Most our European and Hungarian students come from completely secular homes, often very much against their parents wishes. Yet they have a great desire to know God and His Word, and to serve Him, if possible full time. Zoltán Köves is no exception of this. A young man, raised up in a Hungarian Jewish family, who in his childhood was often ridiculed and persecuted for his Jewish identity. In his early twenties, with the aid of some friends he went to a church, where he heard and understood the Gospel. He was afraid of perishing, thus he trusted Christ. But, even after that he had a lot of problems. Finally, 2 years ago, he came to our camp to serve as a volunteer. Immediately he loved the atmosphere and decided to come to Bible School. After arriving in September 2007, in the first quarter he was about to quit at least 4 times. By the grace of God and through the prayers of our staf and students he stayed and he started growing fast spiritually. He learned how to have a daily quiet time, first time in his life he embraced eternal security, and he started using his talents for the Lord. He is a very skilled guitar player and a promising public speaker. After school he is aiming at moving back to his city, where he will work, serve at his Baptist church in relation to missions and will help his aging parents. Looking at him I am always astonished at the change I see. Humanly speaking he seemed to be a very difficult case when he came to school - now he is one of the most promising students we have. What a privilege it is to be part of the process of growth in his life!
26 November 2008
Meet One of my Students
Most our European and Hungarian students come from completely secular homes, often very much against their parents wishes. Yet they have a great desire to know God and His Word, and to serve Him, if possible full time. Zoltán Köves is no exception of this. A young man, raised up in a Hungarian Jewish family, who in his childhood was often ridiculed and persecuted for his Jewish identity. In his early twenties, with the aid of some friends he went to a church, where he heard and understood the Gospel. He was afraid of perishing, thus he trusted Christ. But, even after that he had a lot of problems. Finally, 2 years ago, he came to our camp to serve as a volunteer. Immediately he loved the atmosphere and decided to come to Bible School. After arriving in September 2007, in the first quarter he was about to quit at least 4 times. By the grace of God and through the prayers of our staf and students he stayed and he started growing fast spiritually. He learned how to have a daily quiet time, first time in his life he embraced eternal security, and he started using his talents for the Lord. He is a very skilled guitar player and a promising public speaker. After school he is aiming at moving back to his city, where he will work, serve at his Baptist church in relation to missions and will help his aging parents. Looking at him I am always astonished at the change I see. Humanly speaking he seemed to be a very difficult case when he came to school - now he is one of the most promising students we have. What a privilege it is to be part of the process of growth in his life!
21 November 2008
Laci's Angels
Being a Bible teacher is an undeserved and serious responsibility (James 3:1). And, from this semester, my teaching load is much greater, since Dave James, Director of our Bible Institute is transitioning into a different ministry, and resigning from Word of Life Hungary by February 2. While lecturing, grading papers and counseling students, I cannot stop being a camp director. I am very thankful that two young ladies joined the camping ministry team this past September. Timi Tanyi (on the left) is my new assistant, doing everything from administration to promotion, from writing camp manuals to presenting our ministry on various denominational youth conferences. The job fits her 
creative and colorful personality, and she is a hard worker. Lili Vermes' (on the right) sole responsibility is to stay in touch with campers, who trusted Christ. She is our follow-up person, who uses all sorts of new and innovative ways to encourage kids to walk with the Lord, to pray, read the Bible, etc. She is an answer for 19 years of prayer, and she takes her job very seriously. How do we plan to increase camp registrations? Timi is working hard on a lot of things to make it happen. How do we disciple our campers (most of them bank in secular families with no churches nearby)? Lili is the person to go to. Please, pray for my "angels.”
31 October 2008
SYS (See You Soon...)
It has been almost two years since we left America to return to our homeland. Since then, one meaningful task has followed another here at WOL Hungary. There have been many many occasions for youth evangelism where we have seen great numbers of unsaved Hungarian teens coming to the Savior. Also, we really enjoy teaching and mentoring the Word of Life Bible Institute students. Reuniting with our large families upon our return has been wonderful for all of us.
