Today's Reflections from Team Hungary

By Susan Sicard

Our team enjoyed sharing in worship at the Kiskőrös Baptist Church. We were given the chance to introduce ourselves and were warmly welcomed. Some members of their youth group shared their testimony with our team. The sermon was translated by Nimrod, which greatly assisted in our ability to understand the service.

After lunch with our host families we had the chance to view the local Agricultural Expo. In this region of Hungary there are many different products produced: honey, jam, juices, cheeses, meat products. While there Gavin played chess with the local school chess teacher (he won one of the games).

Sunday evening, we had a team meeting hosted at Nimrod and Petra’s home. It was a special time for the students to hear about Nimrod’s journey from meeting JRHS, to coming as a student, and the value of mission experiences. It was encouraging to see how he living out the JRHS mission of being an effective leader for Jesus Christ in his home country and even within a broader area of Eastern Europe.

Monday was our first day of serving at the Local Lutheran School. There are many church owned schools in Hungary, however they are different from Christian Schools that we are used to. In this country they are the Public schools. They have weekly chapels, but little other spiritual formation opportunities within their school day. We attended their weekly Monday chapel service and were able to share one song with the students. Their Priest gave a message based on John 14:19 where Jesus says, “Because I live you also will live”.

We then participated in their English classes, where students asked us questions and practiced speaking their English. This provided a good opportunity to get to know students and have good conversations. In one literature class we read a short story and then were able to share the gospel because of the theme of the story. We had not planned for that to happen; it was beautiful to see how God provided a way through the story the teacher had planned for her lesson.

In the afternoon we took time to develop and record an encouraging message that will be played on the school’s intercom this Wednesday before their Easter Break. We took time thinking about the importance of Easter and each student was able to share an essential truth about Christ and what Easter means to us.

The day wrapped up with some sports in a local park: Volleyball, football, and soccer.