What Barriers?

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Language barriers, cultural barriers, barriers, barriers, barriers. This is what I knew yesterday. I don’t speak Hungarian. I’m grossly unfamiliar with their context. How is this going to really work? Today I saw God move, my perspective was shaken and my doubt was replaced with trust. I could share several stories from today that quickened my faith but I have to talk about the picture above. We had around 10 people playing ‘Round Robin’ on the ping pong table after dinner this evening, the only language I heard was laughter! Game after game, more people joined in. I can’t say if this game had any eternal impact, but I can tell you we all had a blast! Just in the first full day of camp including football, baseball and English I saw walls come tumbling down. I look back on today and I say, “What barriers?” The Father enthroned in Heaven, Christ as King next to Him, and the Holy Spirit here giving testimony to the Truth! May Christ reign supreme in the lives of these campers! Please keep Laci in your prayers as he will speak tomorrow evening (around noon CT) and present the gospel! Our God is so good!

What does your heart beat for?

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Today was our first official day here at Word of Life camp. This morning we worshiped together with the counselors and staff members here at the camp and were asked two important questions by Snail (the Director of Word of Life Hungary, Laci’s boss!), “what does your heart beat for?” and “what will you do for the ministry?” We will have all week to talk about our answers to those two questions and even start to act on the second question. Will you join us? We spent a majority of the day prepping for our week of teaching English and coaching sports. Randall, our Sports Ministries Coordinator reminded us during our orientation of the reason we are here, he echoed the questions from earlier and pointed to Christ. We are here to support the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ! This evening after all the campers arrived, that is just what Laci began to explain. He showed us the “evidence” of the Creator by pointing to creation. Please be in prayer for the 100+ campers here this week, some hearing and learning about our Triune God for the very first time!

5,630 Miles

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We left Dallas on Friday around 10pm and arrived here in Toalmas, Hungary around 9pm (2pm CT) last night. 5,630 miles in 17 hours. I can only imagine what Paul and missionaries from the first 1900 years after Christ would think! We have much to be thankful for, including you and your prayers and support! Our travels were “hiccup free” and went very smoothly! Our team of 21 is down to 18 because Isaac did not receive his passport in time and John and Lisa Paulson received word on our way to the airport of Paul’s mother having had a stroke in Kansas. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Pack and Pray

Michelle and I used to have a pack and play for the boys when they were smaller. It was the most complicated mechanism to break down and put away and eventually one day I was trying to pack it away and got frustrated and broke it. This week we are all anxiously awaiting our departure to Budapest from DFW this Friday evening! We are making our last preparations as we pack and get ready to go. I bring up the frustration of the pack and play to request your prayers. We are going to Hungary in the love of Christ to share the gospel. Our enemy does not want that to happen. And so I urge you to pray for us. Petition on our behalf to the Father for protection, both physical and spiritual. Ask him to thwart any plans of the evil one and pray He works on our hearts and sensitizes us to those around us who may not know His Son. Pray that when things don’t seem to be working right that we wouldn’t force it and break it, pray that our reliance and dependence would be on Him, that it wouldn’t be the quality of our faith but the object of our faith that acts in us and through us, He is able, He is faithful! Pray for us.