December 2018 (Goodbye)

Hi Everybody,

In Ecclesiastes 3:1, the Bible tells us “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” I don’t know who or how many people read this newsletter, so this might be old news to those of you who do read it, but my time living in Hungary is ending. I have resigned from GGIS and will be moving back to Baltimore in June, 2019.

I remember when I first met with Pastor Schaller about coming to Hungary back in 2012. God was moving in mighty ways in my life at that time. I was just starting my third year of Bible College at MBC&S and all summer I had been going to the week night outreaches. I remember praying for hours on end about what God wanted me to do in my future. I knew I wanted to go somewhere, I had gone to Eurocon to visit Hungary and loved it.

I moved here the following January to do my practicum. That was supposed to be for six months.

Here I am six years later, and now this chapter of my life is coming to a close.

The first part of the Ecclesiastes 3:1 is what I have always thought about; however, recently I have been thinking about that second part more and more- “A time for every purpose under heaven.”

It’s amazing that an eternal God uses time to accomplish His purpose in our finite physical lives.

What was the purpose in my time in Hungary?

I have learned what my gifts are. I have learned what I love to do. I have learned who I am and who I am not. I have learned to lean on God and less on myself. I have learned patience and how to trust God when things don’t go how I want them to. I have learned how to apply the knowledge I acquire from the Word. I have learned that I have nothing to offer people except what God has given to me. I have learned that God’s unfailing love is the greatest motivator in people’s lives. I have learned that serving money leads nowhere. I have learned that I am a changed person.

I have learned that more than one-fifth of my life has now been spent on the mission field.

I have learned that I hope that someday when I am much older I can still say the same thing.

God has truly blessed me in my time here. It will be very difficult to leave when the time comes, but I know that just like God gives new seasons, He has a purpose in that season.

I look forward to seeing what God’s purpose is in this next season.

November 2018

Have you ever had one of those days that feels like three days? That’s how this month has felt for me, but in a good way. So much happened. Are you ready for a ton of pictures?

First there was a Harvest Party at GGIS. I made a costume. It was awesome. I was getting eaten by a shark. 

 

Next, the Korean youth group had fun day where we went to play laser tag and to a trampoline park. 

 

After that, it was my birthday week. I was overwhelmed by the love that I was shown from all of my “families” here. My ninth grade students decorated my room and brought and presents and my church had a cake. 

 

The next week the Korean church had a young people’s retreat. We went about an hour outside of the city for a weekend and prayed, worshipped, and of course ate amazing food. 

 
Looking back it was quite the crazy month. I realized a long time ago that with all of my activity it is vital that I find time to clear my head and get with God so I started walking every day. I listen to messages or pray as I do a multi-mile loop around my neighborhood every night. That private time is what fuels my public ministry. I highly recommend finding time to just be with the Lord one on one without thinking about the cares of this world.



My pedometer tells me I walked 300 miles in October. 300 miles with God.

October 2018

I always feel a little funny when I write these because my life mainly revolves around school and education, but this is a missionary blog. I struggle with the idea that while I am a teacher, I am actually a missionary. I mean, I know it. Every day I am sharing the Christ with students, but it's not like I am planting a church or something. Maybe you understand what I mean.
With all of that in mind, I would like to share something I wrote after a recent Bible Study I led at GGIS.

"Usually my week of preparation for a message is doing a little reading, thinking, and praying each morning of the week. Last week I thought the theme "Give Me Your Heart" from Proverbs 23 would be a good topic; however the more I prepared, the more I fully expected it to just suck. Fall flat. I kinda just wanted it to be over with so we could all go play frisbee.
"As we sat and began talking (usually the message is me presenting some small ideas which the students talk about for a minute, then I ask questions that I want them to answer, and we repeat that several times) but tonight I couldn't believe what the students were saying. Incredible. Doctrine was pouring out of each and every one of them.
"Reka mentioned how making decisions for God can be so difficult but in the end you see a great result. (Hugi, keep her coming out!)
When we talked about how sometimes hearts can become hard, Seung Hee compared it to ice. Ice takes a long time to freeze, it doesn't happen instantly, but when it is heated up it melts quickly. That can be like us, our hearts can become cold, but when the warmth of the love of God is again realized in my life, I can have instant restoration.

