Eastern-European Mission, Hungary report
Here is a report about winter in Hungary written by the Mission Organization I work with for many years. I am on the Board of Directors of "Kelet-Europa Misszio" - "Eastern- European Mission, Hungary". (A number of you have even attended our summer "Barnabas Camps".)
I know many of you are aware of the harsh conditions in Europe this winter. Here is an up-close look. Your faithful prayers and support helps me be able to reach out beyond my borders to help others. Thank you! Please note the affect our Mission is having in Serbia to the "nations". I will hopefully be making my first trip to Serbia in April.
Take time to click on the links "Mission Center" to view the building in Hungary and "Amaro Del" for update on the band, and "Pannon TV" report on the refugees in Serbia.
I know many of you are aware of the harsh conditions in Europe this winter. Here is an up-close look. Your faithful prayers and support helps me be able to reach out beyond my borders to help others. Thank you! Please note the affect our Mission is having in Serbia to the "nations". I will hopefully be making my first trip to Serbia in April.
Take time to click on the links "Mission Center" to view the building in Hungary and "Amaro Del" for update on the band, and "Pannon TV" report on the refugees in Serbia.
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 FIREWOOD FOR HEATING HOMESEach winter is a critical season, especially for families struggling with serious financial issues. Many times there is no money left to buy firewood and in the freezing temperatures of the winter the houses can get incredibly cold – and people have no choice but trying to survive in these inhumane conditions. We were given the opportunity to ease the suffering of several families through specific firewood donations that we received. For family Nagy in Western Hungary the donation arrived just in time. The father tries to earn a living from seasonal work, the mother stays at home. They have three children, two of which are disabled and need constant supervision and care. After buying the necessary things for their daily survival, there’s no money left for firewood. They received 26 (metric) quintals of firewood which will hopefully be enough to get them through the toughest cold of this winter. In another village in Western Hungary lives family Kiss in deep poverty. They have seven children, one of them disabled. The grandmother, who is mentally unstable and in need of constant care and supervision, lives with them, too. For the past five years, the father was unable to find a job: he is a day-labourer and sometimes he doesn’t even receive wages, only food in return for his work. Since the family had no money for firewood, they resorted to chopping up and burning one of the beds and several wardrobes to try and keep the house from freezing. The family doesn’t know much about God but a few months back they received a bible and were encouraged by one of our colleagues to cry out to God for all their needs. The grandmother did just that: she prayed that God would send them help without asking any people for it. The Lord’s timing was perfect: just when this prayer was said, our colleague phoned the family informing them that thanks to the generosity of one of our donors we would like to give them 15 quintals of firewood. All this was a great testimony and upon our visit the grandmother kept on retelling this incident again and again. Apart from the physical help, the family will also receive spiritual help in the future: local brothers and sisters have committed themselves to visiting the family at least once a month. The situation of Norbert, a father living in Pusztaszabolcs, isn’t easy either. He lives with his wife and their 13 year-old daughter and none of the parents have work. In 2001 Norbert had to undergo brain surgery due to a tumour and as a result his right side has been paralysed and he can’t properly use his right hand. Due to this disability he’s unable to find work and he was made a ‘disability pensioner’. The little state benefit he receives though is never enough to make ends meet for the family. Many a times they had to make the tough decision to either buy firewood or food, i.e. to either go hungry or cold. The donation of the 10 quintals of firewood just arrived on time. Norbert has confessed to us that during the trials of these past years he lost even whatever little faith he used to have. This support though was a real encouragement to him about God’s providence even in difficult times. The local pastor accompanied us and invited Norbert to accept Jesus and to join his fellowship. The rough cold also poses a problem in Budapest , the capital of Hungary . The elderly Feri and his wife live with their four children in a detached house. Their 38 year-old daughter suffers from severe schizophrenia and regularly receives medical treatments. One of their sons had moved out already but as he became unemployed and unable to pay the bills, the gas supply has been shut off so him and his whole family regularly visit Feri to warm up there and have a bath. We arrived just when they were collecting the last little branches and pieces of wood. A few days later a small trailer stopped in front of their house to unload 10 quintals of firewood. Feri expressed his gratitude for the donation several times and finally asked to have our notebook. He scribbled this short message into it: “Thank you! We’re asking our Heavenly Father to give this back a hundred times from His heavenly bank account!”  Let’s pray for the families who received firewood in this extremely cold weather! We’ve experienced already many times that the Lord has used these difficult situations to not only warm the houses but also the the cold relationships these people had with Him. Let’s ask the Lord to keep these ‘warmed up’ relationships alive so that people would understand the importance of living their lives with and for Jesus Christ! |
 A refuge for the refugees...
The refugees camping in Subotica , Serbia were allowed to move into an abandoned restaurant to keep them from freezing in the extreme winter cold. Before they were trying to survive in self-made plastic tents and sheds just outside of Subotica . Colleagues from the Eastern-European Mission as well as the local media were instrumental in putting pressure on the local authorities to provide some solution to the worsening situation.
For several months now about 100-150 refugees have lived in the outskirts of Subotica . Most of them came from Afghanistan , Iran and Pakistan . Our colleagues in Vojvodina, Tibor Varga and Tibor Nagy visited them on a regular basis to help them stay alive with food, clothes, blankets etc. Thanks to the generosity of donors from Hungary we were able to give them huge amounts of clothes and particularly jackets which was a great help for the freezing and hopeless refugees who had to endure the continuous harassment of the local authorities.
The fact that they were able to move into the abandoned restaurant provided a huge improvement to their previous situation which was open-air camping without any facilities.
The Serbian media has visited the refugees and made a short report about them. Most of the video is in English with Hungarian subtitles. You can watch it by following the below link:
| Amaro Del will have its first two concerts of the year this weekend. They’ll be performing as part of the Offline Romafestival in Leányfalu, Hungary on Friday, 24th February and the next day they’ll be one of the bands taking part in the ’12-hour worship’ of a Baptist Church in Ocsa, Hungary. Further information about upcoming concerts can be found here: Amaro Del Many of us are trying to escape the winter by already planning activities for the summer! The mission centre of the Eastern-European Mission Hungary is the perfect spot for a short break with a few people or even for a large retreat of 100! We have 5 guest rooms inside the main building which can house up to 15 people but there are also bungalows outside, for 4 persons each. In addition, there are 3 camper vans as well as ample space for camping in our beautiful park-like garden. Our visitors can have barbeques, camp fires, play volleyball, etc. and even rent bikes. It’s truly an idyllic, quiet and lovely place, perfect for churches, groups of friends or other fellowships. For photos, prices and further information, please follow the link below:The Mission Centre |
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