Dear family and friends,
Ministering with Pastor Tibor's Family
We send our warm greetings as we just finished our first semester of the Missions Training Program (MTP) at Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (CCBCE) and have one more to go here in Vajta, Hungary. The semester has gone by very quickly and we have just one more to go. God has been teaching us many new things along this journey. Not only has this been a time for us to be refreshed and renewed for the next place the Lord wants us to serve him, but it has also been a time of ministry and service as we participated in a number of outreaches. One of the class requirements here is to join churches on their outreaches and assist with evangelism, discipleship and practical ministry on several weekends, then for 10 days, and finally for 30 days.
Over the past months we have been serving in Serbia. At first, we were just going down on the weekends. Then we went down for a ten-day outreach and had an amazing time. Along the way, however, we had to face a few challenges, including our van, which broke down during one of our weekend trips and on the very first day of the ten-day outreach. Fortunately, we found a Christian mechanic who was able to complete the repairs before we needed to leave each time. Sam told him, “I think my van likes your garage!”
During the ten-day outreach, the Lord answered our prayers each day by granting us mild temperatures and clear skies. We had a team of 5 with a student named Grati that stayed with us in a one room building with a heating stove on one end and a shower in the corner. The Lord also provided enough scrap fire wood for us to gather to keep the place heated for our entire stay.
Our ministry extended to two gypsy villages that were nearby. The living conditions were atrocious and unfortunately, this reality could not be adequately captured in a photograph. We usually divided into two groups, where Pastor Tibor, Michael and Sam would share the Gospel with the families and Michelle, Megan and Grati would share the Gospel with the kids. They would teach them John 3:16 and some songs in Hungarian, and then sing with them using some hand motions to emphasize some of the important words and concepts in the songs.
On two occasions Sam had the opportunity to minister to some refugees living in the fields behind the warehouses. Sam would go with Pastor Tibor and hand out bread for them to eat. At the first place we stopped, there were about 50 men and they were very appreciative. At the next place we stopped, which wasn’t very far, we thought we would have plenty of bread to hand out, because there appeared to be only a few men there. Suddenly, a line began to form and in just a few minutes there were over 200 men waiting to get some bread! It was like the 5 loaves and two fish where we had enough bread to feed every man! The second time we went to hand out bread, we decided afterwards to spend some time praying for these men while we were gleaning in a corn field. There is one 16-year-old boy who is a Christian from Pakistan that left his family behind and walked for three months all the way to Serbia. He is really trying to get to Hungary, so please pray for him. Many of the men that we met are not able to make it into Hungary’s refugee camp, where we ministered this past summer, because they do not have the proper paperwork. As a result, many of the refugees do not have any warm clothes and are walking around in their bare feet. We also met some men from Somalia who had their wives with them. These men were told to either fight or they would be killed, so they fled with their families.
While Pastor Tibor and Sam were visiting these refugees, his wife Mercedes and Michelle were visiting some of the poor families in the area. These families were so poor that you would typically find 6-8 of them living in a single room no bigger than an average sized bedroom in the United States. Over the years, the church has been helping these families by giving them wood-burning stoves that they could use to cook their food and to heat their homes. Michelle also went with Megan and Grati to deliver some meals to these families and to share the Gospel. Michelle was able to take the vegetables given to us and prepare some amazing meals for these families that truly fed a lot more than we could imagine!
On the last day of the outreach, we were able to come alongside a team from various churches in Hungary that minister twice a year to the kids in this area. In preparation for the huge Kids Day, they brought clothes, school items, and treats. They also had some prepared games and a Gospel presentation to share with the kids. Megan and Michael were instrumental in helping with the day’s program and in serving the amazing meal that Michelle prepared for over 90 kids! She turned some tomatoes, peppers, and onions along with some ground meat into a delicious sauce over noodles with the kids. Then she took some canned fruits and made some delicious cakes out of the juices for desert. It was really neat to see the faces of many of the same kids that we had visited earlier in the week in their homes now lit up with joy and excitement. It was a wonderful time of smiles and hugs. It is hard to put into words all that happened during the ten-day outreach, but we know that God touched many of the hearts of the people there and ours as well. We have an open door to come back anytime and serve there. The spoken language is Hungarian. The church family there was also very grateful for all the repairs and odd jobs that I was also able to complete during the in-between times. Please keep praying for this church in Cantavir, Serbia and thank you for all your prayers during the outreach, we could definitely feel them!
Bible school is such a huge blessing. We are keeping up with our studies and readings, and the outreaches have given us the opportunity to not only learn, but also experience some new aspects of ministry that has helped to further equip us as we continue to serve in the mission field. Please keep us in prayer as we look forward to the upcoming 30-day outreach, as well as some additional weekend outreach opportunities during this final semester.
Thank your for your continued prayers and support! Together we can continue to reach more kids and share the love of Christ to more families than ever before!
Love In Christ,
Sam, Michelle, Megan and Michael
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- With Pastor Tibor’s Family
