From Atheism to Faith

by Trif Trifinov

I was born in Communist Bulgaria in 1969—the year Nixon became President and Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon. Three years later, in 1972, my wife Vanya took her first steps on Planet Earth.

Back then the world was a different place. Google and Yahoo did not exist. The top-selling movie was The Godfather, but the movie was not viewed on DVD or even VHS. People watched movies in the theater; they did not download them from the Internet. Books were still printed on paper, not viewed on e-readers.

Cinema and books were popular in Bulgaria, but they all served the communist propaganda machine. As early as kindergarten, we were taught there was no God. As first graders, we joined the children’s Communist organization and were indoctrinated to worship the party.

Later, we became activists in the Communist Pioneer and Komsomol youth organizations. We wanted to build Communism and, to the best of our ability, bring the “bright future” closer.
As we grew older, instead of seeing our dream come true, we realized our country struggled with corruption, mediocrity, and moral degradation. We did not know about the crimes being committed, those being killed, or those sent to more than 40 concentration camps built throughout the country following the Communist coup in 1944.

A few years later, we came face to face with the truth when the Berlin Wall fell and triggered democratic changes in Bulgaria. The idols of Communism started falling, and for the first time we heard God exists! After a 45-year ban on church attendance, thousands flocked to churches.

Around that time, a classmate took Vanya to a large Christian rally, and she accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. The following year she went to study history at Veliko Turnovo University. I had just arrived on campus to study English Literature and, providentially, God gave me a Christian roommate.

Photo: The Trifinov Family

With his help, I started reading the Bible and went to a small Christian student group in the same dorm. A few days later, I knelt to pray and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. My friends took me to church, where I met Vanya for the first time.

During the summer following my first year at university, I participated in a student evangelistic culture exchange project run by American students. I was challenged to commit myself to building an organized student witness in Bulgarian universities. I met Tim Awtrey, and with his help and the help of another missionary from England, founded a student Bible study group—one of the first of the Bulgarian Christian Student Union (BCSU). Vanya joined the group soon afterwards.

After graduating in 1996, we moved to Varna and became the first national staff workers in BCSU. It was an exciting time. Together with Tim and Lydia Awtrey, we were involved in planting student groups, organizing conferences, discipling students, and training leaders in six university centers of Bulgaria. Our three children, Debora (16), Monika (14), and Stefan (11), were born during that time.

Last year, after 20 years in student ministry, we felt God leading us to leave the BCSU staff and join Tim and Lydia as Free Will Baptist church planters in Varna. We are thrilled to work with people of all ages and testify that God
is alive. 

We use various evangelistic initiatives to invite people to church: public lectures, Q&A sessions, children’s Christmas workshops, seekers groups, and hospitality. I wrote two apologetic books (What Would Jesus Say to Me? and Why I Am Not an Atheist) that were well received and helped those who read them hear the gospel in a culturally relevant way.

Our prayer is that the New Life Free Will Baptist Church will become a place where atheists, nominal Eastern-Orthodox believers, and people of all other religious backgrounds will find a family, experience God’s love, and be transformed by God’s truth.

About the Writer: The Trifinov family has joined the Bulgaria team, working to share the hope of Christ in a country known for hopelessness.

More About Bulgaria

Ex Nihilo

Missionary Tim Awtrey explores the history, blessings, and challenges for the first Freee Will Baptist church in Bulgaria.

God's Unchanging Faithfulness

New missionary Jonathan Postlewaite recounts his family's first year on the field, from hurdles and heartache to memorable milestones as God proved His faithfulness time and again.

Our Story

Josh and Lydia Provow are the newest Free Will Baptist missionary appointees to the country of Bulgaria. Travel with them on their journey to the field.

Building Playgrounds, Sharing Hope

Hanna Project team leader Darren Walker provides an inside look at short-term missions efforts in Shvishtov, Bulgaria, from construction projects to forming long-term relationships with the people of that city.

To learn more about the work of Free Will Baptist International Missions, visit www.fwbgo.com.