Heat Wave and Health Care

"It is finally cooling off!" Our car measuring the outside air temperature. We saw it register as high as 106 degrees, the highest we have ever seen our 10 year old car measure outside air temp!

It has been the hottest in 100 years here this week in Budapest, so the locals say. As is true of most Hungarians, we do not have air conditioning and the nearest pool is nearly 30 minutes away. Here are some unique coping skills we have learned.

We learned the value of the “siesta,” an idea that most Americans despise or don’t understand. But when you have no air conditioning, you learn to get up early (4:30am to 5am), get the work done while it is still cool and take it easy during the heat of the day, only to re-emerge with the cool of evening.

This began as a water balloon but was left in the full sun on our deck. It melted into something consistent with blue latex paint.

Get the cool air into the house early but by 10am, close the house up, draw the curtains and keep out the heat. This worked early in the week but after 5 days of 100+ degree heat, it just wasn’t cool anymore in the mornings. I could not even sleep outside at night on our deck because the tiles on our terrace even at 2am were still radiating enough heat to make me sweat as I was out there.

The big grocery stores all pulled their frozen foods from the freezers. The freezers displaying the frozen foods could not keep the food from thawing.

I would pull a t-shirt out of my closet and it felt hot as if it had just come out of the dryer.

5 AM: The sun rises menacingly over our Hungarian village.

On another note, I had an outpatient procedure done at a local hospital here in Hungary. It was very clean, the paint was fresh and pretty, the staff smiled and were courteous, no one mocked me for my need for further testing and everything was professional. EB accompanied me and we waited for the procedure to start in a private room. That room had your standard hospital bed as well as a single normal bed next to it. Not bad for a country with socialized health care.

But wait! Before you call Michael Moore; this was a PRIVATE hospital independent of the socialized health care system of Hungary. You have heard plenty of horror stories of our experience with socialized medicine. Before you become a fan of government run health care, please come spend a week with us and we will give you a tour of contrast between private and public health care here in Hungary.

I must give a “shout-out” to this private hospital. Google “Telki Hungary hospital” and surely you will find the hospital we visited. My procedure? Well, lets just say that George W and I had a lot in common medically this past weekend. I’m fine; everything checked out okay.

Seeds of Change in the Balkans

Is a country worth our missionary efforts where evangelical Christians across the entire country are outnumbered by those in attendance on a Sunday morning at a typical American mega-church?

If so, I would like to present you with TWO such countries in Southeast Europe: Serbia and Montenegro.

One can find plenty of religious expression across SE Europe but personal faith in Jesus is the only answer to the despair and emptiness of her people.

Although stunning in its beauty, these countries are spiritually dead. EB and I, along with Savannah, Rebekah and Quentin were in the small city of Sutomore on the Adriatic along the Mediterranean Sea. We were in Europe’s newest country of barely 15 months: Montenegro, which seceded from Serbia, what is left of the former Yugoslavia.

Our Serbian ministry was having an English language camp for students there at a 2 star hotel along a beach covered with Eastern European tourists. In the context of teaching English, we were able to build friendships and share Christ with the Serbian students attending the camp. Some gospel conversations I had went deep into the night. Please allow me to introduce you to a couple of Serbian students with whom I shared.

Anton (on the left) did a mean Frank Sinatra on karaoke night.

Anton: (not his real name) Anton once studied to be an Orthodox priest. Most Americans categorize Christianity into either Catholic or Protestant. There is a third category: Orthodox. Yet the priests who were training Anton led him into all sorts of sins. These sins were so damaging that Anton does not like even talking about it.

But it didn’t quench his thirst for God. Anton heard the gospel many times at camp and he told me that the friendships he developed at camp, particularly with the American Campus Crusade college students who were helping to run the camp, were more important to him than his Serbian friends.

Speaking about Jesus with Fedor at a coffee shop along the Adriatic.

Fedor: Fedor has his doctorate in Film and Movies and is a member of Mensa, the society for the “super intellectual.” Fedor said he heard that this English camp had a religious twist to it and he came expecting to be preached at. He also came ready to do battle with the “religious zealots.” But, he told me, he was disarmed by the kindness and genuine faith of the people he met.

