Monday, November 24, 2008

November Update

Greetings from Eger!

Life and ministry have been very eventful over the last few months, with even some big changes in our family life, which you can read about below.
We will be going to America for Christmas - the first time we'll have been with family at Christmas in many years.
We'll be in Denver from Dec 12-27, in S.California from Dec 27-Jan 10, and Vancouver, B.C. from Jan 10-14.
We'd love to see as many friends/family/supporters as possible; if you'd like to get together, please let us know ASAP, so we can schedule it in!

Calvary Chapel Eger
So much has happened in the life of the church over the last few months.
A couple from the church, Jani and Ági, got married on September 20th. Ági was one of the first people in our church, and we are very blessed to see how the Lord brought these two together. More about this...
We have more and more married couples in the church, which changes the feeling of the church in a good way, and is an answer to prayer. In October another couple got engaged, and will be getting married in the spring.

In October we had a baptism at a lake near Eger. This was the 2nd baptism we held this year, and it is always great to see the fruit of what the Lord has done in the lives of those in the church, as they make this public statement about being born again and being committed to following Jesus. We already have more people set to be baptized at our next baptism next year, when the weather gets better! More about this...

Last weekend we did a clothing drive in Szihalom, a relatively poor village near Eger. There are some people from Szihalom in our church, and God has opened some doors there for us to reach out to the village. This is the 3rd year we've done a clothing drive here, and each year we have been able to provide more clothes, had more people come, and been more effective in sharing the Gospel message along with the free clothing. More and more in the church, we see that people have a desire to serve and to do things for others - and this is good fruit, and the evidence of the Lord's work in their lives. More about this...
We will be doing a Children's Program in Szihalom on Dec 6, as another outreach to the village, to see what God might do there through our church.

As we will be away for a month, the church's elders - Jani and Shane - will be overseeing things. It seems that when we away like this, the church often experiences more spiritual attacks, so please keep that in prayer.

Prayer Requests:
  • Praise the Lord for all the good things He is doing among us!
  • Please pray for the married couples in our church, that their marriages would be strong, stable, and glorifying to the Lord.
  • For the new believers in the church, and those who were baptized recently, that their faith would have a strong foundation, and that they would be used by the Lord as His witnesses in this city
  • For the village of Szihalom, that God would use our church to communicate His love to the people who live there, and that many kids would turn out for our Children's program
  • For the church while we are away, for Jani and Shane, for God's protection over His flock.
  • For those in the church who are struggling financially, who are at risk of losing their jobs and homes.
  • For a great harvest of souls in Eger!
Family
The biggest change in our family life, is that we are in the process of taking in a young guy from church as a foster child.
His name is Balázs and he's 14 years old and in the 8th grade.
He's being taken away from his mom, and would have ended up in an orphanage if no one had been willing to take him in.
We've know him for the last 2 years that he's been part of our church; during that time his dad died, and he's been living in a pretty rough situation at home, without basic needs.
James 2:14-17 says: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

This is the verse that the Lord placed on our hearts and brought to our minds as we were praying about what to do with Balázs, and it directly applies to this situation.
We believe this is God's will for us and for Balázs, so we're going for it. Its going to change our lives quite a bit - our apartment is going to be a little cramped and its going to be tighter financially, but, as we talked about in church this Sunday, if we would know how everything's going to work out, then it wouldn't be a step of faith.
We are here to have an impact on people's lives for the Lord, and this is a good opportunity for us to do that in Balázs's life.

In other news, Nathaniel has started to walk, and is now running all over. He is a great blessing to us. He has recently been a bit sick from some vaccinations he got, and he will be getting another one right before we travel to the States, which makes us a bit nervous.

Rosemary has been able to be more active in the church lately; now that Nate's getting bigger, she can get out of the house more and attend more meetings. She's started doing women's ministry again, and started a Bible study for the young girls. Her hands and feet haven't been causing her a lot of pain lately, which is really nice.

Nick has been working part time for the last year and a half, teaching English, to make ends meet, as the drop in the value of the dollar hit us pretty hard. In April he got a really great job, with few hours, decent pay, and his own office! The job was too good to be true, and he got laid off in September - which actually turned out to be a blessing. He now only works a few hours a week at a language school, and has more time for the family and for the church.

Prayer Requests:
  • Please pray for the 4 of us as we make this transition to Balázs joining our household
  • Please pray that we would have wisdom to raise a teenager
  • Please pray that we could raise him in the Lord's ways.
  • For Nathaniel to be healthy, happy, strong, and smart
  • For us, that we would be good parents, who are able to raise our kids in the Lord's ways
  • For our marriage to be strong and a good example to others
  • For Rosemary's hands and feet
  • For our trip to America, especially for Nathaniel to do well on the airplanes, and for Nick as he might be driving from Denver to San Diego by himself
  • For us to find a place for Balázs to stay for the time that we'll be in America

Thank you for your prayers and support! Please feel free to contact us; we would love to hear from you.
God bless,

Nick and Rosemary Cady
Csiky Sándor u. 60
3300 Eger, Hungary
+36-20-263-3174
cady@chello.hu

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Clothing Drive

Yesterday, our church did a clothing drive in Szihalom, a relatively poor village near Eger. There are some people from Szihalom in our church, and God has opened some doors there for us to reach out to the village.

This is the 3rd year we have done a clothing drive here, and each year we have been able to provide more clothes, had more people come, and been more effective in sharing the Gospel message along with the free clothing.

More and more in the church, we see that people have a desire to serve and to do things for others - and this is good fruit, and the evidence of the Lord's work in their lives.

Please pray for the village of Szihalom - that God would bless these people and that they would come to know His great love, and that He would show us what our part as a church is in that.
Please also pray for the Children's Program we will do in Szihalom on Dec 6.

Here are some pictures and a video from the clothing drive:

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Sándor

I (Nick) have a part time job teaching English at a language school in Eger to get a little extra cash to make ends meet.
The job is a big blessing, because I also get to meet a lot of people through it, including a lot of businessmen and influencial people in the city who come there to learn English, and I often get the chance to share with them about the church and about the real reason I'm in Hungary. For a while, every Thursday I would go to the county courthouse and teach the head judge for Heves county, and I got to talk to her about the Lord quite a few times.
The other day I was teaching in the school, and a group was there who had come from another town (Nyírbátor) to do an intensive course. During a break I got to talking to one of the guys from the group, named Sándor. He asked how long I'd been teaching English, and I told him I only do this part time, because I'm the pastor of a church, and thats the real reason I'm here.
He was really interested when he found out I was a pastor, and told me that he was a believer too and asked if we had a midweek service, because he wanted to come.
But he also told me about a problem he has - he is married, and his wife is against him being an active Christian and doesn't allow him to go to church, and the whole issue of him being a Christian has caused a lot of problems in his family.
But since his wife wasn't in town, he came to our church on Wednesday night - even invited some other people to come with him - and we had a nice time fellowshipping with him and prayed for him and his wife.
Unfortunately, Sándor's story is not a very uncommon thing that we encounter here. Please pray for Sándor and others like him whom we've met, and who have been in our church or gotten saved through our outreaches, but whose families are opposed to them walking with the Lord and taking an active part in the Body of Christ.