Our team (Holly, A.P., Gary and I) plus István, a friend from the our church in Debrecen, went to the open market in Balmazújváros while it was still dark and set up the pavilion. It was pretty chilly out that morning!
At first not many people were around, mostly just other vendors setting up, but we were ready.
Pastor Füstös Gyula from the Hajdúböszörményi Baptist Church came not long after that with his daughter Imola and a guy from the youth group (Zoli, I think.) Pastor Gyula had agreed to do the presentation in the evening at the culture house, but brought the young people to help with the Scripture distribution, too. He himself couldn't stay very long that morning since he needed to get back to his church for the Sunday morning service.
The young people were unsure of themselves at first, but quickly got very excited about inviting people to the event and letting them know that they could receive a Bible as a gift if they came to our table. When they met vendors who wanted one but couldn't come to us since they were working, they started sort of a Bibles-on-wheels program! Well, not on wheels, but it was a mobile operation. They found out which size Bible the people wanted, then took it along with all the information to them at their booth. Each person who received a Bible signed a statement promising to try to read through the Bible...it was a promise made to themselves, and the signature part of the sheet tore off to become a bookmark for their new Bible.
We had a great response from the people, and at the end of the day Gary found that we had given out 154 total pieces, including whole Bibles, New Testaments, and children's Bibles. We also had several people indicate on the response card that they are interested in a small-group Bible study! It was an exhausting but exhilerating morning.
The evening event didn't go off so smoothly, however. In fact, it didn't go off at all! About 35 people came to the culture house where the presentation was to be, most of them from the Hajdúböszörményi Baptist Church, but unfortunately the guy with the key to the building never did show up! It was a really difficult experience to go through, standing in front of the building unable to get in. We tried to contact someone to help us but never were able to get ahold of anyone who could do anything about it. We visited with those who had come, made a couple of important contacts, and after waiting for some time everyone went home.
The next morning the director of the culture house called and apologized profusely...he was mortified that such a thing had happened. They refunded the deposit that we had made on the rental of the room and said that our next use would be free. Although it hadn't turned out as we had hoped, Gary and I both left from the meeting with him praising the Lord....we believe that He has something even better in mind than what we had originally planned. Now the facility will be at no cost, plus we will have more time for planning and advertising it to the people of the city! Gary is talking with Pastor Gyula about an event during December, possibly a Christmas program.
Please pray that those who received Bibles will read them and come to know the Lord, and that we will have wisdom in planning the upcoming event there in Balmazújváros. We would love to see a church planted in this city of about 20,000, which currently has no evangelical church. Thanks!
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