January-February 2015

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Things have been great here. Not much has been going on, but there is a definite build up of excitement for Eurocon, our annual European Conference that we host here in Budapest.

GGIS is putting on a presentation of the Chronicles of Narnia: the Musical by C.S. Lewis. The students have put in a lot of hard work over the past few months and I am excited to see the end result. It seems the whole school is helping in someway, whether it’s set design, lighting, music or even doing makeup. Please pray for the two performances this weekend. There are technical details of course but also, please pray for unsaved family members to receive the powerful message that this play presents.

I recently finished making a short video/commercial about GGIS which you can see at www.ggis.hu. It’s above the calendar on the opening page. It was a great experience for all of us who worked on the video. I have a technology after school club which meets on Mondays and Fridays. There are four Chinese students and one Korean who come and they did a lot of the work on the video. I am very proud of all of them.

As the weather is getting warmer, we are starting to get moving more and more (which is a very good thing). Our tennis team will begin practicing again soon and I am one of the coaches. Also, I will be starting a wiffle ball after school club with the elementary students. I am very much looking forward to these opportunities to spend time with students.

I have recently been finishing up a paper for one of my continuing education classes and talking
about my ministry here. The things I do aren’t necessarily typical “missions work”. I do go on outreaches, as you know, and I speak in church now and again but the main stuff I do here surrounds GGIS. I think that this has been my favorite part about living in Budapest. Many people don’t realize it, (I know I didn’t when I first came) but GGIS is a full-time ministry in itself. It’s easy for people to look the school and think that it’s just a job which allows you to live on the mission field. I think you have to realize, though, that you are dealing with students from more than 20 different countries, a multitude of different backgrounds and family situations and only about 30% of the students profess to believe in God. When you see this, you start to realize what an incredible opportunity we have here. The mission field literally comes to you.

I am so blessed to be here, serving with incredible teachers, pastors and missionaries!