Our twin church in Bulgaria -

Евангелска Баптистка Църква - Петрич
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Updated 10/05/2007

Здравейте! The Southern Counties Baptist Association is linked to the Bulgarian Baptist Union.

As a member church of the SCBA, we are twinned with Petrich Baptist Church in SW Bulgaria. For a map of Bulgaria click here (Source - CIA). To see what time it is in Bulgaria click here. The person in charge of our link with Petrich is Alan Warner. You can reach him by email at  We hope to have more of this page displayed in Bulgarian language and Cyrillic text soon.

Wimborne has also had a personal link with the leaders of Sofia Baptist Church, Teddy and Didi Oprenov who have visited our church on several occasions when they have been in the UK. The link is strengthened by the fact that Teddy and Didi's time at Spurgeon's college overlapped with our own pastor's training there. We hope soon to have a web link here to the Sofia Baptist Church web site which is under construction at the moment - watch this space. Meanwhile, for a little bit more information about Sofia Baptist Church and some of her projects, look here.

Here is a little information about the country, the town of Petrich and the church and its members. Petrich is right next to the Greek border, and not far from the Macedonian border - Petrich is marked in red on this sketch map.

Bulgarian National Anthem in English|Bulgarian

1 Proudly rise the Balkan peaks, At their feet Blue Danube flows; Over Thrace the sun is shining, Pirin looms in purple glow. CHORUS Oh, dear native land, Earthly paradise! For your loveliness, your beauty E'er will charm our eyes. (repeat) 2 Many fighters gave their life for our dear nation, Mother, give us strength to follow in their steps. (repeat chorus

1 Горда Стара планина, до ней Дунава синей, слънце Тракия огрява, над Пирина пламеней.   CHORUS Мила Родино, ти си земен рай, твойта хубост, твойта прелест, ах, те нямат край. (repeat)   2 Паднаха борци безчет за народа наш любим, майко, дай ни мъжка сила пътя им да продължим. (repeat chorus)

Lyrics and Music: Tsevetan Tsvetkov Radoslavov, 1885

Petrich Baptist Church has about 100 members, including the house fellowship at Rupite. The pastor is Todor Zarev, who is married to Petya and their daughter is called Vera.

Petya's family were Christians, Todor became a Christian while training as a dentist during Communist rule after his mother was miraculously healed of cancer in response to prayer, and he was nearly thrown out of medical school as a result. Petya has recently completed a diploma at Sofia Evangelical Institute. Both she and Todor have started MTh studies as distance learners with the International Baptist Seminary in Prague - in September 2002 they completed two weeks of residential study there, returning during early November 2003.

If you wish to read their essays, then you can read them here in PDF format (Acrobat Reader - available here): The pdf files are zipped into a self-extracting Winzip format here- this file will be updated as their studies proceed. Titles so far include: The Ways of Effective Witnessing" & "The Life of a Committed Saint in the 20th Century" & "One Partnership - so many blessings for the Community of Believers"(Petya Zareva) and "The Bible Study – A Key Way for Changing a Church in an Open Society" & "The Community of Believers- an oasis of hope in a hostile world." & "Church, State and Culture: Is There a Successful Model for Living Together?" (Todor Zarev)

They both work hard in the church, leading, teaching and doing much of the practical work as well. The whole family were able to visit us after Christmas in 2000/2001, and also made a private family visit after Christmas in 2002/3. Petya's sister Svetla is married to a local man here and attends Corfe Mullen Baptist Church.

It is not easy to live in Petrich. Although the scenery can be very beautiful, there is very high unemployment and a lot of poverty. Many of the church members are elderly, having bravely kept the faith under years of Communist persecution. Baptist Christians are not well respected in Bulgaria, being seen as a cult, influenced by Westerners, and often looked down upon by the Orthodox church as unpatriotic. Incomes are very low and the church tries to help with distribution of food parcels in the winter. But they are rich in many other ways and their faithful witness and joyful trust in God is a challenge to us in the more affluent parts of Europe. If you want to be part of that encouragement and blessing, which flows in both directions, please contact our treasurer here! The banner ad at the top of this site is for an excellent anti-spam tool called Mailwasher which I use myself, and can recommend wholeheartedly. If you purchase it using the links on this site, then the commission we earn goes to our Bulgaria fund.

The summers are very hot and the winters very cold. Fuel and food are expensive in the winter, so that is a tough season. The church has a minibus to help transport some of the older members from their homes to the church services on Sunday. The members meet for worship in the former Communist club.There is a small house fellowship in the nearby village of Rupite which is associated with the main fellowship in Petrich.

Our link with Petrich Baptist Church has meant a great deal to us and has enriched the life of our church enormously. We receive so much from them in terms of spiritual encouragement and have several beautiful gifts including an intricately crocheted communion cloth. When Todor and Petya visited us, Todor used the different kinds of bread that Western and Eastern Europeans eat to illustrate the different experiences of being a Christian in our two countries - "in Bulgaria, our bread is hard, in England your bread is soft."

Our pastor Robert and his wife Jill visited Petrich between 4th-15th October 2002 and again in Oct/Nov 2005. For some photos of the first visit go this page of thumbnails, where you will also find a report of the visit.

If you are interested in supporting the provision of free DENTAL SERVICES through the ministry of Petrich Baptist church then please visit this page , where you will find details of what we are trying to do.

If you are a Baptist in Southern England interested in linking with a Bulgarian church please contact Frank Boyd of the Southern Counties Baptist Association via BMS World Mission is now formally involved in Bulgaria, and BMS missionary couple, Penny and Mark O'Sullivan left on 15th September 2002, to work with the Baptist Union of Bulgaria and are now in Kazanlak.

Other links -

Google search on Petrich, Bulgaria

Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation site

Bulgarian Partners A UK charity supporting the work of the Bulgarian charity Good Samaritan Foundation, which is raising funds for a social, educational and medical centre next to Sofia Baptist Church.

BBC News site country profile on Bulgaria You can also do a search on Bulgaria from this page, of the BBC News site which will return much useful information.

BBC From our own Correspondent, about Pentecostal Roma in Lom, near the Danube