equivalent of 150 dollars American per month, you can see that for a Bulgarian to contribute 500 dollars they are making a huge contribution. This promises to be a world-changing project.