5 Photos and a Video

The Lord chose to reveal His hand to us during my time in Kansas City in February with 4 Polish missionaries. I was nervous going into this trip because my efforts before hand did not generate the opportunities I had hoped. But the Lord took our 5 loaves and 2 fish and turned it into an abundance! Some real heroes stepped forward and made sure these Polish believers had plenty of opportunities to tell their stories and present their needs. And Christians joined up with these Polish missionaries so they could return to their assignments and families in Poland and share the gospel without the pressures of inadequate finances. We thank God for how He blessed their support trip to the States and how Christians in Kansas City rallied behind these Polish Christians.

Here they are at KU basketball game with enthusiastic KU alumnus David Wurth (left). From left next to David is Natalie Balcer, campus staff in Gdansk, Then next to Natalie is Robert Kowalski, Polish Director of Development, Maciek (Mike) Derezinski, Polish National Campus Director, and Wojtek (Wayne) Tubek, CFO for Campus Crusade for Christ in Poland.

Late February, EB joined me, along with Quentin and Rebekah, in the Czech Republic and spoke with me at a retreat for Christian young people. Czech is statistically the most atheistic country in Europe, which is the most atheistic continent in the world. Therefore this was a unique opportunity. If the Church of Jesus Christ is to be healthy again in Europe, then she will need, among other things, to be financially responsible for her pastors and missionaries. One of my messages was about good financial stewardship. I was able to give each attendee a copy of the book, “Your Money Counts,” a gift from Crown Ministries in Kansas City.

We got a dog! For the first time in nearly 20 years of marriage, we have a pet! She is a Havanese, was born in December and we named her Reagan. Rebekah is her primary care-giver and is learning the joys of house-training!

Here our kids are with their dates to the Valentines’ banquet at their school. Liz is pictured with Peter Mullett, whose parents work in Budapest with the Evangelical Free Church. Ben took Michelle Martin, whose parents work with American Baptists for World Evangelization (ABWE) here in Budapest. The four of them are each good basketball players and can be seen in the highlights video I linked to below.

Thanks for loving us and walking this journey of faith with us. There is nothing more glorious, more assuring that knowing we are no longer slaves but adopted sons and heirs of our Father God! He invites us to call Him, “Papa!” Galatians 4:4-7

Below is a link to a 6 minute highlights video from last weekend's basketball tournament. The video features both the girls and boys teams from our school, Intl Christian School of Budapest. There were lots of cheers and some tears as both our girls and boys teams played in but lost the championship game. It was particularly hard this year for Liz has she had to watch the entire tournament from the bench because of her recent knee surgery.

Teams came from here in Budapest as well as Kiev, Vienna and Salzburg to play in our tournament. This tournament is one of the highlights of the school year! (Ben is wearing the green jersey, #21 and can be seen in slow motion defensively batting the ball into the stands. Michelle, Ben's date to the Valentine's banquet, is the one also shown in slow motion sinking the 3 pt jumper.)