Dear Praying,
Helping Friends:
Greetings in this
new year of human uncertainty and God’s unchanging promises!
I begin with a review of our school, Karolyi Gaspar Institute of Theology
and Missions. KGITM started in Hungary
in 1992 after I started traveling there in 1990.
The Lord gave me a vision for such a school both from Scripture and my
experience in three previous fields –
Brazil,
Pakistan, and South Korea. I was impressed with the pattern
of St. Paul’s work in his three missionary journeys, the first of which
involved the serious discipling of nationals (Acts 14:21-23), the second of
which led to his institute of theology and missions in Corinth (Acts 18:9-11),
the third of which had his institute of theology and missions in Ephesus (Acts
19:8-10) as the centerpiece of his
entire ministry in that region. Paul
did exactly what the risen Lord told His disciples in the Great Commission to
do: “Make disciples of all nations!” (Mt. 28:19)
And, so, in 1990, as I saw my work in
South Korea
fully established and the Communist Iron Curtain in Europe going up, the Lord
called me to
Hungary
with a vision to train nationals on the field as I had done in
Brazil
and
South Korea
and helped do in Pakistan. In 1992 we started KGITM.
The Lord brought students and teachers.
I was (and still am) director of the school and, as such, have had the
joy of sharing this work with you, asking for your help, and trying to use your
help wisely and well. Over the
years, I have been conscious that you are the ones praying and paying for this
work. I am only an instrument for
the Lord and for you at home who are the foundation of this work by your prayers
and gifts. Your prayers and
gifts are holy offerings given to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.
And, so, I have had to be strong in the administration of this work,
howbeit with a tender heart. Over
the years, we had 90 some students come into our first year of studies.
Only 30 of them finished the four-year course, and only 15 of them are
now on the field. So there has been
a lot of weeding, and this has been painful, but the alternative would have been
a garden full of weeds. So today,
praise God, we have a well-ordered garden. We
have the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central & Eastern Europe (RPCCEE).
We have what the Lord intended in His Great Commission, not just some
scattered disciples, but a church made of those who have heard the gospel of
sovereign grace and been trained in it. And
KGITM has been “mother” to this, the place where our young Hungarian men
have been grounded in the truth and trained to preach and nurture others who
have come to Christ. This is why we
now have 22 small congregations and four preaching points in
Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and Slovakia.
And the work is growing. In
Hungary, we hope to expand our efforts into the southern part of the country where we
have more and more contacts and two house churches which are thriving but need
better care. We have a man we can
send. Gyula Bagoly has been
working with Imre Szoke in Miskolc, but now can go as soon as there are funds to send him.
Our two house churches will help in his support, but he must first have a
vehicle and place to live. We can
rent something for him for a time, but we need a vehicle for him right now.
We can give him our vehicle in
Miskolc
, but if we do that, it should be replaced with a Volkswagen seven-seater.
When funds for this come in, Gyula can have our car in
Miskolc, and, hopefully, he can be in the south of
Hungary
this fall. We are also praying
about expanding our work in Budapest
(possibly into two congregations), but that is a bit further down the road.
In other news, the
Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland again gave us this year thousands of
beautiful calendars and hundreds of Bibles.
Our men have been busy distributing them.
This is not only a witness to thousands.
It gives us hundreds of contacts we can follow up with pastoral visits in
people’s homes. Our church is
growing in other ways. In addition
to some of our members, three of our men have children on the way.
This includes Sandor Molnar whose little son, Joseph, was taken from us
two months after his birth in late 2005. Some
of you remember “Little Joseph” who died in a Romanian hospital after a
failed operation on the brain. I am
also glad to report that construction in Vulkan,
Romania
continues apace. The foundation,
walls, and roof are up. This week
the inside electrical work will be started.
And in Erdoszentgyorgy,
Romania
Lehel Lazslo continues to look for land to construct a home/meeting hall (while
he and Judit still live in a rented place and the congregation meets in a home).
Let me give you an update of KGITM. Since
2003, we have not had any students in residence.
That was the year we switched to distance education.
We currently have nine men enrolled (from four countries).
They are required to complete the same intensive four-year course our
resident students once did. The
difference is that they study for us as they work professionally.
Most are university graduates (only one of our former students was such).
We have a university professor, a medical doctor, a chemist, a teacher,
an engineer, an economist, a man who works in the Ministry of Finance, and two
in the printing business. Their
instruction is carefully guided by Imre Szoke and Gyula Bagoly. (Gyula will
continue to help when he moves south. Such
things are possible in this age of technological innovation!)
At the same time, the students often travel to Miskolc
to confer personally with Imre and use our library there.
This is where our future pastors will come from and, just as importantly,
our future ruling elders.
Let me also give
you an update on our efforts to legalize homeschooling in
Romania. We have been working on this
almost as long as we have been homeschooling there, since 2002 when the first
children of our men started kindergarten using materials from Christian Liberty
Academy (Arlington Heights, IL) paid for by the Home School Legal Defense
Association (Chris Klicka). The
history of our efforts can be described as a great struggle on the part of our
homeschooling parents, especially Gabor Curcubet who heads up this effort in Romania. Currently, there is a bill that
the Ministry of Education has proposed and is now undergoing a one-month debate,
after which both houses of Parliament will vote on it.
It is good in that it makes provision for homeschooling, but very bad in
that it does not allow it to kick in until the 5th grade.
So we are planning, with help from HSLDA, on another email alert in early
March.
Let me summarize, then, what to pray for.
Pray for our school, that the Lord would bless it and our nine
students currently enrolled. Pray
for our 15 church planters and their 26 congregations and preaching points.
Pray for the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon their efforts to
evangelize the lost and teach and train those who have come to Christ.
Pray for our publications ministry, 17 books already translated
into Hungarian and three more we hope will come out this year.
Pray for home schooling in Romania
at this critical time when our efforts to have it legalized hang in the
balance. Pray for Clara and
me and daily strength for this work. And
pray for the financial support of all of the above.
Speaking of
finances, please note we need $150,000/year to support our operations in five
areas (school, 15 men and their ministries, homeschooling efforts, camps and
conferences, and publications). Our
Hungarian congregations now provide $40,000 of this, leaving us with $110,000 to
meet. Of this amount, 75% is pledge
supported. This means that in the
next two months we need $4,600 in extra giving for regular operations.
We need $16,000 to complete construction in Vulkan,
Romania. And another $13,500 for a new
vehicle in Miskolc, Hungary so Gyula Bagoly can move to South Hungary with his
family. We also need $4,600 in the
next two months to print several publications now ready for print.
And $1,650 to buy some computers at this time.
We realize this is a lot of money, so we remind you that all we ask is
that you pray and ask the Lord what you can and should do to help – little or
much.
Finally, let me
share with you the testimony of Rev. William C. Traub, Director of Theological
Education and Training for MTW in
Europe. Will visited our work last fall
and said of it: “The RPCCEE seeks to be a self-consciously and consistently
Reformed witness in its church planting work in the ethically Hungarian region.
Hence it is of immense strategic importance.
Let me say how impressed I was with both the theological orthodoxy and
missionary zeal of this group. I
want to recommend your support of it in the most positive and wholehearted way I
can.”
Yours
in His glorious service,
Bob & Clara
Rapp
