Wednesday, September 23, 2015

September Prayer Letter


September 23, 2015

Dear Praying Friends,

A lot has happened since our last letter. Nancy and Ben are back in Jacksonville, FL as sophomores at Trinity Baptis College. Esther is now in 11th grade here in Hungary. Hannah has started high school. Charin is back teaching three days a week at two different elementary schools. Our two churches are in full swing. We enjoyed a great summer in our family and ministry and are looking forward to a great fall season as well. Here are some highlights.

Building Project in Tata:
We have made a huge amount of progress on our building in Tata. The roof of the new building is pretty much completed. We are still working on replacing the roof on our old building and would like to complete it before winter sets in. We are also beginning the work on the interior of our new building. Our goal is to hold our first service in the new building in November. One of our church men is overseeing the work on a daily basis, which is a huge help to me, as I only have to be involved in the major decisions. We are also doing most of the work ourselves, which means a slightly slower process, but our people are enjoying having a personal investment in the building program. We have had two big “church wide” work days recently to work on the roofing. It was a blessing to see our people working together to accomplish a common goal.

It looks like we have enough money to finish the new building, but we will need additional funds to remodel the old building and do the grounds and landscaping of our courtyard. I am guessing that we will need another $10,000-12,000 to finish these projects. If you would like to contribute to our building fund, you can send the money to Global Faith designated for „Hungary Building Project.” We are grateful for all the help that we have received so far. 

Esztergom news:
The big item of news is that we have a new youth leader for our teens. Our previous youth leader resigned in January, and I became the “defacto” youth leader while we sought a replacement. I had not really realized the amount of time and energy involved! I had two of our men helping out on a rotational basis, and we were very pleased that one of them felt led to take on full responsibility. Tibor Kruska has been in our church almost from the beginning, and has also been one of our deacons for a number of years. One of his three sons is a teen already, so he has a vested interest in our youth program. This past Sunday we had a special prayer for him and our youth group asking the Lord to bless him in his new ministry. I am grateful that the Lord has met this need. 

Two big events:
This Saturday, September 26, we will host a Christian workers conference for area churches. We have about 100 people preregistered from nine different churches. We specifically targeted smaller churches with fewer resources. Several of the churches are without pastors and in need of encouragement and direction. Please pray with us that this conference will be a blessing to both us and them.

On October 11th our church in Esztergom will celebrate its 20th anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been in Hungary that long! We have invited numerous people for this special occasion. We have tried to focus on both former members who are out of church, and also on lost people who have visited in the past. We were also pleased that the mayor of Esztergom also accepted our invitation. This will be a first for us. The president of the Hungarian Baptist Union will be our guest speaker. He is a great preacher and has been a friend of our ministry over the years. Please pray that the Word of God would go forth with power, and that this will be a great day of both celebration and outreach!

Thank you for your prayers and support.
                                                                        
Serving for His Glory,


Marc



Building Project in Tata
Interior of building


Tibor Kruska our new youth leader

Prayer of blessing on Tibor and young people. Tibor's wife, Kriszti, is on the far right.