"I wish I could go through what everyone said, it was so amazing. What I expected to be 15 minutes tops turned into 45 in the blink of an eye."

I think it can be hard for us to see the impact we have in our ministry at times. I have been here for six years and I am just now realizing the fruit of investment. I have been able to watch these students grow from crazy third and fourth graders into mature, God-seeking teenagers.

It is missions. Everything we do is missions. Remember, you and I are not at home here, every ministry we have is a mission, no matter where we are or what it is. A cup of cold water is a ministry if it's given from the Spirit of God.

The last thing is that in ministry, you can make connections that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. I walked into my classroom the other day and found the following list that various students have been adding to the past few days:


Thank God that he has and continues to use us!

September 2018

Hi Everybody!

I just returned from the annual GGIS High School Retreat. This is a time when we take all the students from grades 7-12 out into the country side in Hungary and spend three days playing sports, getting to know each other, having competitions, and of course praising God.

It is always so much fun to watch the new students during this event. While school has already been in session for two weeks, we had three new students start school on the morning of the Retreat. Their jaws all collectively seemed to hit the floor as they saw what incredible life there was.

I pretty much run the show, but I base almost everything off of what I learned from Camp Life growing up. It’s my job to make the schedule, make sure events run smoothly, kids are supervised, and that equipment is brought. Besides that, I also ran most of the events, did the announcing, made sure that things happened on time, and I also lead the barn dancing, campfire songs, and I preach one night.

Wow, writing that out it’s a lot.

I remember something my good friend, Pastor Barry, once said to me. Some people are excellent receivers, they are like sponges and soak up everything, but I am more of a producer. I have found that when I am active and busy in ministry, I have the most to keep pouring out.

My message was Friday night during the campfire. Last year I spoke about how to keep the fire in our hearts burning, and how we can’t just leave incredible times with God and forget that they happened. This year, I spoke about what to do now that the fire in us is burning.

In Exodus 3, the Bible says that Moses stopped what he was doing, turned aside, and drew near to see a great site. This was the burning bush in the wilderness. Out of the fire came the Word of God. This is just like us. People stop, turn aside, and draw near to the fire of God in us. We have words for them, we can encourage and edify, we can share God’s will with them.

A final point I made was that we can sometimes be shy about the fire of God burning in us. Sometimes there is a temptation to hide it. Maybe our reputations are at stake, maybe we are afraid that if people know we are on fire for God, they will think we are weird.

We can’t let that hinder us.

Remember in Judges 7 when Israel broke the clay pots and let the light from their torches shine, there was a miracle that took place and their enemy was defeated. That’s the exact same thing that can happen with us. When I am broken, that’s when my light will truly shine.

Lastly, if you could, I would like you to pray for a young man. He was in our school for three years, but just returned to his home country. He came from a bit of a rough background, but really became part of the GGIS family in his time here. Not only that, but he prayed with me to accept Christ last year however, his family are all practicing Muslims, which is why I am omitting his name.

In his final days with us, I asked him if there is anything that I could pray for and the one thing he wanted was to find other believers with whom he could fellowship in his new school.

July-August 2018

I just returned to Budapest from a great summer spent mostly in Baltimore. It was great to be with friends and family, this was actually the first time I’ve spent a prolonged period of time in Maryland since I moved in 2013.

I left a little early, though, this year to come back for Camp Life Europe.

Wow.

It was amazing.

There were a few students from GGIS who came as well as about 80-90 other people. There were sports, and games, but also times of worship, prayer, and time in the Word.

There was one Korean boy who came who was not a Christian but by the end of the week accepted Christ as his Savior. Incredible!

Here is the group who came from Hungary.



This is a picture of Dasha, a student at GGIS, and Rae, a camper from America.