Laci finished his first year as a teacher, a new baby was born into our family on the second day of our summer camp (now, that was interesting...), we had the largest camp scholarship fund ever that helped about 450 kids to come to camp with a discount or for free, and we moved into our own home a few days after camp was over. While the paint was still drying in the new house, the Bible School year started again. And now, pictures and videos are ready to be shared with you and others. Our family is preparing to visit America for 2 months to give a report, to share, give thanks, and rejoice with all those who make this ministry possible for us. We would like to meet with you and your church-family and look forward to that time.
The dates of our planned trip are: Feb 25 - April 22 2009. To be able to travel, we will need to raise about $4000 for airfare and another $2000 for our expenses while in the US. We are thankful that God has already provided a home for us in Garland, TX and we trust that he will take care of the rest of our needs also. Please be so kind as to prayerfully consider if you could help us with a one-time gift for these expenses. If so, we will provide further information about the details.
Thank you very much.
We will soon start working on our schedule for those two months. We definitely want to meet you in
Laci finished his first year as a teacher, a new baby was born into our family on the second day of our summer camp (now, that was interesting...), we had the largest camp scholarship fund ever that helped about 450 kids to come to camp with a discount or for free, and we moved into our own home a few days after camp was over. While the paint was still drying in the new house, the Bible School year started again. And now, pictures and videos are ready to be shared with you and others. Our family is preparing to visit America for 2 months to give a report, to share, give thanks, and rejoice with all those who make this ministry possible for us. We would like to meet with you and your church-family and look forward to that time.
The dates of our planned trip are: Feb 25 - April 22 2009. To be able to travel, we will need to raise about $4000 for airfare and another $2000 for our expenses while in the US. We are thankful that God has already provided a home for us in Garland, TX and we trust that he will take care of the rest of our needs also. Please be so kind as to prayerfully consider if you could help us with a one-time gift for these expenses. If so, we will provide further information about the details.
Thank you very much.
We will soon start working on our schedule for those two months. We definitely want to meet you in
26 July 2008
Camper Testimonies
Weeks in camp go by fast, one after the other. Thankfully, young people trust Christ on each of them, dozens after dozens. Meet three of those who met Jesus in the WOL Hungary camps this summer. Because of the strict privacy laws of our country, no pictures or first names may be included in these testimonies.
C. is a twelve years old girl. Coming here from a broken and rather disfunctional family a camp scholarship was her only choice to spend a week here. She was invited by a friend, who had come and had become a Christian here on one of the previous summers. Cynthia came to learn English better - but something more important happened while here. She says that it was a fantastic joy, a relief to receive Christ in her heart. She is so happy and thankful now. She understands that the most important things about Jesus are his death and resurrection.
R.'s (12) first sentence was about his mom, who died when he was only 4 years old. We have had a lot of behavioral problems with him during the one week of camp – this is understandable. His dad is 66 years of age, and, as Robert whispered to me at one point in the interview he is an alcoholic. Robert, as you may see on the picture, has gone through a lot of suffering in his short life. His face is slightly disfigured, becuase of an earlier very serious head-injury and the hospitalization that followed. Thankfully, mentally he is a brilliant boy. For him, the
purity, happiness and unsurpassable joy of heaven – of which he has heard during the week of camp – were the deciding factors. As he said he did not want to go to hell, did not want to suffer, he had already had enough suffering in his life. He confessed that sometimes his suffering was unbearable. He hopes that in his difficult circumstances Christ will help him daily. This week he started reading Scripture and he said that he just cannot wait to learn the end of these stories. „It is impossible to be bored when I am reading Scripture.” he confessed. He really wants to come back to our camp, for it is beautiful and he loved German instruction.
E.: "I am about to turn 17 years old, and I came from a little town, where I live in a state-sponsored family home, under foster-care. My parents were mute and deaf, besides this they were alcoholics. Any family problem ended up in brutal agression, that is why the government took us when I was only 3 years old. I do not even remember what it is like to live in a normal family, with a mother and father. Me and my 4 sieblings enjoy the safety and protection of the foster-home. There, in my town the only ttraction is a small swimming-pool, and a little bible institute. My older sister went through that bible-school and she has always been my example. Her life shines the love and example of Christ, but until this week I was never able to shine like her. I cannot even count how many new friends I made. I loved all the messages and the pantomim. I made a decision, because I did not want to postpone it any longer. I am still not perfect, there are still many problems in my life, but I will try to
live the Christian life seriously from now on. If you allow me, I would like to come back next year as a camp-counselor."
