We believe that the family is the main building unit of society. Everyone would like to live in a strong, happy family, in an atmosphere of love, mutual understanding and acceptance. However, this does not happen automatically. In order to reap something good, you have to sow good seeds first!

YWAM Family Ministries Bulgaria is dedicated to encourage and strengthen families to develop their potential for the benefit of society and the next generation. Strong families – Strong society!

Family Camps

We believe that family camps have started to play an important role in the body of Christ in this nation. It is a place where parents get a new love for God and for each other, a place where good relationships between parents and children are taught and modeled, a place where families that often are struggling alone during the winter meet with other people that have the same struggles and new strong friendship are being built. It is a place where children that feel lonely as Christians in their schools meet with other children in the same situation, and many long lasting friendships are built also between them. The family camps have become a meeting place for people from different churches, ethnic groups and different generations. The sense of unity and love between all of us have been strong and so needed in a nation with many conflicts and wounds even in the churches.

The permanent presence of YWAM in Bulgaria began in 1992 in Chirpan, through an initiative from YWAM Norway, and started DTSes and planted over 20 churches in that area.

The first family camp in Bulgaria was arranged by people from YWAM Norway already in the summer of 1993. Some years after that a Bulgarian family did a family DTS in Germany and was commissioned to start and lead family ministry in YWAM Bulgaria. Their names are Petja and Ivaelo Kunchevi. They translated the REAPP course into Bulgarian and arranged some REAPP seminars. With help from Hristo Cholakov and other YWAMers they also arranged some more family camps in the summer times. Petya and Ivaelo Kunchevi continued for some years as leaders of family ministry within YWAM. But for different reasons this ministry slowly came to a halt.
So in the year 2006 Eirinn and Atanas Atanasov had the idea to start a family mini DTS. They had invited a family from Norway, Edel Karin and Gunnar Vagle, to come and help lead it. It was a successful mini DTS with about 60 participants and staff. Almost all Bulgarian YWAM staff helped staffing this mini DTS. Among the teachers that year were Angela and Andreas Frész. They did a REAPP seminar with about 10 couples. About five couples later did the facilitator course, and Ivan and Villi Buchakcevi, who had been involved in YWAM Bulgaria for some years, got the task to lead and develop REAPP in Bulgaria.  
From that time Eirinn and Atanas Atanasov, who also had been working for quite many years in YWAM Bulgaria, took on the leadership for family ministry Bulgaria and they are still leading this ministry.  
Family Atanasov did a Family Ministry School in Norway in 2008. So did Ivan and Violeta Buchakchevi in Germany in 2009.  Both families felt very strengthened and also equipped to develop this family ministry together in Bulgaria after attending this school.
In 2009 the family camp in Hissar, a small town in the middle of the country, was almost overcrowded. We had four families from the Family Ministry School in Norway 2008 helping with teaching and activities for young and old. It was a very good camp with about 85 Bulgarian participants. Some more families from Bulgaria were also helping as group leaders in that camp. Many new friendship were established across the country and across Europe. We understood that family camps are a wonderful tool to reach out to families from many churches and different backgrounds. Eirinn and Atanas as the present leaders of the ministry now started to think more about how this ministry could be developed, and more people can be equipped to lead and teach. With that purpose we took some trips to different parts of the country and visited different families that had been participants in the camps during the past years.
If the camp was overcrowded in 2009, it was even more full this year 2010. This year we were about 115 participants, included teachers and staff.
As we look back oover the past 5 years we are amazed about God's faithfulness in the development of family work in YWAM Bulgaria. He has sent us plenty of helpers and staff and more and more families have heard about the camps going on in the small town Hissar. Every year the number of families is increasing. Every year new families are coming to us and say they will come back next year and offer help.