Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

If you feel this message is relevant to your church and missionaries you support, please feel free to forward it around the globe. It is our prayer, that with doing so we will be able to reach more people with God’s Mission of Salivation for the Last Days.

Dear Missionary,

We are writing to inform you of the launching of our new site, WorldMissions.TV. This is a Christian based site, which purposes to give a place where missionaries can inform of their work and remain connected with their churches, families and friends. It is the goal of  WorldMissions.TV to offer an atmosphere where missions’ videos can be watched by millions of people across the globe.

When missionaries make the sacrifice to go to the uttermost parts of the earth they sometimes experience a feeling of disconnect being on the other side of the world, but with the help of this site, missionaries are provided a collective experience. It allows the body of Christ to come together in unity to exalt His mission above all – saving eternal souls regardless of the cost, location, race, ethnicity, language or denomination.

We ask that you join together with us in sharing our unique missional experiences with those whom may never be able to go to the mission field and at the same time to those whom are called to missions or already on the field. It may be because of your uploaded video of enduring through the jungles of Indonesia to preach to a group of people who has never heard the gospel, that a person whom you never spoke with accepts the call for missions; or it possibly will be that your video provides the encouragement needed for a couple experiencing hardship.

Through this site you can share of your trails, your successes, the miracles you have witnessed in order that God be given the glory. We should not remain quite simply because some are in disbelief of the True resurrective power of God. In the words of the old children’s song:

I’m going to shout it from the mountain tops
I want the world to know;
The Lord of love has come to me,
I want to pass it on.

And this is exactly what we are purposing through WorldMissions.TV. When people see the miracles and wonders of missions across the world, there is no other alternative than to cry:

“Holy, Holy, Holy”
“Santos, Santos, Santos”
“神聖, 神聖, 神聖”
“Svet, Svet, Svet”

Sincerely and In His Service,

Dony and Kathryn Donev
Cup and Cross Ministries International, Bulgaria
www.cupandcross.com

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

True Reformation does not start with preaching or theology, although they are both fundamental stones of every process that changes the people of the church. But in order for this to occur, both preaching and theology need a text; and not merely any text, but Divinely Inspired Scriptures – the Holy Bible.

In our humble ministry efforts, we have attempted to provide this text in the form of a new Bulgarian literal translation made from the Nestle-Aland critical edition of the New Testament. The initial work started in 1996 with brief interruptions until 2003 when the framework was completed and the project was successfully launched.

In 2007, we set course with a pilot edition of the new translation including the Gospel of John, which was printed for Christmas. Our team continued with a full edition of the Johannine works, which included The Gospel of John, Epistles and Apocalypse, published for Easter 2008. In 2009, we presented a partial methodology behind the translation at the Logos Software’s annual BibleTech conference in Seattle and at the 2010 BibleTech in San Jose, our team was able to show in an actual work setting the software used to prepare the Bulgarian interlinear text to the Nestle-Aland critical edition of the New Testament. Finally, we were able to publish in print the complete translation of the Gospel of Matthew for Christmas 2010. The printing of Mark and the Lukan Corpus are scheduled respectively for Easter and Christmas of 2011.

Other related project by Cup & Cross Ministries International:
JOHN: Gospel, Epistles and the Apocalypse (New Bulgarian Translation)

OurCOG.org | WorldMissions.TV | ProBible.Net | Bibliata.com | Bibliata.TV

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

Cup & Cross Ministries’ web research team has just released a new internet Bible study project called ProBible.Net. ProBible integrates an extensive Biblical Greek knowledge database of the scholarly b-Greek mailing list. The new website archives in real-time panel discussions led by Greek scholars, university professors and Bible researchers and places them as commentaries to their respective Bible passages. The result is a new kind of integrative online research, which has the original languages of the Bible text discussed in dept by scholars and experts in the field. The best part is that all users can participate in the online discussions via the website or the b-Greek list. The hope of the developing team is to create a fully annotated online study Bible, which includes a commentary to all important parts of Scripture.

Tag: http://ProBible.net

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

The Video Bible project in Bulgarian was originally envisioned in 2008 by the Cup & Cross ministry team as a result of two consecutive endeavors. The first was the finalization of a vision for the Bulgarian Bible on the internet, which began in 1996 and continued in the next decade resulting in the development of Bibliata.com – a web community for Bulgarian and Slavic speaking Christians around the world. The second one was the Bibliata.TV web project released in 2007-2008 after a wide variety of oppositions ranging from purely technical to religious and political aspects.

Once Bibliata.TV had established its permanent place in the internet it grew fast to become one of the most successful interactive media projects in Bulgarian history. Currently, the project hosts over 11,000 original Christian videos uploaded by some 1,200 registered members. It provides a web platform for daily religious broadcast for some two dozen of Bulgarian churches and ministries active around the globe and in 2008 became the home of the Bulgarian Video Bible.

This last ambitious project of the Cup & Cross ministry team undertook the difficult task to recreate the Bible in video format one chapter at a time. Churches, ministers and lay people were asked to record a favorite portion of the Bible as a video and upload it to Bibliata.TV. Currently 6,672 videos are already completed. They can be all seen at: http://video.bibliata.tv/. The anticipated release date of the Bulgarian Video Bible is 1.11.2011.

