Dear Praying, Helping Friends:
Our Lord gave us the goal of world mission when he said: "I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Of course, winning people to Christ through the preaching of the gospel
comes first. And we must certainly
teach and train new converts. (Discipling is, in fact, the missing element in
much mission work today.) But the
aim is to build Christ's church, a church that is meant to be visible in
the world as Christ's confessing church. Of
course, Christ is the master builder of His church.
But Paul also says: "By the grace God has given me, I laid a
foundation as an expert builder… but let each one be careful how he builds.
For no one can lay any foundation other than what is already laid, Jesus
Christ." (1 Cor. 3:10,11) So
God's servants are also builders if they build according to the pattern
of Scripture and in humble reliance on the Lord Jesus to help them in their
work.
So the
foundation must be laid in strict compliance with the dictates of Scripture.
Godly standards must prevail in every aspect of the work.
This is especially critical in
Europe
where "Christianity" has existed for centuries.
In the Hungarian lands, our greater enemy, church-wise, is not the Roman
Church, but the state church which was once Reformed according to Scripture, but
is now a shell of its former self. The
Hungarian Reformed Church was a good and blessed church until about 1900.
Then liberalism, worldliness, and unbelief came in so strongly that, by
the time Communism arrived in 1945, it had little life left in it.
Another 45 years of Communism then saw the martyrdom of the really good
ministers of the gospel, leaving none but collaborators and compromisers.
What was the problem? Standards
were forgotten, the church died within, and Communism had only a house of straw
to blow down.
Aware of
this, I arrived on the scene in 1990. The
first step was to start a school to train a new kind of minister.
The Lord helped wonderfully, but, oh, the pain in applying godly
standards! Of the 90 men admitted
into our four-year program, only 23 ever graduated.
And of these 23, only 15 are now preaching the Word in
Hungary
,
Romania
and
Ukraine
. Why so much weeding out?
The young men had to learn a whole new way of life.
Not only to think biblically, but act biblically, whether in courtship
and marriage, raising children in a godly way, being an example to the flock,
learning obedience to Christ in a thousand ways.
Liberalism sapped the church of its strength; Communism filled it with a
hatred of authority. No wonder it
has been tough to "plant a garden" in such wretched soil.
So we have had to pay attention to standards, measure everything by
Scripture, teach our ministers to do this with the flock.
Aware of this, our men have tried to be loving and pastoral while not
departing from the Word in laying the foundation.
Standards,
standards, standards! Either we put
them into place and keep them and lay a good founda-tion.
Or forget them, maybe have some fast "growth," but with cracks
in the foundation before it's even finished.
So, as we lay this foundation, we must tend to our children, give them a
Christian education, be guided in everything by Scripture, learn to serve the
Lord night and day. There can be no
room for lukewarm Christianity. For
if it's there, we won't need Communism or
Rome
or the HRC to destroy us. And,
indeed, of late, our chief enemy has not been false doctrine, but sin in the
lives of apparent believers who, after a good start with Christ, resist and hate
the authority which tells them it is sin.
In
Ukraine
, our three men work hard to evangelize and harder still to teach and train new
believers. The average size of our
six congregations is now five to 10. (That's up from zero when we started nine
years ago.) And when we have monthly
meetings at our central church for a weekend of Bible instruction, we have 45 to
50 out. It is also encouraging to
see the growth of our work with children in some of our congregations.
These meetings sometimes reach 15 to 18 in one place.
And combined young people's activities sometimes reach 25 to 30.
But numbers cannot be our focus. They
are, yes, an important measuring stick on how the Word of God is going forth.
But numbers mean nothing if we are not teaching the whole counsel of God
and living by His standards in every area of the Christian life.
In Hungary,
we have four beautiful congregations, in Miskolc (northeast Hungary) where Rev.
Imre Szoke and Rev. Gyula Bagoly work together, in Budapest (central Hungary)
where Licentiate Mihaly Siko works in an incredibly tireless and effective way,
in Vorosbereny (western Hungary), and in Kaposvar (southwest Hungary).
