Tibi and Tibi

Lots going on with two of our favorite Tibis...

Tibi Rezmuves, who has been working  for a temp agency in Holland to try to support his family, has been laid off and is back home until at least after the New Year.  This is good in that the family is together, but is very hard because they now have no regular income.  Tibi and Marian came to see us yesterday with their youngest (the older girls were in school), and we got to spend a little time together.  Please pray for wisdom and provision for this family, and that their faith will be strengthened through all this.

Tibi, Marian, and little Mirjam.  She just got up from a nap
and wasn't sure about all the picture-taking that was going on.

The other Tibi, Pastor Tibor Komaromi from Hajduszoboszlo, called Gary today to let him know that all four members of the family have been sick; their youngest daughter, Hedi (Heidi in English), is currently in the hospital because she got dehydrated.  A picture of the family is posted on my entry for Nov. 18.  Pastor Tibor said that we will be going ahead with the English course tomorrow even though his family is in the midst of this difficult time.  Please pray for strength and health for the whole family, and especially for healing for little Hedi. Also pray that during the English course tomorrow morning we will be able to share the love of Christ with the students along with helping them with their language skills.

Update on the Hajduszoboszlo English course

We had a really good turnout on Thursday, 18 students!  There are two more who will probably be coming this week, too.  So if we don't have any dropouts, then we'll have an even 20.  We don't want the teacher-to-student ratio to be very large, so 20 would be excellent.  

Except for one brave young man, it was all ladies…their ages range from 20-something up to one in her 50’s.  And yes, I asked my students their ages.  Not to be nosey, but so we could practice numbers (but hey, I told them mine, too, so it's totally fair!)   I had the beginners, Gary had the intermediates, and Holly had the advanced ones.  We were all so busy getting started and teaching the classes that we didn't get any pictures, but I'm going to try to get some this week.  Pastor Tibi seemed really happy with how many came and how well it went.  Good new relationships are being formed, and since the students are very motivated to learn, I'm sure their language skills will rapidly improve.  The English will be useful for many of them in their professions, and some are wanting to learn so they can visit relatives in the States.

Thanks so much for praying for us and for the students who're taking this course...please keep it up!

Outreach English course in Hajduszoboszlo

We're gearing up for a new venture...the little Baptist church in Hajduszoboszlo is offering an English course to the community this semester, and our team will be teaching (real, live native speakers of the language!)  This last week while we were on vacation, Holly heroically went and represented us at the introductory meeting for those interested in the course.  Hurrah, Holly--way to use that Hungarian!  Information was presented, placement tests were administered, and about 20 students have said they intend to come.  Lessons will be based on Bible stories, and we pray that opportunities to share our faith will open up as relationships are formed with the students.  Tomorrow we'll be having a planning meeting, and Thursday morning will be the first class.  Please join with us in lifting up this exciting opportunity!

Pastor Tibor of Hajduszoboszlo Baptist Church with
his wife Marti and their daughters, Kamilla and Hedi.

Please also remember our new teammate A.P. as she studies Hungarian at a language school in Budapest this month.  Anyone who has encountered this language knows that it's not an easy one, so don't forget to pray for her!

Malta!

Our vacation trip to Malta was fantastic!  It was a beautiful place, and we had a wonderful time.  THANK YOU to all our friends and family who surprised us with the shower of cards and letters...we were totally surprised and overcome when we saw the pile of mail on our bed when we came back to our room after dinner.  All of your encouragement and prayers mean so much to us!

I've posted a bunch of pictures so you can see what it was like there on the island .  If you ever have the chance, do go and see it for yourself. 

The Scripture distribution was fantastic, but evening presentation wasa no-go

We're super busy again, but I want to quickly let you all know what happened in Balmazújváros on Oct. 26. 

Our team (Holly, A.P., Gary and I) plus István, a friend from the our church in Debrecen, went to the open market in Balmazújváros while it was still dark and set up the pavilion.  It was pretty chilly out that morning!




At first not many people were around, mostly just other vendors setting up, but we were ready.



Pastor Füstös Gyula from the Hajdúböszörményi Baptist Church came not long after that with his daughter Imola and a guy from the youth group (Zoli, I think.)   Pastor Gyula had agreed to do the presentation in the evening at the culture house, but brought the young people to help with the Scripture distribution, too.  He himself couldn't stay very long that morning since he needed to get back to his church for the Sunday morning service. 



The young people were unsure of themselves at first, but quickly got very excited about inviting people to the event and letting them know that they could receive a Bible as a gift if they came to our table.  When they met vendors who wanted one but couldn't come to us since they were working, they started sort of a Bibles-on-wheels program!  Well, not on wheels, but it was a mobile operation.  They found out which size Bible the people wanted, then took it along with all the information to them at their booth.  Each person who received a Bible signed a statement promising to try to read through the Bible...it was a promise made to themselves, and the signature part of the sheet tore off to become a bookmark for their new Bible.



We had a great response from the people, and at the end of the day Gary found that we had given out 154 total pieces, including whole Bibles, New Testaments, and children's Bibles.  We also had several people indicate on the response card that they are interested in a small-group Bible study!  It was an exhausting but exhilerating morning.

The evening event didn't go off so smoothly, however.  In fact, it didn't go off at all!  About 35 people came to the culture house where the presentation was to be, most of them from the Hajdúböszörményi Baptist Church, but unfortunately the guy with the key to the building never did show up!  It was a really difficult experience to go through, standing in front of the building unable to get in.  We tried to contact someone to help us but never were able to get ahold of anyone who could do anything about it.  We visited with those who had come, made a couple of important contacts, and after waiting for some time everyone went home. 

The next morning the director of the culture house called and apologized profusely...he was mortified that such a thing had happened.  They refunded the deposit that we had made on the rental of the room and said that our next use would be free.  Although it hadn't turned out as we had hoped, Gary and I both left from the meeting with him praising the Lord....we believe that He has something even better in mind than what we had originally planned.  Now the facility will be at no cost, plus we will have more time for planning and advertising it to the people of the city!  Gary is talking with Pastor Gyula about an event during December, possibly a Christmas program.

Please pray that those who received Bibles will read them and come to know the Lord, and that we will have wisdom in planning the upcoming event there in Balmazújváros.  We would love to see a church planted in this city of about 20,000, which currently has no evangelical church.  Thanks!