Magyar Mullets February 2012 Newsletter

Dear Family and Friends,

   Greetings to you from sunny Budapest!  Thank you for your involvement in Hungary through our lives.  Some curious events have taken place this past month:  Hungary’s national airline went belly up.  Dozens of evangelical churches lost their legal status as churches.  Our teammates, Jack and Susan Morris lost their home in Illinois to a fire.  For sale signs going up everywhere and more shops around our ministry center have closed for business. It all sounds pretty bad, but the pictures I have this month depict something else happening in Hungary—God at work. 

  Despite intense adversity, Jack and Susan Morris are persevering as directors of our English Outreach—God continues to grow it and the gospel is being proclaimed.  It speaks well of their efforts when they are here and we ask that you keep them in prayer.  When I went down to talk with some engineers of the subway station to arrange a tour for our Hungary Summit participants, four of them said they want to start coming to our English classes.  They are discouraged with their industry outlook in Hungary; please pray that they would find true hope and certainty in Christ.

  I was blessed to chauffer our youth down to attend worship services at one of our sister churches, the Evangelical Christian Church of Veszprém.  A number of the youth in this picture heard the gospel and trusted Christ through other believers who worked in our summer English camps and clubs over the past few years.  We enjoyed a meal together and came back to attend a baby dedication at the Kelenföld Evangelical Church. 

  It has been a long time since we’ve had a baby dedication at our church.  It was a wonderful time for these couples and our church family to dedicate ourselves to leading these little ones to Jesus Christ and teaching them about him.  Had illness not kept another family away, there would have been two boys and two girls.  We also had a new member join our church who moved to Budapest from Veszprém. 

  Great news:  our teammate Mark Revell was appointed new ReachGlobal Budapest City Team Leader.  We are thankful for him and his family.  Our team spent several days praying, planning, strategizing, and goal setting this past month.  In spite of the dire circumstances in which the country finds itself, God is accomplishing his purposes in and through us.

There is something else altogether more exciting going on through this adversity. Thirty seven evangelical denominations formed the Forum for Evangelical Churches here in Hungary. The denomination we started in 2000 ceased to exist on March 1^st, 2012 by government decree.  In a land where the church has been more characterized as separatistic, the banner under which the church now unites is evangelical.  God has brought us together around the centrality of the gospel.  This is truly something for which to praise God.  In contrast, many religions that deny the gospel of Jesus Christ altogether are fully recognized by the government.  I believe this to be a turning point for Hungary in the persecution of the church and consequently rejoice in a much anticipated advance of the gospel. Please pray for these churches and their leaders to persevere in the faith. 

In Christ,

Brad and Kari