Daniela – A Helper, Teacher, and Messenger of Hope for Countless Bulgarian Women
This year Mission Possible Bulgaria is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Daniela Encheva has been involved in MP Bulgaria’s work from the very beginning.
She is a speaker, teacher, and counselor, and for twenty years she’s served as editor-in-chief of our Christian women’s magazine. She is also the co-director of MP Bulgaria.
Daniela has also played a key role in the Baby Box program. She visits homes, encourages and advises the women in the slums, and teaches parenting classes for mothers.
Daniela and her husband Emil raised two daughters and have four grandchildren.
Daniela, you’ve talked to many women in the slums when the team has distributed Baby Boxes. What is your message to these mothers?
The Roma women receive very little love and respect from their families. This makes many of them bitter and rough. I try to say to them, “God loves you infinitely! He hears your prayers. Take His hand, let Him heal your heart, and convey the love of God to your family! Cherish your children and take care of them like the most precious gift. Love can work wonders in your life and you can be truly joyful.”
What are typical mothers and families like in a Roma village?
Roma girls get married at a very young age and many become teenage mothers. Because they aren’t given instruction on motherhood, they don’t know how to care for their children properly. Their very young husbands usually don’t have any vocational training and can’t care for their families. Therefore, they are doomed to poverty and live on unemployment benefits with no prospect of personal development. The next generation continues the terrible cycle.
Good examples are needed. They need to see ones who have begun in the same dire circumstances, but after coming to faith in Jesus, have worked hard to achieve a dignified life.
In many slum villages, the situation looks hopeless. How can we realistically help the people who live there?
This is a question we often ask ourselves. It is clear that we are not able to meet all their needs. But we have seen with our own eyes what happens when someone in these villages puts their faith in Jesus and then has a purpose for their life. They begin to love their family in a new way and work to serve them and their neighbors. Faith changes people’s lives.
“For the seed of faith to grow in the hearts of the hearers, they must first be nourished and clothed. They must experience friendship, care, and love from believers so that they themselves desire to know and walk with God.”
