¨      Monday

We are having a great time teaching and getting to know the children here in Kiskunhalas. We have about 36 students. Today's bible story was about Jesus' birth and how much he loves us. And the English lesson we taught them numbers 1-10 and animals. We are excited to be serving here.

¨      Friday

Today we had a very successful last day of camp.  We reviewed the Bible stories from the week and shared with them the story of the crucifixion.

The kids made crosses as a craft and we explained the steps to salvation.

The kids really enjoyed this.  For English lesson we reviewed vocabulary and the kids loved the games we played.  I really feel like connections were made stronger with the kids.  We also got to engage with the parents when we had a little program for the parents and reception.  It was a great week!!
 

Over the past two days, I have visited four camps in this our final week of the English Bible camps 2017. Each camp was different and each had initiated additional programs and teachers to meet the new demands of more students, adult classes, and space demands.

In Nagyvarsany in the far northeastern corner of Hungary, a small church held their camp in their own village. In previous years, the church had sponsored camps in nearby schools. So, these were new students. The church asked one of their participants, Jeanne Ferren, to lead in an all-day women’s conference on the Saturday before the camp. Jeanne said that she was shocked to learn on Saturday that 180+ women had gathered to hear her speak. Posters with her picture were up all over town. Some of the breakout groups included topics such as adoption, infertility, and how to be a good mother-in-law.

In Puspokladany, there were 70 students in both English and German camps. The church needed more teachers, so they asked local missionaries living in nearby towns to help. The young team from the International Baptist Church in Berlin, Germany, were enlisted late but they came ready to teach and serve and lots of the church’s own young people were there to help.

The church in Pilisvorsvar couldn’t find a suitable space for their camp of 18 students, so they went mobile. Everyday their team from Latvia caravanned with the students, translators, and church leaders to a different town, meeting in parks, at the lake, and in a variety of churches. When we visited today, the pastor was cooking lunch in a huge caldron. The kids loved going different places and the recreation was something out of the ordinary.

We attended the closing parents’ program at Sarosd, where a team from Amarillo has gone each of the five years. In fact, three of the four people who have gone every year have gone to this camp. They meet in a school. The faculty and administers of the school are very supportive although most of them are not believers. Yet every year adults respond to the gospel. The school recognized the students who had attended every year and after the program they brought in a huge cake with an American flag motif. This year for the first time, a separate team of six ladies came to conduct a Bible study for women during the afternoon. Seventeen ladies attended and asked if they could continue in the fall. One of the church women volunteered to continue the Bible study at the school every month.

¨      Tuesday

Today we had 46 in Sárosd with two more coming tomorrow. Seregelyes added two more plus one more in the German camp. Good day. Forgot the exciting news. Ladies group went from seven to seventeen.

Ann Heard

We are off to a good start at our school in Sarosd.  Only one class seems to have more students than we had planned.  Luckily, that is the class that Ann Heard teaches.  She has some good helpers, so she is able to get a lot done.

Yesterday afternoon was our outdoor sports day.  I was able to interest enough students to try their skills at baseball.  Some students stayed out with me for the entire two hours.  Others enjoyed working on projects inside.

Today is July 4, and we were encouraged to decorate our rooms accordingly.  In Larry O's older student group, a couple of the students wore t-shirts with the U S flag on it.  He was able to play some American patriotic songs while he explained some of the significance of this day for Americans.  The students also told him about some of their special national days.

Tomorrow we will have a chance to work with some of the local craftsmen and artists after lunch.  We will have some folk dancers perform for the camp before gong to their craft building to view their artistry.  Afterward they will serve us a meal.

Continue praying as we see God working in the faculty and students.

The Sarosd Team (Larry and Ann Heard, Peggy and granddaughter Breanna, Beth and granddaughter Autumn, and Larry O'Neill)

Janice, a good day today. A few more students, not sure how many. Correction on Seragelyes. They had 21 students yesterday PLUS the 11 German students. 1 additional German student today. Unsure if any in the English Camp. Larry Heard

¨      Thursday

We have successfully completed our fourth day at this camp.  Several of our teachers are a little concerned about our students' program for the parents.  We just have to trust that the students will be ready by tomorrow afternoon.

This afternoon was more in the control of the school teachers.  A few of the students joined Larry O outside to play baseball, but the heat kept them from playing as long as they had wanted.

Yesterday afternoon some of the children got to try their hand at some crafts.  One craftsman showed them how he put clay around a bottle and added other items to make it very pretty.  Another showed his students how to make figures from melted lead.  Some ladies demonstrated how to embroider.  They let students try it on bookmarks.  Other women brought looms for the students to weave a little.  Another group let students glue the colored paper stops into shapes.  What a gift these townspeople were to our students!

A group of folk dancers performed traditional Hungarian dances.  They invited their American friends to join them.  Many accepted the invitation while others videoed.  We welcomed the teachers from Seregelyes for this part of the afternoon.  Then we walked to the craft building to view more of their handiwork.  The craft group also treated us to a meal.

The Sarosd Team    

¨      Friday

We students We had 6 new students today's ...66 total enrollment, is we had a German class again this year then the student number would be about the same as last year.

In this picture, my students fingerprinting those who matched the clues for who they whom they were searching.
(click picture to see full size )