When I gave an optional seminar on the Historical Reliability of the Bible (same as I gave a two weeks before in Sarajevo), Fedor sat in the front row and asked honest, seeking questions. I explained the gospel several times to Fedor and he said he found the gospel message “very attractive.” Fedor, to the best of my knowledge, has not trusted Christ yet but seems oh so close. Please pray for Fedor! He text messaged me after the camp was over and said, “I count this time spend at (the English language camp) as best summer experience ever. Thank you for being an important part of it…”

Teaching American culture to Serbian students, like country-western dancing, was part of our English camps.

There are many city blocks in America with more evangelical churches than all of Montenegro, which has only 3. Please continue to pray for the Balkan countries of Southeastern Europe. Many Christians chalk these countries up as a part of Christendom but there are more Christians in Middle Eastern countries than exist in many of the countries of the European Balkan Peninsula.

Quentin and Rebekah at the beach and EB and Savannah celebrating the 4th of July.

EB and I felt like this English camp might be a great place for families to bring kids and do evangelistic missions work. It is right on the beach and in a beautiful part of the world. Let us know if this even might be a possibility for you for next summer.

In addition to significant ministry, there are beautiful cities to explore such as Budva, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its beautiful but there is much work to be done for the sake of the gospel along the Adriatic Sea. The Balkans need authentic examples of the gospel and they need laborers who will live it out. Please come!

Dubrovnik: A jewel of a city along the Adriatic coast.

A few cultural notes: At the border into Montenegro, the border guard examined our family’s passports, noticed the Georgia plates on our van and asked if we were Americans. Reluctantly, based on cool responses elsewhere in Europe, I said yes. He gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up and waved me into his country. Throughout the country we saw signs announcing USAid, referencing the fact that America is helping this country get started in its tenure as a sovereign nation.

A truck wondering if it can get through a hand-dug tunnel on a Serbian highway.

I am also learning that I can measure the “sophistication” of a culture based on how many Coca Cola options they have. For example, a trek into any Super Walmart or Super Target in America gives you a whole aisle of Coca Cola varieties to choose from. Yet in Montenegro, we felt fortunate to find a place that sold good ole normal Diet Coke, known as "Coca Cola Lite” in Europe. The Americans at the English camp were frequently asking each other, “Do you know where I can buy a diet Coke?”

While looking for a parking place, a tiny Eastern European car (a Pulski Fiat) was straddling two places. I tried in vain to wedge our big ole minivan into the spot. But waiting behind me was a silver Audi with Romanian plates (read: Mafia), the kind of car that usually travels 100 mph on the highway and flashes its headlights at any other car that dares to drive in the left lane. So I let the parking place go and searched for a new one. However I was flagged down immediately and waved back to the parking spot. It seems the occupants of the silver Audi with Romanian plates got out of their car, picked up the tiny Eastern European car, moved it 3 feet and ushered us into the new parking place they just created!

Our van in its parking place next to the Pulski Fiat

Hey! If you have read this far, drop me an email and let me know. I always wonder how much of what I post gets read.

“I have never taken the Bible seriously. But because of your message tonight, I will start reading it," a Bosnian student said to me after my talk.

This mosque stands proudly at one of the major intersections in Sarajevo.

This represents a pictorial history of Sarajevo for the past 25 years. Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. (The tower in the photo is displaying the Olympic rings.) Yet when Communism fell, Yugoslavia plunged into a civil war. The Croats, Serbs and Bosnians all were at war with each other. Sarajevo was one of the places hit hardest during the civil war. Both Christian and Muslim cemeteries are found throughout the city.

The room was stifling hot. The fact that the room was filled with people did not help to cool things. Even though it was evening, it had been well into the 90s earlier in the day. The windows were open but it just brought in the heat, noise and dirt from the street. Most everyone was trying to cool themselves with little hand fans made from paper. My shirt was soaked in sweat. Air conditioning was a luxury no one remotely expected. I had been speaking for almost an hour through a translator. I thought, “Too long; maybe I should just stop.”

