Weekly Update
November 29, 2010
THANKSGIVING WORSHIP SERVICE
Above: Roger and Tamás looking through a book composed of church members’ hand written notes of why they give thanks to God in 2010.
Generally speaking, Hungarians are known as a very pessimistic people. The majority of small talk and conversations you hear in public consist of complaining and more complaining. In the Hungarian school system, teachers primarily point out weaknesses and mistakes while keeping silent on progress and success of students. If something is going well, then that is the way it should be. Instead of thankfulness or encouragement, words are used for complaint, grumbling and shaming others for their failures.
Psalm 106:1 says, “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” How does the Gospel transform Hungarians? When they experience God’s love which endures forever, they are set free from grumbling and become men and women who give thanks. Their heads are taken from only seeing darkness and gloom and lifted to see Jesus Christ and their adoption as children of God through grace.
The new nature of the Hungarian Christian that is able to give thanks in all circumstances is beautifully bright in this culture. This light of thankfulness that shines before others is attractive, astounding and draws attention to our Father who is in heaven.
Just before coming to worship practice and setting up, we got word from a person in the community who wanted to donate over 50 sandwiches to our church! Apparently, there was a scheduled soccer game that was canceled because of the bad weather, and this person who owns the local soccer field and boxing arena thought about our church. What a miracle to have these delivered to many of the poor families in our church right on the day we were talking about thankfulness.
Above: One of three small groups that we broke up into to allow for more intimate conversation and sharing..
Recently I read a quote on one of my past mentor’s blog posts: “Why is it that in the church we usually violate so many of the rules of hospitality? Where else in our society do we force people to get all dressed up and sit in very hard seats for one hour, and sit in such a position that they can’t see anybody’s face or be seen by anybody else? Where else in society do we ignore so many rules of hospitality? Yet, somehow, we still expect friendliness to happen.” —Bruce Rowlison (Creative Hospitality)
The benefit of gathering first generation Christians together and the benefit of church planting is having the freedom to reform traditions that may be doing more harm than good. Our teammate Brenda did a great job planning out how we would carry out this past week’s thanksgiving service that I believed followed many of the unspoken rules of hospitality.
Above: After each person shared their reason for being thankful to God in 2010, another member in the group would pray for that individual. At the end of the service, each person was personally prayed for. We were thankful that there were also guests who attended who are not believers. One of them commented in their group that just a year ago they had absolutely no belief in God, but through the testimony of others in the church, through everyday signs that God has been delivering and through one on one conversations with some others they are beginning to believe.
Above: Dezső closing the evening with teaching on the symbolism in the advent wreath. We lit the first candle thanking Jesus for coming into the world as the light of the world.
John 8:12 Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
FRIDAY TEEN OUTREACH PICS
FAMILY PICS
Above: Kira enjoying this year’s first snow fall by building a mini-snowman in the middle of our sidewalk.
Above: Who knew when we bought this house that the steep driveway would be so useful? God knew!
Above: Aunt Brenda reading a book about thanksgiving to the kids.
Above: Elianna entertaining our teammate’s daughter Emily.
PRAYER REQUESTS
• A drama team composed of teens from our church continues to practice on Sunday. Please continue to pray for these teens, the majority who were recently baptized to mature in their faith and be built up in fellowship.
• Our final practices for our Christmas Puppet Outreach in public schools end this week. We already have 25 schools in our region scheduled. Our first show is THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. Please pray for us. Also praise God for providing money to buy the evangelistic CD’s and magazines we will distribute to all the kids this year!
• Over the past three weeks we have had some supporters send financial gifts that have helped our current deficit in monthly support. We ask that you continue to pray for our Father to provide new supporters and bring our support level out of deficit.
Above: Roger and Tamás looking through a book composed of church members’ hand written notes of why they give thanks to God in 2010.
Generally speaking, Hungarians are known as a very pessimistic people. The majority of small talk and conversations you hear in public consist of complaining and more complaining. In the Hungarian school system, teachers primarily point out weaknesses and mistakes while keeping silent on progress and success of students. If something is going well, then that is the way it should be. Instead of thankfulness or encouragement, words are used for complaint, grumbling and shaming others for their failures.
Psalm 106:1 says, “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” How does the Gospel transform Hungarians? When they experience God’s love which endures forever, they are set free from grumbling and become men and women who give thanks. Their heads are taken from only seeing darkness and gloom and lifted to see Jesus Christ and their adoption as children of God through grace.
The new nature of the Hungarian Christian that is able to give thanks in all circumstances is beautifully bright in this culture. This light of thankfulness that shines before others is attractive, astounding and draws attention to our Father who is in heaven.
Just before coming to worship practice and setting up, we got word from a person in the community who wanted to donate over 50 sandwiches to our church! Apparently, there was a scheduled soccer game that was canceled because of the bad weather, and this person who owns the local soccer field and boxing arena thought about our church. What a miracle to have these delivered to many of the poor families in our church right on the day we were talking about thankfulness.
Above: One of three small groups that we broke up into to allow for more intimate conversation and sharing..
Recently I read a quote on one of my past mentor’s blog posts: “Why is it that in the church we usually violate so many of the rules of hospitality? Where else in our society do we force people to get all dressed up and sit in very hard seats for one hour, and sit in such a position that they can’t see anybody’s face or be seen by anybody else? Where else in society do we ignore so many rules of hospitality? Yet, somehow, we still expect friendliness to happen.” —Bruce Rowlison (Creative Hospitality)
The benefit of gathering first generation Christians together and the benefit of church planting is having the freedom to reform traditions that may be doing more harm than good. Our teammate Brenda did a great job planning out how we would carry out this past week’s thanksgiving service that I believed followed many of the unspoken rules of hospitality.
Above: After each person shared their reason for being thankful to God in 2010, another member in the group would pray for that individual. At the end of the service, each person was personally prayed for. We were thankful that there were also guests who attended who are not believers. One of them commented in their group that just a year ago they had absolutely no belief in God, but through the testimony of others in the church, through everyday signs that God has been delivering and through one on one conversations with some others they are beginning to believe.
Above: Dezső closing the evening with teaching on the symbolism in the advent wreath. We lit the first candle thanking Jesus for coming into the world as the light of the world.
John 8:12 Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
FRIDAY TEEN OUTREACH PICS
FAMILY PICS
Above: Kira enjoying this year’s first snow fall by building a mini-snowman in the middle of our sidewalk.
Above: Who knew when we bought this house that the steep driveway would be so useful? God knew!
Above: Aunt Brenda reading a book about thanksgiving to the kids.
Above: Elianna entertaining our teammate’s daughter Emily.
PRAYER REQUESTS
• A drama team composed of teens from our church continues to practice on Sunday. Please continue to pray for these teens, the majority who were recently baptized to mature in their faith and be built up in fellowship.
• Our final practices for our Christmas Puppet Outreach in public schools end this week. We already have 25 schools in our region scheduled. Our first show is THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. Please pray for us. Also praise God for providing money to buy the evangelistic CD’s and magazines we will distribute to all the kids this year!
• Over the past three weeks we have had some supporters send financial gifts that have helped our current deficit in monthly support. We ask that you continue to pray for our Father to provide new supporters and bring our support level out of deficit.
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