EPC-2, Evangelical Pentecostal Church 2, in Pazardhik, Bulgaria, is a turkish church with focus on reaching the unreached turks in all the world.

Evangelical Pentecostal Church has today about 10 000 members with more than 60 churches.
The church was found by Pastor Sasho Angelov in the year of 1992 with about 90 people (60 children). When the church was planted, God gave him the verse from the Bible: “The harvest is large…”

OUR HISTORY

Sasho Angelov was a famous gangster and businessman in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. He was a leader for a gang that everyone feared, including the police. But today there is few people that fears him with that kind of fear. Because he has met Jesus, became a Pastor and started more than 60 churches.
Sasho Angelov is turkish, but lives in Bulgaria. He has been raised as a muslim. In Bulgaria there is more than 1 million turkish people, only in Pazardzhik there is 33 000.
- I was a true muslim. I went to the moskque and was making abdes in every friday prayer. I was a gangster that was drinking, gambling and spreading fear among the people. But the Koran could not change my life.

THE REVIVAL STARTS

1983, 18 years ago something happened that changed the gansterleader and businessman Sasho Angelovs life. His mother, Fanka Angelova, was sick in lung cancer and the time came for her to die. The doctors had given up and told the family that nothing more could be done. They said that she will die after 3 days, so they sent her home.

In this year, there was only five turkish christians in the city of Pazardzhik, but in secret. The rest of the population, about 35 000, was muslims. All of the five believers was Sashos relatives. When they came to see her they asked her: “Do you believe in Jesus.” She did not answer on their question, but Sasho became angry and answered: “We are muslims, and we believe in Muhammed.” He knew that Bulgarians only believed in Jesus, not the turkish people.

But the Christians did not give up. They asked for pemission to stay and have meetings in their house for three days. In the turkish culture, if a older person, especially a relative, wishes something you cant say no. In respect, to the culture, Sasho allowed them to do as they desired. But what he did not know was that these moments was going to change his life, and thousands of other peoples forever!

THE TOUCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Sasho and his wife was making fun of them all the time. But in the end of the second night he felt something special and he started to cry, when they was praying the last prayer. The Holy Spirit touched him and with tears Sasho said: “God, I dont know who You are, but if you heal my mother I will serve you the rest of my life, with all my family.”

In the morning - the third day - Sashos mother was supposed to die. Early in the morning she woke up, before everyone else, to clean the house. Sasho did not believe what he saw when he noticed that his mother was cleaning. He asked her: “What are you doing? You was going to die!?” Fanka, his mother, looked on him and said:

- “I am not sick anymore. I am healed!”

GOD HAD MADE AN OPERATION

Sasho took his mother eagerly to the hospital where she had made an x-ray and to take the documents for her pension. The doctors was very surprised and asked Sasho: “What is she operated from?”
- “My mother has never had a operation in all her life!”, Sasho answered.
- “But I see the marks from the operation on the x-ray, but the strange thing is that i do not see any incision for surgery anywhere on her body. No doctor can make a operation in this kind of sickness without making a incision on the body. This phenomena is unexplainable”, said the doctors.
- “It is Jesus Christ who have operated her”, Sasho said.
- “But are you not muslim?” the doctor asked.
- “No, not anymore”, Sasho answered.
Jesus had healed her and Sasho realized that Jesus had the power that he did not experience with Muhammed. He repented, got baptized and started to testify for his family, relatives and friends.
- Pastor Sasho: “My mother lives and she is still alive and healed today, and all my relatives have become christians!”
Though she is more than 82 years old, she still dont miss a service. Everyday she walks to the church about one hour, eagerly to hear the word of God!

SASHO ANGELOV REPENTS AND A CHURCH IS PLANTED

After this miracle, Sashos whole world was changed over a night. He was so convinced that God was real that he decided to do away with all his past vanity and spend the rest of his days spreading the love of Christ. He stopped doing business and sold off his flashly cars. He started being faithful to his wife and left his booze-crazed ways. He left his milliondollar business and became a relentless reader of both the Bible and the Koran. He used his knowledge of the Koran to explain himself to the Muslim people. He became feeling as though God was calling him to preach but he felt a bit reluctant because of his reputation as a gangster. He didnt think the people would take him seriously. However, he stayed true to his vision and his promise “I will serve you the rest of my life.” He began to preach in the streets of Pazarzhik and had services in different houses every night. Although he had a reputation as a former gangster, he had always been known as a man of his word.
The people saw a man that he had previously had anything he wanted as far as material wealth. They knew that if a man with this much power was willing to give up all these desires for God than he must have found something special. By 1986, Sasho had left the leather industry behind completely and had gone to preaching full time. In 9 years Sasho was preaching the gospel without a churchbuilding. He was gathering the people in houses. 1993 he started to build a church, but the members of the church were very poor and they were building only as much as they could afford. They received the aid mostly from Holland to get the good start, but also from Korea and Germany.
- We made the foundations and builded the walls, but we could not afford to build any roof (6 yeares we were without roof). But we had faith and was fasting, and had meetings both morning and evening from Monday to Sunday, because we knew that God always answers on faith. Nothing could stop us to go to the church: rain, snow, winds. Many days we stood there and was freezing, but not one person became sick nor did anyone leave the services during the rain or snow, Sasho explains.
One of the incredible points of Sasho´s story is that it was not just some sort of short-term profession and commitment of faith. 25 years after his conversion, Sasho stands firm and has come from being one of Bulgarias best-known gansters to Bulgarias best known preacher. The Church has 10, 000 members today, which make it Bulgarias biggest Christian church and biggest turkish church in the world. Many of the old gansters have become Christians and the gang has almost all together dwindled.