But as I looked around the room all eyes were on me; the body language of my mostly Muslim audience said, “Keep going; we are listening.” I could not believe it! It was under these conditions I was lecturing on the Authority of the Bible.

To be in a Muslim country and to speak on this topic and share Christ was a dream come true and a highpoint of my life as a missionary!

I was in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Bosnia is part of the former Yugoslavia with nearly 4 million people and at most 500 born again believers throughout the entire country. Mosques can be found throughout the city of Sarajevo the way Southern Baptist churches pepper a small town in Georgia.

Friday noon prayers at a mosque in Sarajevo. What 11:00 am Sunday is for American Christians, noon on Friday is for Muslims.

Campus Crusade has teams that rotate in and out of the city on one year cycles (STINT) as well as an extra influx of manpower during the early summer. I was asked to come there and speak three consecutive nights on three topics, “Creation vs. Evolution,” “Truth vs. Relativity,” and “the Authority of the Bible.” Instead of just presenting facts, I tried to connect with the heart of my audience, telling personal stories and showing movie clips to help illustrate my points.

“They came because they wanted to hear about the topic; no one is forcing them to be here,” one of the Campus Crusade staff told me. “They don’t hear this truth about the Bible or Jesus in their mosques, on TV, or from anywhere. They equate Christianity with MTV since both are from America. Or they equate Christianity with the crusades of the middle ages or the Serbs who rained shells down on their city during the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s.”

During the Q & A time, one older man, who sat on the front row during all 3 lectures, said, “I have been searching for God for 25 years. There are 2 big hurdles keeping me from the Christian God.” He went on to cite classic Muslim arguments from John 14:16 (does Jesus predict Mohammad's coming here?) and the apocrypha writing, “Gospel of Barnabas,” which presents a very Muslim Jesus. Through God’s grace, I was able to give the Christian view (and the accurate historical view) of both topics. When the meeting ended, he was quickly talking with several of our summer missionaries.

One of the many Muslim cemeteries in Sarajevo. It is a reminder of all the Muslims daily that enter eternity without Jesus Christ.

During the Q & A, questions were asked implying a myriad of misconceptions ranging from the Trinity to exactly what happened in the Council of Nicea in AD 325, damage largely propagated by the movie, “The Da Vinci Code,” and snatched onto by Muslim apologists. I found it incredulous that the majority of Muslim arguments against the Bible are rooted in misinformation, urban legends and down-right lies. For many Muslims (not all) their style is to deny, deflect and to argue with a loud, intimidating voice. Only a few of the objections raised dealt with the content of what I had shared; rather many were pre-packaged arguments against Christianity.

Scott Moffatt (right), a life-long friend and staff member with Campus Crusade in Jacksonville, FL, brought his wife Katrina and 4 kids with him to Sarajevo for the summer. Here he is witnessing to Delvin after one of my talks. Delvin is a Muslim and has been associating with our work there in Sarajevo for years. Everyone likes Delvin but he is stubborn toward the God who loves him. Pray for Delvin!

When Paul preached in Athens in Acts 17:32-34, there were 3 reactions: 1) some sneered 2) some said, “We shall hear you again about this,” 3) and some men joined Paul and believed. This was a passage we could certainly relate to last week in Sarajevo.

Teams have labored in Sarajevo for years with little fruit. Yet many feel that is about to change. Here are two men who came to Christ just this past month through our work there. Ahmed (left) from a Muslim background and George (right) was saved from a background of drug abuse and organized crime. Pray for both of these guys!

When the lecture session finally broke up, conversations continued at a nearby outdoor café late into the evening. A college student nicknamed “Bookie” came up and hugged me and said, “I have never taken the Bible seriously. But because of your message tonight, I will start reading it.” One of our staff serving in Sarajevo who witnessed to Bookie during the past month said that Bookie is close to receiving Christ as his Lord and Savior.

After one of my lectures, a group that had sat in the back came forward to talk to me. They were believers from the local "Seventh Day Adventist" churchplant. Their pastor told me, "Anytime the gospel is being preached in this town we try to get there and encourage our fellow Christians." When Christians are the minority, denominational differences are quickly set aside.

