William Mark Bristow Grace Fellowship, Inc. P. O. Box 706 Monahans, TX 79756 Beloved in the Lord, Never in thirty-six years of ministry have I seen such a response as we saw in Bulgaria and Greece. We arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria (17 years out of Communism) to find a beautiful modern city and went the next night to preach to a colony of dislocated Gypsies. Their tiny homes and land were confiscated by a large supermarket chain five years ago with the promise of other dwellings five years later they are still in small railway box-cars and just this year received electricity. There are two water spigots and no bathroom facilities or sanitation. With 56 people crammed into the tiny box-car (half size to what we re used to seeing in America) and with many outside the car, we preached. The highlight was a Word of Knowledge which identified a baby who was vomiting everything it ate. (Though two years of age, the little girl was the size of a two month old baby.) The mother stood and was literally hysterical with excitement as the Power of God fell on her and the baby she was holding. The entire group of women there were crying out as they knew the baby was dying. The mother gave the baby the bottle immediately and that
little girl hasn t vomited anything since that Saturday night (September 15, 2007). Pastor Zhoro told me the little girl has grown about four inches in the last three months. When that miracle occurred word spread through the village and suddenly we had nearly every person in the camp surrounding that little box-car all wanting to receive prayer and hear about Jesus. Sunday morning at Pastor Zhoro s church there were many wonderful miracles. The one that stand out in my mind was a young man with cerebral palsy in a wheel chair. His name is Emmanuel. He has sat in that chair all of his life, and his legs and knees and hips have locked into a sitting position. The miracle was not complete, but he received the beginning his left leg and both ankles straightened so that he was able to stand with help. Pastor Zhoro tells me Emmanuel has continued to improve. Another man had fallen from the 4 th floor of a building. His hip and pelvis were shattered. There was no money
for hospitals. His mother literally drug him to the service. He was completely healed. Here Eva Dooley walks with him as God perfects the healing. Sunday night we were in the beautiful city of Samokov (about one hour from Sofia) in a large Gypsy church there of more than one thousand. When we began to pray for the sick, instant miracles began to occur and people were literally pulling on our workers so much that their clothing was torn. I watched a cataract dissolve off of a woman s eye which turned from milky white to very black and she could see. There were back healings, leg healings, tumors disappeared. When we gave the altar call, many came forward to receive Jesus and more than 200 young people were filled with the Holy Spirit. Eva Dooley leading youth at Samokov into the Baptism of the Holy Spirit We visited another small village in a farming community about one hour s drive where many children don t even have clothes to wear. We stopped at a large grocer and bought enough sandwich supplies for about 250 people. There we preached on a doorstep with the people gathered around. An old woman s heart pain was instantly healed and several were healed of painful work injuries. Three teenage boys received and accepted a call of God for their lives.
From Sofia we drove about seven hours north to Vidin, Bulgaria, on the beautiful blue Danube bordering Serbia and Romania. (One day we took the ferry across the Danube into Calafat, Romania to view the city and to pray for the Romanian people.) Pastor Aliosha, a converted Moslem, pastors a vibrant church in Vidin and the power of God fell mightily. I asked Eva Dooley to share in ministry, and she called forth five men sitting together (turned out to be a Pastor and his leadership team). She ministered words to each of these men. The pastor, a handsome young man, went under the power of God. When he rose up, I felt to keep him near me and have him lay hands on people. He collapsed against my shoulder weeping when someone he touched went under the power. After the service, he found an interpreter and introduced himself. He had been in pastoral ministry for fifteen years. He had heard of the power of God, and preached about that power, but that night he experience the Holy Spirit s power for the first time in his life! As icing on the cake, Pastor Aliosha s Moslem mother had just received Jesus and she received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The young pastor who experienced the Power of God We then drove back to Sofia, for a night in a small Gypsy house church where there were many more healings and several who received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. The next day we left for Thessaloniki, Greece. Once we settled in our hotel, Pastor Zhoro and Marianna asked me alone to accompany them to a hidden Gypsy camp nearby. This camp is a place which has not heard the Gospel. Zhoro