One of the sites in the city of Szeged.
Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings from sunny and warm Budapest!
Some have asked me, “What does a day look like for you?” In this letter, I want to describe one great day. It started at 0500 in order to put me at the airport for a 0600 pick-up, a sit in traffic, and a pick-up and delivery of a missionary family to their hosts. By 0830 I was meeting with five guys and praying over a nearby neighborhood. By 1030 I was at the building materials store to pick up insulation, then on to McDonald’s for a large chocolate shake, small fries, and cheeseburger so I could eat it on the way to the Ministry Center where I dropped the materials. I picked up scaffolding and wall dividers and delivered the scaffolding to a friend and returned the dividers to our area office. By 1300 Kari and I were picking up our car at the shop and dropping off a hammer drill with a Hungarian church planter (hard hearts in his neighborhood J), then picking up two more bundles of insulation and getting some sheets of plywood. I ate supper at home with the family and again drove down to the Ministry Center with a friend to insulate a ceiling and was home by 2130. Not all days can be like that, but I wrote in my calendar on that one—“that was a great day!”
It was great because it had some of my favorite daily components:
Service—serving others required an early start and a sacrifice of my time and comfort.
Prayer—praying with others over a neighborhood where we hope to see the Lord bring into existence a regular gathering of believers to serve and praise Him.
Errands—errands are evidence to me of God’s provision: a vehicle, relationships, loose ends to wrap up, and materials for more work.
Supper—I love having the whole family around the supper table and having them guess the rhyme at the end of our devotional.
Accomplishment—I had an insulated ceiling at the end of the day as a result of the work of my hands. I like having a tangible accomplishment.
I’m grateful that God gave activities of life as a physical framework for spiritual operations. Some days are heavy on meetings (elders, staff, others), still others are heavy on correspondence (church, office, email). I like weeks that have days made up of serving others, teaching something, praying and singing songs with other believers, fixing things, and walks with my wife. Last Friday night we had 14 people over for prayerful consideration of working together on another church plant. The whole group could make for an exciting team. Please pray for this group.
A couple weeks ago I visited a church in the city of Szeged. I went to encourage them, and their faith encouraged me.
As a reminder to all of our prayer and financial supporters we will be on home-assignment this summer. We start and end in Arizona where Kari’s folks are blessing us with the use of their van for the summer. Our financial support records indicate we must raise a minimum of $1,300/month to return to Hungary the end of August. This is a serious concern for us, as the exchange rate has never been worse in the eight years we’ve been here, and thus our ministry expenses keep increasing as the dollar weakens. Please pray that God would
put us in touch with those He intends to have supporting the work in Hungary. Thank you for praying for us and supporting us—we hope to see as many of you as possible this summer and return to Hungary to finish the deeds God has planned for us.
In Christ,
Brad, for the family
Greetings from sunny and warm Budapest!
Some have asked me, “What does a day look like for you?” In this letter, I want to describe one great day. It started at 0500 in order to put me at the airport for a 0600 pick-up, a sit in traffic, and a pick-up and delivery of a missionary family to their hosts. By 0830 I was meeting with five guys and praying over a nearby neighborhood. By 1030 I was at the building materials store to pick up insulation, then on to McDonald’s for a large chocolate shake, small fries, and cheeseburger so I could eat it on the way to the Ministry Center where I dropped the materials. I picked up scaffolding and wall dividers and delivered the scaffolding to a friend and returned the dividers to our area office. By 1300 Kari and I were picking up our car at the shop and dropping off a hammer drill with a Hungarian church planter (hard hearts in his neighborhood J), then picking up two more bundles of insulation and getting some sheets of plywood. I ate supper at home with the family and again drove down to the Ministry Center with a friend to insulate a ceiling and was home by 2130. Not all days can be like that, but I wrote in my calendar on that one—“that was a great day!”
It was great because it had some of my favorite daily components:
Service—serving others required an early start and a sacrifice of my time and comfort.
Prayer—praying with others over a neighborhood where we hope to see the Lord bring into existence a regular gathering of believers to serve and praise Him.
Errands—errands are evidence to me of God’s provision: a vehicle, relationships, loose ends to wrap up, and materials for more work.
Supper—I love having the whole family around the supper table and having them guess the rhyme at the end of our devotional.
Accomplishment—I had an insulated ceiling at the end of the day as a result of the work of my hands. I like having a tangible accomplishment.
I’m grateful that God gave activities of life as a physical framework for spiritual operations. Some days are heavy on meetings (elders, staff, others), still others are heavy on correspondence (church, office, email). I like weeks that have days made up of serving others, teaching something, praying and singing songs with other believers, fixing things, and walks with my wife. Last Friday night we had 14 people over for prayerful consideration of working together on another church plant. The whole group could make for an exciting team. Please pray for this group.
A couple weeks ago I visited a church in the city of Szeged. I went to encourage them, and their faith encouraged me.
As a reminder to all of our prayer and financial supporters we will be on home-assignment this summer. We start and end in Arizona where Kari’s folks are blessing us with the use of their van for the summer. Our financial support records indicate we must raise a minimum of $1,300/month to return to Hungary the end of August. This is a serious concern for us, as the exchange rate has never been worse in the eight years we’ve been here, and thus our ministry expenses keep increasing as the dollar weakens. Please pray that God would
put us in touch with those He intends to have supporting the work in Hungary. Thank you for praying for us and supporting us—we hope to see as many of you as possible this summer and return to Hungary to finish the deeds God has planned for us.
In Christ,
Brad, for the family
The ladies on our team helped host another Hearts at Home Evening in Budapest. These ladies came to serve.
posted by mulletinchicago | 10:21 AM
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