Christmas Puppet Update

December 20, 2025

We’re back from bringing our December Puppet Outreach to twenty nine locations throughout northeastern Hungary. We served in pre-schools, middle schools and special needs care centers distributing over 2000 gift-packets with evangelistic materials. Thank all of you for your prayers and support that equip us to continue bringing the gospel to a new generation of Hungarians!

Above: Throughout the two weeks we had some foggy mornings with low visibility. God was gracious to protect us through all our travels and maintain good working order for our vehicle and trailer.

Above: Heidi (middle) was able to fill in for Erika who's back went out just the day before we began our puppet outreach. Heidi herself was also recovering from a sickness when filling in, but by God’s grace, our first day’s show was a success.

Above: Our first visit was to a preschool in our hometown of Petofibanya. We have been bringing this ministry outreach to this preschool for so many years that kids who once saw the show as preschoolers are now grown up and working as teachers. Praise God that He has kept this door open to proclaim the Gospel each Christmas and Easter.

In some unfortunate news, there are three schools that we visited last year that did not invite us back because of a change of the school principal that oversees these schools. This has happened in the past, and after prayer God graciously re-opened the doors that the enemy was seeking to shut in that situation. Please pray that God would make a way for the the door to be open again to these three schools.

Above: We praise God for giving our team strength and success even though different members came down with sicknesses throughout the two weeks. Allen was dealing with an injured toe, Sharon a hairline fracture in her pinky, and flu like symptoms seem to be hitting different members of the team each day.

Above: We begin our show with Miki telling the kids a story about a bear and wolf that choose to restore their broken friendship by asking forgiveness. Then we teach the kids this song which retells the story and speaks of the joy God's Son coming at Christmas.

Heavy snow lies deep in the forest
Frost sparkles on the trees.
The animals of the forest await you
On Christmas night.

A doe hides among the bushes,
An owl watches from the branch,
A small squirrel collects pinecones as a gift

Every forest animal sings with joy
That on Christmas night the Son of God came to us.

Every animal of the forest knows this very well:
That on Christmas night the Son of God came to us.

The bear growls in his cave, having trouble falling asleep,
He’s ready to make peace with the wolf this Christmas.
With a big tub of honey, the wolf knocks at the cave door,
And the two shaking paws are friends again and sing this song.

The kids were quick to pick up the song as you can see here in this short video clip:

Above: What is a Native American doing in a Christmas puppet show? While on a hike in snow covered mountains, the grandfather in the show tells his grandkids a tale of a young Native American child who loves playing by an ant hill in the forest. The Native American boy learns that a fire is rapidly approaching and shrinks down to ant size to communicate the danger to the ants. Then the grandfather tells the kids the true story of the fall of man and of Christ coming to earth and lowering himself to save us from our sins.

Above: After the puppet show, Erika explains the gospel to the kids. In one school when Erika was asking what God did to remove our sin which is a barrier to our relationship with God, one of the kids yelled out, “Jesus died for our sins!” It’s so encouraging to see when children so young come to know this amazing truth that can transform their lives.

Above: After Erika shows a jumbled mess of letters on poster board, she then applies a 'key' that reveals the message: Isten emberré lett értünk — Which means: "God became human for us".

Above: Erika applying a different 'key' to the same poster board which reveals the message: "God with us"

On our second day of puppets, our house water heater broke down which posed some challenges finding those who could repair it. The two men that eventually came worked late into the night trying the less expensive route of repair only to inform me that the heater was still not working. We would have to purchase a new one. I reached out to our supporting churches for financial help and they were gracious to provide.

As one of the repair men was leaving after finishing the replacement, he asked me what I did for a living. I told him, I’m a pastor of a Christian church in this town. He said something that caught me off guard and was a bit shocking. He said “Do you actually believe what you teach or do you just teach?” After doing a mental double take I responded, “Of course I believe what I teach or I wouldn’t teach it!” He said, “We thought you were a Christian the way you were always smiling and so kind.” He then told me that he was religious and his partner attended a popular Christian denomination here in Hungary. Unfortunately, there are too many Hungarians who have attended churches in their past and completely turned away because of seeing hypocrisy of leaders, pastors or priests. Pray that God would raise up faithful Hungarian leaders in His church who not only begin well, but run the race faithfully and finish well for His glory.

Above: Welcoming back our oldest daughter Ellie from the airport after our first week of puppet ministry. Ellie will be finishing Moody Bible this year and is looking into the possibility of serving in a discipleship ministry in Europe. We were thankful for Ellie's help the second week of puppets.

Above: A Hungarian snack provided by the school and a sip of coffee to keep the energy levels up.

Above: Doing a show in Rozsaszentmarton's middle school. All of our kids attended this school (and Ziva will be finishing this year). This is one of the schools that I mentioned earlier that had closed the door to our coming, but God replaced the principal and opened the door back up for us to bring the puppet ministry each year.

Above: Praise God for providing a wonderful team for the Christmas Puppet Outreach. We definitely had our challenges over the two weeks, but God was faithful to provide all we needed to successfully present the gospel in each location.

Above: Pray for the seeds that have been planted to take root and grow. The materials that we have distributed contain QR codes for the kids to watch the show again and also find other quality evangelistic material for them to explore with their parents.

Check out this highlight film of our Christmas Puppet Outreach and praise God with us!

Above: After our last day of puppets, we were back to the airport again to pick up Kira who will be visiting for a short time before her mission trip to South Asia. We're so thankful to have our daughters home for Christmas.

As we approach the end of 2025 and look forward to more opportunities in the new year, we could use your help with financial support. Both one time gifts and monthly support are needed and appreciated. Thank you for partnering with us and helping us to thrive in Hungary for so many years.

May the Lord grant you the overflow of love, joy and peace as you celebrate the wonder of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord this Christmas.