Dear
Praying, Helping Friends:
In my last
newsletter I gave you some history 1) how the Lord led us to go to Europe in
1990 after the Communist Iron Curtain went up 2) then helped us start a new
school in 1992 to train young Hungarian men for the gospel ministry 3) then let
the Hungarian Reformed Church excommunicate our men in 1997 for being unwilling
to accept liberal theology and ecumenical practice 4) then led us in 1998 to
begin our own church (Reformed
Presbyterian Church of Central and Eastern Europe).
Knowing this history will help you appreciate the 22 small but growing
congregations and 3 preaching points we now have in
Hungary
,
Romania
and
Ukraine
. Let me now tell you about our 16
men and their 22 congregations. You
may want to refer to the attached supplement as you read about them.
A number of our
16 men are from our first graduating class in 1996.
The rest graduated later on, one of them (the youngest) just last fall.
As a group, they are 27 to 40 years in age, so all are fairly young.
This is a big advantage in some ways. They have the energy of youth and
work very hard. All are married and all but three have children.
Their church planting has been blessed with fruit, but with it, they have
new challenges. As a result, I still
have a big role in the work there – along with my work here to keep
every-thing before our churches and friends.
So I need regular reports from all our men, some once a week and some
much oftener. Whether the issue is
personal, family related, ministry related, church related or financial, the
Mission must be involved – and this mainly means “yours truly.”
So let’s talk a little about these 16 wonderful young men.
As I do this, you might want to follow the supplement where their names
appear in the second column (remember that in
Hungary
the family name comes first).
Imre Szoke
(EEM-ray SO-kay) lives in
Miskolcs
,
HUNGARY
with his wife Krisztina and three children.
He is pastor of our congregation there, associate director of our school,
heads up our publications efforts, and works with me on many other issues
related to our church. Pray that the
Lord would give Imre continued health, grace and strength (in a packed schedule)
to build the congregation there.
Gyula Bagoly
(JEW-law BAW-go-ee) lives in
BalatonAlmadi
,
HUNGARY
with his wife Klara and three children. He
has two congregations, one in Balaton and one in KaposSzerdahely.
His two congregations, taken together, are equal in size to Imre’s one
congregation in
Miskolc
. Pray for Gyula in the same way we
are asking prayer for Imre. He also
works with me very closely on many issues.
Mihaly Siko
(MEE-high SHE-ko) lives in
Budapest
,
HUNGARY
with his wife Zita. They would like
children, but the Lord has not yet given them any.
“Misi” still pastors our
Budapest
congregation, but we are waiting on the Lord to send him to
Debrecen
(second largest city of
Hungary
and historic center of the protestant faith).
Pray that the Lord would help us find property there.
“Misi” cannot move until we do.
Peter Szabo
(PEE-ter SAW-bo) also lives in
Budapest
,
HUNGARY
. Peter and Erika married last
September. He is our youngest
worker, but gifted and works well with people and, so, not too young to take
over this parish of 2 million people (
Budapest
). Pray the Lord would give him
wisdom beyond his years.
Ferenc Kovacs
(FAIR-ents KOH-vatch) lives in
Szovata
,
ROMANIA
with his wife Sara and four children, all girls.
Ferenc works with me closely as coordinator of all our work in
Romania
. He is also camp and conference
director, a member of the Session of the RPCCEE (with Imre, Gyula, Attila and
Szabolcs) and pastor of our Szovata congregation. Pray
for him in his very heavy schedule.
Kalman Kovacs
(KAWL-mawn KOH-vatch) lives in
Szovata
,
ROMANIA
with Piroska and their two boys. Kalman’s
work is invaluable to Ferenc since Ferenc must travel all over
Romania
to help our other men. Pray for
Kalman’s visitation ministry, his three weekly Bible studies and his son Amos
(a special child).
Szabolcs Simon
(SAW-bolch SHE-moan) lives in
SepsiSzentgyorgy
,
ROMANIA
with Margit and their three children. Szabolcs
has two congregations and oversees the work of our foundation in
Romania
. Without the foundation, our
churches in
Romania
would have no legal standing. Pray
for Szabolcs’ congregations, his work with the foundation, and new contacts
which are beginning to bear fruit.
Sandor Tamas
(SHAWN-door TOM-asch) is now in
CsikSzereda
,
ROMANIA
. He and Biborka married last
October. For 8 years, he helped
others in church planting, then recently received a wife from the Lord, two
small “core groups” in a new region, land,
a car, and soon will have, we hope, a place for his family and his main “core
group.” Pray for Sandor in his
pioneering efforts in this Roman Catholic city.
Lehel Laszlo (LEH-hell
LOSS-low) lives in
ErdoSzentgyorgy
,
ROMANIA
with his wife Judit and three children. He
has a congregation in this town and a Gypsy group in another and has been
working hard to personally disciple people.
We have recently seen a serious stirring of God’s Spirit in his work.
Pray this outpouring would continue.
Pray for land on which to build a home and permanent meeting hall.
Attila Szasz
(AW-tee-law SAWS) lives in
Kolozsvar
,
ROMANIA
with his wife Zelma and two boys. This
city is the hub of the HRC in
Romania
, seminary and all. This is also the
center for the “Nicodemites” of
Romania
– people claiming to be “believers” but not wanting to leave the
spiritual darkness of the HRC. Pray
that God by His Spirit and Word would melt the hearts of these graceless,
religious people.
Sandor Molnar
(SHAWN-door MOLE-nawr) lives in
MarosVasarhely
,
ROMANIA
with his wife Eva and daughter Zsuzsanna. Sandor
and three of our other men in
Romania
are using my “personal discipling” program and find it really helps them
work in small, effective steps with people, either to lead them to Christ or
follow Christ. Pray that God would
empower Sandor in this and give him much fruit.
Csaba Zolya
(CHAW-baw ZOH-yah) lives in
Vulkan
,
ROMANIA
with Ibolya and their twin daughters. Csaba
labored in this city in southwestern
Romania
as a student and well before he married. The
work has slowly but steadily grown. Pray
for this patient, dedicated church planter and another group, some Romanian
believers in nearby Petrozseny who want to join our Hungarian church.
Gabor Curcubet
(GAW-bore COUR-koo-bet) lives in
SzekelyUdvarhely
,
ROMANIA
with Gabriella and four children. Gabor’s
father was a high Communist official, so Gabor got an atheistic education early
at home and in school. But God
converted him. He now heads up home
schooling in
Romania
, teaches cre-ationism in nearby schools, and is a fine pastor.
Pray God would bless him, home schooling in
Romania
, and Chris Klicka’s book (Home
Schooling – the Right Choice) due to come out in Romanian this week.
Istvan Gal
(ISHT-vawn GALL) lives in
Zapszony
,
UKRAINE
with Beata and their two children. All
our men work hard, but Istvan puts in 70-hour weeks (his wish).
The Lord has blessed this, for he has two nicely growing congregations. Pray
for him and the going forth of the gospel through the whole region.
Bertalan
Lorinc (BEAR-taw-lawn LOR-eents)
lives in
BeregSzasz
,
UKRAINE
with Maria and his two sons and another child on the way.
“Berci” is a very patient, hard-working pastor who, with our other
two men in
Ukraine
, are taking advantage of my “personal discipling” program.
Pray for fruit in this.
Geza Demeter
(GAY-zah DEM-eh-ter) also lives in
BeregSzasz
,
UKRAINE
with Margaret and two sons. He
helps “Berci” and, in addition, has a children’s ministry and a small
group in a nearby village.
General Prayer Requests.
Pray for the finances of the work and give as unto the Lord.
Your prayers and gifts make all the difference.
A huge challenge now facing us is building a combined house/meeting hall
in
Csikszereda
,
Romania
. We have no funds for this yet, but
now have a choice piece of land (at a great location!) and must move quickly on
construction. Our plan is to start
next month if funds start coming. Then,
as the $80,000 which we need keeps coming, we hope to finish the project this
fall. Pray earnestly about what
you can do. The Lord loves a
cheerful giver. He loves the smaller gifts, too.
They mean you care about this work and understand that just as there
is no substitute for your praying, so there is no substitute for your giving.
We live in times when our hard earned money could lose its value
overnight. The answer is not in
gold, dear friends. The answer is in
“laying up treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupt (slowly) nor
thieves break in and steal (suddenly).” Mt.
6:19,20. Let us see that He gets our
treasure and not lose it slowly or suddenly to others who never worked for it.
Finally, this word on Clara.
Keep praying for her lower pelvic condition.
Since last writing you, she has had a setback.
Pray also for Clara’s only sister who is very ill and only brother who
is also ill and for my brother, Stan, who has congestive heart failure.
Yours in His
faithfulness,
Bob and Clara
