INSTE Graduation Muzsaly

Yesterday we celebrated the first Hungarian INSTE Level One graduation in Muzsaly, Ukraine. And what a celebration it was! These four faithful students were finally able to be recognized for completing what they began in 2006! That is when they began to study what should have taken two years to complete. But just after they started, the INSTE program in Hungarian was suspended for one and a half years. But soon as INSTE resumed operations, these persistent students began again and continued even after taking on extra responsibilties in their church after they lost their pastor. We're proud of you, András, Veronika, Laszlo and Kinga! God bless you and your church!

On The Road Again

Salom Church in Muzsaly, Ukraine

This Sunday we will be leaving for Muzsaly, Ukraine to present certificates to four students who have finished INSTE Level One. Muzsaly is just across the border from Hungary, and should only take about 2 hours to drive there. However, we have also had times where it has taken two hours just to get through the checkpoint at the border, usually because of the long lines. Therefore, for that reason, plus the fact that they are an hour ahead of us, we need to leave at 6 am from Debrecen in order to arrive in time for the service.

Pray for us for safe travel, an easy and quick crossing of the border, and for Mike as he ministers to the church that morning.

Hungarian INSTE group in Holland

Nancy and I were able to spend last weekend with our new INSTE group in Gouda, Netherlands. This is a group of young Hungarians who have traveled to Holland to find jobs. Once there, they began a church to minister to other Hungarians living in the area. They are now using INSTE as a way of helping their people grow spiritually and to develop leaders in their church.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with these young couples, and are impressed with the love and commitment they had for God and for each other. And we pray that God will abundantly bless their ministry!

INSTE group (two members were not able to attend this meeting)

Studying together

From the Newest to the Oldest

Tomorrow we will be driving to Gouda, Netherlands to meet with our newest INSTE group. The church there is comprised of Hungarians who have moved to the Netherlands in order to find work. The beginning of this year they began using INSTE in the church, and now we are traveling there to visit with them and minister to this young congregation.

The following weekend we will be heading the other direction, but not as far, to Muzsaly, Ukraine. Again, we have a Hungarian congregation outside of Hungary that has been studying INSTE. This group, though, is one of the first groups to begin the INSTE program, and we will be going there to present certificates to the four students who have finished Level One. We praise God for what He is doing to build up His church in Hungary!

Keep us in your prayers as we travel the next two weekends.

Faithful Servant

Nancy & János bácsi

In order to continue to build relationships with the pastors, we have been visiting some of the churches in Debrecen. Today we attended the Free Christian Church service. When we arrived we were glad to see an old friend, János Végh. We first met János bácsi at the International Church of Debrecen (bácsi (bah-chee) means "uncle" in Hungarian and is used as a term of endearment for older men. The children in church call me Mike bácsi.). János bácsi is 91 years old and has served the Lord most of his life. We have heard him testify several times of what God has done in his life over the years, and are always amazed and encouraged by the miracles he has experienced. He is a real prayer warrior, and we were pleased when he grabbed us in a big hug and began to pray for us both. We couldn't understand every thing he said, but we could feel the presence of God on us as he prayed. He then told us that the Monday after Pentecost Sunday he will be traveling to another city to minister to and pray for a Catholic priest, a Greek Catholic priest, and someone from another denomination. Even at 91 he continues to serve God!

We have met several old saints of God like János bácsi who have served the Lord faithfully over the years, and have prayed fervently for revival to come to Hungary. I believe that we are beginning to see the fruit of those prayers! We praise God for and give honor to these precious saints of God!

INSTE Books Updated

Éva hugs her younger daughter

From time to time, the author of the INSTE books, Dr. Leona Venditti (who also happens to be Nancy's sister) makes a few changes in the INSTE books or "tweaks" them bit. That means that the books in all 13 languages need to be updated. We asked Éva Kriszt not only to make these changes, but also to go through all four of the First Level books and make corrections to errors found by the first groups of INSTE students. The primary problem was that the translation didn't sound "Hungarian" enough. This is not an unusual problem in translations of any kind, which is why a second translator (or a third) usually reviews and refines the work of the first translator. This week Éva completed the last book and tests! Thank you Éva! You're the best!

New Parliament

This Friday, a new Parliament will be seated in Budapest. This is a historic Parliament because it is the first time one party has had a super majority. That means that they have enough of a majority to be able to pass any legislation without the help of any of the other parties. In addition, they have the potential to change the constitution. This gives the Fidesz party a great deal of power. We know, of course, that with great power comes great responsibility and great temptation. Most of the believers we have talked with are pleased that the Fidesz party won the election and are hoping that this marks a turning point for the country. We are joining with the Hungarian believers in praying for the new leaders that God will direct them, help them lead with integrity, and give them strategies that will bring God glory and will bless the country.

Lessons Learned

As we make preparations to return to the US for a year of furlough, we look back on our first two and a half years in Hungary and realize that we have learned, or are still in the process of learning, several things.

We have learned that making mistakes is not fatal. We have made at least half a million mistakes trying to understand and to speak Hungarian. We have mistakenly taken the wrong bus. We have greeted people incorrectly. We have gone to church expecting there to be a service when there wasn't one. We have dressed down when everyone else dressed up. We have bought things that we expected to be one thing and turned out to be another. And we survived. And as a bonus, we learned from most of our mistakes. Mistakes are not fatal.

We have learned that relationships are important. Every one of the INSTE groups that have been started have come out of relationships we have built or through relationships built by people we are close to. Our good relationship with our landlady has made our living situation here a comfortable one. We even were able to rent our apartment/office because of relationships of people in the church. The effectiveness of our public and private ministry has improved as relationships have been built with those we minister to.

We have learned that relationships take time and that people here in Hungary take time to build relationships. We have learned to take the time to have tea with our landlady when we pay the rent. We take the time to minister in churches when we are asked. We are learning not to rush off after having a meal with someone because everyone likes to stay and talk or just be together. It is not easy to leave our American busy-ness and spend time relaxing with others, but relationships take time.

We have learned many other things. Maybe we'll share more of them later.

Brick by Brick

A few months after we arrived in Hungary, we took this picture of a house under construction on our street. It has now been about two years and it now looks like this:

The house is much farther along, but still not finished. The roof is on, the windows are in, a new fence is up, but much work still needs to be done inside and out.

This is a picture of where we are in the INSTE work and in our language study. We are able to see a lot of progress, but we are still far from accomplishing what we set out to do. We are grateful to have God's help and encouraging friends to keep us moving along. Thank you!

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day in Hungary. The children presented a little program in church in honor of mothers including giving flowers like these to all the mothers present.

Each of the children recited a poem about mothers and they sang two songs together.

Even little 3-year-old Veronika said her poem boldly and clearly. Ügyesek vagytok, gyerekek! Good job, kids!

May Day 2010

Today we enjoyed a beautiful day outdoors at the annual Shalom Open Bible Church May Day picnic.
The fellowship was great and there was a short time of worship, too.

Of course, as always there was wonderful food prepared by some fabulous cooks and served out in the open.

We had pork stew served over pasta, bread, corn on the cob, pickled vegetables and cookies. Everything was very tasty including the spicy pork stew seasoned with a lot of paprika.