P.: "I am 18 years old, my grandparents have raised me, since my parents divorced long ago. I am from the same little southern-Hungarian town, where Al Konya's (director of WOL Hungary) ancestors immigrated to America. Many years ago Al came to visit our town to reunite with family and that is when I heard of this camp. I just finished high school and passed my comprehensives to graduate. Boy, math was hard, but I passed. From September I will go to hunting school, because I want to be a professional hunter - a rare but very exciting job I think. The week in camp was very cool, I liked the programs a lot - I know that there is not much that can be done about the rain (it was a very rainy week of camp). I really liked English instruction where I could practice my language skills with American English speakers. On Tuesday I made a decision because I meant the sinners prayer seriously. I think I always want to mean my prayers seriously. A long time ago I decided to live religiously, but until this week I did
not convert. Since I meant my decision, I thought that this is something I wanted to stand up for, that is why I went forward at the invitation. Thankfully there is a little Baptist church in my town where I want to attend - and perhaps the next step for me is to come and help as a volunteer in this camp."
A. is a 15 year old gypsy girl from the poor northern region of the country. Friends and family acquintances told her about our camp and the local Baptist pastor organized her trip and he asked us if we could provide a scholarship for her. She loved the volleyball trainings and really enjoyed our low ropes-course. She will start high-school this fall and she made many new friends in camp. The reason for her decision was her family background. "I decided to trust
Christ because of my family background. I just felt that I need to break free from the dirt that is around me" says Arabella, who lives in a disfunctional, very poor single-mom family with grandma and two other sieblings. "I want to stick with my decision and I think reading the Bible and praying will help me to keep my relationship with God. I will go to church and to youth-group and I hope that I will not have a lot of backslidings." She really appreciates that she could get a scholarship.
G. is a 17 years old gypsy teen, and comes from a town about 250 miles from our camp. He lives in a large state-sponsored orphanage (that in some aspects resembles a prison). "Big place, many kids, a lot of problems..." he describes his home. A Christian foundation started sponsoring a couple of these children and they organized and supervised the camping of Gyuri as well. "Being here was strange. Before camp a lot of people talked to me about God and and had tried to make myself believe that there was a God. But this week was the one, when I finally and really understood and accepted Him. So I stood up and I was among those, who so to say 'converted' and I am very proud of my decision." While at camp Gyuri got the news that his girlfriend was pregnant and that she wanted to get an abortion. He is ready to go home as a Christian and he wants to decide well. "How can you make the right choices?" I asked him. "I would say... Bible. Through the Bible I will try to make things right when I go home." He is a very strong athletic
fellow and he made a lot of friends and found the counselors very cool. "Thanks for paying my camp, I will be here next year" says Gyuri.
C. is a twelve years old girl. Coming here from a broken and rather disfunctional family a camp scholarship was her only choice to spend a week here. She was invited by a friend, who had come and had become a Christian here on one of the previous summers. Cynthia came to learn English better - but something more important happened while here. She says that it was a fantastic joy, a relief to receive Christ in her heart. She is so happy and thankful now. She understands that the most important things about Jesus are his death and resurrection.
R.'s (12) first sentence was about his mom, who died when he was only 4 years old. We have had a lot of behavioral problems with him during the one week of camp – this is understandable. His dad is 66 years of age, and, as Robert whispered to me at one point in the interview he is an alcoholic. Robert, as you may see on the picture, has gone through a lot of suffering in his short life. His face is slightly disfigured, becuase of an earlier very serious head-injury and the hospitalization that followed. Thankfully, mentally he is a brilliant boy. For him, the
purity, happiness and unsurpassable joy of heaven – of which he has heard during the week of camp – were the deciding factors. As he said he did not want to go to hell, did not want to suffer, he had already had enough suffering in his life. He confessed that sometimes his suffering was unbearable. He hopes that in his difficult circumstances Christ will help him daily. This week he started reading Scripture and he said that he just cannot wait to learn the end of these stories. „It is impossible to be bored when I am reading Scripture.” he confessed. He really wants to come back to our camp, for it is beautiful and he loved German instruction.
