Looking At Ants

Last week while we were visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Billings, MT, we took our grandsons to the zoo. Of course, Nate, our 3 year old grandson, was excited about seeing all the animals they have there. However, when we arrived it seemed that his attention was centered on the ants he would find along the path. In fact, he would sometimes get so focused on the ants that we would almost have to shout at him to get his attention so he could see the "real" animals he came to see.

Nate and the ants

As I was observing Nate and the ants, I couldn't help but think about our relationship with God. How often do we get distracted by the little things in life that we miss the "real" things God has for us? How many times do we become so focused on trivial matters that God has to "shout" to get our attention so that we can see what He is doing? How many miracles, blessings or other things of eternal importance have we missed because we had taken our eyes off God and focused on the temporal?

Especially as we consider our world today, I think it is essential that we examine where we are focusing our attention. "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Col. 3:1-2)

More Fun with Grandkids

We've enjoyed our time with our grandsons and their parents the past week. Before we leave, here are a few more pictures. Isaac loved climbing up and sliding down the little slide at the play place we went to. Nathan spent most of his time running and jumping with the other kids.

Saturday we went fishing at a lake a little over an hour from Billings. Nate "caught" five little fish and carefully put them back into the water after Daddy took the hooks out.

Isaac enjoyed his time at the lake, too. He spent most of his time eating snacks and getting dirty.

Sunday we celebrated Isaac's first birthday and Mark and Nadine's graduation from Level 1 INSTE. We had a great time with family and friends.

First Services

The Open Bible churches in Billings and Worden, Montana, blessed us this weekend by allowing us to share with them what God has been doing in Hungary during our first missionary term. These wonderful churches and their pastors Ron and Beth Rager have supported us with their prayers and gifts the past three years. They received us with warmth and love. Thank you Pastor Ron and Beth and friends!

More Fun with Grandkids

Here is a little taste of our time with our grandkids. We've been a lot of places, but one of our first stops was McDonald's where Nate enjoyed an ice cream cone. (Grandma had to help him finish eating it.)
We played on the swingset in the back yard, read books, went to church, watched DVD's and did other things including going to the other grandma and grandpa's farm to see the baby ducks and kitties.

On the day we visited the zoo, there was a lot of walking, and Grandma and Papa were just as tired as the little ones at the end of the day.

We not only spent time with the grandkids, Mike also enjoyed riding our son's motorcycle. Next week we will continue preparing for visiting churches. That may be a little less tiring than trying to keep up with two little boys. Now we know why God gives babies to young people!

Grandchilding

We made it safely to Billings, Montana on Saturday evening. The trip was long but uneventful, thank the Lord! We are still somewhat jet lagged, but not badly.

We were able to attend church Sunday morning at the Billings Open Bible Center. It was great to worship with our son and his family and our friends from Billings.

Since we left our laptop in Debrecen for use in the INSTE office there, we went to Best Buy here and were able to get some good advice from the geeks there on buying one for ourselves. So we are spending time working on getting the new computer set up.

We have been blessed by our son and his wife loaning us a car for our time in the US! That helps so much. Plus, Nadine's parents are giving us a cell phone for our time here. May the Lord bless all of them!

We are spending as much time as possible "grandchilding." The Hungarian language has a way of turning nouns into verbs. One of our favorite examples is unoka (grandchild) to unokazik (grandchilding). And that's exactly what we are doing--spending time with two of our favorite little boys in the whole world.

Nancy with Isaac and Nathan

Offline

Tomorrow we head off to the airport in Budapest to begin our year-long furlough. We are returning to the US to raise funds for the ministry here in Hungary, and to visit family, etc. This fall we begin our journey visiting Open Bible churches in California. Next spring we will be in the Central Region (the states from Minnesota/Wisconsin to Texas). Pray for us as we travel and that we will not only raise the funds we need, but that we will also be a blessing to the pastors and churches we visit.

