Ippistle 10

Dear Friends,

Don’t you love it when things just come together? Those “Aha! moments”? They are really God moments, when you discover something or are made aware of something for the first time, and whatever it is just seems right. God is delighted when His children see how He places people and circumstances together, and then acknowledge God’s orchestration of all of it.

We have had so many of these kinds of moments that we have lost count. Many would say that they are just accidental, “random” encounters. We had these same kinds of experiences at times while living in Michigan but nothing when compared to how often we experience it here. We are continuously meeting new people who end up being related or having a connection with someone else that we know. We have learned to laugh with joy at seeing how God just keeps putting people in our lives. We don’t know where the relationships will lead; it doesn’t matter. We just delight in God unfolding things as they come along and we join in by inviting people for dinner or to accompany us in other activities. Here is one example to demonstrate how this works. We decided to go to a Hungarian Reformed church a couple of Sundays ago but needed a translator. We had contacted someone in the church, and she organized a translator for us. Petra introduced herself to us and the four other English speakers that worshiped with us that day. She did a great job of translating the service for us, and we spoke with her afterwards to thank her. She wanted to know more about us, and why we are in Hungary. We explained a bit about our background and about having Orsi from Sarospatak as an exchange student through Pannonia. Petra got quite excited and said that she was also from Sarospatak (this is a small town three hours from Budapest) and that she also came to the U.S. through the Pannonia program. After more talking we found out that she went to South Christian High School and was in our son-in-law Nick’s class. We invited Dénes and Petra for dinner and had a wonderful time hearing their stories of how God has worked in their lives and the people he has used to bring them to Christ. We showed them some of our pictures and as they were going through our picture book, Dénes said, “Isn’t that your brother-in law, Petra?“ We had sat across from her sister and brother-in-law, who was master of ceremonies at Orsi and Zoli’s wedding! Thank God with us for these new relationships, that He will use them for his glory, and to help others grow in their faith.

Since coming back from Christmas break, work at the Mission Institute has been far from “normal“. Anne-Marie has been in the hospital for the past two weeks needing bedrest and treatments for her back. The hospital is dark and dingy with three persons in a room. Anne-Marie, rather than focusing on herself and her circumstances spent her time sharing physical and spiritual food with her roommates. They spent time each night reading the Bible and praying and sharing their lives with each other. Her example has shown us that our attitude should not be determined by our circumstances but should be continuosly seeking for how God can be honored in the midst of our circumstances. God can always use it for our good. Right now, circumstances are looking very difficult for Anne-Marie. The hospital has been quarantined because of a local outbreak of the flu virus so that there may be no visitors. Her mother and sister are flying in tonight from the Netherlands to spend the weekend with her. Please pray that there will be some way for them to be able spend time with Anne-Marie. Pray also for her healing.

Second semester is in full swing at Trefort Agoston, and teaching continues to go well for Jack. There are more opportunities in class to talk with students about their family situations, how they spend their free time, and how they view certain moral issues. It is often difficult for us to understand this new culture, and rather than tell the boys that they are wrong, it is better to help them set personal standards. Lately the discussion has been about drinking alcohol, which many of the teens are doing on the weekends. The legal drinking age is eighteen, and these students are as young as fourteen. Most of the students claim that they talk freely with their parents about this, but with some students there is definitely a situation of alcohol abuse, drinking for the purpose of getting drunk. Please continue to pray for Jack to have the right words in these discussions.

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Thanks for your love and care!

Jack and Cindy