March 2006

Reaching Students in Budapest

(left) Brittany from U-M shares the gospel with a Hungarian student.

He was just like your typical Michigan student...except that he was Hungarian! He had every objection to the gospel and to Jesus Christ that you can have. He was willing to talk, but very hard to spiritual things. The only thing that kept me talking to this guy was his complete lack of hope in life and my desire to show him that hope can be found in Jesus. At one point he said, “It doesn’t matter whether I live or die.” This statement from a student in a country with one of the highest rates of suicide in the world.

Along with spiritual hardness also comes spiritual light. God is at work in Hungary, and we were glad to be able to be a part of his work there!

As a beginning of a new partnership we could not have asked for a better week! The students we brought with us had many conversations about Christ at five different universities in Budapest. Some of our students had never shared the gospel with someone they did not know (let alone someone who is speaking English as a second language), and they were able to become much more confident in their ability to talk to people about Christ.

The highlight for all of us was working alongside the campus team in Budapest. This team is comprised entirely of Hungarians, five men and one woman. They all speak English and were an absolute joy to work with! Each day they would pair up with our students or staff to go talk to Hungarian students about Christ.

It was a busy week, most days being 12-14 hour affairs, and we were certainly tired by the end of the week. But, with great effort also comes great reward, and we saw God work through our tiredness to enable us to impact students’ lives with his message.

Thank you for your prayers for this week and for your support that made my trip possible!

A unique ministry opportunity: Bryce from U-M explains the U.S. university system in an English class at the Business School. After these presentations we promoted English clubs each afternoon where these students could practice their English and we could talk to them about spiritual things. We also promoted an outreach event on love and dating later that week and the English summer camp run by Hungary CCC called “Speak Out”. Through our efforts in the Business School we were able to meet a number of students and help the Budapest team to begin an ongoing ministry in that school.

The weekly evangelistic meeting where I got a chance to speak with Hungarian staff member Roland interpreting (an interesting experience!). It was a fun and significant week for me! In addition to sharing my faith a number of times I also got to have conversations with the national director of student ministries (an American) and the country director (a Hungarian national) about our new partnership and what we hope to see God do through it.

To learn more about the ministry in Hungary…

Please visit the website of Laci (Lot’-see) Baczynski, the Budapest campus director, at www.harvestinhungary.hu

Clarification on our possible “in town” move…

Our references to moving in past newsletters are about our hope to move to a slightly larger house in this area. Please pray for us as we put our house on the market in the next few weeks. With troubles in the auto industry and with the closing of the Pfizer facility in Ann Arbor, the housing market is down. We are trusting God to sell our house in His timing and allow us to find a house that will be better suited for our four-kid family and our ministry to students for years to come.

Kids' Column 

I have read almost 2000 pages this month. I really like Magic Tree House books and have learned how to reserve them at the library. I got a new bike for my birthday and got to ride it the other day because it is getting warmer. It has hand brakes and different speeds—cool!

I thought learning to tell time would be hard but my teacher says I am doing well. I am starting to be able to sound out words faster so I can read faster. I can go pretty fast on my scooter now. Hopefully I will get to ride my bike soon and finish learning how to do that all by myself.

I learned a verse! It is not fair that Andrew and Lauren get to go to Sparks and I can’t even go to Cubbies. So Mommy taught me “All have sinned.” She says that’s the first verse I’ll need to know for Cubbies in the fall. How long until fall??? I am ready!

I have been getting up on the couch. Lindsey says I do it all by myself. For some reason Mommy and Daddy don’t believe her and she gets in trouble for helping me. Just give me more time and I WILL do it myself! I am eating more of the same food as my family. I really like bread and dessert! I will be one year-old next week.

Caleb

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