The month of July has simply flown by! It was a fun and successful camp season with two weeks of kids camp followed by two weeks of teen camp. Kids camp looks kind of like a hybrid of VBS and English language camp. The kids learn fun songs with motions (which all of us still have stuck in our heads), have a daily teaching, game time, craft time, and of course a couple hours of English learning. They also earn points by memorizing Bible verses, participating in class, having good manners, ect that they can use at the end of the week at the camp store. The teen camp is a little less structured. Mornings include English class, a time of worship, and a teaching followed by small groups, but most of the afternoon is open for the students to choose between games, crafts, a seminar or just hanging out with other campers and helpers. During teen camp we also took the students to the beach for a day and sent them into the city on a scavenger hunt. At the end of teen camp, each group prepares a short skit for parents’ night, which is always a lot of fun.
Two different churches came to help with the camps and it was fun to experience the different flavor brought by each of the teams. Both teams really poured themselves into the camps and several campers gave their lives to Christ during the four weeks. Also just as exciting, we saw a lot of growth in the young Hungarian leaders who volunteered their time to come help with camps and serve along side us. I am excited to see these young people engage in discipleship in the months to come and see how they grow and learn to share their faith.
The weekend after camps were done, I was invited to come spend a few days at Lake Balaton with Edit’s family. It was a fun and wonderful time to play games, relax and enjoy time together. Being with them encourages me to work hard on learning Hungarian so that I can communicate more with their sweet little girls. Please continue to pray for Edit and her family. Please pray that God would soften their hearts and that they would be hungry for Him.
Finally, I just spent 5 days at the biannual Reach Global Europe Division conference. It was so good, a real time of refocus and re-excitement about all that we are doing here. I got to meet the new president of the EFCA, talk with experts on preventing human trafficking, discipleship and church planting, as well as meet people involved in ministry from Sweden to Portugal to Russia to Cyprus. I think my favorite part about the conference was just hearing stories about what God is doing all over Europe. I am so thankful that I was able to attend this conference, and hope that I am able to apply many of the things that I learned so that I can be more effective during my next year of work in here in Hungary.
The next few weeks will be mostly a time of planning for the upcoming fall semester. I have a lot to figure out as far as scheduling my time at the three different locations I serve, and also need to do advertising, put together some general class schedules and meet with a several people to figure out what all we will be doing. I am also hoping to move to a new apartment by the end of the month. Please pray that I would be a good communicator and open to God’s leading during this time of planning. Please also pray that Noémi and I find a good place to live soon!
Thank you for your prayers and support! As always please feel free to contact me.
Liz