Bulgaria is a small country on the Balkan Peninsula in Eastern Europe, with a population of 7,100,000, and its capital is Sofia. The country borders with Turkey and the Muslim world in the South, thus linking Europe and Asia, giving a strategic geographic position. 

Historically, its culture has been shaped by a number of factors. Bulgaria was under the yoke of the Ottoman/Turkish Empire for 500 years during which the Turks tried to instill Islam on the Bulgarian people who had accepted Orthodox Christianity in 861A.D. Muslims and pro-Islamic people in the country are still about 10%, and they have their own political party. Their influence has even been growing during the past 15 years.

Nowadays, although more than 50% of the people call themselves Christians (or, rather Orthodox), we know that only 2-3% are genuine believers in Christ. These are primarily the Evangelical believers. Many Bulgarians, especially young people have beliefs that are a mixture of atheism/materialism (or faith in science alone), some Christian truths, superstition, various forms of the New Age philosophy, etc.

Now in Bulgaria, we have one stable student ministry in Varna with 5 staff and at least 3-4 four volunteers. In Sofia there is one person trying to rebuild the student ministry there and one couple who work with high school students(SHINE). Its important for us to cover the biggest university cities in Bulgaria - Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgaz, Veliko Tarnovo, Stara Zagora.