There is a beauty, a simplicity, even a purity that continues to attract me to these Balkan (Southeastern Europe) cities where Christ is not known to contend for the gospel among Muslims and other lost students. Thank you for empowering us to do just that!

Men playing chess with life-sized pieces at a park in Sarajevo. The men watching were quick to either cheer or boo at each move made by the players.

This is me with both the Sarajevo summer team and the STINT team made up of mostly students from the Atlanta area. They faithfully shared Christ often to hard hearts in a tough setting.

Hungarian Celebration Dinner in Atlanta serves up a fruitful response!

After the Celebration Dinner we (EB, me and the Hungarian Campus Crusade staff who helped with the dinner) spent a day at the lake with our friends the Edwards. From left: Andras, Ibi, Csilla, Mara, Gene and Barbara Edwards, George (in the back) and EB.

On May 14^th in Atlanta we had our 2^nd straight Hungarian Celebration Dinner! The crowd was about the same size as last year (approx 185 attended), yet the amount given was more than double! We received that night $65,000 in cash gifts and pledges going straight to the Hungarian ministry! (This was not for EB and me in our personal support.) We are grateful to the Lord and for all those who joined us that evening! The money raised that night, plus another generous gift that came in just recently, has been a HUGE lift for the Hungarian ministry. Going into next school year, they will be in the best position financially since Campus Crusade started in Hungary!

For this year’s Celebration Dinner we put a greater emphasis on prayer. A 40 day prayer and fasting chain led up to the event and during the dinner a group was also praying. The Lord chose to honor those sacrifices of prayer.

I continued in the States for another several weeks; EB was with me most of that time. We did follow-up work from the dinner and attempted to open more doors for our Polish ministry. We will be bringing more Polish staff to the Kansas City area in the fall.

EB and I were also able to spend time with my family in Arkansas over the Memorial holiday weekend. Our kids, still in school back in Budapest, did surprisingly well (almost too well!) in our absence.

This is my dad and my brother in law, Rick Elliott from Dallas, at my parents' house in Heber Springs, Arkansas. Read my dad's (Jerry Jackson) "conservative viewpoint" column at www.thesuntimes.com.

Later this week I will prepare a series of talks for an outreach I am doing over three different nights later in June. I will be helping our ministry in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by speaking evangelistically to their ethnic Muslim students that they have befriended. Please join me and pray for this outreach.

Next week I will be on vacation. I will spend it at home with my family and working on projects around the house!

Thank you for choosing to stand with us in our ministry here in Eastern Europe!

Strengthening the work of the gospel in Asia

A candid moment on the only man-made object that can be seen from outer space.

What ever became of that trash can? With the gentleness of a bowling ball bouncing down the steps inside a house, the stomach flu ravaged its way through our family as we prepared to leave. In the days leading up to our trip, first EB got it, then Quentin. The day before left Savannah got it. The morning our plane departed Elizabeth got it. Within site of the Budapest airport, Elizabeth became sick in the car. Fortunately the van trash can was available. She was sick again once we boarded the plane. Before we landed 9 hours later Rebekah became sick. We made it to our destination and to the empty apartment which was to be our home for the week. But before we could wash up and go out to eat, Ben got sick. However, God revealed Himself to us during this time of illness. For more specifics, please scroll down to the end of this posting.

Tired and sick while going through security at an Asian airport

“Little emperors” Our first full day in country EB was ushered into an apartment filled with young Asian mothers, all of whom serve as missionaries. EB taught on boundaries between family and ministry, as well as home organizing and loving husbands (the most difficult task!). Yet where she really struck a chord was her teaching on disciplining children. It is against the law to have more than one child in this big country. And since this one child represents both the future of the family and the parents’ retirement plan, most parents are afraid to do anything that might upset the child. Discipline is rare. Hence the term, “little emperors,” describes that single child. Christian families know that this is not God’s plan for children but are unsure of what to do. Therefore, they asked EB to return to them on a second day so they could ask more questions and secure more resources regarding Christian child-rearing.