This is Boti, he is from Miskolc, in the countryside of Hungary. I was glad to get to know him as I have seen him and his family over the years, but never really made a connection with them.



Overall, while my time in America was short this year, I am so glad I was able to go to Camp Life. I remember the times I spent as a camper were life changing and I know that this event is still changing lives today.

Thank you so much to all who had a part in putting this together, P. Love, P. Pete, the Romanians who hosted this year, and all those who laid down their lives to make this thing possible.

I am looking forward to another great year in GGIS as I return to work next week.

If you think of it, please keep me in your prayers.

June 2018

This will be my last newsletter before I come back to America for the summer.

So much has happened this month, we had a spring high school retreat which I already told you about, I went to two graduations and two banquets, and now we are wrapping up the end of the school year with final exams this week.

Last Saturday was the GGIS graduation. It was probably the best one I have been to. This was also the first year I wasn't the photographer for the day since I taught a senior class and was sitting on the stage. Traditionally we have our graduates each give speeches (we have small classes). It was fascinating hearing the impact that this school has on the lives of its students. I think I still don't comprehend it fully, but this week I saw more and more how vital this type of ministry is. The other graduation I attended was much different. There seemed to be no connection between the teachers and students. I caught myself wondering if this was how school should be and that I am just too personable as a teacher, but then I realized how different GGIS is. I think of Acts 3:6 when Peter told the lame man that he had nothing physically to give but he had something far better. GGIS can't offer the extracurricular activities, honors programs, or campus that the other school has but we have something far greater, we have a ministry, a connection with students that goes beyond the human level. It's spiritual. Lives are changed, not just temporally, but eternally.

I must say that my life has also been changed being here.

There are quite a few staff members who have or who are leaving this year. As I think back on all the memories I've had with them, it's amazing that we have had the opportunity to be here as a team, doing this for this long. (I'm not leaving, but others are.)

One fantastic event we had this past month was a Middle School boat trip. This is a three hour cruise along the river with dinner and games. It happened a couple weeks after our High School Banquet so naturally the Middle Schoolers all called it their "banquet". It wasn't meant to be but it was kind of cute to see them all get dressed up and try to bashfully ask each other "out" (we all rode a bus together to the boat then sat at communal tables for the food).

On the boat trip there was a seventh grade girl who has been in our school for six months, she is not returning next year and is instead going to that other school I mentioned earlier. She is so depressed! She loves it here, but there is a perception based on outward appearances that the other one is a better school so her parents will send her there next year.

Outward appearances are deceptive. More and more I see it. When I look at certain students I often times see no outward change. Maybe their grades are bad, their attitude is bad, or they just seem lazy, but then all of a sudden they will tell you that they accepted Christ months, or even years ago, and they have been going to church, and want to grow as a Christian. It's incredible. This actually happened with a student this year. I didn't want to speak to him, I went to his study hall three times before I finally pulled him out to speak to him, and right away he told me he has been waiting for the opportunity to accept Christ. My how that young man's life has been changed in the months since then! Amazing.

Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. I look forward to being in Baltimore all summer before returning to Hungary for Camp Life in July.

May 2018

I just returned from a weekend retreat with the 9th-12th grades. This is something that I have wanted to do for a few years now and am so glad we decided to do this year. Every fall we have a retreat with the whole high school and usually we have class trips in the spring but this time we let the students vote and (with a little persuading) they chose to have a retreat.

Here is a picture from one of our worship times.



GGIS also just crossed the 200 student mark. Isn’t that amazing? That’s two hundred young people from all over the world who come to us and and hear the gospel. Incredible!

We are getting into the busy season as we start to wrap up school. I think every weekend for the next six weeks there is something happening. After that I will be back in America for five weeks.

It’s funny, usually I feel like I am dragging myself to the finish line at the end of the year, I can’t wait to go back to America and just get some rest and relax, but I honestly don’t feel that way this year. I am so excited, rejuvenated, by what God is doing. I am certainly excited to see family and friends in the States, but I also know that seeds which were planted here and in me are now starting to really bear fruit. It’s thrilling to be walking in God’s will.

