A Certain Woman in Eastern Europe

The newlyweds Erik & Sara enjoy hosting "ICF-Friday at 7" in their rooftop apartment. ICF - International Christian Fellowship of Szeged was started in the fall of 2007. It began as an in home bible study of missionary, Arden Campbell. As international university students joined that group they began to ask for an english speaking fellowship and ICF began as a team lead ministry in a rented meeting room downtown Szeged. This new school year (fall 2009) the meetings were moved to Sara and Erik's flat. The students really seem to be enjoying the new format which now includes dinner, and a dvd bible study with lots of good discussion and prayer time. This week's meeting was lightly attended as it was still exam week and some regulars were out of town but the rest of us enjoyed a good meal, very good dvd, lively discussion and prayer time. You were missed!!

A hay maze at the Christmas Market Dom Ter, Szeged site of one of the markets Christmas Celebration Weeks Nov 25-Dec 24

I was blessed to be asked to speak at the New Covenant Church. Here is some of their leadership team. All are first or second year medical students. In 2 weeks they will come to ICF and do some special music for us and we will bring a couple of our medical students from Debrecen to meet them. Their acappela worship was so anointed!

International Christian Fellowship is also sometimes International Couple Finders :-) Congratulations to Erik and Sara!! who became engaged this summer when back home in Sweden and will marry in Stockholm August 15.

Our second year of the Fellowship is going so well. The whole team was able to meet this weekend (Fri eve and Saturday afternoon) and Jim and Tanya taught on hearing from God and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We realized that 2 sessions were not enough and so the leadership team will continue teaching about the Holy Spirit for the rest of this year.

We had a wonderful meeting of "ICF" Friday at 7. Ed & Syble came from Debrecen and Ed preached a wonderful message to finish John Chapter 8. A special guest was baby Denes and his big brother Tamas (mom Anita & dad Zoli). Above you will see Denes who came for prayer. His brother Tamas is twirling in worship in the middle photo. Please see Arden's blog for all the wonderful details! God is good and He still heals today!!

Jennifer, Bethany, Sara & Erik, Jim, Edith & Judit, MJ, Tanya, Arden, David at team mtg This will be my last trip to Szeged for this university year. It has been a GREAT first year for this ministry, informally called "Friday at 7" or ICF - International Christian Fellowship-Szeged. We started with an opening concert in late September and met weekly from the first Friday in October. We have had 10 different speakers, a weekend workshop on relationships, two meetings highlighting the prophetic and have taught through the first 8 chapters of the Gospel of John. Regulars and visitors have been from Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Nigeria, New Zealand, Canada and United States . On Wednesday we had a leadership meeting to evaluate and plan. We all felt it really was a God idea and we especially rejoiced in everyone growing closer to God, the Holy Spirit moving in our midst during worship, (great leading, Erik) words of wisdom an...

Here we are 141 km from Szeged and the police have pulled over a wagon. We often share the road with horses and wagons and now lots of tractors and hay bales. The storks came back in March to nest and prepare for the little ones. All along the route to Szeged are nests of storks. Now the babies are big enough to peek over the top of the nests. Last week we saw lots of "twins" this week they are even taller and we have sighted twins, triplets and even 4 to a nest. Ahhhh the blessing of a large family :-).

Gathering with students in Debrecen: Allison,Rhea,MJ,Edith,Syble,Kornell (photo by Ed) Allison & Rhea. U.S. students in Debrecen recently back from mission trip to Ukraine. They are returning home at the end of the semester. We will miss you! Szeged on Saturday - the bridge was closed and the shoppers were out! Breakfast at Boci's in Szeged - Goodbye Becky - we will miss you when you return to U.S.! Arden,Becky,Judit, Edith, MJ Brian and Patricia from Canada meet up w/MJ (again) in Szeged. This Canadian couple found my blog and asked for some advise/contacts for their 30 day prayer trip around the borders of Hungary. Imagine this, we all met last meek in a small bed & breakfast in Uzghorod. This weekend they were at ICF in Szeged and next week in Debrecen. Thanks for Praying! Edith and I say goodby to Tanya & Marlow and Judith at the train station Happy Birthday, Judith! We had a wonderful dinner outside at LaPalma restaurant in Debrecen.