Our large family with blonde hair, blue eyed kids, (along with our American friends' kids) attracted a lot of attention in Asia. Since Asians are much more outgoing than Europeans, our kids were overwhelmed with how often they were asked to pose for photos. I told Rebekah that now she knows what it feels like to be a movie star!

New country, same problem: I spent a day also with our national Asian staff. The 30 I met with are evangelizing campuses in a “small” city of 8 million that has almost 1 million students. These precious laborers must raise their own support. Even though the church is growing very rapidly in this part of the world, it is still largely a poor church. Additionally they cannot get visas to the US where 80% of the world’s Christian wealth resides. Therefore they must raise money from within the country. So our laborers there have a greater uphill struggle than even our European staff. I taught on how support raising is not begging for money and how we even provide a blessing for those who choose to give (i.e. Acts 20:35, Matthew 6:20, 1 Timothy 6:17-19). At one point my translator leaned over to me and said, “This is revolutionary!”

Motivating Asian Christians from the Word about support raising

Encouraging the heroes: We also spent two days with English-speaking missionaries serving in this part of the world. For security reasons, Asian nationals and the foreigners who work for our missions agency rarely mingle. This time was no exception. I spoke on the three most influential verses in my life: Romans 5:8, Romans 8:18 and Matthew 9:37-38. Even though we were all crammed into an apartment (again we dare not have a traditional conference setting for security reasons), some traveled from the far western reaches of the country, the equivalency of traveling from Seattle to Dallas, for this time together. Included was a team of missionaries from Romania, several of whom we know personally. I was genuinely moved to be around REAL HEROES of the faith, people serving in very primitive, isolated places who are working among some of the least evangelized people in the world. I thought, “Who am I to be speaking into their lives?”

Ben with the Asian Rod Stewart. I had to explain to Ben who Rod Stewart is.

“Happy Birthday to you.” While in the country, we had to use a new vocabulary of code words when talking about “company business” in order to protect identities and activities. At one point during one of our praise and worship times, there was a loud, forceful knock on the apartment door. Quickly Bibles were shut and put away and the song leader switched to “happy birthday to you…” Fortunately, it was only the building maintenance man checking to see if the phone lines worked, a man known well by the occupants of the apartment. Just a few weeks before, the authorities busted up a similar meeting, and separated the nationals from the foreigners. They hauled the foreigners down to a police station for questioning while seizing their passports.

Elizabeth tries an Asian delicacy, cow stomach, while Savannah registers her opinion on her face!

Free Market Communism: I was surprised at how clean and modern things were. Now granted, we were staying in one of the nicer parts of a large, large city. I asked the Americans serving there about the ever rising standard of living; I made some ignorant comment on how “Communism must be working.” They were quick to tell me that what I saw was the results of a giant step toward a free market economy, as well as the country putting on its best face for the upcoming Olympics that will be held in that country. The government, in order to appease the masses, had to turn the free market faucets on somewhat. The best way our friends could describe it, was the term, “free market Communism,” as confusing and contradictory as that term is. I laughed when I realized that in order for Marx’s and Mao’s dream to remain alive, a giant step away from Communism had to be taken.

Mao intends evil; God uses it for good: I found it so ironic that Mao’s picture is still everywhere in this country, including on most of the denominations of money, given all the pain, suffering and failure he caused his people. About the time I was born, there was a famine caused by Mao’s ignorance of farming (yet everyone feared telling him that he was wrong) that killed “at least 30 million people.” (for more details see the book review for “Hungry Ghosts” at http://www.fff.org/freedom/0697f.asp). Yet God has used the temporalness of Communism to weaken the strongholds of Buddhism that spiritually enslaved people for millenniums. Missionaries for centuries gave their lives for a people enslaved to Buddhism and unresponsive to the gospel. Yet Communism swept away much of the power structure of this occultic Eastern religion. And now, even though outlawed, Christianity is growing very rapidly within the spiritual vacuum created by the secularization of Buddhism and Mao’s governmental philosophy.

