Gávavencsellő Visit

Mike was invited to preach at the Open Bible Church in the village of Gávavencsellő yesterday.  It was an exciting day and we enjoyed being with our friends in "Gáva."

Part of the congregation

We were happy that Pastor Sándor Bereczki went with us.  He travels from Debrecen every other week and in the off weeks, the service is led by a lay pastor.

Mihály Tovtin, our interpreter went with us, too.  We really appreciate Misha's help, his humility and his skill.

During the service, two INSTE students were congratulated for the good grades they received for the Discipleship II Course. Another highlight was the testimony of a young lady who praised God that she was not bothered any more by evil spirits in her dreams.  The pastor explained that she is a former fortune teller who left that life and became a follower of Jesus Christ in August.  God has been delivering her step by step from her former life and her testimony was a great victory.

We have been visiting this church from time to time since it started just a few years ago.  It is wonderful to see how they have grown in numbers and in the Lord.

INSTE in Uszka

Sunday we visited the INSTE group in Uszka primarily for the purpose of taping video for new promotional material and for Mike to preach in the afternoon service, but we were all encouraged through the afternoon's events. We were late arriving in Uszka due to an accident investigation that blocked the road, causing us to take a detour that cost us some time, so the INSTE class started a little late.

Norbert Kiss is a talented photographer from the Open Bible Church in Debrecen who is putting the promotional video together for us. 

 The INSTE class began with a time of praise and prayer.

They took a test over the weekly lesson then corrected their tests together, going over the questions one by one.

This was followed by a lively discussion of the week's lesson interspersed with times of laughter.  The discussion had to end early since church was about to start.  The service started with a worship dance performed by four talented middle-school girls.  The worship service was a mixture of beautifully integrated Hill Song and Gypsy worship music.  Then Mike preached with the help of his interpreter Misha Tovtin on the miracles of the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on the water. 

Before the start of the service, pastor's wife Erika Kovacs (pictured above in the center on the worship team) excitedly showed me her INSTE book filled with notes and highlights.  She wanted to let me know how much she enjoys studying INSTE and how carefully she studies each lesson and writes daily in her spiritual diary.  She said that even though they are only on the eleventh lesson, she has already learned all fourteen memory verses and even wakes up at night thinking about the Word.  What is especially heartwarming about Erika's story is that she was very nervous about studying INSTE in the beginning and only signed up at the insistence of her husband and son.  Other members of the group also commented on how happy they are with INSTE and how they are all growing in the Lord.

Fun with Hungarian

Speaking a foreign language can be frustrating, but sometimes it can be fun.  For example, the word order in Hungarian is interesting.  Sometimes when we translate word-for-word into English it ends up sounding like Yoda from Star Wars.  To say you must leave, you would say, "Mennem kell."  Literally translated that would be "Go I must."  Or if you want to say what you are doing, you might say, "Teát iszom" or "Gyümölcsöt eszem." Word-for-word that would be "Tea I drink" and "Fruit I eat." Then there's "Esik az eső."  "Falls the rain." So, sometimes when we whisper to each other and laugh, it's because we are reminded we sound like Yoda.  Hungarian can be fun.

Why Hungarian?

According to Wikipedia, there are approximately 13 million native speakers of Hungarian.  That makes it 73rd on the list of top languages by population.  That may seem pretty far down the list since English is number 3, but Hungarian is spoken by more people than Greek or Czech or Finnish.  But still, 13 million is only 0.19 percent of the world's population, so why would it be important to provide INSTE in Hungarian to make disciples of Christ and train church leaders? Some Hungarians speak English.  Why not disciple them in English?

For one thing, 13 million people is a lot of people no matter how you look at it. For another, it may be possible to learn a subject in a language that is not your mother tongue, but it is not easy.  Besides that, spiritual matters are matters of the heart, not just the mind.  When we pray and when we talk about spiritual things, we connect better if we use our native language.  INSTE is a wonderful way to train followers of Christ and church leaders right in the local church.  Our goal is to provide INSTE to as many people as possible, including the awesome Hungarians.  We thank God for giving us this opportunity and for the many disciples that have already been made in Hungary.