2021 Youthgroup Camping

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Over the course of the summer, many in our youth group take part in serving in our Baseball and VBS camps helping with worship, drama and small groups. We have seen them mature in many ways and at the end of August we set aside a weekend to focus on investing in their lives. There are also many who are younger teens that have attended VBS for years as children but are ready to be challenged in new ways to personally consider the claims of Christ.

Our theme for this year's Youth Group Camping Weekend was the Bible's teaching on foolishness and wisdom found in the book of Proverbs. We had a good mix of believers and those who had not yet made decisions attend.

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Above: After years of attending VBS and Baseball camps, Brenda made a decision this Summer to put her faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. We praise God for the breakthrough that happened in her heart as the seeds of the Gospel took root and are now growing by God's grace!

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Above: The teens love our times of worship around the campfire singing songs that have become their personal favorites after singing them for years at VBS camps. Many of the kids know the songs by heart and I have heard many times of how the lyrics have ministered to these teens in various situations where they needed encouragement.

After singing together we had our main teaching and continued to talk about the theme throughout the weekend in small group studies. My group consisted of 3 teens that are not yet believers but have known us for years, and 1 other teen who has matured greatly in Christ as a believer over the past year and a half. God gave me opportunity to share personal testimony of my life experiences living in foolishness and the drastic changes that God brought about when I met Jesus and chose a life of wisdom in Him. I shared with them the burden of our hearts that they have a blessed life, knowing Jesus and His word instead of a life full of regret and consequences from foolishness. I know each of these kids and asked them to think about the adults in their lives, their marriages, their attitudes and their lifestyle. Since none of the 3 teens come from a home with believers, it was not too hard to find examples of lives that suffered divorce, alcoholism, fits of anger, abuse, depression. I told them that no one thinks that the little decisions in their teen years lead to such drastic consequences as adults. But the enemy seeks to slowly take all of us down a path of foolishness away from Christ and His trustworthy word. I told them I want them to become great fathers, great husbands with great marriages and good relationships with their children. And those blessings begin with the decisions that these teens begin making now. Would they choose the life of knowing God and His wisdom, or choose to continue a godless life in their own strength and worldly wisdom. None of these three teens made a decision yet, but I know they were impacted and continue to be open.

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Above: Klaudia who heard about our camp through Erika who works with foster kids. Klaudia chose to come by herself to this camping trip not knowing any of the teens. I could see various teens reaching out to her, and especially Erika's daughter Anna sitting with her and sharing the Gospel with Klaudia on multiple occasions. Praise God, Klaudia chose to put her faith in Jesus Christ! Please pray for continued follow up with Klaudia and opportunities to teach about important aspects of growing as a believer.

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Above: (left) Gabi with his daughter Aliz and (right) Miki with his daughter Náomi. Gabi was saved years ago as a teen in the early years of the church plant in Petofibanya. He recommitted his life just a few years back at one of these Youth Group Camping Weekends and has been faithful. Now we get the privilege of seeing Gabi and his wife Eniko (also saved as a teen) raise their children in a Christian home!

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Above: On the last day we gave the teens the opportunity to contemplate what God was impressing on their hearts and write down some of the areas where they wanted God's wisdom to change them. We placed these in a time-capsule that we hope to open next year and review together.

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God provided a great weekend that helped all of us appreciate the blessing of fellowship, friendship and the gift of wisdom we find in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

But wait there's more!



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Yes, that was the last of our camps for summer and school was to begin just a few days after the camping weekend, but we had one more weekend planned for a handpicked group of kids that have displayed faithful commitment to Christ and the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. After the first week of school, we invited them to a weekend away and spent time talking about rejection, identity, honesty and unity in Christ.

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Many of these kids suffer from the harsh impact of rejection suffered from home life, school life or other childhood trauma. We learned about how the enemy seeks to shape our identity based on lies and keep us in a cycle of rejecting ourselves and others which becomes a great barrier to growth as disciple of Christ. We then took time going through Scripture studying God's proclamation of who we are as believers in Christ.

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; AND SO WE ARE." 1 John 3:1

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After our study, we had the teens write on an 'identity-card' the lies the enemy had been telling them that we would toss into the fire together. This would serve as a symbol of that false-identity dying and our choice to live by faith in the new identity that we have in Christ and His trustworthy word.

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Above: This weekend was spent close to Lake Balaton, a popular tourist destination in Hungary. After our times of study, we spent an afternoon at the Lake and braved swimming the water that was a bit too cold for comfort. Praise God for this wonderful group of teens that He is helping to grow up into maturity in Christ and sending to be ministers of His grace.

FAMILY



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Just before school started, we were able to go on vacation in northwestern Hungary.

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Above: Setting foot on an area where three borders converge.

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Above: Yes, hard to believe but our Ellie turned 18 in September! Ellie is finishing her last year of high school and Lord willing will be going to college next year in the US. Currently all schools are open in Hungary and there have not yet been new mandates for mask wearing or online classes (However this could change any moment). Ben has begun his second year of college in Budapest and may also choose to do a semester in the US next year.

Over the next month our team will be seeking God's direction and help in various initiatives in ministry and we would appreciate your prayers! Pray for the continued growth in maturity of the youth ministry. Pray for families that have drifted out of fellowship after the lockdowns due to Covid. Pray for the Gospel to reach new households and for entire families to come to know Jesus.

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Our family thanks you for helping us serve full time in Hungary! "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all." (2 Thessalonians 3:16)
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