Mission Trip to Ukraine

Today a team will leave for Beregovo (HU: Beregszász), Ukraine to do an all-day children's program in a boarding school for disadvantaged kids. There will be between 60 and 100 kids there, and we hope to share with them a message of hope and love in God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Savior.
This is our 3rd mission trip to the region. Please pray that it would be fruitful and that God would lead us as to what to do in the future.

Introducing Scott Fales

We have a new co-worker in our church here in Eger. Scott Fales moved to Eger in July from Thousand Oaks, California to serve with our church for at least the next year, and possibly longer.

We have known Scott for the past few years, and he has been out to Hungary before. He is a good friend of Shane Daniels, who served with us for the past few years until recently moving to Szolnok, where he plans to start a church this autumn - our church, and Scott, plan to be involved in helping that new church plant to get started.

Here is a link to Scott's blog. Please keep him, our church, and the church plant in Szolnok in prayer.

Trip to Ukraine

Today 7 of us from the church here in Eger will leave for Ukraine for the weekend. This will be our church's first "mission trip", and we are excited for what the Lord has in store.
Ukraine is a place that I have always prayed for - my family on my mom's side moved to North America from Ukraine, and when I first came to Hungary, my plan was actually to stay in Debrecen for a few months, and then move on to Ukraine. The Lord had other plans for me, but Ukraine's always had a special place in my heart.
For some time now our church leadership has felt that we would like to begin doing some ministry in surrounding countries, possibly in Ukraine - so for us, this is the first step in that direction.
We will be going to the Hungarian speaking region of Ukraine, right along the border, and working with Dankó Józsi, a guy who works with Eastern European mission doing social work, and has started a Golgota church in Berehove (Beregszász in Hungarian).

We have a few goals with the trip. One is that would like to be a blessing and help to Józsi is what he is doing. On Saturday we will go with him to a gypsy settlement and a boarding school for street kids (internátus) - where we will do music outreaches similar to what we do here in Eger. On Sunday we will lead the church service in Beregszász.
Another goal is that I would like people from our church to see what real poverty is like, with the hope that it will change how they view the world. When I was 18, I took a trip to the Dominican Republic to do evangelism. We went into slums where I saw extreme poverty - and it had a big impact on my whole way of seeing the world. To this day I remember it often, and it made me realize how much I actually have - I began to appreciate my material blessings more; it made me complain less, and be more thankful. I think that everyone should have that kind of experience - it changes you.
One other goal with the trip is to "get our feet wet" in Ukraine. We feel like this is the first step for us to take in getting involved in ministry there, and after we do this, we will wait for God to show us the next step.

Here are some things you can pray for, for the trip:

• Smooth border crossing - that it would be fast, and that there would be no problem with customs because of the donations we are bringing. That all the papers with the cars would be in order, and that we would be able to cross quickly and smoothly.
• For the 2 outreaches on Saturday afternoon - that the Holy Spirit would give us the words to speak, and that the whole time would be anointed and effective.
• We aren't exactly sure of how everything will go - so please pray that we would be flexible and led by the Spirit.
• For safe travel and for the cars to run well. My car isn't running as well as it used to, and neither is Jani's - so please pray for them!

I hope to take pictures of our time there and post them here once we've returned.
Thanks for praying!

Problem with Baby - Please Pray!

(Magyar verzió lent van)

There is good news and bad news.

Good news:

• Felicia Pearl Cady was born this morning at around 8:20. She is alive and in stable condition.
• Rosemary is fine.

Bad news:

• When we got to the hospital this morning, they checked the amniotic fluid, and found miconium (first poop) in it. They could barely find a heart beat, so they did an emergency c-section.
• Felicia had the miconium go into her lungs and was without oxygen for some time. When she came out she was totally blue, limp and not able to breathe on her own. She was not moving.
• She has been taken in a special ambulance to Budapest, where they treat babies with this condition. I am going to leave for Budapest in a few minutes to be with her. The next 24 hrs are critical.
• According to the doctor, anything can happen at this point. It is possible she won't survive, but also possible that she could have a total recovery and be fine. There is a serious danger that she could have lasting effects from the lack of oxygen to her vital organs - and a chance of brain damage.

PLEASE PRAY that Felicia would have a full recovery and total restoration.
Please pray for Rosemary, Nate, and Balázs. Rosemary will be in the hospital for 5 days recovering.
We are thankful to the Lord for all the blessings He has shown us today. It is amazing that we got to the hospital in time - the doctor said that if we would have been 10 min later, she would not have survived. We are thankful that there is special care available, and we are thankful for all the people who have kindly helped us and prayed for us.
We are hoping and praying for total recovery, that Felicia could live a healthy life. Thank you for praying.

Jó hír:

• Cady Felícia Pearl ma 8:20 körül megszületett. Életben van, és stabil az állapota.
• Rosemary jól van.

Rossz hír:

• Amikor megérkeztünk a kórházba ma reggel, megnézték a magzat vízet, és láttak, hogy mekonium (első kaki) volt benne. Alíg találtak szívhangot, és ezért sürgős császár meccést csináltak.
• A mekonium Felícia tüdőibe ment, és egy ideig oxigén nélkül volt. Amikor kijött, teljesen kék volt, nem mozgott, és nem tudott levegőt venni magától.
• Elszállították egy speciális mentőautóval pestre, ahol ilyen állapotú babákat ellátnak. Hamarosan elindulok pestre én is, hogy vele legyek. A következő 24 óra kritikus.
• Az orvos szerint, most bármi lehetséges. Az is lehetséges, hogy nem fog túl élni, és az is lehetséges hogy teljesen meggyógyul és minden rendben lesz. Arra is van komoly veszély, hogy az oxigén hiány miatt tartosan megsérültek a szervei - arra is van esély, hogy agysérülés lesz.