Back to Jerusalem: In recent years, a missionary movement has arisen among the underground church in this country. In fact, the goal is by the year 2020 that this country will send out more missionaries than any country in the world, including the US. They have taken upon themselves to take the gospel “back to Jerusalem.” The history of the Christian church is to push west. The church was founded in Jerusalem, and then expanded into Europe, North America and now to Asia. However, North Americans cannot take the gospel to most of the closed places in our world today, specifically the Muslim Asian countries. So the Asian church is picking up the baton and determined to carry the gospel “back to Jerusalem.” This passion for missions was not born in the comforts of wealth and freedom but was born in the persecution of Communism!

Easter under Communism: We also toured the capitol city of 12 million with good friends of ours from our days in Atlanta, who have been serving in this country as long as we have been in Budapest. While comparing notes about life and raising children on the mission field, their knowledge of the city and the language proved invaluable. We all attended an Easter Sunday service at a church that in many ways resembled one of the thousands of similar churches in America. Yet it grieved us that only those possessing foreign passports could attend this service. Yet we were assured that in house churches and in underground locations all over the city and in the country-side that the resurrection of Jesus was being celebrated. The Lord will be glorified in spite of natural man’s attempts to squelch it. OUR GOD REIGNS!

The Sufficiency of Christ: It was Friday morning, March 30^th, and I was spending time with the Lord. We were to leave for the airport to begin our journey in just a few hours. I begged God to take away the stomach flu from our family. Yet when I reviewed one set of my talk notes, I came across this Scripture from 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Paul had a messenger from Satan, a thorn in his side, that he begged God three times to remove. Yet the Lord did not do it; instead the Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Paul comments further, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties (including the stomach flu) for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak then I am strong.” I then out of obedience thanked the Lord for the stomach flu, proclaimed Him sufficient in the midst of our weakness, declared “lesson learned!” and fully expected Him to remove the flu from our family THEN and NOW! Just then Elizabeth came into the room to tell me she had just thrown up. It was then I realized that the Lord was going to not heal but reveal. He would reveal Himself sufficient in the midst of our weakness.

When we arrived at the airport, EB asked if the flight was full. “Not an available seat,” the woman at the counter told EB. Our countenance sunk. We were hoping for some additional empty seats. However, when we got on the plane, there were two rows of three empty seats each near us. Those two rows became our “sick beds.” Both Elizabeth and Savannah, both weakened by the flu, were able to lay down and sleep pretty much the entire 9 hour flight. THANK YOU, LORD! There was also a sympathetic flight crew and plenty of airsickness bags, of which we used several! God chose not to heal but to provide abundantly in the midst of our sickness. Yes, other people’s sufferings are much worse than ours. Yet the Lord wanted to show our family His faithfulness through this sickness. And He did just that! Pursue not merely relief from your sufferings but pursue finding Christ sufficient in the midst of your sufferings!

More photos

Thank you for standing with us as God calls us to "even the remotest ends of the earth!"

Encouraging the body of Christ in Serbia!

Where on a world map would you look for a country that had only 700 evangelicals in its capitol city of 2 million people? What if I added that this country recently had a civil war and is now home to 200,000 Muslims?

Mark Orcutt (right) flew over from South Carolina to travel with me. Here he is speaking to a Serbian student in Novi Sad, Serbia, during a distribution of our evangelistic magazine, "Vox."

Would you place such a country in Europe?

The country I am describing is called Serbia. Serbia is in the Balkan Peninsula and is what remains from the former Yugoslavia. Serbia shares a border with Hungary.

Before the USA was attacked on Sept 11, Serbia was the world’s hotspot. Perhaps you remember such words as Sarajevo, ethnic cleansing, Kosovo, Slobodan Milosevic.

Last week I was there in Serbia in the capitol city of Belgrade: 2 million people with less than 1000 born again believers while the Muslims multiply throughout the country, particularly in the south.

I was with Mark Orcutt, a good friend from South Carolina, who came over just to spend the week with our family and join me in my travels and ministry. Mark and I spent many hours together processing all we experienced and getting to know each other better.

