Fall 09, Vajta Hungary

Hello there! The summer has past and we are in week two of the semester at CCBCE (www.cbce.com). During the summer i managed our dishroom during conference season; we washed approximately 40,000 plates, cups, eating utinsels during our conference season.
A new intern has taken over the dish room and i'm overseeing 7 other ministries; Book Reports, Morning Devotionals/Announcements, Guys Dorm, Servanthood (Assigning/overseeing campus job detail), Off Campus Student Correspondence, Weekend Dishroom/Dinning Room/Conference Overseer. Things have been pretty non-stop!

Top pic:
My friend Jean (fellow intern from Bucharest) and i at Norbi's wedding last week.

Middle Pic:
Former student and friend Jake Stockill from Bradford England just paid us a delightful visit.

Bottom Pic:
I'm excited to be sharing a bunk with my good buddy Nagy, Isti from Budapest; ie- holding the napkin. New students: to my left is Kálmán (Romania), Arpi in the back, and Piros on the right (both from Hungary).

Upcoming events:
- Planning on leading a team to Moldova (between Ukraine/Romania) for our 10-day outreach (Oct 23 - Nov 1); that is, if students sign-up and doors continue to open. Pray for the pastors out there (Steven and Teresa), the community, and for a potential team to follow me out there. Sounds like a cool work and potentially an adventurous trip.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2881291.stm (BBC News article on poverty in Moldova).

Summer Itinerary (in a nutshell)...

Summer Conference Season:
The Zichey Castle (here in hungary) goes from bible college to a busy conference center during the summer season, which is run by staff, interns, SOSers (summer of service) and A Vision-4-Life students (check out ccbce.com for details).

Summer Goals:
Daily Hungarian language studies
Finish last class

Next on the horizon???

• 14 days on the East Coast of the U.S. (July 1st-14th) for a family reunion, meeting up with Cros & Miria Morton to attempt to minister in NYC/Boston, and also trying to meet up with East Coast friends from High School era; should be adventurous.
• I'd also like to make it out to England to visit some friends if the "Lord is willing and the creek don't rise;" as Mr. Harry Miller from The Family Care Network (FCNI) often said.
  

If you're the praying type, then please pray:

• for the formation of this 14 Day trip; ie- for family, friends
• for organization/locality/inspiriation of the the post reunion excursion w/ the Morton's.
• for kids/students coming for AVFL/SOS... intimate life changing encounters/hearing, etc.
  
• for staff/interns- unity/harmony/maturity/growth/break-through/etc...
  

Split Croatia 10 Day Outreach; Spring 09

10 days in Split:

Split was an experience for sure. Most of our time was spent in the following ways:

1) Spent time with youth who frequent the coffee shop.

2) Trips into town to meet and converse with local youth and invite them back for coffee.

3) Assisted running the coffee shop that Calvary Chapel Split Croatia owns/operates.

4) Construction work at the coffee shop; painting, sanding & staining the spiral stairs, etc.

5) Hosted an open mic night.

Testimony: "stolen goods."

After walking a friend home with three people from my team, I approached a group of about 5 rough looking teenage boys. The alpha of the gang seemed to be in the process of fixing his scooter, while giving me about half of his attention as i verbally engaged he and his posse. Before sharing the good news with these lads, i began w/ the bad news by giving the good person test; ie- comparing oneself to the 10 commandments, while admitting my own failure to keep God's law. The leader replied with honesty and said, “sure, I’ve stolen thousands of times.” He then looked over his shoulder and then grabbed his lighter, running it over the front of the ignition socket. I suddenly discerned what was happening as he began to pry the front of the scooter off. He then speedily walked off with the aid of an accomplice to stash his newly stolen goods.

We began to pray for this young man and his friends and moments later he surprisingly returned to finish the conversation; it was so random but felt miraculous that he would return, yet perhaps he was perplexed that a person would talk to him about steeling in the process of his transgression of this civil and moral law. Robbery seemed to be so second nature to this lad, that he didn't seem to think anything of it.

We talked with the boys for about 45 minutes about the love of Christ, co-mingled with His justice, and substitutionary death and also about religion vs relationship with God. Seemed like most of these kids could really benefit much more from a mentor rather then a theological conversation from bible college students, but when your on the move, that's how it goes and God's word never returns void.

Please pray for:

• For this young lad and his friends.
• Scattered seed dropped in Split Croatia.
• Tim and Grace's team of 7 that are living/serving/church planting in Split Croatia.
  