THE CHURCH

Sasho says: When we started building the church in 1992 we were about 90 people (60 children). When i prayed, God gave me the verse in the Bible: “The harvest is large…”
Sasho chose his daughter and five other and they walked every evening in the streets, invited people to the church and preached the word of God. They visited people in the prisons, houses and hospitals, where many people becamed saved and healed. Like this the church was growing.
- Today, our church (motherchuch), has about 600 members. And the churchs problem is not the roof or walls anymore, but that it is to little, Sasho explains.
What happens between the Turkish people in Bulgaria is a miracle that only God can make. There is no churchgrowth among turkish or muslim people that can be compared in the world today.
- We have full freedom to preach the gospel. The government does not stop us, they want us instead to increase our work. Because, since the church was planted the criminality was decreasing. I myself, was the biggest enemy to the police. They had all reasons to arrest me, but they were to afraid of me. Now when they see me, they are praising God, Sasho explains.

VISITATIONS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST

One day, when the church had one of their meetings, without the roof, it came five men from the Middle East that wanted to talk with Sasho. They said that they were very impressed and that they had heard about his big wisdom. The five men that were dressed in arabic cultural clothes opened their black suitcase. Inside of it was about 1 million american dollars.
- “Halleluja, know we can build a roof on our church”, Sasho thought.
- “But we have one condition. You have to leave your faith in Jesus Christ”, they answered.
- “No, No. It is to little money”, Sasho answered.
- “To little? If you desire more, we can transfer more money from our country”, they answered.

- “No thank you. No money can buy me, because the blood of Jesus Christ has already bought me. And the things that has been prepared for me in heaven is lot more that what you can offer me”, Sasho answered.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GRAVE IS EMPTY

6 years later, they came back again. They offered for exampel to give his son and daughter a scholarship in Turkey or to move with all his family and live a rich life in the Middle East. - “We will show you Mekka, and Muhammed´s beutiful goldshining grave”, the men said.

- “No thank you”, Sasho answered. “The most beutiful grave is empty”.
When the mens did not want to leave, Sasho became very angry, because they were disturbing the meeting.
- “If you come one more time, I will tell all the people to take stones and throw on you. Leave know!”, Sasho said.
Since that day they have not dare to come back. Sasho understood that they only wanted to disturb the revival, because never in the history has so many turkish moskques shut down.
A couple of years later God Supplied him with the needs that he had. He builded the eagerly longed for roof that the church had prayed and fasted about for so many years. The help came through “Light For The Peoples”, a swedish Christian organization. They sended the help to finish the work with the churchs kitchen, balcony and children school.

MIRACLES AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD

One of the main reasons for the fast growth is the daily miracles and powerful presence of the Lord. A muslim that had attended one of the meetings said, “Now I understand why all the muslims become christians.” He went away, afraid of becoming a christian himself. Since the year of 1993, people are healed and saved everyday.
- “Where God is invited, he want to stay. God is not a visitor in our church, he is the head and leader in our church. By faith and prayer God comes, and by faith and prayer God stays”, says Sasho.
- “We are building our church in prayer and fasting. In every meeting we are going through the prayer and fasting schedule with the church members. Everyday 2-4 people are fasting, without food or water, in 24 hours, in the motherchurch. One time every week we are also praying all the night, from 22:00 to 07:00 in the morning”, says the assistant pastor and singer in the church.
The miracles take often place during the worship or the word of God. The worship leader and the daughter of Sasho, Violeta says about the worship:
- “When we worship, God want´s us to give ourself one hundred percent. A lot of people are using the worship to show their beutiful voice or to show that they are bigger than others, but in the reality you see that there is no Holy Spirit. For me, worship is when you stand up in front of God, to forget yourself, to forget the people, to give yourself to Him and join the holy angels, who will sing together with you. Since the age of five, when i started to serve God with worship i have seen people become healed during the worship in our church. My principle is that it is better to sing like a duck but to praise God, to be with Him and to feel His presence, instead of having a beutiful voice but to sing with a empty heart”.