Errol (left) is our Serbian country director for Campus Crusade; Mark is on the right. Goran (middle) is a psychology student who is not a Christian (yet) but enjoys hanging out with the guys in our ministry in Belgrade. They are holding up copies of the evangelistic magazine we distributed. I think it is great when our ministry attracts non-Christians!

It was asked to come to the city of Belgrade to train their new missionaries and to encourage the laborers there. Campus Crusade has 7 missionaries there, 4 are Serbian and 3 Romanian. Just north of Belgrade is the city of Novi Sad. Campus Crusade has there a team of 5 American young people witnessing on the campus. One day we helped them pass out an evangelistic magazine that our ministry created and gathered evangelistic contacts for them. The magazine looks great and is very professional!

One student approached me who was helping our American missionaries hand out the magazine. He said, “Do you remember me?”

“Yes, I do,” I replied. “You came to an outreach I spoke at 2 years ago here in Novi Sad. Your name is Evan.” Evan told me how my message impacted his life and a short while later he came to faith in Christ. Our team of Americans has helped him grow and now he is helping them reach out to other students. It was great reconnecting with Evan!

Evan, in the light blue shirt, through our ministry in Novi Sad, Serbia, went from a lost student to a Christ-centered laborer!

We returned to Budapest in time for a great outreach done each year by Campus Crusade’s high school’s ministry. “Battle of the Bands.” Amateur bands from around Budapest get a chance to perform live and compete for prize money. Entry fee is to fill out a spiritual interest survey from which our high school staff can do follow up. I have not heard yet on numbers but I saw the gospel clearly communicated between acts and I saw young Hungarians in attendance who otherwise would not have gone to a church or any “Christian” event. What a strategic outreach!

Back in Budapest, these Hungarian students attended "Battle of the Bands." Though they probably would not attend a church service, at our outreach they heard the gospel.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and your partnership in our ministry. Please keep praying for us and those impacted by the work of the gospel here in Eastern Europe!

"Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1

March Madness in Budapest!

Wow! What a few days! Our kids’ school (ICSB; International Christian School of Budapest) hosted a basketball tournament where we invited International High Schools from across Central and Eastern Europe. Friday and Saturday had around the clock high school basketball games for both girls and boys as the tournament progressed.

The teams came from Salzburg, Austria; Vienna, Austria; Kiev, Ukraine, Bucharest, Romania and our cross-town rival, the American International School of Budapest (AISB), where embassy families and business executives send their kids. While most of the high school athletes were American, the rosters from these schools contained kids from places such as Belgium, China and Iran.

While the high school boys from our school took second in the tournament to local rival AISB, our ICSB girls went undefeated in the tournament and won the girls division! The crowd was rowdy, school colors were everywhere, the pep band was energetic and the gym was loud! This tournament is certainly the highlight of the athletic year and generates the most school spirit! EB and I haven’t had this much fun as sports fans since college days at Ahearn Fieldhouse.

Our Elizabeth, AS A SOPHOMORE, brought home a whole shelf-full of awards, including: From 100+ athletes, the coaches voted her: 1) Most Valuable Offensive Player, 2) onto the all-tournament team. She was also 3) high scorer and 4) brought home the championship trophy! We are so proud!

The championship ICSB 2007 Lady Bulldogs basketball team!

On a cultural note, we had to adjust to a new way of refereeing. In America, we expect the refs to be objective outside observers of the game. In Europe, where authority is emphasized and individuality is discouraged, the refs make it clear that they are in control of the game and they will favor their calls toward the losing team. This is an attempt to make the contests fairer. Frustrating to our American minds but a fact of life here in Europe all the same.

Rebekah and her friend won an award for the best poster. Here it is!

"The mission outreach of these fellows is so superb. Thank you for letting us share with them."

The above is a quote from one of our Kansas City partners regarding our Polish missionaries.

Even though EB and I are back on a plane on Sunday for a week in Atlanta, I just returned 10 days ago from nearly 3 weeks in the States. Most of that was spent in or near Kansas City. While in KC, I was with 4 of our Polish staff trying to get them connected with churches and individuals in their attempts to raise support.

