Coming to America

We've bought our tickets, and we're going to the States in December and January. This will be our first time home for Christmas in a long time, and we're looking forward to it.

Here's our schedule:

• Denver area: December 13-27
• Southern California: December 27-January 10
• Seattle/Vancouver, BC: January 10-14

Please pray for this trip:

• For safe and easy travel - especially with Nathaniel
• Nick will drive from Denver to San Diego, possibly alone, while Rosemary and Nate go by plane.
• For the church here in Eger, and for the leaders here who will be carrying extra responsibility with us gone.

We would love to meet with as many friends and supporters as is possible, so if you would like to meet during this time, please contact us ASAP!

Financial Woes

Things are tough everywhere right now, and we are feeling the impact of the global economic crisis here in Eger as well.
A lack of jobs in Eger has always been a problem in the church, and we have had to say goodbye to many people over the last couple years who would have liked to stay in Eger, but because of lack of job opportunities.
With the economic crisis, people who work at some of the multinational companies and factories in Eger have been losing their jobs. We had 2 more people lose their jobs this weekend, and there are others whose are in danger of being laid off.
Despite these difficulties, the church is continuing to grow, which is great to see. It is kind of like a revolving door - there are always people coming in and going out.

• Please pray for Erika and Jani, that they would be able to find new jobs, so they can stay in Eger.
• Pleae pray for Dani and others who are at risk of losing their jobs.
• Praise the Lord for the growth in the church, and please pray for a great harvest of souls in Eger!
  

Weekend Outreach

We had a team here from the Bible College in Vajta this weekend, helping us out with various outreaches.
4 of them came, including Dusty, who has been here before and who was a big help to us at our summer English Camp. Dusty made good relationships with some of the kids, also leading 2 girls to the Lord who now attend our church. So, when some of the English Campers heard that Dusty was coming to town, they were excited to see her.
The outreach started on Friday - we planned an English Camp reunion out in the Szépasszonyvölgy, where we go in the summer to do church events like roasting fat over a fire - but we got rained out. However, some of the kids were able to meet us at the local mall, and the team hung out with them.
Saturday, we put up posters and handed out fliers in town which had Bible verses on them, as well as the church information. In the afternoon we went to Heves - a nearby town, where some kids come from to English Camp every year, and did a reunion there. A few kids showed up, and it was nice to see them and follow up a little.
Saturday night, the team went back out on the street with some people from our church and passed out more Bible verses and talked to people about the Lord.
All in all, it was a good weekend, and we certainly accomplished our goal of getting God's Word onto the streets and into people's hands, and of course spreading the word about our church as well.

• Please pray for those who heard about the Lord this weekend, through conversations on the streets, the fliers, and the posters, that God would water those seeds, and they would bear much fruit!

Extreme Baptism

Today we had a baptism service in our church.
We had originally planned it for 2 weeks ago, but it was postponed because of bad weather, meaning that our baptism service was outside at a lake in October!
Needless to say - it was cold. And we won't be doing any baptisms outside this late in the year again. Ever. Although we did say that same thing last year, after our baptism in September...
Despite it being cold and windy, it was a relatively nice day. After lots of rain and cold, today the sun came out and it was nicer than it has been in 3 weeks! Praise the Lord for that - we prayed for it a lot.
3 people were baptized - Dani, Jani, and Noémi. Originally 6 people were signed up, but for various reasons, we ended up with 3 brave souls who went into the cold waters of the lake in Ostoros to make a statement about what God has done in their lives by making them "New Creations" and how they are committed to following Him.
Here's a map of where the lake is - right outside of Eger.
The morning started with our regular church service, but with a short teaching on baptism, and then those who were baptized gave testimonies before the church about what God has done in their lives to bring them to this point. After that, we headed to the lake in a caravan.
One surprise was this - when we were planning the baptism, the dirt road down to the lake was in good condition. Since then, they have started work on paving that road - and then with all the rain, well you can imagine how muddy it was. It was so bad, that we couldn't drive any of the cars down to the lake except for one guy who has a 4-wheel-drive truck. So, on the way down, we all had to walk through the mud. It wasn't very far, but it seemed like it took a muddy eternity, and I felt horrible for all the people who were walking down this mud road in their nice church clothes.
On the way back, we fixed the problem by having the guy with the truck make a few trips up to where we had left the cars, so that only 4 of us guys had to hike out in the mud.
But, we all survived the baptism - in fact it was a great blessing. Afterward, we went back to the church and had a little party to celebrate this big event in the lives of these 3 and in the life of the church.
Please keep Jani, Dani, and Noémi in prayer, that God would strengthen them and use them for His glory and for His Kingdom.
Here are some pictures: