Dear
Praying, Helping Friends:
The
last two months have been blessed of the Lord with very good development in the
work. They have also been a time of
hard work, requiring much perseverance from our men in the field (
Hungary
,
Ukraine
,
Romania
). Something akin to what Paul said
about his great Ephesian ministry, “A wonderful door for a great work has been
opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” (I Cor. 16:9).
It is always thus. When God
opens a door for a great work, He also allows much opposition so the work itself
will have the advantages that go with opposition (this is too long to discuss,
but ponder it, please) and, in the end, no one but God will get the glory.
Regarding the latter, Paul later described his opposition thus, “We
want you to understand, brothers, how much we suffered (in
Ephesus
)…and see that it all happened in order that we might not rely on ourselves,
but on God who raises the dead…. And
be sure that He will continue to deliver us as you help us by your prayers.”
(II Cor. 1:8-11)
Here’s
a quick recap of what’s happening on the fields.
In
Hungary
, Imre Szoke and Gyula Bagoly are seeing steady progress in their ministries.
Imre has one congregation in
Miskolc
, one of the largest in our church (Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central
& Eastern Europe) with 16 members and about the same number of growing
non-members. Imre also takes the
lead in our publications and in caring for the work in
Ukraine
. Recently, a week before Imre was
to go to
Ukraine
for a weekend of teaching and pastoral care, the husband of one of our
believing women showed his wife a knife and told her, “This is for Imre when
he comes this time!” But two days
before Imre came, the Lord suddenly intervened and took him from this life!
Yes, God protects His servants. Gyula
has two congregations in southern
Hungary
with a total membership of 16 and about the same number of growing non-members.
In addition, he is getting some important new contacts in other parts of
southern
Hungary
. In
Budapest
, Peter Szabo has taken over as new pastor of
our congregation there (they have 17 members and almost as many interested
non-members). I am especially
thankful for Peter’s attitude and aptitude toward what we call our Personal
Discipling Program. In
Debrecen
, where Mihaly Siko has just moved, it is so good to see “Misi” already
settled in his new apartment (costing $100,000, but paid out of his own
inheritance). He is eager to develop
his little “core group” and is weekly increasing the number of his contacts.
PTL!
In
Ukraine
, our three men are plodding on, making slow but steady progress.
Ukraine
is a difficult field because the whole country is underdeveloped, making it
much harder to train people and sharpen their minds in biblical truth and
application. However, the gospel is
still “the power of God unto salvation,” so we are seeing steady progress in
our work of personal discipling. We
must, in fact, see this progress, for if we don’t have it, the work will never
amount to anything. For it is only
as people become believers, then are trained, that the church will grow.
So many missions make the mistake of thinking that evangelism is
everything. Yes, it is the critical
starting point, but all this work will be of naught unless believers are
rigorously trained in the faith. But
this is what is now happening in
Ukraine
. PTL!
In
Romania
, our nine men there are in a situation midway between
Hungary
and
Ukraine
.
Hungary
is a fairly highly developed country.
Ukraine
is not so well developed (though it is rising).
Romania
stands between the two. So, armed
with the Word of God, the truth of God’s holiness, man’s sin and the
glorious salvation that God offers through the gospel, we are making slow but
steady progress there as well. All
the congregations are seeing some growth (I am so thankful for the good
leadership of Ferenc Kovacs). We are
especially excited about our new field in Csikszereda where Sandor Tamas has
just started. He and his wife,
Biborka, are a tremendous combination. This
is where we just bought land and soon hope to start construction.
Pray earnestly for Sandor and all our men and their ministries.
Two weeks ago, the Session of
our church (our five ordained men) had their quarterly meeting and went over the
following issues: (1) ) The distance education program of our school in
Miskolc
,
Hungary
. (2) Our two new church plants in
Debrecen
,
Hungary
and
Csikszereda
,
Romania
. (3) Peter Szabo’s new ministry
in
Budapest
. (4) Our publications ministry
–22 books and three periodicals. (5)
The status of our work in trying to legalize home schooling in
Romania
. (6) Catechetical teaching and
memorization by the children of our church. (7) The status of the daily Bible
reading program in our church. (8) Issues involving several church members and
one excommunication due to gross, unrepentant sin.
(9) Progress being made in training ruling elders and fully organizing
our congregations and entire church as they/it becomes self-supporting. (10)
The impact of distributing thousands of Hungarian and Romanian calendars
(received at no cost from the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland). (11)
Reissuing our youth songbook. (12)
Our contact with a Romanian Calvinist group we are nurturing in
Vulkan
,
Romania
. (13) The 17 camps we are planning
to conduct this summer in
Hungary
,
Ukraine
and
Romania
.
Let me expand on several of
the above: (1) We now have 9 students in distance education.
This is where we are training new men for the ministry, some of whom will
also make excellent ruling elders. (7) We are making real progress in our
efforts to introduce good legislation on home schooling in
Romania
. Some big steps forward have been the printing in Romanian of Chris Klicka’s
book (Home Schooling – the Right Choice”)
and the first ever all-Romania home schooling convention March 19, 20 in Arad.
Pray for Gabor Curcubet as he contacts legislators in the Romanian Senate
(upper body) and House of Deputies (lower body) and people in the Ministry of
Education. Pray for
Romania
that its leaders will be led of the Lord to enact enlightened educational law
in this regard. (9) Pray for this item, too.
We want our entire church to be self-supporting in the next three to five
years (in regular operations). Meanwhile,
we are training men to serve as ruling elders.
Four of them may be ready later this year and, when this happens, they
will be appointed “elders designate.” Actual
ordination must wait until we can organize local congregations, and that must
wait until the whole church is strong enough to handle its operational funding. But
once these men are appointed “elders designate,” they can begin to perform
many of the functions of a ruling elder. This
whole process is being guided from here at home.
So pray for me and the
Mission
! (13) Please look carefully at the
attached supplement and note our 17 summer camps in the three countries and
pray!
Let me now move into the area
of finance, and this is where you loom big and large in the success of this
operation! Whether your giving is
large or small, the key to your help is that you are willing to sacrifice in
order to give! And for this, you
must believe deeply in this work and see that it is rigorously biblical and
efficient in the way it is being run. It
now costs $100,000 to $120,000/year to support one American missionary and his
family in
Europe
. We now have 16 nationals fully
trained for this. This costs about
$160,000/year, but half of it is being met by the congregations our men have
started! This means we need your
help for the other $80,000 plus items such as vehicles, land, and construction.
We need, first of all, $4,000 to pay the transfer tax on this $100,000
apartment ”Misi” just bought with his own money.
Here we got a free gift – no cost to us because of the unselfishness of
our worker and unexpected help from his parents.
Now all we need is pay the transfer tax and we have a man in
Debrecen
set up and ready to go. Next we
need $24,000 to buy a car for Gyula Bagoly.
His existing car is finished at 200,000 miles and starting to ring up big
repair bills. We know of a
Volkswagon Touran we can buy. They
normally cost $34,000, but this one is two years old and only has 7,500 miles on
it. It is in top condition, so we
want to buy it. But we need funds
for it immediately. Then we have this tremendous opportunity in
Csikszereda
,
Romania
and land on which to build. We need
$76,000 for construction, but only $15,000 to start.
What a glorious opportunity we have here to serve Christ!
Clara and I give, too, by taking no salary (we take only for our medical
needs). But here is where we need
you. Please pray and give as you are
able!
Speaking of Clara, we are
rejoicing greatly that, in answer to your prayers and the prayers of many, her
pelvic pain is gone. It’s a long
story. The bottom line, however, is
that all her pain is gone, and she can live and work in a normal way after a
two-year battle with this.
Yours
in His faithfulness,
Bob & Clara Rapp
