Giving and Receiving Life

Sunday we were privileged to be able to minister in song and the Word at Élet (Life) Church here in Debrecen. These wonderful people love the Lord and worship Him wholeheartedly. We enjoyed being able to share in their time of honoring their INSTE students. They prayed especially for us as we return to the US for one year that the Lord will meet our needs and the needs of INSTE in Hungary. The Lord ministered powerfully through us. Pastor Jozsef said afterward that he had preached a similar word just two weeks before! Wow! We were so involved in the service, though, that we forgot to take pictures. Oops!

Read Carefully!

Once we knew on what date we were returning to the US, we went ahead and purchased our plane tickets. We checked on the internet and looked at various options. The cheapest one we found took us through Warsaw, Poland. We were to leave Budapest on Friday, July 16 at 7:40 pm and arrive in Warsaw 8:50 pm. Then, we were scheduled to leave Warsaw at 12:10 to leave for the US. That looked like a good option- cheap and good connections, so we purchased the tickets.

At least we thought it was the best option! Just recently we looked at our schedule again and we realized we did not read the itineration carefully enough. We were not going to leave Warsaw at 12:10 Friday night, we were leaving Warsaw at 12:10 noon on Saturday. That is 15 hours in the airport! Well, we decided that we were not going to spend all night in the airport, so we are planning on getting a room at a nearby hotel in order to get some rest before the long flight home. So, what money we tried to save on the airline tickets is now going for a hotel room. Oh well, maybe we'll get a chance to see a little bit of Poland.

INSTE Graduation

Today at Shalom Open Bible Church in Debrecen, we celebrated the graduation of six students from Level One INSTE.

Mike preached from Mark 6:1-6 and talked about how the people of Nazareth did not see many miracles done in their city because they did not recognize who Jesus was and did not honor Him. We also need to recognize how great God really is and honor Him accordingly. One way we do that is by seeing the Spirit of God in each other and honoring (valuing) one another. (Thanks again to Misha Tovtin for doing such a great job in translating for me.)

After the message, Pastor Gulyás had people come forward who needed prayer. He then had the INSTE students minister to the people. They got to put into practice what they had learned in the classes.


We then presented the certificates to each of the students and prayed over them.

The INSTE group (back row) Zoli Ács; Obed Gulyás; Zoli Grepli; Pastor Misi Gulyás. (front row) Mike Juntunen; Sándor Bereczki; Judit Szabó; Tünde Johanics; .

View from My Chair

Every morning I (Nancy) look out on this view as I am spending time alone with God. I will miss this view during the year we are in the United States, but praise the Lord, I can spend time alone with Him anywhere!

And the Goodbyes Begin

Already this week we have said goodbye to three groups of people. Yesterday we went to Budapest to minister in the Örömhir Misszió church. We have ministered there occasionally the past couple of years and these fine people have always been open to the Lord when we have been there. A group from the church is also studying INSTE. These dear people wanted us to come "one last time" before we left for furlough in the United States, so we were able to be there yesterday and said goodbye to them for a year.
Two of our neighbors gave us farewell parties as well. Saturday, Anna invited us and a few other friends to her home for a barbecue. Her daughter works in Budapest and wanted to be able to wish us well while she was in town this weekend.
Our neighbors Éva and István invited us to their house on Monday. They were so sad that we had to be gone for a year and were leaving in a week. "What?" we said. "We're not leaving for five weeks!" Everyone had a good laugh. Apparently, the months of June and July (június and július) were misunderstood in earlier conversations!

Kánikula!

The weather here in Debrecen has changed drastically. We finally got out of the pattern of cool, rainy weather and are now experiencing kánikula, or a heat wave. The kánikula occurs when strong southerly winds drive heat from the Mediterranean into Hungary. We cannot complain, though, because everyone has been praying for the rain to stop. Almost 20 percent of Hungary has experienced flood damage and are waiting for the water levels to return to normal. Thankfully, here in Debrecen we are on high ground without a major river nearby. We are very proud of the churches who are doing their best to help the flood victims. And we thank the Lord that the rain finally stopped.

Tovtin Family

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch yesterday with the Tovtin family. Alexa and the children loan us their husband and dad to translate when Mike preaches, often taking him away from them for an entire Sunday. So, we all went to the girls' favorite place, McDonald's! In the picture are Misha, Alexa, Jonatan, Anasztasia and Veronika. We wanted to thank them all for their help. Besides, it was fun grandparent practice!

Hot Chocolate!

Tünde and I (Nancy) have been meeting for the past few weeks to practice her English and my Hungarian. Tünde is a university student and also an INSTE student. We have a great time together talking (slowly) about the Lord and what He is doing in our lives. Since Tünde's birthday is this week, we went to the Mozart Coffee House and had a fabulous hot chocolate. This is not your ordinary hot chocolate--this one is thick and rich, topped with lots of real whipped cream! Yummy!