Eastern European Outreach Celebrates 20 years!
What a wonderful celebration we had last Saturday! I have been involved in this mission work for 15 years and have been on the Board of Directors the last 10 years. Please, Rejoice with us!
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 LOOKING BACK BUT ALSO FORWARDOn the 12th of May, on a sunny Saturday our mission centre in Inarcs was home to a jubilee celebration of the 20 years’ anniversary of the Eastern European Mission Hungary. We celebrated with a day of thanksgiving, including a church service with our more than 150 guests. It is impossible to reflect on all the activities of two decades in only a few hours. However, it seems more realistic to recall a few episodes from the past, to remember the major milestones and bring back some of the emotions that we went through in the past 20 years. And this is exactly what we attempted on May 12th where we were able to rejoice together with the more than 150 guests in what God has done in the past. Eelco de Boer, the international director of Eastern-European Mission preached at the thanksgiving service and Amaro Del from the Ukraine lead us in worship. But also many of the guests shared with us their testimonies about their missionary activities from the past. Imre Fekete, the director of the Hungarian EEM as well as other missionary colleagues shared how God is touching the lives of countless people and how He has changed around the situation of many people living in hopeless and desperate conditions.
The audience was able to gain an insight into the broad possibilities that God’s ministry provides through the short reports of those who have committed their lives to this ministry. Evangelism can occur through mission towards people affected by leprosy, through supporting poor families, through child sponsorship but also through witnessing towards Afghan refugees, towards elderly in Albania as well as Gypsy communities in the Ukraine. The harvest is plentiful, the fields are very diverse and the tasks require a wide range of skills. It is solely up to us when and how we start using our God-given talents.
Though our jubilee day was mainly focused on thanksgiving by reminding us of the many blessings of the past, it was at the same time also pointing to the future. Looking back at God’s faithfulness in all our past activities, we have a certain hope for what lies ahead. Though we can’t see all the details of our future, we can still be sure that God will never leave us nor forsake us.
You can view a selection of photos from the jubilee by clicking here.
 Let’s pray for those who have heard the Gospel through us in the past twenty years! May God bless those seeds sawn during our mission activities so that they would bring good fruit in the appointed time. Let’s pray for the Christian servants and their families and organisations as it’s not an easy task to faithfully continue in mission work despite many restricting circumstances. |
 Practical help
Aunt Piroska lives with her three children on a farm outside of Kiskunfélegyháza (southern Hungary). Given the distance to the city, it is difficult for her to attend church regularly so our colleague Attila Kereszi visits her several times a month.
Despite the remoteness, Piroska is by no means lonely, the proof of which are twelve books full of her own poems. These poems tell of God and about how He helps her and provides for her in her everyday life.
Just recently she was able to experience God’s provision in a practical way yet again: thanks to the generous donation of an elderly Dutch couple Attila was able to build a coop for her chicken and also finish off her porch with a railing. All this might not seem like explicitly “missionary activity” to you, however, it is essential for survival for many people living in farmlands to be able to secure their everyday food and income with investments like this. Apart from evangelistic activities, Attila Kereszi works on several practical projects which on the one hand improve the living conditions of Christians but on the other hand can also serve as a bridge towards non-Christians hearing the Gospel for the first time. | In our last e-news we wrote about Albanian familiesin dangerous and desperate situations due to various blood feuds. The men in danger are not able to leave their homes; hence they lose their jobs and are unable to provide for their families. Later this week our colleagues will visit some of the forty families affected. They will try to ease their situations with giving out food packages and with talking to and praying for the families.  Our colleagues Gabor and Etelka Muzslai have distributed sowings among families in need in Vojvodina (Serbia). A total of 18 families received such donations and they were all very grateful for the seeds.
In connection with this year’s jubilee, we published a special edition of our printed newsletter including many photos from the history of the past 20 years. You can download the newsletter as a PDF file by clicking on the link below:
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