Our several weeks in Kansas City (and one weekend near Great Bend, Kansas) exceeded our expectations! Praise God! I was genuinely surprised how people made sacrifices and took risks to help out the Polish missionaries with me. These people ranged from high school friends I have known for a quarter century (I grew up in Kansas City) to people I did not know before this trip.

Authentic Kansas City Bar-B-Que with our new friend Brian Doerr (2nd from the right) and four of our Polish missionaries [from left: Robert Kowalsky, Mariusz Kwapisz (country director), Marek Marcinowicz and Irek Lehwark.]

The Polish missionaries with me had the deck stacked against them. IMAGINE THEIR SITUATION! They were far from family, in a culture and country foreign to them, operating in their second language and, on top of all of this, they were support raising! Two of the men are still in Kansas City and will leave in a few days. However, when I left the US on Super Bowl Sunday, the Polish missionaries had already raised about half of the support they needed! That is good news!

Yet behind these 4 staff are another 95 Polish missionaries. And behind these Polish missionaries are our Romanian, Albanian and Russian staff. Then there are the national missionaries from the other Eastern European countries, most all of whom live financially in ways Americans would not.

Europe is the only continent in the world where the Christian church is not growing. If we are to see true Biblical Christianity come again to Europe, like it is in Asia and Africa, the first thing we must do (after emerging from prayer and fasting for Europe) is to sure up and empower what “remains of the wall” (think Nehemiah): that is, our European national missionaries.

God has not given the American church great wealth so that she can be comfortable. I believe that the Lord wants the American church to step beyond the bubble of American evangelicalism and engage her world. And as she goes to the remotest ends of the earth, she is to be salt and light to her neighbors as well.

Some of the lovely Kansas City ladies who attended a coffee that Kari (far right) hosted in order to benefit the Polish ministry.

The fact is that very little of America’s Christian wealth gets to the foreign mission field. This is not, I believe, because the American church is greedy. Rather I believe she lacks opportunity. Whenever the Holy Spirit orchestrates Eastern European missionaries to be seated at the same table as American Christians, an instant bond usually takes place; a bond that, more often than not, results in prayer and financial investment.

Mariusz sharing his life and ministry with Larry and Phyllis Vogt and Marian DeWerff of Ellinwood (Kansas) Baptist Church.

One reason books like “The Purpose Driven Life” and “Wild at Heart,” are so popular is that the flipside of American affluence is often boredom and a lack of purpose. Yet the Bible is full of offers to live lives of meaning and purpose. (Matthew 9:37, Matthew 16:24-25, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 6:35, Acts 1:8, etc.)

Reconciling the world with the Creator is what drove Jesus to leave His home, travel to a foreign world, communicate the love of the Father and even lay down His life so that others might commune with the Father. The missionary cause is so great that even Jesus Himself left everything to pursue it. Surely it is worthy of our pursuits too.

Even though the cause of Christ cries out for those who will leave behind all that is familiar for the sake of the gospel, one can still make a difference and not leave one’s zip code by praying, sending and giving.

The foreign mission field does not need sinless saints leading perfect lives revved on caffeine and adrenaline. Rather we need wounded warriors who are so moved by a God who justifies by grace through faith, that they count Him as their greatest treasure, greatest passion, and greatest pursuit.

Repent from small dreams and come dream big dreams with us. First Europe and then lets see where the Lord leads us!

We were able to spend a few days with EB's mom who lives near Great Bend, Kansas. She lives on the farm her grandfather homesteaded as an immigrant from the modern-day Czech Republic. Here she is showing the Polish men the hogshed that she is renovating into guest quarters for her ever-growing family!

It was interesting to see what the Polish men noticed while visiting the States. They commented frequently on the creatively designed buildings (one pictured here), the large cars, wide and maintained roads, including the interstate system as well as "miles upon miles of large, beautiful homes."

When I arrived back home in Budapest, EB had a party waiting for me with our children, extended family and best Hungarian friends! For a few hours I forgot that I hadn't slept in a couple of days!