KÉRLEK, IMÁDKOZZATOK, hogy Felícia meggyógyuljon teljesen, és hogy teljes helyreállás legyen.
Kérlek, imádkozzatok Rosemaryért, Nate-ért, és Balázsért. Rosemary 5 napig bent marad a kórházban.
Nagyon hálások vagyunk az Úrnak mindazokért az áldásokért amikkel megáldott minket ma. Annyira jó, hogy időben odaértünk a kórházba - az orvos azt mondta, hogy ha 10 perccel később jöttünk volna, akkor tuti, hogy nem élt volna. Hálások vagyunk, hogy van ez a speciális ellátás, és hálások vagyunk mindazokért az emberekért akik kedvesen segítenek nekünk és imádkoznak értünk.
Reménykedünk és imádkozunk teljes gyógyulás és helyreállásért, hogy Felícia egy egészséges életet tudjon élni. Köszönjük, hogy imádkoztok.

News

I realized it's been a while since we've written an update.
Here's a quick rundown of what's new with us and our minister in Eger:

• Rosemary is 9 months pregnant.
  Our baby girl is due next Wednesday, Jan. 20th. Rosemary has been having a really hard time for the past two weeks, and we are praying that the baby will come as soon as possible. She is very itchy, to the point where she can't sleep at night. Please pray for her!
• We moved.
  With our family growing, we were really cramped in our old flat. We loved living there and were sad to say goodbye to it, but we needed something bigger. We found a great place, owned by a friend of ours actually. It is still walking distance from the center, it is almost double the size of our old place - which means that we all have some much needed privacy, as well as a guest room/office.
• Nick's parents were here for Christmas.
  We were blessed by their visit, and were sad to see them go. It was good to be with family and to have Nick's parents here in Eger. Nate really enjoyed spending time with his grandparents. We talk to them every week on skype, so he recognized them right away and loved spending time with them.
• Car accident.
  The day after Nick's parents arrived, we were out running errands, and our car spun out on ice and hit a tree. After 3 weeks in the shop, we got our car back on Wednesday. Throughout the whole thing, we were amazed and blessed by the generosity of our friends and church family, who helped us out so much. One family in the church were so kind to even lend us their car for the whole 3 weeks, which was a huge help with Nick's parents being here and Rosemary being 9 months pregnant.
• Dani moved back to Eger.
  Dani, a guy who was part of the church for a while, but then moved to Budapest for work, has moved back to Eger out of a conviction that God wants him to be here and serve in our church. For us this is an answer to prayer, as we see that God has gifted him and given him a heart for outreach and ministry. We love Dani as a friend and brother and are glad that he is back as part of the church and laboring with us for the Gospel.
  Dani is living with his parents in a village outside of Eger, and his goal is to find work and a flat in town. Please pray for that!
• Shane is moving to Szolnok.
  Shane Daniels has served with us in Eger for over 3 years now. We have enjoyed working together with him, and he has been a big help to us and the church during this time. Shane and his wife Marianna are now expecting a baby and will move to Szolnok, Marianna's home town, with the goal of starting a Bible study there. Shane will continue to be part of the church here until the end of the year, travelling up from Szolnok 2 Sundays a month. Please pray for them, their baby, and their future ministry. Please pray for us as we make this transition.
  
• Christmas service.
  We had a really blessed Christmas service on Dec. 25th. Many people brought their parents and family members, many of whom had never been to the church, and they got to hear the wonderful news about Immanuel.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

First Bible Study in Szihalom

Today we organized a Children's program in Szihalom. This was our fourth such program, and so far they have been consistently successful, as the Lord has given us great open doors and a good reputation in the village.

For a long time we've talked about the idea of eventually starting a Bible study for adults there, and whilst this is still in the prayer and waiting stage - today we had our first Bible study.
We had the Children's program in the morning, and the Bible study for adults in the afternoon. Jani taught it, and did a great job; afterwards we prayed for the needs of the people who came - Szihalom is a pretty poor village and the people certainly have needs and concerns to pray for.

We are still praying about what the future holds, but it was a great day of ministry in Szihalom, and something we hope will grow in the future.

This Weekend

We have a 10 day outreach team from the Bible College in Vajta here in Eger right now. There are some really nice people on the team, and our first few days with them have gone really well.
They arrived on Friday night, and after getting them settled, we were off to Szihalom on Saturday morning, where we did a clothing donation and a children's program. Our events in Szihalom are more and more popular; we had a ton of kids this time, and were able to give away a lot of clothes to poor families.

We are planning our next event in Szihalom for December 5, and are praying about how to eventually begin tying this in with a Bible study for adults.

Today at church we had Németh Jani, the pastor of the Calvary Chapel in Tatabánya, as our guest teacher. It was refreshing to not have to prepare on Saturday night, plus the fact that we got an extra hour because of daylight savings!

After church the Vajta team went out to do evangelism in the city, and at 4 o'clock we had a meeting for Spanish speakers, since one of the members of the team is our good friend Pablo, from Cuba, whom we've known for many years.

From Tuesday to Friday we will have a book table in the market place selling Christian books. We've never done anything like this before, so please pray that it would be an effective and fruitful ministry!
I will write updates on how things go.