Worship Concert

The 16th Annual Worship School was held here in Debrecen last week.  We enjoyed going to an evening worship session on Tuesday and the final worship concert on Friday.  This school is led by Peter Lakatos, pastor of the Debrecen Free Christian Church and is a wonderful gift to the body of Christ in Hungary.  Each year hundreds are instructed in all things pertaining to leading worship from singing and various instruments to technical matters and many other areas.  A school of prophecy is conducted parallel to the worship school.  New songs are introduced, both original Hungarian songs and those translated from English. An added bonus is that it brings the body of Christ together in worship each evening.  The speaker Friday evening was Sharon Stone, a prophet from the United States, who shared a wonderful prophecy God gave her concerning Hungary. We are humbled to be able to work in Hungary at a time when God is moving in awesome ways.

Friday's concert was held in Debrecen's largest auditorium.

Some more of Friday's crowd at the concert

Ábrahám csillagai

Last weekend the Open Bible Church in Nyiregyháza performed the new musical Ábrahám csillagai (Abraham's Stars).  Some of the youth from Debrecen also took part in the production.  The story, written and directed by Livia Német, one of the leaders of the church, is the story of Abraham from the Bible and was touching and well done.

The performances were held in the church yard on Thursday through Saturday evenings.  The youth went out in the city starting on Monday and distributed 7,000 flyers, personally inviting everyone they saw. Several people came to the performances as a result of their efforts. The weather forecasts, however, were not favorable with rain and wind predicted for all three days of the play.  They all prayed together, however, and even though it rained mornings and afternoons, by 6 pm each day the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and the wind died down.  God answered their prayers.

Abraham with Lot and his family travel to Canaan

Pharaoh sees the beautiful Sarah and wants her for his harem

Sarah with her promised son, Isaac

Abraham sending Ishmael away

Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac

Dancers indicating how Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross

The cast on stage

English Camp

Last week I (Nancy) participated in an English camp here in Debrecen.  The week before, I got a message from Mirjam, one of our former Hungarian tutors, who said her church was putting on a week-long English camp for teenagers, but one of the teachers who was to come from America had to cancel at the last minute.  They needed a native speaker to lead a group of girls.  Could I help?  After prayer and talking with Mike, I said yes.

The day camp was held in a local high school and twenty teenagers attended.  A South African couple, Bruce and Shirley, who pastor an international church in Switzerland were the other native English speakers who led the two other groups. Five local Hungarians organized and ran the camp and provided interpretation in the sessions. Shirley is a retired teacher and she prepared the materials for the class times.

Mirjam leading "My Lighthouse" a song we sang together every day.

On the left is Abigél, one of my students, her friend and two other students from my group

 We had three class sessions each day, concentrating mainly on comprehension, vocabulary and speaking.  The theme was extreme sports which is neither my area of expertise nor my interest, but we had a good time interacting with the students and learning.  There were organized sports each day plus plenty of free time for the students.

The best part was that we were able to share the gospel with the students.  Every day began with a clip from a Christian movie followed by a devotional discussion.  Then at the end of the movie we shared the plan of salvation and our own stories.  The students were from various backgrounds, most of them unchurched, but they were all respectful and attentive even during the spiritual discussions.

I was very happy to be able to help out at the camp and enjoyed getting to know the students and the other adults.  I pray that the truth from the Word of God that was shared will go deep into each student's heart and will change their lives.