Our Hungary team!
Our Staff
Our mission trip to Hungary was great!! Thank you so much for praying for our team. I was super proud of the way our students stepped out and served and loved well! I thought our team meshed well together.
A brief rundown...
We got into Mikepercs late Saturday night and woke up for church on Sunday morning. Half of our team attended the local Reformed Church and the other half attended a Calvary Chapel in the nearby, larger town of Debrecen. Afterwards, both groups met up for lunch and a meeting with those who wrote the English Camp curriculum.
On Monday morning, camp started. There were more teenagers than expected, which was really encouraging to the local missionaries. I guess this is an age group that doesn't attend much, so to have so many come out was wonderful. After camp and lunch, we rested a short time before heading out to the sports field for afternoon camp. We played baseball, American football, soccer, ultimate frisbee and ended the week with water balloons/guns!
A few of our students had opportunities to share their testimonies throughout the week - and they did great. Speaking through a translator and using universal words (not just American/church culture words) was challenging, but I thought they communicated their stories well.
Twice, we split our group up. One group attended a gypsy church on Tuesday night where they led the small congregation in worship and then played with the kiddos during the sermon time. The other group helped prepare/serve a meal at a local homeless shelter, and one of our students got to preach before the meal!
The evenings were my highlight. We read through the Gospel of John and 1 John throughout the week. Each night, we'd gather for worship, sharing/daily debrief and then a time of teaching through the reading. Students really dug deep and asked great questions as they read their Bibles. Our main "aha" moment of the teaching was understanding that Jesus was sent by the Father to represent and make God known. We too have been sent into the world to make God known. We talked a lot about being a light to those around us and making God known through our words and deeds. It was an encouraging and convicting time for all of us as we consider being an ambassador for Christ!
Some of the teenagers in the community joined us for our evening Bible study - which was a very cool thing. Most of the teenagers aren't believers. Communism fell in Hungary in 1989. Under communism, there is no God - this belief continues today. The church is small throughout the country, but God is at work and is drawing people to himself. For the local teens to see our students in love with the Lord and serious about growing in faith, was a huge eye opener to them. The local missionaries were excited to see the spark in them and will continue to follow up with them! Praise the Lord!!
On the final Saturday morning, we drove to a nearby orphanage and played some games with the children. I spoke with the house nanny for a short time and it was interesting to hear her story. Hungary is a strict socialist government today. The people are taxed 49%!? Families get money from the government for every child they have... so poorer families will sometimes have more children so they can earn more money. Even sadder is that babies with disabilities earn them more money, so some moms will drink/smoke/do drugs during pregnancy, in hopes of having a child with a disability so they can collect more money. As a result, many families aren't able to support and care for some many kids - so they take one or a few to a state-run orphanage. Parents can still maintain custody of their child, even if they take them to an orphanage, so long as they call once a month and check in. This means, they can continue to collect their monthly government child payment. Pretty tragic, huh? One boy from an orphanage a few hours away was able to join with our team for the first half of the week. He was in this situation - his parents simply had too many kids to care for, so they dropped him off at an orphanage. He is a new believer in the Lord and one of the local missionaries in his town has taken him under his wing and invests in him. Pray that this student will continue to embrace the Lord and understand his sonship place as an adopted son of our Heavenly Father!!
And now, for the BEST highlight of the week...
One of our students signed up for the trip because he was interested in serving. He professed to be an atheist and came to youth group to learn about religion. He's an avid reader. Throughout the week, as he read his Bible, he'd come up to one of the staff and ask questions. Questions ranged from what does this word mean, to why did that happen and what's the reasoning for this or that. He was really open and honest with his thoughts and processing. On our final night in Hungary, as we left a restaurant in Budapest, he asked me if he could ask me a question. He began to tell me a little about his journey in understanding religion... his interest in Buddhism because of its service emphasis... and just not being sure and not wanting to rush into something. Things began clicking for him during the week. He said he realized that Christians are supposed to serve and help other people too! During dinner he stepped outside for a minute and spent time praying. Afterwards he told me that he felt God speaking to him and that he finally got "it." Praise the Lord for drawing this student to Himself in His timing. We've been praying for this student for the past 5 or 6 months since he began coming to group. This Sunday he's going to share his testimony in chapel! He volunteered to and I'm super proud of him and excited to see him growing. He's already asking me what he should begin reading!! Praise God!!
And a few pictures -
^The final day of English camp ... Russ (in the front) is the GoodSports International Director, and our host - he's great!!
^Night time capture the flag... with 100+ glow sticks! (This was such a big hit, we ended up doing it 2 nights!)
