Hi everyone, happy new year! I wanted to do something a little different to begin the year. We appreciate all of you so much and your prayers make a huge difference in our lives and ministry. I thought I would give you guys some photos from our holiday season. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so this should save a lot of typing. Plus, you will get to see more family stuff this time and not just ministry. So, I hope you enjoy it. Prayer requests will be at the end.
Christmas at Riverside Church and H2O Youth Budapest
Riverside Church Christmas Worship
Family Fun during Christmas holiday
Our Roma friends
Thinking outside of the box...examining possibilities of container churches for the Roma
It was great to have Nathan back with us for almost a month during Christmas break. His first semester went really well. He enjoyed it and made straight A's. We are so thankful that the Lord provided financially for Nathan to go to Evangel. All the other kids did well in school here in Budapest, but were glad to have a break. Matthew once again received the National Player of the Year award for his age group in Hungarian baseball. Aaron played soccer and volleyball this past fall for the school. Matthew and Madelyn both played soccer. Matthew is now playing for the school basketball team. We are excited about what God has in store for Riverside Church and H2O youth for 2017.
Prayer Requests:
- It is time to renew our visas. This is so important as it determines whether or not we can stay in Hungary. We have turned in all of our applications and paperwork. Now we wait for the answer. Please pray for favor with the people processing the applications. Pray that our visas are renewed with no problems.
- Pray for H2O youth as we begin meeting again after the holidays. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give us words to speak, wisdom, and direction. Pray that the presence of God remains strong in our services. Pray that kids will be changed and transformed and that new kids will come.
- Pray for Riverside Church. Pray for God's leading and direction in our planning and our services. Pray for a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Begin to pray for us as we will be leading Riverside Church for three months beginning in June. The colleagues we are assisting will be going back to the US for the summer.
- Our field (Hungary) has been moved to another area. We have always been included in Central Europe, but a few years back Central and Southeast Europe were brought together into one area. Now, the two areas will be split back apart, but Hungary will leave Central Europe and become a part of Southeast Europe. Our area now includes Romania, Bulgaria, and all of the Balkan countries (Serbia, Croatia, etc.). This will not affect us too much, mostly administratively and will somewhat affect our relationships with other missionaries. An exciting thing is we have been asked to be over the ministry to MK's in the whole Southeast Europe area. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve our missionary families and MK's in this new position. Please pray that the Lord would lead us and annoint us as we begin this new ministry.
- Pray for our ministry with the Roma. Pray that continues to radically change the Roma people. Pray that God leads us and gives us favor as we explore the possibility of container churches. Many Roma communities need church and community buildings and this may be an inexpensive and quick option.
- Pray for the kids as they begin a new school semester. Pray for Lenee' as she begins a new school semester (working 3 days/week at the school).
- Pray that our financial support remains strong throughout 2017. We have one and a half years left in our term and this is the point where we usually see support begin to drop off. Pray that our support remains consistent so we make it through to the end of our term (summer 2018).
- Pray that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on our family. That we would be annointed to serve and be instruments of revival. May God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven!