Summer Update

Greetings from Eger!

We hope you had a great summer. Ours was eventful and fruitful, and we are excited about all that the coming months hold. Here is a short summary of what we've been up to the last few months, and what we've got coming up.

Conferences
In June we went to the Foundations conference in Vajta, a conference for Eastern European church leaders. Five of us went down there from our church; Jani and Tünde couldn't come because Tünde was pregnant at the time. Since then her baby has been born; Júlia is beautiful and healthy, a true gift from God. The conference was a great blessing for those of us who were there. One of the speakers at the conference was our friend Pete Nelson from Longmont, CO. Nick and Pete have both been praying for Ukraine and about ministry opportunities there for years, and got to take a short trip there while Pete was here for the conference. The Lord blessed the trip and they were able to make some useful contacts, and are praying about the next steps.
In July we had the Summer Conference in Vajta. The theme of the conference was renewal, and God did do a great work of renewal in many people that week. On the last night of the conference Nick taught about 'renewal in service', which was followed by a time of worship and prayer. The good fruit from this conference is still noticeable in our church, months afterward.
At the Summer Conference Balázs decided to get baptized, and it was a great joy for us to see him express his commitment to following Jesus in this way!

Outreaches
We had 2 main outreaches this summer: Our annual English Camp for high school and college students, and another English Camp for younger kids.
Last year we had many people with young kids interested in our English Camp, but since it is geared for teenagers, it wasn't ideal for them. So this year we organized a second camp for smaller children, where we also taught English.
The kids camp went very well, but was incredibly tiring! Along with English, Rosemary taught Bible lessons every day and Shane taught them songs about God. All the kids had a great time, and we expect the camp to grow next year.
One thing we were glad about is that our neighbors sent their 8 year old son to the camp. Gergő had a great time, and we are glad for the opportunity to bless our neighbors and share Jesus with them.
The big English Camp had 75 campers this year, and was probably our best camp so far from a practical standpoint. Everything ran smoothly and perfectly; it was such a blessing. The camp was also very successful from a spiritual perspective. One new thing we did this year was to have a table of free stuff, on which we Bibles, the book "More Than a Carpenter" (in Hungarian), and various fliers. The kids took the Bibles faster than we could pass them out. They also took many copies of the books.
Since English Camp we have started a youth group, which meets once a month on a Saturday. Our hope is that in addition to ministering to the youth in our church, it will be a way to continue ministering to the kids from the camp.
We have also started an English Club, or rather re-started it. Rosemary is now leading it, and so far it seems successful. She got a phone call the other day, that an article about her and the English Club will be in the Heves county (Eger is the Heves county seat) newspaper, which also mentions our church!
We are very thankful to all those who came out and served with us this summer. We had help from many in the church, as well as Kim and Andy - a couple who study at the Bible college in Vajta, April - who lived in Eger and served with us when we first started the church in 2005, Geoff and Angela from CC Syracuse, and a team from CC Vista.

Future
We will have another baptism service on September 20, at a lake near Eger, as we have done the past 2 years as well. There will be 3-4 people who will be baptized to make an outward statement of their new life in Christ.
We are excited to have more and more babies being born in the church, and look forward to having a full children's ministry in the future!
On a sad note, some people from our church are moving away from Eger, some to Budapest for school and work, others moving abroad. Notably, Judit Poczok is moving to England this month for a year to work. Judit has been in our church before it was even a church! We are going to miss her, and pray that God blesses her time in England.

Two weeks ago, we held a vision meeting in which we laid out the future vision of the church. (Audio here - *Hungarian only) In summary, the long term vision is to start Bible studies in the surrounding cities and villages, which are outreaches of the Eger church, with the goal that they would grow into independent churches. The short term vision is to do various forms of outreach to reach Eger, both evangelically and socially.
We are working on the possibility of getting a grant to do some sort of social work in Eger, perhaps with troubled teens, homeless, or elderly people. If we would be able to do this, we could serve these people in Jesus' name while at the same time providing jobs for people in the church. Please join us in praying for this possibility. We have handed in the initial paperwork, but there is a lot involved in this, and it is sometimes over our heads.
In the next few weeks we will begin doing some outreaches to the college here, as well as an event for Heart Day at the end of the month, where we will tie in the Gospel with the message of having a healthy heart.

Family
Our biggest news is that Rosemary is pregnant again! We are expecting the new addition to our family in January. Rosemary is currently 20 weeks along, which means that we should be able to know the sex soon. We're very excited, and feel very blessed!
Nate is now two years old. We took him to the zoo for his birthday, and he got to see all his favorite animals which he knows from books and videos. He even got to pet some of them, including a giraffe! He is a big guy now, and is talking more and more.
Balázs started high school yesterday, and is loving it. He has some friends in the school, including some from English Camp and one who is also a Christian. He is doing well in general, and it is great to see the positive changes taking place in his life as he is here in our home.
Nick is going to start school again at the end of this month, and is enjoying being in school again. It will be hard in the next few months, with the new baby coming, and all that is going on in the church, so please pray for him.

One big thing in our lives right now, is that we have significantly less money now than in years past. Because of the financial crisis, some of our supporting churches have reduced their support. We are thankful for everything we get, but things are tighter financially, especially with a growing family. Nick still works teaching English, which helps a bit.
If you would like to support our ministry here in Eger financially, it is now possible to donate online (tax deductible) here.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We appreciate it very much!
Blessings,
Nick and Rosemary