Testimony of Jonathan Owens missionary in Bulgaria

I was raised in a large, strong Christian family as the second oldest of twelve children (eight sisters and three brothers). At the age of five I realized my need for the Saviour and accepted Christ. I was baptized soon after that by my uncle. In January of 1990, at the age of twelve, I surrendered my life to go to the mission field at a missions conference at the Salisbury Baptist Temple in Salisbury, Maryland. At that time my father was serving as associate pastor. During my teenage years we went to a youth conference in Indiana every year. It was there that I decided to go to Bible College. I enrolled in the fall of 1995 and graduated in January of 2000.

On June 14, 1997 I married my high school sweetheart, Shannon. We now have seven boys and six girls.

While in classes at college God began to burden my heart for the people of Bulgaria. In August of 2000, my wife and I visited Bulgaria for the first time. After our visit we were confident that Bulgaria was the place where God wanted us to serve. We began to prepare immediately and started deputation in April of 2001. On April 11, 2003 we arrived in Bulgaria and began our ministry here.

My father is the pastor of the Westside Baptist Church in Pacifica, California. My oldest brother, David, is currently serving on the mission field in Guyana, South America. My brother, Nathan is a missionary to South Africa and my youngest brother, Samuel, is serving as a missionary in the Republic of Georgia.

Testimony of Shannon Owens

I grew up in Salisbury, Maryland. When I was six years old our neighbor invited me and my brother to go to church with him. My brother and I began attending regularly the Sunday school of the Bible Baptist Church in Salisbury, but my parents did not. One Sunday I didn’t want to go to church, but my father said, “You’re going anyway!” I replied that it wasn’t right, because he never went to church. My brother and I went to Sunday school that morning and the Lord started to convict my parents for not going to church. They showed up that morning for the main service. That morning they found Salvation through Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their Saviour. They were baptized that same day (Acts 8:37). They began to attend church faithfully and got involved in the church’s bus ministry. They are now faithful members of the Salisbury Baptist Temple. My father is a bus captain. Later when I was ten years old I accepted Jesus as my Saviour and was baptized.

In January of 1990, I surrendered my life to do whatever God wanted at the same missions conference were my husband surrendered to go to the mission field. At that time we did not know that God would bring us together one day. After graduating from high school I enrolled in the Bible College where Jonathan was

attending and the next year on June 14th 1997, we were married. Since, than God has blessed us with thirteen children.

In August of 2000, we went to Bulgaria for the first time. My heart broke for the people and I knew that God was calling my husband and I to Bulgaria.

Ministry

We arrived in Bulgaria on April 11th 2003. Immediately, we began to take language classes and try to use our skills to win Bulgarians to Christ. We saw several saved and God opened the doors for us to start the Bible Baptist Church of Sofia on April 4th 2004. This was the first independent Baptist church in Bulgaria since the fall of communism. On April 3, 2011, we started the Bible Baptist Church in Fakulteta a gypsy area in Sofia. On November 18, 2013 we held our first service for the Bible Baptist Church in Radomir.

Our main goals in Bulgaria are to see souls saved through personal soul winning and preaching and to start independent Baptist churches. We are seeking to train young men to become pastors and leaders in the churches we start. We have been involved in and have started outreach ministries working with the handicapped, orphans, street children and gypsies.