Preparing 4 Split Croatia 10 day Outreach; April 17-26

Departing soon:
We are getting ready to depart to Split Croatia this Friday (April 17th - 27th).

The Team:
This team consists of 10 people from diverse backgrounds; I am very stoked on this!

• Ági and Simona are from Budapest Hungary
• Lilla is from Vajta Hungary
• Danjiella from Bosnia; raised in Austria... she speaks lots of languages!
• Claudia from Romania
• Brooke (Temecula) & Rachael (S.D.) are both from Cali
• Danni from Serbia
• Joe (an older gentleman) from Florida

Croatia...
is one of 7 counties that made up the former Yugoslovia; ie- Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Kosovo, Montenegro & Macedonia. Croatia has been an independent country since 1991; wickopedia it if you have time and are interested on more detail!

Split is a popular vacation town for many European travelers; i've been told that there are many english speakers there :)

Tim and Grace have planted a church in split and will be hosting our team. We will be boarding in the coffee shop that they run.

Please pray:

• For team unity, maturity, humility, supernatural love (toward eachother and those we encounter); ie- overflowing fruit of the Spirit, etc (Gal 5:22-23).
• Spirit lead worshipful, service, prayer, traveling, etc.
• For fruitfulness, sensitivity to His leading, divine opportunities to serve/speak.
• For the miracle of Him using flawed/imperfect humans to carry out His eternal purposes.

ps- the statue above is of Diocletian who had/has a palace in Split; he lead one of the most intense persecutions upon the church in history.

Return to Eger Hungary...

I just got back from an outreach where we hosted a youth club in a neighboring city to Eger Hungary, with 7 others from CCBCE, in support of CC Eger. We created activities, games, skits, presentations/teachings and had an easter egg hunt.

The trip was a blessed time. We had amazing weather, a solid team & high spirits. We also were able to play music on the streets and had some great interactions/conversations with local youth about the Lord :) Good times!!!

Winter in Hungary; nagyon hideg télem volt!

During the winter break, Josh & i had the opportunity to serve at a youth camp at a castle that was rented in Tizadob, Hungary. Selected special need kids from surrounding villages were invited to join us for a camp and New Year's celebration; good times! We had a castle wide scavenger hunt, played some crazy hungarian games that i had never heard of, as well as some amazing games in the labyrinth outside, did presentations and had short times of teachings; this place was a youth leaders dream facility and the options in regards to activities seemed endless.

We spent Christmas w/ Balas and Leah Stanzels (great cooking/hospitality) where we got to spend some time serving in the community, then ten days in Eger (N. Hungary) doing practical outreach and we spent a couple weekends in Budapest (we saw Delirious...anointed concert!).

I learned much from my time & am happy to be back at the Bible College/Conference Center to start a year long internship here (ccbce.com).

If you're the praying type, please pray for:

• Students, staff, interns and the many church plants in Hungary, E, Europe and beyond...
• Direction/location for the 10 day outreach the interns will be attempting to lead... leadership would like to know where i might go by this Tues (Feb 10); pray for God's leading and vision to come.
• Intimacy with the Lord...+ gratefulness for singleness!
• Supernatural love for people on campus & in town (Vajta) & ballance w/ my responsibilities.
• Diligence in my Hungarian studies... Igen!!!

peace and love to you all!

Happy Holidays!

I've decided to stay in Hungary over the break this winter and have made a commitment with Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (CCBCE.com) to intern all of next year.

In regards to the break, i plan to travel exclusively in Hungary with a friend from the bible college named Josh (to my left in the above pic). First we'll be heading down to Pecs to spend Christmas with Leah and Balas Stanzel, then back up to Budapest for the weekend to catch a ride to Tizadob to work with an orphanage for a few days (including new years eve), then over to Eger and then Tatabanya for about a week each, to come along a couple new church plants; i have to be back at the bible college on Jan 20th to start the internship. I'll try to get some pics up asap!

Prayer requests:

• Please pray for unity/growth/fruitfulness between Josh and I
  
• 12/29 - 1/1: for the kids at the orphanage outreach in Tizadob and for the team of about 10 going to serve.
  
• 1/2 - 1/19: for vision/effectiveness in regards to the new year with our time in Eger/Tatabanya...
  
• Diligence in learning the Hungarian language and in regards to a class I'm taking over the break!
  

Happy Holidays everyone!!!