Amaro Del report
This report just in from the mission organization Eastern European Outreach. I have been on the Board of Directors of this mission for many years and have been able with your help, to be both an encouragement and a supporter of numerous projects. Helping these particular friends is close to my heart. Please enjoy this great report of their ministry for 2011.
Amaro Del had a truly busy year: they gave a lot of concerts (twenty-nine in total!), draw huge audiences and gained lots of great experiences. Which ones were the most memorable moments for them? Which event made the biggest impact on them? These are some questions we discussed with some of the band members.
The best description for Amaro Del’s 2011 is ‘busy’. They’ve been to numerous places, within and outside of Hungary. It’s not an easy task to choose the best moments from the season, from the many experiences and performances held in many different denominations up to the This Is The Day Festival which was the last gig this year. Ruszlan Jankovszki, Sandor Tejfel and Tibor Virag unanimously said that among the many venues, the visit to the prison in Vac (not far from Budapest) was the most memorable one. Sandor says that the most surprising thing about the ‘prison concert’ was to experience that the people living inside seemed to be more free than those outside the walls. Several inmates became Christian and formed a church whose leader is Aunty Margit, a Reformed Pastor who visits them several times a week. The band reported about the unusual event when the inmates, one after the other, stood up and testified of God’s love and goodness. In Dombovar the guys proclaimed the gospel as part of a street outreach and a new Gypsy church was started from the new Christians there. Ruszlan emphasised that this year Amaro Del mostly served towards non-Roma Hungarians. Once they played at a village fair where people were drinking beer and wine, eating good foods and the music was only supposed to provide a background to all this. However, as people started listening to the lyrics of the songs, they were surprised and started paying more attention: they have never experienced before that Rome people would sing songs praising God. At another concert someone came up to the guys afterwards and admitted that he was thinking about suicide but by the end of the outreach decided not to go through with it.
The lead singer Tibor Virag said that for him the This Is The Day Festival in Budapest was a great experience: it is a rare experience to praise God in unison with so many people. He also fondly remembers their performance at the Calvary Chapel in Budapest. “I felt God’s power filling me, sometimes so strong that I almost fell face down on the stage. But I didn’t want to stop singing so I restrained myself” says Tibor and adds that several in the audience were crying and singing praise songs on their knees. There’s also an interesting experience connected to the concert at Calvary Chapel. Tibor told us that while he was struggling with difficulties in his personal life last year and almost gave up his faith, someone contacted him over the internet and told him what a great impact the ministry of Amaro Del had on his life. The person told him that it wasn’t as a result of any preaching but purely listening to their songs that he decided to become a Christian and look for a church. This is how he got to Calvary Chapel where he was able to meet the band face to face. This had a powerful impact on Tibor’s personal faith and helped him get through the deep valleys. (It’s interesting to note that this same year there was a similar case where someone started going to church and became a Christian upon listening to one of the albums of Amaro Del).It’s difficult to summarise all the experiences from this year in just a few sentences. It’s certain though that God’s blessing and love was felt continuously throughout the performances and it touched the guys as well as the audiences everywhere. Way to go, guys and praise be to God!
“We’re grateful to God for the opportunity to buy a minibus this year, which was a great need for many years. The Eastern-European Mission would like to record the fourth album of Amaro Del next year and is looking for sponsors for this as well as for an electronic piano. If anyone would like to support the ministry of the guys, please contact me” saidNorbert Makszim, their manager.
Let’s pray for the ministry of Amaro Del, that their mission towards the Roma and Hungarians would be able to continue in 2012. Let’s pray for those who were able to hear the gospel in prisons, on the streets, on squares or in churches – that the seeds sown would develop roots and bring good fruit!
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