I like to think of the verse I Corinthians 3:6- “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” This is a great summary of both ministry and personal growth. I may plant, you may water, but God is the one who gives the result. In the same way, people have planted spiritual seeds in my life, others have watered them, but it’s always God who brings the fruit.

One thing I’ve noticed, and was talking to a friend about today, was there there is so much pollen in Budapest right now. I mean it’s everywhere, all over my laundry, every surface in my house is covered… I should probably clean more… but looking back, we determined that it was because we had such a hard Winter and the plants are all producing more pollen to stimulate exponential growth. Isn’t that just like that verse? I may have a spiritual Winter, it can be tough, I see no growth in my life, but in time (and I don’t know how long it will take) God produces something incredible in my life.

Perhaps you are going through a spiritual Winter, things may look bleak, there may not seem to be any fruit, but don’t worry, Spring is coming. Everything here is blooming and it seemed like it happened over night, but it didn’t, it took a long, hard Winter. In the same way, I see things blooming in my life, but it took a Winter to bring it about.

God bless you!

April 2018

Hi Everyone,

This past month, spring has finally come to Budapest. In a recent teachers’ meeting, it was mentioned that sometimes the winters here, which are pretty dark and gloomy, can wear you down. You can start to wonder why you’re here or what is going on, but then, boom, before you know it, the sun is back, the kids are normal again, and you remember why you live. This is very true, but it actually didn’t happen to me this year. I have seen God working so mightily in different ways, I feel like every day something new and incredible is going to happen.

I went to Eurocon in Warsaw, Poland at the beginning of the month. It was a great time to be with people I don’t often get to spend time with. It was also neat because ever since I moved here, Eurocon has been in Budapest, but for me, living here, there can be a lot of distractions. Now that it was in Poland, I had nothing to do except go to the conference and spend time with the people there. I didn’t think about that until afterwards, but it was an interesting side note.

I asked my friend, Pastor Love, if I could video him speaking for a minute about his work in the chaplain program in the NBA to show to the basketball team at GGIS. Here is a picture of them listening to him.

It was really neat to see them paying such close attention and they asked a lot of questions afterwards.

As you may know, I have been talking individually to the high school students in GGIS and have now spoken to 57 of them. Please pray that I keep having these opportunities as they are very special. Last week, the day before our Easter break, three students prayed with me to receive Christ, two of which were boys who you see in that picture, listening to Pastor Love. Amazing!

I have been talking about Camp Life with my students because it is now happening in Europe as well as the US. I will be coming back to Hungary a bit earlier this summer so that I can attend and the kids I have talked to about it are very interested. This is a fantastic program and for me, both as a camper, and a counsellor, it was life changing.

I wanted to show you another picture that I took recently at the Korean church I attend. This is in the chapel at GGIS. During Eurocon, I was able to speak to P. Dunbar, who is a missionary in South Korea. It’s cool to me to have a connection about a love for people. I can’t wait to someday go to Korea and visit him!

 

March 2018

I have been working with a Korean church in Budapest as a youth leader for about a year and a half now. Generally what happens is after the main service, we all get together, sing, talk, and discuss the message. We also do events and had a two day retreat last year. It's been really great, but I also see that most of the kids only have a very basic Biblical understanding. (The couple students who also attend GGIS are like spiritual giants, though.) Anyway, a couple weeks ago, the two ladies who also help with the youth group were both sick so it was just me. We had about 15 kids and we divided up into groups. I had two students lead groups to discuss questions that I wrote down and I led another group. I realized there might be some confusion with one of my questions so I regrouped everyone and asked if they had questions.

Then!

It happened!

The moment I've been waiting for a year and a half!

They had questions!

We spent the next hour talking about some really big, theological questions they had. It was awesome. I won't say all of them were in tune, but most were.

Question after question.

It was incredible. "How does God measure faith", "can you explain eternal security", "what are some verses that go with that", "what do I do when I'm slumping spiritually", "what is hell like and who goes there"?

