Above L to R: Some of our volunteers Lilli, Jázmin, Alexander, Patrik, Anna with their child Nóé. Alexander who is dating our daughter Ellie had been doing an internship in Bulgaria and made a stop in Hungary to meet our family and also serve at camp with us. He did a great job connecting with the kids and serving throughout the week. Alexander also attends Moody along with Ellie in Chicago.

Patrik and Anna are looking into serving on an OM ship ministry. Please pray for them as they look into this mission opportunity and seek God's direction for their family.

In contrast to the cooler temperatures of our first VBS, we began our camp in a heat wave with temperatures in the nineties. Also, Janka who was scheduled to give one of the teachings in the main meeting time had Covid (now recovered) and was not able to attend camp. Thankfully her daughter was able to remain the whole week with no issues. Also, the set up was much easier as we were able to store our tents and most camp items onsite. I am very thankful for the number of youth that volunteered as helpers at camp and did all of the heavy lifting. We are also thankful for the power of God's Spirit that was at work to keep us unified throughout the week. I believe this unity in Christ had a tremendous impact on the children and parents that visited on the last day.



Above: We had close to fifty volunteers serving together in unity at our second camp.





Above: Abigél with her grandmother Edit. Edit was saved years ago through the ministries of our church and has had the privilege to take her grandkids to our VBS for many years. Now Edit's grandchildren are old enough to be volunteers and Abigél was Edit's helper in their small group.



Above: Ellie's helpers in her small group, Hanna and Csanád. Csanád is also one of Edit's grandchildren all grown up now. Earlier in the week of camp, I saw Patrik sitting down one-on-one with Csanád. I was curious what they were talking about as I know Patrik is an evangelist. Later Ellie told me that in a conversation they had in their small group, Hanna said, "It's been one year since I was saved!". Csanád jumped in and said, "It's been three days since I was saved." Praise God that the Gospel is being passed on from Edit to her grandchildren! Patrik told me later that there wasn't much that Csanád needed, he just had a few questions that God led Patrik to answer the day they talked and Csanád put his faith in Jesus.




Above: Szabi serving as "Camp Leader" in charge of communication and keeping the campers on schedule throughout the day. At this second camp, I was struck by how God has raised up wonderful young men and young women who are taking more and more ownership of camp ministry. This is always our desire as we seek to disciple and mentor so that Hungarians are equipped to serve in proclaiming the gospel when we are long gone. Szabi, along with three other youth from our church, will be in their second year of theological training. Please pray for this new generation to continue to mature in Christ and be equipped to continue carrying out the calling to proclaim His good news to all nations.



Above: Ellie providing the main teaching mid camp with the topic of finding our value and worth in God. The "Mona Lisa", Benni also recently shared that he has put his faith in Christ sometime last year after faithfully attending youth group meetings. I will never forget first getting to know Beni years ago at one of the first VBS's he attended. Running with the other kids in a Nerf battle, he tripped and broke his arm. We were concerned about the reaction his parents would have. His mom said, "Oh, this kind of stuff happens all the time with him." And Beni was back at VBS with a cast the next day! This is the first year he was able to serve as a helper at camp.



Above: The older helpers fully engaged in all the motions for this year's songs at camp.













Above: As a remedy for the heat wave, we began our slippery slide midweek every afternoon. We praise God that even though the rest of the town had a temporary water outage, the campsite which is at the edge of town was not affected.







Above: Teammate Heidi distributed papers to kids in camp asking them to write down one thing they learned this week. It was great to see the collage on display for parents of encouraging images relating back to the Bible stories that were taught and verses that were memorized in small group.



Above: Most of these kids are from our village Petofibánya and return every year learning more and more about Jesus and life as a believer. Unfortunately, we don't see most of these kids attending church afterwards. Our hope is that they, along with their parents, will come to put their faith in Jesus and that we'll see the same miraculous pattern at work that we see in Edit's family. On the last day of camp, we invited parents to attend and held a small group just for them. We discussed the contrast between the way the world loves and the way that Jesus calls us to love. We discussed the challenge of the type of love that freely lends not expecting anything in return. I was able to share about how Jesus displays his definition of love in His own sacrifice for our sins on the cross and was able to share some personal testimony about how His love has changed my life. We had many evangelistic books and Bibles set out that many took afterwards. Also, we had a few parents respond to an invite for an upcoming Bible study that will be launched later this year indicating their desire to attend.

On the last day of camp as we had our closing ceremony showing the highlight film of the week, the skies began to look as if a thunderstorm was quickly approaching. There was a bit of drizzle off and on, but in the end by God's grace, because of the overcast, the temperature cooled down and we were able to pack up everything without any pouring rain.

After a few days of recovery and rest, we're off to our last camp of the summer which is designed for older teens, the majority who were volunteers and serving at our VBS together. This is a mixed group of believers and unbelievers and a great opportunity to help them more deeply contemplate what God has been teaching them throughout the summer and how they will continue to follow Him once the school year begins. We ask you to pray for the younger youth group leaders who have taken on more responsibilities for planning and leading. Pray also for those who have heard the truth of the gospel for years but have not yet made a decision to be convicted and turn to Jesus to be saved.





Above: A view from our home after the end of our first VBS, God sent a beautiful rainbow.

Here are highlight films for this year's second VBS camp in Petofibánya. Enjoy!