Rev. Szoke and Rev. Bagoly are pastors, but do so much more than
pastoring. They maintain our school (Karolyi Gaspar Institute), put out
publications, and coordinate all our work in Hun-gary and
Ukraine
, frequently spending time in
Ukraine
or at our two congregations in southern
Hungary
. We are looking to the day when
some of the men in our Distance Education Program can be ordained and help bear
this load. All these congregations
are growing (though we had some problems in
Miskolc
where a number of members revolted against godly authority).
Mainly, the growth is accompanied by a zeal for God's standards in
marriage and the home, in disciplined lives, in doing the work of the Lord
biblically in every way, and in humble dependence on God to bless.
In
Romania
, Rev. Attila Szasz has two congregations in and near Kolozsvar.
The one in Kolozsvar is a miracle in development.
This soil is some of the worst in
Europe
. The people are in such darkness,
and it is religious darkness. But
Attila is dedicated to laying a good foundation.
So, bit by bit, we are seeing the growth of a beautiful congregation out
of the worst kind of soil. Attila
has also begun to edit a new magazine for children called "Little
Pilgrims." The first issue will
have 250 copies. In Marosvasarhely,
Lic. Sandor Molnar is finishing his new parsonage and meeting hall.
The Lord has used his building skills and the help of others in our
church (Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central & Eastern Europe) not only
to put up a nice building, but, with this, maintain good preaching and pastoral
care. Not far from there, Lic. Lehel
Laszlo works in two congregations where the flock is growing in true holiness.
In Szovata,
Rev. Ferenc Kovacs and Rev. Kalman Kovacs (unrelated) labor well together,
seeing godly growth. Ferenc gave a
very good report on the Easter weekend conference where 65 adults and 15 child-ren
were in attendance. Of the 65
adults, 26 were non-members. This is
very encouraging since it shows that new people, bit by bit, are being discipled.
The six lectures: "Responsibilities of the Christian toward
unbelievers in the home," "Learning to hate sin," "Loving
what is good," "Affection for Christ," "Delighting in the
Lord," "Rejoicing in the Lord."
Further south, Lic. Gabor Curcubet and Lic. Sandor Tamas work well in
several congregations. Gabor also
spearheads our home school movement in
Romania
, and we are at a particularly crucial juncture in trying to have it legalized
at this time. The Romanian
government has been aiming at good educational legislation, but is now in
another crisis. Keep praying
about this. Further to the
south, Rev. Szabolcs Simon has three congregations and heads up our foundation
in
Romania
, the legal basis of our work in
Romania
. And southwest from there (Vulkan)
is Lic. Csaba Zolya with two congregations where we are also seeing gradual
growth, again of the right kind.
But to
return to this matter of standards, we are in a great struggle with the world,
the flesh, and the devil. This
terrible trio is always around to offer another kind of growth.
The pressure is everywhere. Members
can begin well, then face temptation in an area of weakness that's been there
for years, then hate God's pastors for warning them about it.
Our men can grow weary of this. So
we stand with them as they seek to be faithful and not turn to the left or to the
right. And here at home, we can grow
weary and not run to the Lord for His help.
But God has put it in our hearts to fear this like the plague.
For if He is not with us, we cannot win in this fearful, cosmic struggle.
(Eph. 6:10-13) So we pray for
patience and grace as we sometimes must do hard things.
Pray for Clara and me, our men, and our church, the RPCCEE.
Praise the Lord for His help in finances.
We are still only 70% supported in pledged giving, but He continues to
provide in unexpected ways. Our
construction in
Marosvasarhely
,
Romania
is nearly done and paid for. We now
need to build in Vulkan, a strategic place with 150,000 people in its tri-city
area. Csaba Zolya is our pastor
there, and the congregation is ready for this.
It will take $52,000 for construction (on land we already own).
Please pray and help us as the Lord enables you to give.
Yours in our faithful Lord Jesus,
Bob and Clara Rapp.