E.: "I am about to turn 17 years old, and I came from a little town, where I live in a state-sponsored family home, under foster-care. My parents were mute and deaf, besides this they were alcoholics. Any family problem ended up in brutal agression, that is why the government took us when I was only 3 years old. I do not even remember what it is like to live in a normal family, with a mother and father. Me and my 4 sieblings enjoy the safety and protection of the foster-home. There, in my town the only ttraction is a small swimming-pool, and a little bible institute. My older sister went through that bible-school and she has always been my example. Her life shines the love and example of Christ, but until this week I was never able to shine like her. I cannot even count how many new friends I made. I loved all the messages and the pantomim. I made a decision, because I did not want to postpone it any longer. I am still not perfect, there are still many problems in my life, but I will try to
live the Christian life seriously from now on. If you allow me, I would like to come back next year as a camp-counselor."
P.: "I am 18 years old, my grandparents have raised me, since my parents divorced long ago. I am from the same little southern-Hungarian town, where Al Konya's (director of WOL Hungary) ancestors immigrated to America. Many years ago Al came to visit our town to reunite with family and that is when I heard of this camp. I just finished high school and passed my comprehensives to graduate. Boy, math was hard, but I passed. From September I will go to hunting school, because I want to be a professional hunter - a rare but very exciting job I think. The week in camp was very cool, I liked the programs a lot - I know that there is not much that can be done about the rain (it was a very rainy week of camp). I really liked English instruction where I could practice my language skills with American English speakers. On Tuesday I made a decision because I meant the sinners prayer seriously. I think I always want to mean my prayers seriously. A long time ago I decided to live religiously, but until this week I did
not convert. Since I meant my decision, I thought that this is something I wanted to stand up for, that is why I went forward at the invitation. Thankfully there is a little Baptist church in my town where I want to attend - and perhaps the next step for me is to come and help as a volunteer in this camp."
A. is a 15 year old gypsy girl from the poor northern region of the country. Friends and family acquintances told her about our camp and the local Baptist pastor organized her trip and he asked us if we could provide a scholarship for her. She loved the volleyball trainings and really enjoyed our low ropes-course. She will start high-school this fall and she made many new friends in camp. The reason for her decision was her family background. "I decided to trust
Christ because of my family background. I just felt that I need to break free from the dirt that is around me" says Arabella, who lives in a disfunctional, very poor single-mom family with grandma and two other sieblings. "I want to stick with my decision and I think reading the Bible and praying will help me to keep my relationship with God. I will go to church and to youth-group and I hope that I will not have a lot of backslidings." She really appreciates that she could get a scholarship.
G. is a 17 years old gypsy teen, and comes from a town about 250 miles from our camp. He lives in a large state-sponsored orphanage (that in some aspects resembles a prison). "Big place, many kids, a lot of problems..." he describes his home. A Christian foundation started sponsoring a couple of these children and they organized and supervised the camping of Gyuri as well. "Being here was strange. Before camp a lot of people talked to me about God and and had tried to make myself believe that there was a God. But this week was the one, when I finally and really understood and accepted Him. So I stood up and I was among those, who so to say 'converted' and I am very proud of my decision." While at camp Gyuri got the news that his girlfriend was pregnant and that she wanted to get an abortion. He is ready to go home as a Christian and he wants to decide well. "How can you make the right choices?" I asked him. "I would say... Bible. Through the Bible I will try to make things right when I go home." He is a very strong athletic
fellow and he made a lot of friends and found the counselors very cool. "Thanks for paying my camp, I will be here next year" says Gyuri.
