Above: Edit and her family trickle in to the rapidly growing crowd of children signing in.



Above: Elianna, Kira and Benjamin squating as they wait for us to begin our trek to the camp site.





Above: We praise God for a smooth sign in process and for the safe arrival of all the children to this year's VBS!



Above: Julika introducing this year's theme which follows the story-line of Pilgrim's Progress. Singing time is always 'touch-and-go' the first day as we don't know if the children will participate, or play the role of 'too cool' to sing. We praise God that all the kids participated and enjoyed singing together.



Above: Tamara and Attila Szögeti. Tamara and Attila are expecting their first child. Tamara asks for prayer that she would be free of morning sickness (which she has already experienced) while serving in our VBS. Tamara and Attila also will be commuting every day. Please pray for safe travel.



Above: Éva teaching today's story about the repentant tax collector: "The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!'" (Luke 18:13) We praise God for this opportunity to deliver His word and to plant seeds that will bear fruit by His grace.







Above: God provided excellent weather to be outside for our game time. We could actually see storm clouds in the distance and were even lightly showered for less than a minute. We praise God for blessing us with this gift so that we could spend most of our day outside.



Above: In the midst of the day, an old friend of Dezső happened to be in town and came in response to Dezső's invite. Because of Dezső's relationship with him, we were able to get into conversations about God and salvation through Jesus Christ. It turns out that this man was also involved in various dark spiritual activities with Dezső years ago, like mind control and walking on coals. Today I rejoiced as Dezső and I sought to lead this man to consider the claims of Jesus Christ and to experience His saving grace personally. Please pray for this man to be drawn to Jesus Christ and to come to an understanding of salvation provided through Jesus.



Above: The 90+ kids that God has entrusted to us, that we might lead them to Jesus Christ.



Above: My favorite shot from today. Yes I am biased.

God answered in so many ways today. The sign-in process was great. There were no reports of the kids from Romania (ethnically Hungarian) being made fun of or being treated with disrespect. The teaching time went well and was mostly free of distractions. Erika and I were not able to meet with parents, but I was able to talk to Dezső's friend.

New requests:

As expected, the first day is terribly draining physically to the team. Please pray for renewed strength and that God would bless us with rest tonight.

Some of the younger children (pre-school age) have been difficult to draw in and keep in one place. Please pray that we would have wisdom in helping them.

Some of our transitions from eating, to crafts, to games etc. are still a bit rusty. We need wisdom for efficiency when dealing with so many children and limited teachers to keep order.

Please continue to pray for our teaching times, for God's truth to take root in the hearts of these children. We praise God for a great first day!