Since we will be gone for a year, we will be discontinuing our internet/cable service, so this afternoon we have to return the connection boxes and cables to the company. Therefore, we will be out of service for a few days until we arrive in the US. See you in the States!

Grandma Practice

We had invited Misha Tovtin and his family over for some hamburgers (American-style) last Sunday afternoon to say "Thank you" for the help they have been in the INSTE office, and to go over some details of what to do while we are gone. (Misha will be running the INSTE office while we are on furlough in the US). Unfortunately, little Jonatán was not feeling well so he and his mom, Alexa, had to stay home, but Misha brought the girls over because they were so excited about going to Mike bacsi and Nancy néni's house (this basically means uncle Mike and aunt Nancy). After we ate, Misha and I went into the office to finalize some details. While we were working, what was Nancy doing? Grandma practice! We saw them out our window playing basketball with Nancy being the basket.

Anasztázia "shooting hoops" with Nancy néni

Veronika's turn

Pancake Supper

How do you say thank you to kind neighbors? You invite them over for American pancakes. Monday we invited Anna, Éva and István to enjoy this American specialty with bacon, ham, fried eggs and various toppings. They said it was all delicious, although eating sweet pancakes and syrup with salty bacon and eggs was a little strange for them. What got the most comments was the over easy eggs. They had never seen eggs cooked that way.

Later Nancy was able to share her testimony in Hungarian (written out ahead of time). It is still difficult to talk about spiritual things in Hungarian, but the Holy Spirit knows no language barriers. We are so thankful that Jesus took the punishment all of us deserve and that anyone who puts their faith in Him can live a life pleasing to God and enjoy eternity with Him.

International Church Visit

Sunday were invited to minister at the International Church here in Debrecen. This was the first time we had been back to the church since they changed locations (from a small basement room to a room in the Arany Bika Hotel downtown) changed their name (to The House) and changed service times (from Saturday afternoons to Sunday mornings). The International Church was a huge blessing to us when we moved to Hungary. They helped us through the transition to a new country by allowing us to enjoy worship in English and by welcoming us with open arms. We enjoyed being able to visit them once again.
Sunday we also enjoyed a treat as the Nigerian college students led the worship. Wow! That was so uplifting!

Tent Evangelism

The Open Bible Churches in Hungary conducted tent evangelism services in Nyiregyháza last week. There were, among other activities, children's meetings in the mornings, games and crafts for children and teens in the afternoons, and evangelism services in the evenings. The services included mime, dance, drama and special music as well as special sermons on topics like "Who is Jesus Today?" Is there a Spiritual World?" and "Stop! I Want to Talk with You." Mike preached on "Can We Trust in God?" on Saturday evening.



The tent was set up on the playground of an elementary school located in the middle of a large apartment complex. We were all excited to see people accept Christ as Savior nearly every night! God gave wonderful weather during the meetings. It stormed in Debrecen just 50 kilometers away, but there was no rain in the evenings in Nyiregyháza. We praise the Lord for his blessings on these meetings.

Side note: When Misha Tovtin, our translator, rode with us to Nyiregyháza on Saturday, he used the GPS on his phone to help us find a good route to the tent. He switched the voice on the GPS to English "Surfer Dude." We all laughed every time it said, "Hang a right, dude!"

Translator's Camp

We were able to help at a translator's camp twice this week. Eva Kriszt is a fantastic translator who, with her brother Istvan, has the past few years put together training sessions to share their gift and knowledge with other Hungarians who would like to translate for English speakers in churches. Of course, to be able to give inexperienced translators opportunities to practice and develop their skills, they need native English speakers to give sermons, teachings and testimonies. We had a great time sharing with these students and afterwards sitting in on their discussions on how to translate certain words and phrases.

We really appreciate the hard work of those who have translated for us in the various places we have ministered. It is a difficult job that requires mastery of both languages and a very quick mind. Someday we will be able to speak without translators, but we especially want to thank all those who have translated for us. God bless you! And may God bless these new translators, too!