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On an unseasonably warm February day in Bulgaria, a speeding vehicle dodges gaping potholes and belching trucks as it heads into the heavily wooded mountains outside Sofia, the East European nation's capital city.

The driver, Pavel Ignatov, pastor of a large, evangelical congregation in Sofia, heads off on a wild ride through the countryside to attend Sunday morning services at a church that he founded for Gypsies in the village of Samokov.

"I love these people," says Ignatov of the Gypsies. It is a remarkable comment, given that Gypsies are a widely despised minority, making up about 10 percent of the country's population. Tsigani, a Slavic name for Gypsies, means "untouchable."

Bulgaria is one of the poorest areas of Europe, and the Gypsies are frequently the poorest Bulgarians, living mostly in isolated ghettos on the fringes of the largest cities. Gypsies, who trace their heritage to India, have experienced centuries of discrimination, including the Gypsy Holocaust during the Second World War, in which about 500,000 died.

A DESPISED MINORITY

Ignatov himself is keenly aware of how it feels to be part of a hated minority, and that awareness deeply motivates his ministry to Gypsies. Members of his denomination, the Church of God, which has Methodist roots and is not affiliated with the Church of God in the United States, were sharply persecuted during the communist years, which ended in 1989. During part of that time, Ignatov was punished for his evangelistic activities with internal exile to a small, rural village.

Ignatov's work among the Gypsies first began at that troubled time. "A well-known Gypsy musician repented in our church," explains Ignatov. "After that, our church's image was improved in the eyes of the Gypsies." Starting with the family of the converted musician, Ignatov began ministry among them.

Today, many of those converts now belong to one of several churches Ignatov and his congregation built in communities heavily populated by minorities. "We build churches for the poor, but we don't divide them into Bulgarians and Gypsies," notes Ignatov. "In my own congregation, you can see a professor sitting next to a poor Gypsy."

It was the rapid growth of his own congregation that led Ignatov to begin planting offspring churches in surrounding communities. With up to 3,000 parishioners attending services in Sofia's National Palace of Culture, it was becoming impossible to gather in one place. So the Church of God in Sofia divided itself into 25 districts and launched efforts to plant small churches in neighborhoods.

NOTHING PRODUCTIVE?

As the Samokov church finally emerges from the surrounding countryside on this Sunday morning in February, Ignatov pulls his vehicle up in front and quickly steps inside, ready to preach.

For years, the church had but a handful of members. In 1991, only four women attended services on a regular basis. Then Pastor Ignatov decentralized his Sofia congregation and assigned a Gypsy pastor to work among the minority community in Samokov. Attendance began to explode.

Inside the church's modest building, some 400 worshipers, with hands uplifted, sing zestfully in Bulgarian. Later, Ignatov's preaching matches the fervor of the worship. Stabbing the air with his finger, he passionately challenges his listeners to respond to their own suffering as Christ did in taking up the cross.

As Pavlov invites individuals to come for prayer, scores of dark-haired worshipers surge forward around him. Some wail loudly as they hold up sick infants, and many others weep. While moving among them, he places his hand on a head here, a shoulder there, calling aloud to God for blessing and healing.

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September 1 1995, Vol. 39, No. 10