Please Pray for the Inste Conference

We are busy preparing for the annual Hungarian Inste Conference to be held this Friday and Saturday here in Debrecen at the Élet Gyülekezet (Life Church).  So many people have been helping us including the Salvation Army and their pastor who are cooking the lunch, the Life Church and their pastor and staff who are providing the facilities and other details, our speakers Jim and Kris Beaird who are flying in from Florida, and the interpreters.  Please pray for all these people and others who are working hard to make the Conference a success.  Thank you!

Leader Retreat

This past Thursday through Saturday was the Hungarian Open Bible Leaders Retreat.  Mike was the main speaker and presented three sessions. 

Misha Tovtin interpreting Mike's teaching

Mike had been asked to teach on how to prepare a sermon, so he began with The Preacher's Character (as a pastor, as an example and as a humble servant), then spoke on The Preacher's Goal (equipping, building up and influencing by speaking the truth in love) and ended with The Preacher's Message (personally maintaining spiritual disciplines, preparing a message, and applying the message). This was challenging to each of us and we look forward to hearing reports of fruit from our time together.

We also enjoyed times of worship together including a special Lord's Supper together on Maundy Thursday.

We all stayed together in three little buildings, enjoying each other's company, playing games, relaxing and eating together. 

One of the churches had a change of pastor as the former pastor was appointed to an overseer position, so we prayed for the new pastors and the new overseer.  May the Lord bless each of the leaders of the Open Bible Churches in Hungary.  We love them all.

Today we wish you all a Happy Easter.  It is still Easter here in Hungary as Easter is celebrated for two days here.  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Tulips Are Up!

The tulips are blossoming in our garden!  This is something to celebrate since neither one of us has a lot of success with plants, but these tulips came up and are blooming in the tiny plot of dirt that is ours to use in the yard of our apartment building.  The flowers in front were planted last winter and the ones in the back were planted a year before and came up on their own this year.  Thanks, Misha Tovtin, for the gift!

Not only did Misha give us the tulip bulbs, he also interpreted for Mike yesterday when he preached here in Debrecen at the Open Bible Church.  It was a wonderful service followed by a meal of grilled hamburgers for everyone.  Yum!

Please pray for Mike and Misha this week as Mike is teaching three sessions at the Open Bible Leader's Retreat and Misha is interpreting for him. 

Back to Debrecen

Vase and flowers, fruit bowl and jewelry box--a gift from the Gherla Open Bible Church

Last Friday with the help of Simi, the assistant pastor in Gherla, we loaded up our car and then headed back to Hungary from Romania.  But before we left, at the Thursday evening service, we were surprised when the church presented us with a gift for spending a month with them. It was kind of the church to show their appreciation and we really enjoyed being with our friends in Gherla for the month of March. 

We arrived back home Friday and are settling in, taking care of details that we left undone while we were gone.  April will be a busy month for us, but it is good to be home.