Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - What Has Been Done for These People and Their Neighbors Now in America? (Symposium) The Rev. Jesse W. Brooks, Ph. D. (presiding) - The Bulgarians: Mr. Andrew Todoroff - The Latest of Immigrants - Bulgarian Missions in America
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114 What Has Been Done for These People
owes her freedom to Russia. Both countries have practically the
same religion. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the church of both. We
have the same Cyrillic alphabet; and I may say that we do not have
any trouble in understanding each other. We can even talk without
an interpreter. Russian literature predominates in Bulgaria and
exerts a good influence. So you see the Bulgarians are naturally
greatly interested in everything that takes place in Russia, and espe-
cially in a cause like the one for which we are gathered here. The
Bulgarian people believe in evangelization. The Bulgarian nation wel-
comes Protestant Christian missionaries, allowing them the utmost
freedom in preaching the Gospel. Bulgaria is the only nation of the
Balkan Peninsula where we can find American schools; and I am
happy to say that Bulgaria, my native country, owes a great deal to
the missionaries from America, my adopted country, for all that those
godly men and women have been doing toward the evangelization of
the Bulgarian people. My parents were among the very first ones
converted through the work of the first American missionaries sent
to Bulgaria. So, as you can see, Bulgaria, on the one hand, is at-
tached to Russia; and, on the other, to America.
The Latest of Immigrants
But I am on the program to tell you briefly what has been done
in this country thus far for the Bulgarians, in the way of giving them
the Gospel. Preaching among the Bulgarians in America is one of
the latest missionary enterprises, because the Bulgarian immigrants
were among the last to come over. Fifteen years ago it was practically
impossible to find a Bulgarian laborer in the United States. At that
time there were only a few students scattered through the various
colleges. Our family was the first Bulgarian family to settle here
in Chicago. That was only fourteen years ago. The Bulgarian immi-
grants started to come over steadily from 1906, and continued until,
now they number here between thirty and forty thousand, and are
scattered all over the United States and Canada. Ninety-eight per
cent of them are men; some single; others, married, having left their
wives in the old country. Many of them were beginning to bring
their families over, but the war put an end to that.
Bulgarian Missions in America
At present Protestant work among them is being carried on in the
following places: At Kansas City, Kans.; St. Louis, Mo.; Toronto,
Canada; Ellis Island, N. Y.; Granite City and Madison, 111.; Toledo,
Ohio; and in Chicago. The work here is carried on under the auspices
of the Chicago Tract Society. I have learned that good work is done
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