Matt and EB Jackson: The Magnificent March Month of Ministry!

Dear Friends,

It was an incredible month of outreach with evangelism taking place in all segments of our Campus Crusade for Christ ministry within Hungary. There are many stories to tell but please allow me to mention a few of the highlights.

"Battle of the Bands" Based on the success of an outreach a year ago using a band from our home church in Atlanta, our high school ministry decided to take it one step further and have a contest inviting amatuer bands from across the city to sign up. Knowing music is a great bridge by which to reach out to youth, we prayed that 200 would show up. 600 came!

A testimony and the gospel were clearly proclaimed with even a "pray with me" (Hungary is one of the few places across Europe and North America where we could get away with doing this and not get sued or lose our audience). Over 500 comment cards were returned to us! Although I don't have exact numbers, there were plenty of high schoolers who are "unchurched and disinterested" who NOW express an interest in talking about Jesus! Our high school ministry has plenty of follow-up to do between now and the end of the school year. Praise God!

Below are a couple of pics of students from our Battle of the Bands outreach with whom we built a bridge via the medium of music.

Even those who don't appreciate rock music agreed the Lord chose to use the outreach for His glory!

Here is a picture of the winning band, "Golairds." I would have bought their CD if they had one!

Middle School Classroom Speaking. We had a handful of friends from America join us to do outreach for a week. One day Kirk and Charlene Zuhars of Wichita, Pat Lawless from Orange County, California and I spoke in classrooms at a local middle school here in Budapest. Pat is a life long friend and we went to school together from 5th grade through our Kansas State years. It was good to have him here to get to know my family and do ministry together. During our morning at the Hungarian middle school, where we spoke in English classrooms, we invited the kids to join us after school at a nearby McDonalds where we told them more about our faith in Christ. 15 kids came and several of them trusted Christ!

Here are two pictures of Pat sharing Christ to the middle schoolers, one is of those who joined us after school at McDonalds.

Youth at the Threshold of Life

YTL, as it is commonly called, is a world-wide ministry within Campus Crusade that got its start right here in Hungary ten years ago. Late March was our annual YTL Budapest teacher's training. Nearly 300 teachers attended. At the training they heard a clear presentation of the gospel. After one of the evening sessions, we held a coffee house where our staff and visiting American friends dispersed into the coffee house and continued the gospel conversation with the teachers.

BELOW: Even after the conference hall had cleared of all attendees, Calvin Cartwright of Atlanta (center) was still witnessing to two teachers from the Hungarian city of Sopron.

BELOW: Edina Gresz (left), wife of our country director, and Suzanne Blackstone (middle) from Dallas, share with a table of Hungarian educators at the conference coffee shop. Several of the teachers at their table trusted Christ through the witness of the evening.

Praise God for these outreaches! Please continue to pray as there is much follow up to do!

I thought I would leave you with some pictures of the family that I took today while we went downtown for lunch after church. We love you and we appreciate you! We are eternally grateful for God's undying mercy and grace to us!

Spring snow melt in the Alps is bringing higher water levels along the Danube as it flows through downtown Budapest.