Half a Year in Hungary

The trees are getting packed up and lights being taken down. The holidays are over and a new year has commenced. I trust you all had a great Christmas and Happy New Year with family and friends. I pray 2017 will be a great year and many souls come to know Christ as Saviour!
I put together a short video that gives a small glimpse of some of the highlights of our first half year in Hungary. If you are interested in a missions trip, my family would love to have a visit from you this year!

https://vimeo.com/197006154

First Thanksgiving in Hungary

Our first Thanksgiving in Hungary was very enjoyable! To start with, the Sunday before was spent with the church in Szolnok where they had their own Thanksgiving celebration.

    Even though Hungary does not have a specific day of thanksgiving, the Christians in Szolnok had much they wished to thank God for. They even created crafts for table decor with Bible verses and the phrase "Adj hálát" written by on them, which translates to "Give thanks". 

Offering of first fruits 

   The day before Thanksgiving, our family enjoyed putting up the Christmas tree. And I know you're thinking "Couldn't you at least wait until after Thanksgiving?" (Hahaha, no!) 

Thanksgiving day was a great turkey dinner which we enjoyed at home before going to spend the weekend in Szolnok to enjoy a meal with friends. It was a nice time as we reflected on all God's blessings to us this year. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Hungarian Holidays - All Saints Day and All Souls Day

The stores will be closed tomorrow and children out of school. Traffic sharply increases around the cemeteries (temető) in Hungary. This is because the first two days of November are All Saints' Day (or All Hollows Day) and All Souls' Day, which are both Catholic holidays. I have read a few articles on what exactly happens these two days. I'm still not sure I understand the differences between the days; they seem to be the same. However, here is a glimpse of what these two days are all about :

November 1, All Saints’ Day (a mindenszentek napja) 

- This is day to commemorate souls (lelkek). 

- According to Hungarian folklore the dead will return to their homes on this day. For this reason many households set a place at the table and place bread, salt, and water out in anticipation of the returning dead. Candles are placed in the window to guide the souls back home.

November 2, All Souls' Day (halottak napja) 

- This is the day to commemorate those souls who haven't received salvation and are currently in purgatory (purgatórium).

Traditions of both days :

- On the first two days of November, all families in Hungary visit cemeteries. They clean the graves of their dead relatives and decorate them with bouquets, wreaths and candles, praying for the salvation of their family members’ souls. 

- The tradition is to light candles for deceased relatives. People light one candle for each person that is no longer with them. According to Catholic tradition, this is to give warmth to errant souls and help them find their graves and prevent them from disturbing living people. 

- The chrysanthemum is the flower of the dead since it blooms in late October and early November. This flower is seen all over cemeteries. 

- Church bells all over the country also continuously clang for 1-2 hours, because souls in purgatory are thought to be calmed by tolling.

It was saddening for me to read about these two days in Hungary. The devil has deceived the people into believing these lies about their deceased loved ones. They believe they can pray their dead loved ones into salvation. How terribly sad! So long as a person is alive, he has second, third, fourth, fifth, etc chances to accept Christ and be saved (Romans 10:13). Once saved, always saved (John 10:28). However, once a person dies, there are no more chances. It is so important for us, our friends and loved ones to accept Christ today while there is still a chance, because there will be no praying anyone out of "purgatory" on November 1st, 2nd, or on any day of the year for that matter.

Prices of Products

Prices in Hungary can be very interesting to learn. Right now the exchange is 1 dollar equals 272 Hungarian Forint. And as far as prices go, some items cost considerably more than in the states, while others are considerably less. One example of considerably more in cost is fuel prices. In the states, prices are hovering somewhere around the $2.00 mark, prices for a gallon of gas in Hungary is more around the $5.00 mark. 

In the grocery store, there are some items that we would readily stock up on for our pantry back in the states that now we steer clear of for not being able to justify the added expense. One of these such items is canned vegetables. They are no longer the 60 cents we used to pay. A small 340g can is $1.50, and a 670g an is $2.27. I think I'll stick to fresh vegetables. More healthful anyway :)

Here is another one.  Cans of tuna. I would readily stock up on this normally cheap item but now can't bring myself to pay $2.57 for one can.

 And finally, maple syrup. Aunt Jemima is not in abundance here either so homemade syrup of brown sugar and water will be topping our pancakes. It costs 2,499 HUF which is around $9.17. Yikes!

There is good new though! Foods like eggs, bread and fresh vegetables are less in cost than we used to pay. So while some foods that we would consider convenience foods are more, at least the fresh foods are more affordable and more healthful anyway.

The Gift of God

Giving gifts to others brings joy to the giver, more so than being the one on the receiving end. So naturally, it hurts when a gift is refused. Such has happened to my husband and I, and it does not feel nice to have a gift refused, especially knowing it was much needed by the recipient and would have benefited them greatly.

God has given a gift to all. 

Not all will receive this gift.

It's kind of like the old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." You can give a gift, but it's up to the recipient to receive it.

God offers us the gift of eternal life. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Romans 5 talks about how death came to all men through the sin of one man (Adam), but the gift of eternal life comes from Christ and Christ alone. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Romans 5:19

The verses go on to say these great words that offer hope to all regarding our sin problem: "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:20-21

So the gift is offered to all:

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:13

But not all will receive:

"But they have not all obeyed the gospel..." Romans 10:16

I can picture Christ with extended arms, inviting the unsaved to receive the gift of eternal life and instead of receiving, they reject Him. If we can be saddened over gifts bestowed and rejected, how much greater His sadness must be to be turned down the greatest gift ever!

I pray all who read this blog post know Christ as their Saviour already. If you don't please don't reject His gift another day. Receive Him and eternal life.

Success Found in Obedience

The 2016 Reaching Hungary team flew over June 20- July 1 to pass out John & Romans provided by Bearing Precious Seed, a ministry of First Baptist Church in Milford, OH. Our team, consisting of two boys from Indiana and three individuals from Florida, passed out somewhere around 6,000 John & Romans into the hands and into the mailboxes of people in both Debrecen and Budapest. Much time by those who could not walk through the town was spent helping the cause by placing labels bearing the church address on these Bibles. Personal invitations to the church services were placed inside the front cover as well. The weather was extremely hot, the miles long, and the backpacks weighed down with God's precious Word were heavy, but thousands of lost souls were on the line so onward we pressed.

In the weeks following the trip, the churches have not seen a rush of new converts flooding the building, desiring to learn more about the Saviour who died for them. Even the English speaking waiter who we met at one restaurant expressing an interest to learn more, has yet to come to church as he promised. Only one man has come as a result of receiving a John & Romans in his mailbox. That's it. 6,000 J&R. One man. 

Should we throw our hands up in the air and say, "Lord, how come we the church is not full with people wanting to get saved?" We tried so hard! We really really tried! "

In the book of Isaiah chapter 6, we see the commissioning of Isaiah and his willingness to answer the call to serve. In verse 8, we see the call and the surrender.

But ... 

After the call , "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" 

After the surrender, "Then said I,  Here am I; send me."

Comes to the people who reject the message. It says in Isaiah 6:9, "And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but not understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. "

The people heard the message but chose to reject it. 

So what do we do? 

Well, we keep on keeping on. That's what we do. 

Because ... 

Success is not in the numbers. Success is in the obedience.  

We are not called to a product but to a process. 

And we praise the Lord for the one that did come to church, because Christ died for even him!

Heart Language

June 8, 2016 was the day my family arrived in Hungary. Prior to arriving, I spent my free moments trying to memorize some of the language, so upon arrival, I would at least know how to greet people, tell them “please”, “thank you” and other polite phrases. I became quite comfortable with the greeting, “Jó napot kivánok,” and “Viszontlátásra,” when parting ways. I had “Tessék,” down while placing John and Romans Bibles into the hands of the people our second week when the Reaching Hungary team showed up. During the bilingual church services, I listened carefully to the Hungarian words followed by the English translation, trying to recognize at least one Hungarian word per sentence before the English translation was revealed to me. I could quickly recognize God, “Isten”, and family, “csalad” in the morning announcements. During the song service, I opened up the Hungarian hymnal and followed along, doing my best to mimic the Hungarian singers around me in their pronunciation of the words. I patted myself on the shoulder at my efforts to learning the language. 

Then we sat in an English service translated into Hungarian.

One verse of the song “Rock of Ages Cleft for Me,” was sung in English.

And I started bawling like that was the first time I had heard the song.

Then I realized, the language the Lord speaks to me in is English. If He pricks at my heart to do something, He says to me of the lady in the store, “Go give her a tract,” and not “Menj, adj neki egy traktátust.” 

I realized how these words do not speak to my heart:

Óh, csodás kegy, amely engem

Megmentett, mint roncsot!

Egykor én el voltam veszve

S vak is, de már látok.

The way these words do:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

And then I realized if I understand best in my first language, English, how much more important is it to learn Hungarian so I can share Christ with the Hungarians in their first language, because that is the language that speaks to their hearts.

So I will spend my days studying Hungarian but must not forget to also spend time with the Lord in the language that He reaches my own heart with.