07-07 Make New Friends, but Keep the Old

Friday is the last day of camp for the Week 2 group. The Week 3 people are off on a city tour and preparing to go to their assignments tomorrow. This year half of our participants are new to our camps, but we still have many of the same US churches participating with different members coming each year. American church leaders often tell me that they no longer want to go on a “catch-and-release” mission trip. They say they want a long-term relationship with a place and a partnering church. If ever there was such an opportunity, it is in Europe, and especially in Hungary, where a spiritual awakening is happening now.
From the camp at the “Off-line Center” in a Szentendre park:
One translator who has a daughter in one of the classes came outside during the morning break to see what was being taught. When she looked at the Hungarian Bible we were using, she recognized the name of the man who had developed this modern Hungarian translation. She remembers interviewing this man when she was a university student. When asked how he knew what to write, he said that he looked at Hebrew and Greek texts, other translations, and asked that the Holy Spirit guide him. Once again, we see how generous donors from The High Plains Christian Ministries make it possible for us to share an understandable version of the Bible with our students.
I walked into a class in Kiskunhalas today, where a team from San Jose, California, is serving, and there stood a classroom of twenty-five students singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in English. They then sang the Hungarian National Anthem with their hands across their hearts. I’ve noticed that several of our camps are using the holidays as part of their “English” class. They make Valentines to talk about the meaning of God’s love. They use painted eggs to talk about the true meaning of Easter; Independence Day to talk about freedom in Christ, and of course Christmas to talk about why God came to earth.

From the camp in Debrecen:
Like many camps this week, the students celebrated the 4th of July with their American teams. In Debrecen, the kids loved roasting marshmallows for their S’mores. Even an older Hungarian man who has helped us the last two days enjoyed it. He even painted a cross with the students today.

From a Glen Rose, Texas, team::
The team serves in Kormend, a new camp for us. The small house church has rented part of a public school building for their camp. The school provides the lunch each day for the team and the kids. There are two classes with lots of games and music.

From the Kiskunhalas camp:
The camp at Kiskunhalas had a team from San Jose, California. One of their team members is a pianist. One night she sat down and started to play Christian songs and immediately the Hungarians and Americans began to join in the singing, in two different languages, harmonizing. It went on and on. No one wanted to stop singing. Every team member talked about how they could feel the Holy Spirit in the room.

The children’s parents came on Friday night. They were not believers, but the team had an opportunity to share their personal testimonies and invite them to the church in Kiskunhalas. This church is especially prepared to do the follow-up. The pastor was involved every day and so excited to see the children respond to the invitation to follow Christ.