had only been there twice before, and there were tribal wars and considerable danger. There was no welcome as we received in the other camps but only sinister looks of distrust and danger. After a few minutes in the heart of the camp, the 2nd in command came up to Zhoro and told him the leader, Yorgo (George), was not there and as we were speaking Yorgo and his family drove up. He greeted Zhoro and then began to explain that his two month old granddaughter was dying in an Athens Hospital (8 hours drive) with heart problems that the physicians there at this charity hospital could not help. As Zhoro told him about the healing Jesus and we prayed with him, I was suddenly aware of a young man about one hundred yards away (we were out of doors) who was working on his truck. He wants to kill himself. He s known sorrow upon sorrow and he faced the greatest sorrow of his
life. I asked Zhoro about the young man, and he didn t know him, so we asked Yorgo. That s my son! The baby s father. We explained (thru the interpreter) what the Lord had given me and asked to pray with the young man. I watched the young man very carefully. I think he wanted to believe me but was almost afraid to trust. The doctors had given his daughter eight days to live. A businessman in Athens was paying for her to be flown to Thessaloniki so she could die in her village in her mother s arms. That young father wanted to dare to believe. That was on Saturday, September, 22, 2007. On October 21, 2007, I received this Skype internet message from Pastor Zhoro, We just come home and we have a great report, the baby from Greece is a live and well. Praise the Lord. I spoke with Pastor Zhoro last week, and the baby has been perfectly healed. The Gypsy camp has asked us to come and hold church there for people to receive Jesus. Many people were living together without marriage, and Pastor Zhoro has been asked by these villagers to perform Christian weddings so they will be pleasing to this wonderful Lord who healed the baby. (She didn t have a name yet, as they thought she would die now they will name her.) Mark (left), Yorgo (middle), and our Gypsy Interpreter (right) We then ministered in a Free Methodist church in Thessaloniki where I asked Eva Dooley (born on the island of Crete) to share as Eva speaks Greek fluently. Several received Jesus, and several were healed, one woman of crippling back problems. Then about thirty-five people received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. The Pastor and his wife reported to us that they have a changed church! (Woman healed of spinal injury below.)
Finally we were in another church in Athens. I shared Ruth Fisher s theme message, The Law of Appropriation God Gives But We Must Take. There were too many healings to report -- frozen shoulders, back injuries, suicidal depression lifted and about twenty receiving the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. Mark and his interpreter ministering out in healing in Athens In Athens we met an influential business man, Yanis (John), who had an experience of being taken to heaven and hell and who now is organizing large crusades to touch the businessmen of Athens. We have been invited back to minister in both church and meetings similar to the Full Gospel Business Men s Fellowship. One morning at our hotel in Athens we were gathering to load into the van when Marianna began witnessing to a little beggar girl who turned out to be from Bulgaria. (The little girl normally wouldn't be allowed into the hotel, but God had a purpose and she snuck past the doorman.) Marianna was telling her about Jesus in Bulgarian and the little girl received the Lord. She then asked Marianna to go outside and tell her mother about Jesus (which Marianna did immediately). Then she brought this little girl to the van and Marianna was telling us what had happened. Eva Dooley didn't know the girl was Bulgarian (we were in Athens, so Eva thought she was Greek) and asked the little girl in Greek- where Jesus was. The little girl answered Eva in perfect Greek that Jesus was living in her heart and she wanted everyone to know about Jesus. Eva asked a few more questions in Greek and the little girls sat with a puzzled look on her face. To which Marianna shared as a Bulgarian interpreter the little girl only knew a few words in Greek and didn't understand anything Eva said. She answered the first time in Greek about Jesus in her heart as a miracle of tongues speaking perfect Greek to Eva through the Holy Spirit yet not understanding a Word of Greek!
The beautiful little Bulgarian beggar girl who just received Jesus, a few moments after the Holy Spirit spoke thru her in Greek. (Of course we gave them food and shelter.) Pray that God will supply the need, and open every door. God willing, we ll go in 2008 for about two weeks. The fruit is yours not mine. The souls go to your account as you sent me. There aren t words to convey my gratitude. Thanks, seems so inadequate. I m asking the Lord to bless and to cause you seed to be multiplied both in His work in a harvest of return to you. In His Service, William Mark Bristow