Southeastern Bulgaria, near the borders of Turkey and Greece, is predominantly Muslim. Muslim cultures are collective, which means cousins are as close as brothers and sisters and shared decisions and ownership are the social norm. When Muslim people come to Christ, they may not just get kicked out of their homes; they may also lose relationships, possessions, access to food from the family garden—they could lose everything. This is why missionary Liza Johnson* says, “You have to form the body of Christ.”

Liza works among the Pomaks, and unreached Bulgarian people group with a militant background. Part of her ministry has been to facilitate a support system to replace the infrastructure that is lost when someone loses the Muslim community. Forming the body of Christ is more than being a shoulder to cry on; it’s being responsible for the physical and relational needs of those in your community⁠—much like the structure of the Early Church.

For Liza, this concept is just theory. She has lived it. When she moved to post-communist Bulgaria as a missionary in 1997, she was sent with the covering of only one local church. When that church stopped supporting her one year later, leaving her with nothing but a return airline ticket, she had to decide: Am I called to Bulgaria or not? Her Bulgarian Christian friends heard of her situation and said, “We have a garden. We have a goat and a cow. If we can live on that, so can you. You can stay with us.” From that moment, she learned⁠—how to live in community.

When missionaries head to the field, it is always to serve, not to be served. That’s the reason Jesus himself came (Matthew 20:28). Knowing that, Liza initially had difficulty accepting that her supporters were local people who brought her canned goods and that everything she had belonged to the family. Liza explains, “Being part of the community means letting others give to you, and that’s counterintuitive to those of us who have more.” If Liza has not learned to be served in those early years, she may not have earned the privilege of serving her community as an AGWM missionary in the years that followed.

As part of the community, Liza has seen incredible things happen for the sake of the gospel. Through the churches she has planted together with local Bulgarians, people have grown in their faith and responded to the recent influx of refugees. Through their outreach, dozens of people from the Middle East have come to faith in Christ and numerous families are entering ministry⁠—all because Liza learned the culture and the beauty of humbling herself to be served.

*Due to the sensitive nature of her situation, Liza’s name has been changed to protect her identity.