2009 Dear Praying, Helping Friends:
We thank the Lord for His faithfulness
all these years. I’m now into my
50th year as a missionary, being called of Him to salvation in 1951,
then to full-time missionary service in 1952, then formally to mission-ary
service in June, 1960 when I was both ordained to the ministry and commissioned
by the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions (founded by J.
Gresham Machen in 1933). What stands
out in my mind is that the Lord Jesus not only called me to be a missionary, but
a missionary educator. After the
Son of God Himself, the Apostle Paul and John Calvin are my heroes.
And
Hungary
is now my fourth mission field. I
started there in 1990 when the iron curtain over Eastern Europe lifted – the
same year my work in
South Korea
had come to full maturity. In 1992
the Lord enabled us to start Karoly Gaspar Institute of Theology and Missions in
Budapest
. Over the years, 90 young men
started our four-year program, 30 graduated, then 15 survived the rigors of
church planting in that spiritually “dry and barren place” known as the
Hungarian lands.
Calvin never visited
Hungary
, but had great influence there. A
large public square in downtown Buda-pest is named for him and, until liberalism
came in from Germany, he remained a folk hero in all of old Hungary – this in
spite of the fact that the Church of Rome and its armies tried to wipe out the
faith and nearly did so in the Counter Reformation (when an 80% Protestant
majority was brutally reduced to a 20% minority).
But it was a glorious minority and a great beacon of light until the
1920’s when German higher-criticism of the Bible took control of most of the
theological seminaries. After that,
World War II devastated the land, then Communism came and finished what little
was left of the Hungarian Reformed Church.
When I went to
Hungary
in 1990 to explore the situation and make contacts, there were only a few
people who shared my vision for a new theological seminary.
But a few did, and that is how we began what is now unfolding as a new
reformation in the Hungarian lands.
And that’s the only way you can understand this work.
Yes, we are winning people to the Lord, thanks to the power of the Word
preached and the work of the Holy Spirit in converting some.
Yes, congregations are being built. But,
much more, they are congregations of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central
& Eastern Europe in the line of the 16th Century Reformation.
Right now, our 22 new congregations are like tiny dots on the landscape
of
Hungary
, Hungarian Ukraine, and Hungarian Romania.
But as people are being converted, established in the faith, discipled
and equipped for the work of ministry, these dots are becoming larger and
brighter. And the number of dots is
increasing. We hope very soon to
start meetings in
Hungary
’s second largest city,
Debrecen
.
Budapest
has always been the political capital of
Hungary
, but
Debrecen
was the capital of Protestant Hungary. It
was, in fact, called Protestant Rome. Until
recently, we had no good contacts in this city and no way to start a work.
That situation seems to have changed by some unusual events over the last
year. Pray for the first meeting on
July 24 of a group which, by the power and hand of God, now seems to be taking
shape.
And what has happened in the
work in the last two months? Well,
for one thing, we have begun the camp season, and it is obvious that the camps
this year are being greatly blessed of the Lord – good attendance and
tremendous interest in the Word – just as our work is growing everywhere and,
some places, almost snowballing. This
year we have 19 camps, two thirds of which are devoted to winning people who are
either not believers or, if believers, need to hear the gospel again and again
from a church that is faithful to the Word of God in all its holy standards.
Standards, standards, standards! If
we are true to God’s standards in those things He has plainly revealed in His
Word, nothing can stop the Word in its steady advance to win individuals, then
families, cities, regions and whole countries.
Calvin’s
Geneva
was a cesspool of immorality when he went there in 1536. Nineteen
years later, the church, by the power of the Word and God’s own hand, gained
its own government which, in turn, made it an engine of great social change,
leading to awesome social/political changes in other parts of the world as well.
So we want the Hungarian
nation to bow to Christ in many ways it does not today.
This will take time. But God
has given us religious freedom. And,
so, while the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons work, we are also working.
And as we advance, which is happening, the way is being paved for
something much bigger – if we are only careful not to compromise our biblical
beginnings. The Israelites came into
the land and drove out the Canaanites, but just two or three generations later,
that glorious triumph was in shambles. The
church is constantly at war, but is often its own worst enemy, especially when
times are good and there is no persecution and we think we have “arrived.”
So, if we don’t give our children strong Christian training (which for
us means home schooling), we might as well not do this mission work at all.
For in a few generations, it will come to nothing.
So we want great societal change in
Hungary
, but first must come the hard work of winning people to the faith, then of
discipling and training them how to live as good citizens (members) of the
church. God has a certain order to
things. First, missions in the sense
of winning individuals and establishing them in the faith and in obedience to
that faith. Then whole families
(this is why home schooling is a critical component of our whole effort).
Then towns and regions. Then,
as these bend to the faith, reformers in the social/political sphere have a good
basis for their work.
To return to the “main
menu,” here is the agenda of the summer meeting of the Session of our church,
the RPCCEE: (1) Progress toward
ordaining ruling elders in some of our congregations.
(2) Suggested ways whereby
our mission can lighten its grip on the work as the RPCCEE comes closer to
self-support. (3)
Developments in the case of ___ who was a member of our church, had to be
excommunicated, and now wants back. (4)
The case of ___ who was recently restored to membership in our church,
whose wife now wants to be a member. (5)
The case of our member ___ who was in major spiritual upheaval for two
years , but is now obedient to the Lord in her tithe, attendance and sharing her
faith with others and growing well. (6)
The possible restoration of ___ who wanted some favors from us we could
not give her, but who, nonetheless, is interested in returning to our church.
(7) Our worker, Sandor Tamas,
who will marry Biborka this fall and move to Csikszereda to start a new work.
(8) Our 16th worker, Peter Szabo, who will also marry this fall, finish
his work at the Ministry of Finance, then serve the
Budapest
congre-gation. (9)
Our Distance Education students (we have 11 at present).
(10) Home Schooling – a new
arrangement where some of our older students in Romania can enroll in a school
in Hungary which will allow them to continue their home schooling in Romania
and, at the same time, give them testing and more help along the way.
(11) Publications.
We hope to have our 20th book printed by November (Tedd
Tripp’s “Shepherding a Child’s heart”)
(12) Catechetical teaching
and how to improve it and advance it in our church.
(13) Our talks with Romanian
speaking Calvinist groups. (14)
The transfer of children baptized in other churches.
(15) The case of ___ who
wrote us a very humble letter and wants his case with us solved.
(16) The use of the Lord’s
Prayer in our churches. (17) Study
on improving our worship services. (18)
The issue of the travel of some of our members to worship in other
congregations and how we should instruct them on this point.
(19) The place and date of
the next meeting.
Please pray for our next major
project, namely the enlargement of our meeting hall in Szekelyudvarhely, Romania
($16,000) and operational expenses of $160,000/year, where the church now helps
$76,000/year and where we must still help $84,000/year = $7,000/month.
Remember, then, to pray for:
1/ Our 19 camps this summer in
Hungary
,
Ukraine
and
Romania
2/ Our school, Karolyi Gaspar Institute of Theology and Missions, and our 11
students. 3/ Our 15 (soon 16) church
planters and their 22 congregations and four preaching points where they are
laboring to reach the lost and equip the saints.
4/ Our 19 publications, including our latest on Calvin’s anti-Nicodemite
writings where Calvin urges true believers to leave false churches.
5/ Our children’s ministries and our efforts to develop Christian home
school movements in
Hungary
and especially
Romania
, where we are working to have home schooling legalized. 6/
Clara and me – for wisdom, health and daily strength.
Remember Clara especially and a special health issue she has. 7/
Funds for all the above.
Yours in His faithfulness.
Bob and Clara
