Category Archives: Bulgaria

Go Light Our World – Giving

In addition to the daily blog and active ministry work, Go Light Our World supports vital ministries with financial giving.

In Vetren, Bulgaria, one gift helped sponsor the first Public Christmas pageant since the fall of communism in that town. Gypsies who are segregated in that society were included in the pageant, along with the public. The mayor asked all the school children to attend with their families. When the children portraying Joseph and Mary walked into the auditorium carrying “the baby Jesus,” everyone attending spontaneously knelt down saying, “Hallelujah. Praise to God.” Another gift sponsored a child literacy program that continues to this day, with hopes of breaking the cycle of persecution and poverty. Related to this, another gift helped to sponsor the purchase of “Abraham’s Flock.” A sturdy stable was built, goats and chickens were purchased, in addition to a cherry tree grove. The gypsy children and their families are taught to work in the project, with a goal of having enough milk and eggs for all the children.

Esdenka enjoys a  hot meal - JosiasIn Cochabamba, Bolivia, children like Esdenka who have no running water receive a warm shower, a hot meal, Christian and academic literacy training, preventative health care, and of course worship and prayer support. GLOW also works to support and encourage healthy families in a land where many families experience dysfunction and abuse.

In New Orleans, GLOW has supported discipleship efforts to grow effective leaders who also can shine the light of Jesus where they live.

GLOW also supports AIA, Athletes in Action, across 29 college campuses. This region’s AIA mobilized 70 college students in missions across the globe in 2013.

You can partner with GLOW by praying and by giving. We have no paid staff so your financial gifts directly benefit those vital ministries in the USA and across the globe. ($50 for food or medicine buys $50 of these supplies.)

Click on the Donate link to learn how you can make a tax-deductible gift to Go Light Our World, by check, PayPal, or credit card. Choose between a one-time or recurring monthly gift and enjoy the satisfaction you experience when you Go Light Our World!

Go Light Your World- Ministry

In addition to the Daily blog, we (Bryan and Marcia Thayer) created Go Light Our World to encourage people to partner with us in our ministry (we are volunteers). We also encourage others to intentionally seek out ways to share God’s light with the world around YOU!

Like you, our work focuses where we live. That’s our first mission field. Our mission also extends to Bolivia, South America where we were headed and where we plan to return when my leukemia allows me to travel again. In the meantime we work weekly to encourage ministry efforts in Cochabamba, Bolivia, working with the disenfranchised, and poorest of the poor. The efforts of local workers help meet spiritual and physical needs. Examples include literacy, nutrition, hygiene, preventative health care, worship, prayer, and self-sufficiency programs. In Vetren, Bulgaria, we work with local ministry leaders to help bring ostracized Gypsy children out of the cycle of poverty. Programs include self-sufficiency training, literacy, and worship and prayer.

GLOW also works to encourage and support Athletes In Action, a ministry of Campus Crusade (CRU) and other select ministries that are working to shine the light of Christ across the world.

We will describe some of these projects in more detail in tomorrow’s post.

In the meantime, think about your potential to being light to the world around you.

Do What Jesus Said: Feed the Hungry…

Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Matthew 25:35-36

The context of this passage (verses 31-46) is Jesus, sitting on His throne, separating out people into two groups: 1) those who fed the hungry and quenched the thirsty, invited in strangers, clothed the naked, looked after the sick, and visited those in prison and 2) those didn’t. The reward for those in group one is eternal life but not for those in group two.

The interesting thing about this is not about good deeds per se. It is about loving Jesus. He says, “For I was hungry, I was thirsty.” The second group protested, saying “But WHEN did we see you hungry, thirsty, etc). Jesus replies, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Jesus so loves us that He associates our pain and suffering with His own. We don’t simply minister to others because they have needs. But when we minister to others we minister to our Lord.

We realized this when we first started mission trips to post Katrina New Orleans. Confronted with miles and miles of destruction, the overwhelming immensity of the needs was immediately apparent. We had the same revelation working with the local church in Bolivia: so much desperate need and so little resources. But the objective was not simply to help people. The objective was to love those Jesus loves and so show it in practical ways.

Someone said, “Think globally, act locally.” The way I see it we must do both. Who do you know who needs practical encouragement (resources, time, compassion)? Perhaps they aren’t actually hungry or thirsty in the physical sense, but you know they are emotionally. Look at people through Jesus’ eyes and you will see a very different world than the one you have been looking at.

Are you partnering with a reputable nonprofit agency to minister to others in Jesus’ name across the globe? Go Light Your World supports a mission in Bolivia that provides a hot meal, showers, literacy programs, well child clinic, and worship and prayer for about $2 per day per person. And also literacy and self sufficiency education for Gypsy children in Bulgaria. (See Giving link above.) Compassion International and World Vision are two large nonprofits that rescue moms and children from trafficking and cycles of dependency and abuse. Prison Fellowship helps care for children and families of the incarcerated. We have so much to give and so many ways to let our light shine while doing what Jesus said. Don’t wait. Start today. Ask God to show you the world through His eyes.

“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” Author, Edward Everett Hale