These questions were so good! I was ecstatic as I left. Please pray this continues! These kids are amazing and are longing to have these deep questions answered. It takes time, I've realized, for teenagers to open up. It reminds me of Proverbs 20:5. There has to be a drawing out of the questions and thoughts, but it takes time, you have to build trust before it can happen. I have built that trust at GGIS to the point where every free block I have in my day I have a student in my room talking to me, and now I am so happy that I am starting to build that trust with the Korean church!

Since I have this Korean connection, I am the go to guy when we divide our high school by language (I don’t speak Korean, but I can read it!) for Bible class on Fridays about once a month. I look forward to these times that I can spend with the small group of Koreans that we have in the high school. This past Friday I had one of the students lead us in worship and then I spoke about our value. I have found that this is such an important topic in the Asian community. So often identity can be tied into what you do- grades, work, extracurricular activities, but people can forget that we are valuable because God says we are. We looked at Micah 6:8 which asks the question, “What does the Lord require of you?” There are three things listed there, but the last one is the one I focused on- walk with God. If I walk with God, it doesn’t matter what I “become” in life. I could end up with the least desirable job ever, but if I walk with God in it, it’s the most valuable thing I could be doing. I think that the students understood what I was saying. God’s will is so much greater than my plans. He wants me to have the best, but His best may not be what I have mapped out for my future.

As I write this, I am looking forward to Eurocon, a conference of many Greater Grace churches in Europe, in a couple days. This is the first time since I’ve lived here that it hasn’t been in Budapest. I think it will be good. Having it in Budapest is a bit distracting for me since it’s my home and I always find something to do here. Now that it’s in Poland and I know nothing about Poland, I think it will help direct my focus a bit more if that makes sense. I feel a little like I did when I first came to Eurocon in 2012. I am excited and looking forward to what God is going to do!

Hopefully I will see some of you there!

February 2018

I don't know where to begin.

Let me rewind to last week.

I was able to sit down and talk with one of my ninth grade students for a while last Wednesday. She is a Chinese girl who was born and raised in Europe in a Christian home. Most of our conversation consisted of her talking and me just listening. She talked about her life, GGIS, going to church, "American Christianity" vs. "Chinese Christianity" and also how she feels that sometimes God is leading her to do and say things but she feels intimidated because she is so young.

I think that often times as a teacher I talk down to students. I view them as probably every other school teacher in the world views their students. I am here to teach them. I am here to instruct them. Discipline them when necessary. I am here to bless them. I am here to minister to them.

But in that meeting, I realized that this girl is my sister in the body of Christ.

Yes, I am her English teacher, and she is a fantastic student, but more than that we are Christians. I was so blessed by what she was saying that I almost had tears in my eyes. Some of our students have a remarkable amount of doctrine hidden away in their hearts.

My purpose was to minister to her but ultimately she blessed me far more than I could have imagined.

Another Chinese student I spoke to told me that because she is a Christian but comes from a Buddhist family, she has to think of new lies every week to tell her mom so she can go to church on Sunday. If her mom found out she was going to church she would be disowned, kicked out of the house. Yet she said her only prayer is that one day her family would become Christians.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t sacrificed much in my Christian life. I come from a Christian home in a Christian country with Christian relatives. I was born and a week later I was in church. I never had to lie to my family so I could go to church. In fact, I got in trouble for not going.

I have been having a sort of renaissance year at GGIS. For a while, and especially the previous year and a half, it was tough being here. I felt sort of out of place. I knew I was called here but I wasn’t necessarily operating in that call. Perhaps I was distracted by outward circumstances rather than trusting God that He would take care of those things so I could focus on His call on my life in GGIS.