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

After traveling almost 4,000 miles, I am finally at the 2010 BibleTech listening to Antoine’s talk on mobile technology in the ministry. Antoine is the main guy behind the Mobile Ministry Magazine and a great friend, but I am sitting in his lecture for more than just the code and the algorithm. I am a practitioner in the ministry.

Thousands of Bulgarian speaking people across the globe rely on our team every day to receive a verse from the Bible via SMS. Our Bibliata.TV website has become the Bulgarian GodTube with over 10,000 daily visitors, 1,500 active uploaders and hitting a half petabite monthly traffic in video exchange. So, I am more than just a listener – I am here for the power of the experience.

I met Antoine last year at BibleTech in Seattle. I shared with him our ministry in Bulgaria and abroad, and he offered to help us. Not long after the conference, I received in my office a Nokia 5800, which according to Antoine had more than one advantage over the iPhone, but the one that concerned me the most was the uStream app.

Speaking at the Leadership Development Institute earlier that year, I mentioned uStream but being busy with other projects never paid too much attention to it. Now, I had a reason to try it. No more than five minutes after opening the FedEx package I was broadcasting LIVE on a dozen of our ministry’s websites. Five more minutes and people were actually watching. Hundreds of them.

WOW! I stopped for a pause, because my heart was racing. The potential of one small mobile device applied to the ministry of the church was overwhelming and I needed to pray.

A week later I had convinced two Bulgarian churches to broadcast their services via uStream. Two more joined on the following Sunday, one of them being a Bulgarian speaking congregation in Chicago. A Bulgarian minister from Spain began broadcasting on Thursday nights as over 50 people were logged in and ready to watch 30 minutes before his broadcast. We then put LIVE online the annual conference of Bulgarian churches in North America. Then the Global Day of Prayer from downtown Sofia was watched by 35,000 people LIVE on our Bibliata.com website.

Before we ever returned for our ministry term in Bulgaria, we had over a dozen churches broadcasting LIVE services on Sunday alone plus additional LIVE services on every night of the week except Monday. We received hundreds of emails with testimonies of dramatic healings and life transformations. And this has been going on for over one year now. All because of a small portable telephone that can fit on the palm of my hand and travel with me oversees in the pocket of my blue jeans. I guess I can say it like this: this phone was made for preaching!

John Maxwell says that while training followers adds to your church, training leaders multiplies it. I call this the G2 effect – the growth of the church in a geometrical progression. Like the story of chess boards (2, 4, 16, 256, etc). But the use of mobile technology in the ministry multiplies its effectiveness tridimensionally, adding to it a mobile dimension as a Rubik Cube. I call it M3 – a mobile motivational ministry factor that is unprecedented. And this is something the church cannot afford to miss if it wishes to remain relevant in postmodernity.

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

Car: 1993 (October) Volvo 940 (4 cylinder, 4-speed automatic)
This trip so far: 7,213 miles | Original Mileage: 257,415 miles
Pit stops: 2 oil changes plus rear brake pads and rotors change (x2)
Pit stops locations: Lincoln, NE, Amarillo, TX and , Pearland, TX
Status: She is old, but she has proven she can hold

Pictures made on Nokia 5800XM courtesy of the Mobile Ministry Magazine

Traveling Schedule | Follow us on Twitter | Ministry Website | The Volvo

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

Pictures made on Nokia 5800XM courtesy of the Mobile Ministry Magazine

Traveling Schedule | Follow us on Twitter | Ministry Website | The Volvo

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

Pictures made on Nokia 5800XM courtesy of the Mobile Ministry Magazine

Traveling Schedule | Follow us on Twitter | Ministry Website | The Volvo

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

Volvo’s brakes began making strange noises as soon as we departed from San Francisco after the BibleTech conference.

By the time we crossed Death Valley and reached Las Vegas for our Palm Sunday service with the Bulgarian Church there, the metal brackets were grinding on the rotor disk, but we had only a day for the services and no time to bother with mechanical problems.

So, we left for Texas after the service crossing Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

By the time we reached Amarillo, TX there was barely any metal left on the rotors. The friendly folks at Firestone in Amarillo changed the brake pads in less than an hour. What a pit stop!

Unfortunately, they could not find rotors for the Volvo in the area, so we departed for Houston and with the Easter service next day. We drove those 600 miles as careful as we could.

The morning before the service, we left the Volvo at Just Brakes and headed to service. And while we were ministering to the Bulgarian people in Houston, the Volvo was also resurrected in the pit stop for a new life on the road with new rear brakes and rotor disks.

And thus, we were able to continue our journey through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama reaching our next ministry location in the great Atlanta area. Special thanks to Firestone in Amarillo, TX and Just Brakes in Pearland, TX for the prompt and friendly service.

Pictures made on Nokia 5800XM courtesy of the Mobile Ministry Magazine

Traveling Schedule | Follow us on Twitter | Ministry Website | The Volvo

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

All pictures made on Nokia 5800XM courtesy of the Mobile Ministry Magazine

Traveling Schedule | Follow us on Twitter | Ministry Website | The Volvo