Monday, June 30, 2008

A few more pictures from Hajdúszoboszló English camp


My new friend Zizi and I pose in front of the muskátli (geraniums).


Cindy doing sculpting demonstration combined with her testimony.


English camp group picture.


Gary with friends.


Singing "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High."


Deborah W.'s class


Deborah G.'s class


Cindy and David's class with Eddy translating


Saturday, June 28, 2008

Last day of class in English camp

Today was the last regular day of the Hajdúszoboszló English camp, and it was fantastic!  Some of the kids who hadn't really spoken up or interacted much before in Deborah G.'s class suddenly came alive; all the teachers said the lessons have been going quite well, and I think the students have learned a lot. It turns out that one of the "moms" that I've been teaching didn't come with her child and just happen to get involved like I had originally thought--she actually came on her own because she wanted to learn English.  She's a Hungarian language teacher in the public school, and she's been very interested in pronunciation and everything else that we've been going over.  I had three ladies today, one who came into my group for the first time.  They all said that they'll be here tomorrow (Sunday) for the closing celebration, when the kids will sing, do skits, and show the parents what they've learned.  "My" ladies are all interested in joining an ongoing, weekly English class, and Gary and I are talking with Pastor Tibi about the possibility of us coming over once a week to lead one.  Maybe Gary could teach the more advanced ones and I could work with the beginners. We'll see what develops!

Tomorrow after the camp closing ceremony we'll have lunch and then go to Püspökladány, where the volunteer team will be leading a children's program with a Bible story and craft.  Later in the afternoon we'll go on to Kaba, where we'll be taking part in an afternoon church service.  We appreciate prayers...it'll be an exhausting day, but we're so thankful for the opportunity to serve and encourage in these little churches.  These are 3 of the 4 churches that Tibi is pastoring; he and his family have a very busy life.

I was going to add some pictures, but every time I try I get a server error...I'll try again later.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Hajdúszoboszló English camp

Once again it's been ages since I posted,  but so much is going on that I want to share about it when I have time...a little now, and hopefully more across the coming days.  So far this week has been absolutely wonderful!  A volunteer team from Cross Timber Baptist Church in Burleson, Texas--very dear friends--have come to help us with an outreach English camp in Hajdúszoboszló.  The camp is actually being done by the Baptist church there in the town, and we are helping since it's important to have native English speakers as the teachers.  We just finished with day #2 of 4, and it was great!  About 35 students came yesterday, and a few new ones came today.  Most of them are unchurched, some are "repeats" from the past couple of English camps held there, and some are kids of local church families.  We also have a couple of grown ups, which really wasn't expected, but we're very glad to have them.  Two of them are moms who came to observe what we're doing with their kids; as it turned out, we have formed a little learning group for them in the same room with the very youngest students.  A couple of the little ones know more English than the moms, and they occasionally come over and give mom a hand with the answers! 

I'll try to write more about it later, but I do want to post a few pictures now.  I don't have many on my camera, but I'm sure the team will have some good shots that they'll let me use as soon as we can  get them downloaded.

This first shot is of some of the students registering (Gary's hand is featured to the right, cutting string for name tags.)  We are very blessed to have some of the girls from the church in Kaba there helping with the registration.




Another shot of the registration process.



Here is Wendi working with the beginner class, with two moms looking on.  One of our terrific translators, Andi, is at the right in the photo. 


Please pray for the students in the camp, that they would learn about the love of the Lord while they are learning English. The English is being taught based on stories from the life of David, which gives excellent lessons on trust, faith, obedience, etc.  Also please pray for the Cross Timber team and us, the Hungarian helpers, and for Pastor Tibor and his wife Marti and the whole church there in Hajduszoboszlo.  I'll try to update you further as soon as I can.  Thanks, y'all!  (See, the Texas influence is being felt!)