The reason I’ve been meeting with these students is, as I said in a previous newsletter, because I felt compelled to. God made it so clear to me that I needed to do this that I pretty much couldn’t say no with a clear conscience. I have now spoken to over a third of the high schoolers individually. (Three of them have prayed with me to receive Christ!) I have a running list on my computer and it turns out that around 60 percent of the high schoolers at GGIS have at one time or another accepted Christ. I am shocked to read that number (I just double checked it as I was writing this). I thought the number was much lower. Do you remember the verse in I Kings where Elijah is praying and asking God why he is the only person in the whole country who still follows Him? I wonder how many of my students feel that way. I know I have before. But what was God’s answer? “I have 7,000 who haven’t bowed their knees to Baal.” Don’t get me wrong, that’s a small number relatively. 50 Christian students is a small number (even though it’s the majority). But with God that doesn’t matter. My goal for the rest of this year is to get those kids together. Fridays during the last period I have started gathering a group of students for a prayer and fellowship time. I showed them that list I keep and they were shocked as well. There wasn’t a dry eye. They had no idea. It seems that due to an influence of a small number of students, the Christian population was shut up. Pray that this doesn’t happen anymore.

I am also keeping a running list of prayer requests. Here are a few from students: Genuine friendships, knowing God’s will for the future, boosting of self-esteem, and finally for their unsaved family members to become Christians.

Please keep these things in prayer.

Lastly, people often ask me when I am moving back to America. I honestly don’t know the answer to that. In September I was thinking that this was it. My last year. I begged God, pleaded with Him to change my circumstances, get me through the year so I could move back. I think that prayer was answered to a certain degree, circumstances have changed, but more than that He changed me. I am not (as of now) planning on moving back to America. This is not a spur of the moment decision either. As I said before I am having a renaissance year here. I have felt God working and moving in fantastic ways. Since about November I have been praying about my future in Hungary. If I had left at this time, I would have been defeated. The impact that I am seeing in GGIS may not be happening. This change in my life may not have taken place. My eyes are opened to the 7,000. God is moving and I know that this is where I am supposed to be. There have been hard times here, times when I have wanted to give up. Times where to even write a newsletter I had to wrack my brain for something encouraging to say. Through all of this God was working. How foolish I was to think that because of the attack I should give up. Now I am seeing the wall being built like in Nehemiah. My thoughts aren’t fixated on the attack but on the work.

Thank you for your prayers. We are about a great work. We will not come down.

January 2018

Happy New Year from Budapest!

I have been on Christmas vacation for two weeks now and am kind of over it at this point. Vacations are nice but being with students and teaching is where I should be.

During our break I spent time with some families here, helped a couple move, and I built a desk for a former student. On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve I was with the Korean church. New Year’s day we got together for a service in the morning and had a lunch together. This is a bowl of soup that we ate. I couldn’t finish it it was so filling. The white stuff is like giant rice noodles. 

I was talking to another teacher and she was saying how she has realized over the break how important Body life is and how without it you kind of just drift off into your own little world. It’s so true. I like to think about the verse, “Without a vision, the people perish” from Proverbs 29:18. It’s not just a corporate vision, but also a personal one; however, the two are inseparable. Without the Body, I won’t be able to have a personal vision and without a personal vision, I can’t operate in a corporate vision. God truly designed us to be together. I find that when I am alone my viewpoint can become twisted. I start to think only about myself and I can even start to have a negative outlook about people or things happening in God’s work. I start to look inward and forget who I am in relationship to God and His people. When I am where I am supposed to be, in the Body, in my call, that’s the place where I find that my view point becomes outward and my personal vision extends to and connects with the corporate vision. In fact, doesn’t Psalm 73 say just that? Before the Psalmist went to church he was jealous of the wicked, he saw that they had everything his flesh wanted, and they didn’t have any problem using other people to obtain all they could from life. He lost the corporate vision he had because his personal vision was inward. Once he went to church, however, that personal vision became rightly related to God and his corporate vision was restored because he could see the end result. That didn’t come from looking inward but outward.

I have been thinking about this more and more recently and it’s really remarkable. Please don’t stop being around God’s people. Get to a place where there is a corporate vision and where your personal vision is encouraged and cultivated. That’s where we see the result of our walk of faith and that’s what encourages us to keep going.

Please pray for the second half of this school year that will quickly come and go. Pray for my students to have an outward vision, and pray that we encourage each other to keep going to that place where the corporate vision is manifested.