What a great weekend! Ed & Syble drove down to Szeged on Friday with Edith and I and ministered for ICF. It was a beautiful weekend and we had a lively time in worship, thanks Erik! Syble shared some of her testimony with us, and Ed was so good, as always. We had a really special time of prayer first and the Hoy Spirit was present. In Debrecen on Saturday night , again the presence of God was strong with people responding. On Sunday I was in Budapest for service there and again wonderful worship, teaching and the Holy Spirit's presence. God is on the move in Hungary!!

Well, it was a pretty good success. We did learn some things...like 2 o'clock on a brilliantly sunny day is too early to start a concert :-) the free drinks and sandwiches should not be available at all times God can fill in our "gaps" in really cool ways! One of the surprises God did was have a beautiful young Hungarian woman sing Psalm 84 accappela. She did it in the traditional folk style and blessed us with 3 encores. So, we had a Croation group doing anti-drug rock & roll, a Debrecen group doing hip-hop and rap, the Hungarian folk singer and very anointed praise and worship in the evening. The evening concert was the best attended as the sun had set :-). The Holy Spirit was at work all day as we had a number of divine appointments, the sweetness of old friends meeting together, dramatic testimonies, a deaf ear healed and many people prayed for. We also "understood" more of the gospels. When crowds gathered and Jesus fed spiritually some gathered also b...

Time for coffee, recap and a little time to play....

Arden has been up for hours still working on the power points for worship. It was a very ambitious project translating 3 bands songs into english. The group from Croatia sent 19 songs. One song took 6 slides! It is sunny out whic is a huge blessings - it has been cold and rainy for the last 2 days. Kata just sms'd (texted) this to me...."How wonderful to be in Szeged today with u and the rest of the team. Wherever u r, u bring me the feeling of home and belonging! Szeretlek! (I love you!)Kata Life is sweet and the coffee and so much more..awaits...

What a GREAT time we had tonight at ICF. The presence of the Lord was so sweet and Erik is doing a great job leading us into worship. Tonight he used the mic and amplifier as he played the guitar and it was much easier to follow along with the songs. We did get the projector to work with my laptop so that was good. We were going to do an abbreviated version of our time together so that everyone could help us make 200 sandwiches and still leave by 9. Jim was going to speak but they didn't get here until late because of the traffic in and around Budapest. After worship and fellowship we gathered in a circle and just shared what/how God was using us this week. One of the univ students shared a portion of scripture (John 12.1-8) that had really helped her this week in a practical way. We all discussed that and prayed together for some people God was reaching out to this week. Then Erik played again a new/old worship song "Father we ask". It is a song about healing our land an...

Edith and I drove down to Szeged on Thursday to help Arden with all the preparations. We have had time for planning and then the practical - a trip to the "Metro" (local wholesaler) because every good Hungarian event includes a "buffet". We are preparing sandwiches (sonka, sajt és paprikas) ham, cheese and peppers and drinks for donations. While Edith and I were busy in the kitchen, Arden was preparing the putting all the worship songs on to power point slides. Every song was translated and we will project on one screen English and on another screen Hungarian. More of the "team" arrives tonight and we will have the second (unannounced) "Friday at 7" meeting. Tomorrow at the concert, we will announce the official start up, next Friday, October 5. Thanks for your prayers.

Well, we had our first "practice" as we met in our rented room on Friday. We knew we needed time to adjust from a living room situation to a public service. We are still working out a few things, like the projector BUT God met with us and we had a new girl meet with us that no one knew. That sure encouraged us. It turns out the new medical student attended the Reform Church where we rent and the pastor told her about the english service on Friday evenings. He has been a real blessing to us already. For this first unannounced attempt, we had 12 in attendance, from 7 different nations. The room can hold 200, so we have plenty of room to grow. :-) It is so satisfying to see a dream, or vision begin to come into plain sight. I think too, of the scripture in Zechariah 4.10a For who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice.... We will "practice" again on Friday eve and this Saturday - 29th is our big concert. Please pray for us that all goes well to t...