Where in the World are the Juntunens?

We had a wonderfully blessed time at convention last week.  We'll take some time to tell about it later.  Suffice it to say we were challenged by the Lord and refreshed at the same time.

Today we flew to beautiful Billings, Montana to visit Mark, Nadine and Nate, our middle son and his family.  Right now 2-year-old Nate is taking a much-needed nap, but the moment he wakes up, we will resume spoiling him!

Eat, Meet, Greet

We are right in the middle of a busy time meeting friends, encouragers and supporters, learning a lot at a seminar about traveling safely abroad, and eating more than we should. Why is it when you get together with people you love, you spend a lot of time eating? It is great, though, being able to hear from people who are following our progress in Hungary and who let us know that they pray for us regularly. We couldn't accomplish anything without their support.

We will be in meetings through the weekend and may not have time to update the blog. Hopefully when we do, we will have pictures, too.

Arrived in the US

After 20 hours of travel, we arrived safely Friday evening in the US. It's great to be back and see family and friends. Today (Sunday) and yesterday we have been spending time with our sons Paul and Matt and their wives in Austin, Minnesota. We had a great time at church this morning, too, seeing old friends and being able to share what God has been doing in our lives and in Hungary the past couple of years. How generous God has been with us to give us such a wonderful family and great friends! And to think, we now have friends around the world! We are so rich!
Tomorrow we leave for Arkansas to get in a little golf (Mike) and shopping (Nancy) before the Travel Safety Seminar begins.

Busy Summer

We have a busy schedule for the next couple of months. On Friday we are heading for the US. We will be attending a safety seminar for missionaries followed by the Open Bible Churches National Convention in Bentonville, Arkansas. We are looking forward to seeing fellow missionaries, pastors, delegates and so many other friends. While we are in the States, we will take a few days of vacation and spend a little time with our kids and our grandson. Mike also plans to get in a couple games of golf!
We'll be coming back to Hungary on July 7, accompanied by Nancy's niece's daughter Samantha. Sammy is a delightful teenager who feels that God has called her to be a missionary. Sammy will spend about a week and a half with us getting a little taste of what being a missionary is like. We have all sorts of projects lined up for her to help us with! Then for two weeks Sammy will work with a missionary couple in a nearby village who run a sports program for orphan kids.
On July 19 we begin another four weeks of intensive language training. This four week course includes six language class hours every week day, pronounciation lessons, and lectures. Weekends include Hungarian history and culture excursions.
We are praying that this time will be beneficial to us, to those we will be with and especially to the Kingdom of God. Thank you for agreeing with us in prayer.

We Love INSTE!

Most of the INSTE groups are finishing up the spring semester and have taken their final test. We have spoken with several students and when we ask them how INSTE is going their first response is, "hard", but then they always add how much INSTE has blessed them. We often hear them conclude the conversation by saying, "We love INSTE!"

We have asked several people to share some testimonies of what INSTE has done for them. Below are some excerpts from the testimonies of students from the Shalom Open Bible church in Debrecen.

Zoli Ács and Obed Gulyás

"INSTE changed my life. It prepared me for ministry... INSTE helped me to understand God's calling in my life and to find my ministry." Zoli Ács

Left to right in the picture: László Grepli, Valika Grepli, Tünde Johanics, Károly Tardi

"The Holy Spirit filled me, I started to speak in tongues- it was a wonderful gift of God. With other INSTE students we got to know each other, we learned to speak the truth in love, our relationship grew and we found answers to all the questions." László Grepli

"When the Bible school started, it helped me to forget that I am a pensioner (retired) and all I have to do is cooking and washing the dishes... I am grateful for my (prayer) partner's comments that built me up, our Pastor's... willingness to explain the Bible verse so we could understand it better, little by little and day by day we tried to live our lives according to His word, and to pray that God would move the obstacles." Valika Grepli

We praise God for the work that He is doing in the lives of all the students involved in INSTE. And, we pray that INSTE will have a vital part in strengthening the church as well as raising up leaders who will become evangelists, pastors and church leaders throughout Hungary.

