Liz Laboring in the Harvest Field of New York City

New York City is a colorful, lively, bustling city, and people there are always on the go. Yet at the same time, it is one of the most dead places in the world spiritually. Because it is a melting pot of cultures, it also becomes a melting pot of religious beliefs, yet the truth is drown out and extremely difficult to distinguish in this sea of every kind of spirituality. The city is yearning for truth, and so this spring break our goal was to equip the college students and future leaders with God’s truth, giving hope to this lost city. With over 1 million college students, more than any city in the world, and people from almost every culture represented, NYC is a strategic place to fulfill the Great Commission.

Six of us from K-state joined 35 other students from all over the country on this trip. We used tools such as Solarium, evangelistic videos, surveys, and “Knowing God Personally” booklets to spark spiritual conversations with students at various campuses across the city. My team and I went to Hunter College, and while we were there we encountered Muslims, Mormon, Catholics, atheists, Hindus, and many more. We strove to get to know these students and talk about spiritual things, learning more about their beliefs and sharing ours.



One day, my friend Francesca and I showed a video to a girl sitting and eating lunch by herself. She responded excitedly to the video and quickly opened up to us about her beliefs. When her friend joined us, she insisted her friend watch the video as well. Accordingly, we were able to go deep quickly with these two girls, and ended up talking to them for over three hours. We shared the gospel with them and also different things God had done in our lives. They responded well, and Francesca and I were extremely pleased that God used us to proclaim His truth to these searching girls.

This was one of many encouraging conversations we had throughout the week. The students of New York City are friendly, open, and seeking to understanding life. Please keep New York City in your prayers, as the fields are ripe for the harvest, yet the laborers are few.

Using the gift of the English language to proclaim Christ

Emily, on the right from Athens, GA, was with us that morning. Her husband works for the US State Dept here in Budapest. The hurt among some of these kids is so deep. They willingly talked music, friends and movies but when the topic turned to family, several did not even want to talk about their families. You can almost see that truth in how they dressed.


Yesterday I had the chance to speak in some Hungarian high school English classes. English is the universal language of our planet. If you are a native English speaker, then your language skill is in high demand around the world. Most mission agencies realize this and use English as door opener. This is true of our ministry here in Hungary.

I accompanied a few of the members of our Budapest student ministry. Several English teachers in a Hungarian high school turned their class periods over to us. While speaking English we played some simple games and had conversations with students. In turn the students were able to practice English with us.

At the end of each class, we invited the students to come to our ministry’s weekly Friday night meeting as well as to our summer English language evangelistic Speak Out camps. Even though we could not share the gospel in the classrooms, doors were opened and connections were made that very easily lead to telling high school students about Christ. This is one of the primary tools our Hungarian student ministry uses to reach into new high schools.

My morning with our Hungarian ministry serves as a reminder of why EB and I do what we do in the harvest field in this part of the world. As we help our missionaries by assisting them in their funding efforts, our personal impact is multiplied as they in turn can reach out evangelistically to lost students all across Eastern Europe and Russia.

Thank you for investing in our lives so we can invest in others!



Great words to live by!



More Hungarian high school students



Jamie and Emily, on the left, both have husbands who work for the US gov in town but volunteer with our ministry.



Ryan, on the right, is new to our ministry here in Budapest and is a recent grad of Dallas Theological Seminary.



Okay, one last basketball picture. This is Ben jumping higher than I ever thought he could in the championship game of his conference against the team from Salzburg. It is sad to me to think Ben will not wear his high school's jersey again in a basketball game. Watching our kids play basketball is the funnest thing I do as a parent!

ICSB girls win DVAC conf championship!

In a game that took 2 overtimes to decide, ICSB girls beat AISS (Salzburg) for the DVAC (Danube Valley Athletic Conf) championship! It was a hard fought game, even ugly at times. Savannah played remarkably well, especially as a starting freshman. Yet all the girls contributed for the victory.



Ben goes up strong in the championship game against AISS (Salzburg)

Ben's team rolled through the tournament to an easy confernece victory. And like the girls' team, the boys championship was determined with a win over the team from AISS (American International School of Salzburg).

We are proud of our kids! We look forward to three more years of Savannah playing basketball for the Intl Christian School of Budapest (ICSB). It is sad to think we will not see Ben play again for ICSB. But it is good that this season is over, in some way, as we can now focus on other things!