This is part 2 in an 11 part series aimed to guide prayer for each of the 11 countries on my World Race route. The 11 countries we’re heading to (leaving in July!) are Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, India, Nepal, China and Mongolia.
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Bulgarian Flag |
Bulgaria is one of the largest European nations in terms of population and land, but the lowest in the EU in terms of income. Sofia is the capital city. It is a country in the process of transitioning from “developing” to “developed”. Bulgaria faces issues with organized crime and human trafficking but has a high literacy rate and provides free, compulsory education for children age six through sixteen. There are more than 20 colleges and universities in Bulgaria.
Fun fact, according to a past World Racer, in Bulgaria, nodding your head up and down means “no” and shaking your head side to side means “yes!”
Bulgaria was dominated by the Communist Party from 1946 to 1990, but today most of the population claim Orthodox Christianity (the remaining ~15% are Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic or Protestant).
Eastern Europe has the highest abortion rate of any region in the world. Some years the number of abortions in the region or by country exceeds the number of live births.
In Bulgaria teams have cooked meals and cleaned at a Christian camp, prepared a church to move into its new building, and spent time speaking and building relationships in gypsy villages.
Three big prayers for Bulgaria stand out to me:
1. discrimination of ethnic and religious minorities
2. a revival of the church
3. the physical, emotional and spiritual health of women.
