Ippistle 29

February 4, 2011


Dear Family and Friends,

Since this is our first communication of 2011, we say Boldog Uj Évet Kivánok! Happy New Year!

It’s been a month since we returned from our Christmas break back in the States. We are finally getting back into the rhythm of life here after illness that had Jack out of school for a week. To get paid for sick days, teachers are required to go to the doctor to get official time off. Among the various prescriptions Jack received, one was for no school for one week. After a week of rest, Jack is happy to be healthy and in the classroom with his students.

Cindy is back to work at EDYN and KMTI (the Mission Institute). She has been putting time in both places depending on which place needs her most. She continues to feel valued mostly for the perspective that she brings. She has many opportunities to share her insights with her colleagues and is told often how much she is appreciated. One of the delightful things about living here is not having a car, forcing the need to take public transportation to and from work for Cindy. It gives her an hour each day of free reading time. Books by Henri Nouwen, Richard Mouw, Tim Keller have been her recent favorites. These are fresh in her mind when she arrives at work and often has opportunity to share what she’s learned.

Lest you think that she sits around all day spouting spiritual insights, her work consists mostly of assisting in each office with whatever projects need working on. The EDYN office just found out yesterday that its EU administrative grant was officially approved for three more years. So the office personnel are excited to know that they will be continuing with their work of overseeing 17 international Christian volunteer ministries. The EDYN board is in the process of hiring a new Administrative Director since Eszter is pregnant and taking maternity leave beginning this month. Your prayers would be appreciated for this important decision. It will be so important that the new person hired has the abilities to do the job well but also that he (they know that it’s a choice between two men) will work well with the rest of the all-female office staff.

Since the new year we have begun attending a new church plant here in Budapest. It’s a Reformed church begun by a young pastor from Sarospatak. It’s completely in Hungarian, but there is a women who gladly translates for us each week. The church is called Talipont which translates as "Meeting Place" and it meets on Sunday afternoons in a pub. The pastor and his wife happened upon the location while they were at a playgound with their child next door. They were looking for a good place to meet because the house they were using for worship wasn’t working out. They discussed the church’s need for a meeting place with the owners, who were very welcoming of the idea; they have provided the space for free and even have an employee there to set up and take down chairs after the service. We are feeling very welcomed there even though it’s for Hungarians. We really appreciate Endre’s preaching and the thoughtfulness that goes into the whole service. We have invited several others to join us, including one of Jack’s students, Chris, whom we mentioned last year. You can pray about that as well. ☺

Tomorrow we have another pizza party planned for Jack’s and Justin‘s 10D students. The students always look forward to being able to just hang out in our flat. We have made the necessary trip to Tesco to stock up on all our pizza supplies, and this morning Jack and Justin picked up the veggies in the farmers‘ market. If you didn’t see the article that was written about our pizza parties in the January, 2011 issue of "The Banner", we have attached a copy.

We have also been attending a Bible study on Tuesday nights at David and Susan’s. David is a Four-Square pastor who is here in Budapest to plant a church. So our
meet up on Tuesday nights is the beginning of that church plant. As a part of this group we have begun "Serve the City: Budapest" which was begun in Brussels and has now spread to 70 cities world wide. We are involved in various ministries to the homeless and others needing help. We plan to minister to others with disabilities in the future as well. We’ll keep you posted as this ministry expands.

As country administrative directors for TeachOverseas, we have had the responsibility of organizing and overseeing the administrative details for the Hungary TeachOverseas teachers. There are thirteen of us ESI teachers throughout Hungary. In January we held a spiritual renewal retreat for the whole team. Our time of worship and learning was so beneficial to us individually as well as to the whole team. In the next six weeks each of the team members must make a decision about whether they will be returning for another year of service here. Yes, that includes us as well. At this point we are sensing God’s leading for us to return for another year. Please join us in praying for God’s clear direction for our upcoming year.

We want to thank you again for your prayers and financial support. We can see that God is using and blessing us within the relationships He keeps putting us in. We are dependent on Him. We are thankful that He has used you to be partners with us in this work.

Blessings!

Jack and Cindy