26 June 2008
Little Laci is Born
"Would you take me to the hospital?" after opening my eyes this morning, at 4.30 a.m., I fully agreed with Szandra's suggestion. Thankfully, Pam Konya, our director's wife was ready and willing to come over to watch Fanni (Luca was at grandma's house). The ride to Budapest was smooth and easy, Szandra did not seem to hurry - I thought. We got there, and by 6.45 she was admitted to the delivery room.... and the baby was born at 8.06 a.m. For sure "Little Laci," our son, is a fast little fellow. And strong. And handsome. Thankfully Szandra was and has been doing amazingly well. Hopefully by Sunday mom and boy will be back home. God has given us another child - but he is still His. We are and will be responsible to watch, protect and raise God's property, and we hope that very soon our boy (as well as our girls) will choose to be God's child.
Click here to enjoy more pictures.
Click here to enjoy more pictures.
17 June 2008
buying...? building...? BUYING!
For almost a year Szandra and I were praying and going back and forth about our housing plans. We knew that we wanted to serve with Word of Life Hungary on the long term, and we knew that we wanted to live in our own home. During last fall we asked an architect to make the floorplans for our "dream-home." After getting some cost estimates we realized that those dreams could never go true. After two radical downsizings we had to admit that building would be a financial burden for the rest of our life.
Meanwhile we kept an eye open to the local used house market. There was one home, in particular, we liked. We checked it in August, 2007 - but the price of it then was out of our range. Now a year later that home was still out on the market, and the owners took our offer that was about 80% of what they were asking for. It ended up costing us far less than a new home would have. So, guess what, we are BUYING our own home. We like it, it is big, comfortable, modern and ready for us to move in.
Please praise God with us for His provision. And, pray as we are working through the details of the purchase. Some minor repairs, painting and other things will have to be done, our new baby will have to be born and camp will have to be finished, before we move in. We need wisdom in our time-management, patience and wisdom in deciding how to finance the house. Would you like to see a few pictures of the house? Here they are.
Meanwhile we kept an eye open to the local used house market. There was one home, in particular, we liked. We checked it in August, 2007 - but the price of it then was out of our range. Now a year later that home was still out on the market, and the owners took our offer that was about 80% of what they were asking for. It ended up costing us far less than a new home would have. So, guess what, we are BUYING our own home. We like it, it is big, comfortable, modern and ready for us to move in.
Please praise God with us for His provision. And, pray as we are working through the details of the purchase. Some minor repairs, painting and other things will have to be done, our new baby will have to be born and camp will have to be finished, before we move in. We need wisdom in our time-management, patience and wisdom in deciding how to finance the house. Would you like to see a few pictures of the house? Here they are.
23 May 2008
Spring Stories
Back in 1991 I was a counselor in a Reformed Youth camp organized for young Hungarian Christians from all around the world. Along with some friends and my parents' pastor we were responsible for about 200 young people for a week. Among them was a 17 years old guy, who as the result of our testimonies dedicated his life to God and decided to become a pastor, instead of a PE teacher. As he writes on his church's homepage, "first time in my life I met some young people, who did not only talk about Christ. Through their lives I could see the presence of Christ. I understood that I had to invite Christ in my life, and... I did just that. Ever since then I have been experiencing His presence in my life." In the past 17 years we connected a few times, and on April 18 I was invited to the little town of Dunaharaszti, where he has been pastoring for seven years, continuing his father's ministry. Csaba is a dear friend, and it was a privilege to encourage his youth for serving God full-heartedly. Actually, our pastor became a Christian in Csaba's youth group back in the nineties.Soccer Marathon and Evangelism
Hungarians just love soccer. Although our once-world-class national team is not doing very well these days, the game is ever popular among kids. In mid-April we organized our Spring Soccer championship for teams from nearby schools. Eleven teams came to play for an entire day. As customary, in the lunch-break we did evangelism for the players and coaches. Interestingly, although most of these friends are non-Christians, this part of the program is highly regarded by the adults who accompany their teams. "At least they receive some good influences..." said to me a coach after the message. Again, I had the prilege to speak to the 110+ kids and adults. I was sharing on Hebrews 11:1,6 explaining to the kids what faith is, and the kind of faith in Jesus Christ they need to have to become children of God. As an illustration I told them the story of Brasilian player Kaká (Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite), who is at the present point the best soccer player of the world. He is, above else, a committed evangelical Christian, who, after his soccer-playing days are over wants to be a pastor. Now after the invitation at least 20 kids came forward to talk to our conselors. Praise God for His faithfulness. And, then an unexpected turn took place. Our Brasilian Bible School student, Morena stood to the microphone and share that she personally knew Kaká, and even attended his wedding. All the kids wanted to talk to her. That evening Morena sent an email note to Kaká about the soccer-evangelism, and the world-famous player responded expressing his joy that his testimony helped some kids finding saving faith.
Volunteer TrainingAlmost 120 volunteers attended our Summer Volunteer Training Weekend between May 1-3. First time in our history it was not only for our volunteers, but, like a Camping Conference for all those who want to do camping as an evangelistic and discipleing tool. I was doing the four main sessions. The messages focused on camping as the greatest youth evangelistic tool, camping as the greatest discipleship lab, and camping as a leadership training institute. The fourth message explained the participants WOL's camping and ministry philosophy and principles. Please pray for more willing Hungarian men. On each areas of our summer ministry we need their help. Please also pray for at least 900 campers.
Family News
Baba and mama are doing well. The time is coming... it is almost here, the due date is still July 4. I think our girls will love the new little family member. They often talk to mom's belly, and whenever mom goes to see the doctor Fanni asks if the doctor will "take out the baby from mom" this time. Well, let's hope and pray that baby would find out at the right time, without complications.
After a lot of consideration, thinking, praying and asking advice, we decided to buy a home in town. Please pray as we are finalizing the deal, get a mortgage and try to move in as soon as possible (while a baby is about to born and camp is about to start).
03 April 2008
March Movements
Baptist Youth Conference in Szeged
On March 1st early in the morning we (Laci and Szandra) dropped our two sweet girls at Szandra’s parents house and left for a long day. The city of Szeged is on the southern border of
Hungary with Serbia. Laci has many nice childhood memories of Szeged at his grandparents' house. We were representing Word of Life Ministries at this youth coference and got to talk to many of them in person. Laci also showed them a short WOL Hungary dvd and shared about some of the ministry opportunities for the upcoming camp season. Some of the questions were related to the Bible School and some for the Born Again for a Living Hope Drama presentation. All in all it was a great day and by the time we got back to grandma’s and grandpa’s house it was pretty dark and quite in there.
Next Sunday Laci preached in our church, Reformed Church ins the city of Nagykáta. The passage was from Ephesians 2 as he continued what the pastor started the previous weeks. We are so thankful and blessed for the developing friendships in our new church. The pastor and his wife are young and have two small children. Fanni gets very sad if for some reason (such as sick kids) we can’t go on a Sunday morning. One time she even said: Is today church day? (I answered: yes) Mommy, I am not sick (she was). Can we go now? The same Sunday when Laci preached in our church in Hungary our beloved Redeemer Bible Church from Dallas called us through skype and included us in their morning service. What a blessing it was to us to hear them sing, pray, read Scripture etc.
March the 10th we were hosting our dear DTS proffessor and his wife dr and mrs Toussaint for the day and Laci decided to take them to see the Born Again for a Living Hope Drama presentation in a state orphanage in Fót. located in the historic Károlyi castle. Laci played the main narrator, he was more than excited about it. Let me tell you why. Many years ago Szandra councelled a young girl on decision night in camp and weeks or months later she felt that she should look the girl up. We found her name and address and we kept in touch for many years. Her name is Edit and she has been to our camp many times. During the years we visited her in the orphanage several times too. Just a day or two after Laci’s visit to the orphanage we received an email from Edit. One of the teachers contacted her and told her that we asked about her. She seems very happy and has her own little family. Her little daughter’s name is: Fanni. Isn’t that special? God is amazing.
Laci had great two great evangelistic opportunities in March. Just before Easter a Christian School group from a nearby town came for a day of fun and Bible time. Laci gave a gospel message about the resurrection of Christ and an invitation. Some 30 students indicated a decision. The good thing was that right after the meeting they went into small groups, where they could make sure they understood the Gospel (1 Cor 15:3-5ff) clearly. That is more important than numbers. Thankfully they went back to an environment that supported their decisions.