Zoli and Dori's Wedding

We were privileged this afternoon to attend the civil ceremony wedding of our friends Zoli and Dori Ács here in Debrecen. We will be in the US when their church ceremony takes place in two weeks, so the happy couple invited us to be among the few family and friends who witnessed their civil ceremony today.
Hungarians usually have two ceremonies for weddings on the same day. The first is the civil ceremony in a nice room in the city hall. There a city official conducts a ten to fifteen minute ceremony that includes a declaration of a desire to marry the other person, an exchange of rings, and the signing of the official book. Following that ceremony, a church wedding takes place followed by a reception.
Since Zoli and Dori will be married by the pastor in an outdoor service that is out of town, it worked best for them to separate the two ceremonies by a couple of weeks. They asked that we pray for good weather for their wedding. God bless your marriage, Zoli and Dori!
We just had to include a picture of Dori and her sweet grandmother. What lovely people!

That's the story I made up

We are to the point now that we are understanding more and more of what is being said around us. Last night in church, for example, both of us were able to follow almost everything in the service! Praise the Lord!
That's not always the case, though. Most of the time we understand maybe half of what is said. That's where our new game comes in. It's kind of like those games where you make a list of names, colors, animals, etc., and then plug them into the blanks of a story in the correct order. Many times the stories that result are hilarious or even strange.
Sometimes after church or after listening to something on television, we'll discuss what was said. One of us will go into a long explanation and the other will say, where did you get that? The response is, that's the story I made up! Sometimes we're right and sometimes we're wrong, but it makes it fun when we fill in the blanks with our own imagination.

Conservatives in Office

The results of the European Parliament elections were surprising to many people. Those elected to office were overwhelmingly conservative and right wing. Even here in Hungary, the voters decided to replace liberal representatives with more conservative ones. It is very interesting, but not knowing much about how the European Parliament works, we don't know how this will impact Hungary or the Continent. We do appreciate your prayers, though, and are looking forward to the perfect government--when Jesus Christ Himself returns and rules and reigns over all the earth!

Elections Tomorrow

Last week we received a couple of interesting phone calls. Both of them began with recorded voices saying something like this in Hungarian, "Hello, I am So-and-So with Such-and Such political party asking for your vote to be your representative to the European Union Parliament." Wow, I thought campaigners only interrupted people's days in America! But, this will soon be over.

Tomorrow, Sunday June 7, Hungarians will be voting for their representatives to the European Union Parliament. The past month we have seen election posters and billboards everywhere, and have received flyers in the mailbox in addition to receiving automated phone calls at home. We cannot vote, of course, but we are praying for God's direction in this election. The results here and in the other EU countries could affect all of Europe and even the world. We ask You, Lord, not only to direct in these elections, but to send a mighty revival to the entire continent. Amen.

License Quest Final Update

I got my Hungarian driver's license!!!! In all the busy-ness of having family here the past couple of weeks, I forgot to let everyone know that I (Nancy) received my official Hungarian driver's license. It arrived just in time to drive visitors to great places in Hungary. And not only is this license good in Hungary, it is good throughout Europe! Thank you to everyone who prayed for me. And all praise and thanks to the Lord!

Visit with Paul and Kate

We were so happy to have our son Paul and daughter-in-law Kate visit us last week. We took a week of vacation so we could have fun together. The time was packed with visiting, eating and sightseeing. (The picture above is Paul and Kate at the Nine-Arch Bridge at Hortobagy.) We didn't sit around much, either. Kate wore her pedometer and calculated that the two days we spent in Budapest we walked a total of 11 miles! Hopefully Paul and Kate had as much fun being here as we had having them with us. It was great!
Paul and Kate are youth pastors at the Living Bible Church in Austin, Minnesota. They have been married just one and a half years but have dozens of kids (in the youth group, that is!).