Antioch Roma Church, Sliven

The gospel of Jesus Christ is always good news. It has power to transform lives; bringing hope, a framework for life and relationships and a sense of purpose and destiny. For the poorest people in the poorest country in the EU – gypsies in Bulgaria – this is good news indeed. Pastor Encho Christov leads the Antioch Roma Church in Sliven; a church of about 80 people. Krasif is committed to help Encho upgrade an historic watermill that he has recently purchased. Money for the acquisition was donated by sponsoring UK churches and two charities; our own Bulgaria Aid and friends at Outreach Unlimited. The building must now be made to conform to Bulgarian regulations for public buildings.  

Encho trained for two years at a Bible College in Sofia followed by a year at the American University of Blagoevgrad; all in the mid 1990’s. From there he joined Derek Prince Ministries as translator to an American evangelist. Seeing the appalling plight of gypsies in Blagoevgrad, he started to evangelise this unreached people and over time built a church of 120 people.

In 2002 he returned to his home town and took on the leadership of a small house group, growing it till it has become a viable church congregation. Encho is married to Danika and they have a young son, Gabriel.