Then on Good Friday and Saturday we had a very very special group here. About 14 teens and 4 helpers. The weekend was organized by a foundation that evangelizes, mentors and helps socially disadvantaged orphans (mainly gypsies) from the poorest region of Hungary. These kids are usually on their way to crime, prostitution, and eventually prison. Almost all of them smoke and they looked rather beaten up. But they needed love and they could love so much. It was a privilege and perhaps a highlight in my life to spend time with them and with their dedicated leaders. Now the leadership of that foundation worked it out with Laci that all those from the group who wanted to come to camp will do so this summer.
On March 1st early in the morning we (Laci and Szandra) dropped our two sweet girls at Szandra’s parents house and left for a long day. The city of Szeged is on the southern border of
Hungary with Serbia. Laci has many nice childhood memories of Szeged at his grandparents' house. We were representing Word of Life Ministries at this youth coference and got to talk to many of them in person. Laci also showed them a short WOL Hungary dvd and shared about some of the ministry opportunities for the upcoming camp season. Some of the questions were related to the Bible School and some for the Born Again for a Living Hope Drama presentation. All in all it was a great day and by the time we got back to grandma’s and grandpa’s house it was pretty dark and quite in there.Next Sunday Laci preached in our church, Reformed Church ins the city of Nagykáta. The passage was from Ephesians 2 as he continued what the pastor started the previous weeks. We are so thankful and blessed for the developing friendships in our new church. The pastor and his wife are young and have two small children. Fanni gets very sad if for some reason (such as sick kids) we can’t go on a Sunday morning. One time she even said: Is today church day? (I answered: yes) Mommy, I am not sick (she was). Can we go now? The same Sunday when Laci preached in our church in Hungary our beloved Redeemer Bible Church from Dallas called us through skype and included us in their morning service. What a blessing it was to us to hear them sing, pray, read Scripture etc.
March the 10th we were hosting our dear DTS proffessor and his wife dr and mrs Toussaint for the day and Laci decided to take them to see the Born Again for a Living Hope Drama presentation in a state orphanage in Fót. located in the historic Károlyi castle. Laci played the main narrator, he was more than excited about it. Let me tell you why. Many years ago Szandra councelled a young girl on decision night in camp and weeks or months later she felt that she should look the girl up. We found her name and address and we kept in touch for many years. Her name is Edit and she has been to our camp many times. During the years we visited her in the orphanage several times too. Just a day or two after Laci’s visit to the orphanage we received an email from Edit. One of the teachers contacted her and told her that we asked about her. She seems very happy and has her own little family. Her little daughter’s name is: Fanni. Isn’t that special? God is amazing.
Laci had great two great evangelistic opportunities in March. Just before Easter a Christian School group from a nearby town came for a day of fun and Bible time. Laci gave a gospel message about the resurrection of Christ and an invitation. Some 30 students indicated a decision. The good thing was that right after the meeting they went into small groups, where they could make sure they understood the Gospel (1 Cor 15:3-5ff) clearly. That is more important than numbers. Thankfully they went back to an environment that supported their decisions.
Then on Good Friday and Saturday we had a very very special group here. About 14 teens and 4 helpers. The weekend was organized by a foundation that evangelizes, mentors and helps socially disadvantaged orphans (mainly gypsies) from the poorest region of Hungary. These kids are usually on their way to crime, prostitution, and eventually prison. Almost all of them smoke and they looked rather beaten up. But they needed love and they could love so much. It was a privilege and perhaps a highlight in my life to spend time with them and with their dedicated leaders. Now the leadership of that foundation worked it out with Laci that all those from the group who wanted to come to camp will do so this summer.
29 February 2008
February? Party Time!
What can you do
during those long, cold, boring winter days? Have some people over,
visit and party! February was dedicated to having guests in our home
and we loved it.
during those long, cold, boring winter days? Have some people over,
visit and party! February was dedicated to having guests in our home
and we loved it.
First we had some
of Laci’s students over, as we usually do a couple of times a year.
Eight students came on a Friday afternoon and we had dessert and
snacks. Of course, Fanni and Luca thought that “the kids” came
just to play with them. So they kept bringing out their toys to our
visitors.
The following week
we had the guest lecturer of the Bible School over at the house. Dr. Steven Bramer
has been a good friend of ours for many years. We had the chance to
take him for to see the great synagogue in Budapest. He brought back
so many nice memories from DTS.
The weekend after
that there was a summer volunteers reunion weekend at the camp. They
had a great time with fun games, fellowship and a three part series
of teaching about the will of God. We hope and pray that they will
grow in the Lord and continue to stay faithful in their walk and
ministry for Him. We also hope to see them this coming summer again.
Hopefully their friends will join them also.
We also had Laci's
parents come and visit us for a couple of days. I guess the main
reason of their visit was to see the the grand daughters. The girls, of
course, loved every minute of it. And so did I (Szandra) as I had
somebody to talk to (my mother-in-law) all day long!
Just this last
week we took the girls to a concert right here in our town. The
major’s office organized a Hungarian traditional folk music group
to come and entertain the little children. Fanni and Luca
had a great time singing, dancing and listening. We bought a CD for them and now they keep
partying at home all the time.
The very next day
Laci and our director Alex Konya traveled to Bratislava to meet a
missionary. They planned working together and doing street evangelism in
Slovakia’s capital. There are lot’s of Hungarian
speaking people living there, and it is also a great ministry
opportunity for Englsh speaking students, as younger Slovakians
usually speak some English. In the meantime the girls at home invited
Alex’s wife Pam over for lunch to join the lonely souls. The Lord
has blessed that day too.
This past Monday
we felt we should invite someone else over and so we had one of our
staff friends the Csikos family over for dinner and some fun
fellowship. They have two boys and so the four kids together enjoyed
themselves to the last minute. That gave us, parents the chance to
have a nice after-dinner talk time.
Finally, Szandra’s
mom had her birthday on February 28. We visited, and left Fanni
at her house for two days – the perfect birthday gift – and of
course had some cake as well with other gifts.
We hope you had just as fun February
as we did. Spring is in the air here as well. One day Fanni said:
Daddy, look! Spring is here! Where? Right there, daddy! Can’t you
see it?
01 February 2008
December and January Chronicles
The month of December in our family was more than exciting. I know, you must be thinking: of course that’s what it is for all of us! In our case, on top of all the Christmas preparations we had two birthdays to celebrate and we took them seriouslyJ. Szandra just turned 30!!!!!! on December 2 and after a week of different surprises her birthday was finally over (Laci). Fanni turned 3!!! on the 25th, yes, on Christmas day. That special day also needed a lot of special attention and a lot of preparation also. After Christmas we visited family and then we spent a couple of days on vacation near the lake Balaton. The lake was frozen of course and we had snow, the girls loved it. We also saw some swans and ducks looking for food, so we took them some and the girls fed them. We had the best time just watching our kids have all the fun and their glowing faces.The major event for the first week of January was Fanni starting kindergarten. She had been talking about it all through the Fall months and she was so ready to go. The very first day we took her she said: “OK mommy, you can go home now, come pick me up later.” That was pretty sad in a way, though on the other hand I said to myself: YES!!!!!!! She still loves to go and to play with the kids. It is amazing to watch how much she learns and part of the reason is that she is in a mixed age group. They have 3 year olds 6 year olds and everything in between. They work together nicely, we have been told.
The second weekend Laci and I got to join a ministry team and go down to
The week after that Laci started to teach another course in the Bible Institute: “Introduction into Modern Missions,” followed by a Missions Conference this past weekend focusing on reaching the children with the Gospel. We really hope and pray that the students would keep their hearts warm for missions. This week Laci was busy teaching “New Testament Backgrounds,” while still working on his mission course. That meant that Tuesday through Friday he taught 4 hours every morning. I am sure he was having a wonderfully busy time since that’s the way he likes it.
Our newest family member at 19-20 weeks is growing and moving by now. Halftime!!!!!! This will be our first summer baby in the middle of camping ministry. Too bad there is no camp for 3 and a half and 1 and a half year olds … except grandma’s place. Now you know the grand plan. We would love to hear from you too. Drop us a note, we promise to read it. Answer? That’s Fanni’s job. She thinks she can read and write by now.
One last note: we are planning to build our home. The floor plans are approvedand we hope and pray to be able to start (and finish) this year. 
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