Easter and springlike weather arrive in Hungary

We hope that you all had a wonderful, blessed Easter!  We had a quiet day here, and enjoyed the chance to slow down a bit and remember the Lord's death and resurrection, the source of our hope and life.  After the morning service at Debrecen First Baptist Church we had a nice lunch at our place with Holly--we wished that A.P. could have been with us, too, but she was still in Budapest because of some medical issues (please pray for her continued healing.)


Our Easter meal--baked ham, broccoli salad, cauliflower with
cheese sauce, deviled eggs, and home-made bread. 

 
Holly made a light, delicious dessert of home-made angel food
cake with fruit and whipped cream.  It was as yummy as it looks!

Easter in Hungary is a two-day holiday, and on Easter Monday Gary and I went for a walk down to the Nagy Erdő (Big Forest) park.  The weather was gorgeous, and lots of people were out enjoying it.  Here are some pictures I took during our walk:


On the way to the park we passed a home where someone had
decorated the tree by their balcony with Easter eggs.


There's a wonderful little lake at the park that I always enjoy
visiting.  Such a relaxing sight!


Some people relaxed, others preferred to be a little more active. 
These two guys were practicing their football (soccer) skills.


Here and there were stands where you could buy balloons or
snacks such as fresh roasted corn on the cob, popcorn, or
cotton candy. 


Some adventurous souls were enjoying the paddle boats at another
place in the park area, a small man-made lake.

We're still here / major happenings in Hungary (Updated Apr 15)

Yes, we're still alive and kicking here in Debrecen.  It's been so long since I posted that it's hard to know where to start.  Plus it's about time to fix dinner, so I don't have much time to write...yes, real life needs to go on!

The main thing I want to say now is to please be praying for Hungary.  In case you didn't see it in the news, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány resigned today with no successor yet named.  In a time of economic crisis and general widespread dissatisfaction, this development brings an even greater feeling of uncertainty.  Pray that the Lord will intervene and help this nation, and that He use this whole situation to bring glory to Himself.  Also pray that Hungarians--and people where you live, too!--will find hope and peace of mind in the Lord.

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UPDATE (April 15, 2009)

Please continue to pray for Hungary and for the leadership and people here.  I saw in the news this morning that a new prime minister, Mr. Gordon Bajnai,  is now in place.  He is promising to implement tough austerity measures to deal with the current economic crisis, saying that things will get worse before they get better.  Demonstrators have been demanding that Parliament be dissolved and a new election held.  If you're interested in reading more about the situation, here's a link to an article in English:  Protests as Hungary's PM sworn in  (BBC News)

Health fair tomorrow (Updated Apr 15)

Tomorrow morning (quite early!) Gary and I will be heading out for Budapest to observe/assist at a health fair outreach project sponsored by the Jozsef utca Baptist Church (pronounced YO-zhef ootsa, meaning "Joseph Street" in English.)  It is being held there on the church property by Hungarian Baptist doctors who want to do something to minister using their skills and experience as medical professionals. They'll be doing check-ups, consultations, and giving presentations on the health of mind, body and soul.  There will also be a blood donation drive.

Some of you know that when Gary and I worked in Romania we did a lot of work with American medical volunteer teams, and saw how fantastic it was to be able to help the people and show the love of God in such a needed way.  Many times it also opened up the opportunity to share more about the Lord, to invite the people to Bible studies, church, etc.  Here in Hungary it's not legal to bring in outside doctors to do medical work, so seeing the national doctors doing this is very exciting and encouraging to us.  Tomorrow we want to see how they put together their project and talk to them about possibilities for partnering with them in similar work here in eastern Hungary; they said that they would be happy for us to help them, also, so we will be doing blood pressure readings and whatever else we can do as non-doctors. 

When I talked to the organizing doctor this week, I asked her how we could be praying for them and the project....she said to please pray that the people will come, but not so many that the available doctors will be overwhelmed and not able to serve them.  Pray that the Lord will use this to help people both physically and spiritually, as they see believers reaching out to them in love, asking nothing in return.

If I can I'll get some pictures to post so you can see how it went.

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UPDATE (April 15, 2009)

Thank you for praying for the health fair--it was terrific!  When we arrived we soon realized that the church had organized and planned very well, and had great support from their members.  Volunteers had also come from other churches.  People were stationed everywhere to greet and to guide the visitors; a sign-in table was set up to register patients and to schedule them with the various doctors; nice, professional-looking signs were posted all over the church premises to show which way to go to the different services. We had thought they might need us to help, but they really didn't.  This didn't disappoint us at all--we were thrilled to see the people working together and reaching out to their community, not depending on outsiders such as ourselves.  We decided to just observe and learn from how they did it, and to serve by praying for the church and the people who came to see the doctors.  It was awesome to see the Lord using this event--within the first ten minutes of opening their doors, I saw for myself what this kind of project can do beyond the basic benefit of providing health services.  Several ladies from the community were talking in the foyer, and when I greeted them they asked me if it would be OK for them to come to the church (I assured them they would be very welcome!)  They said that all the people they were meeting there were very friendly, and that they liked the atmosphere of warmth and helpfulness they were feeling.  They said that before that morning they hadn't even known the church was there in their area.  Praise the Lord for how He works, and for the faithfulness of His people!

As it turned out, we were able to help some after all in an unexpected way.  The church had set up a display of Christian books, postcards, etc., to offer for sale to people as they came.  (Churches in Hungary often do this, as there are very few Christian bookstores.)  The lady who was manning this booth wanted to see some of the doctors to check out some issues she was having, so she asked if we would stand in for her while she was gone.  We were able to spend most of the morning there at the table, which was just inside the front door of the church, and had the opportunity to talk with many of the people as they came and went; the lady responsible for the booth was also pleased that we made quite a few sales.  I laughingly told her that people were attracted to the booth because they wanted to hear the foreigners trying to speak their language! 

Volunteers registering people to see the doctors; everything was
carefully planned, and carried out in a warm and friendly way

Winter is still here

This picture was actually taken last week before most of the snow came.  It got much deeper later!

As you can see, we've been getting more snow here in Debrecen.  For several days it snowed almost non-stop, causing some problems on the roads and even delaying some trains.  Today the sun has come out and melted it off quite a bit, though.  There are still lots of heaps of snow where folks have shoveled it out of the way.

Baptism in Kaba

Sunday we had the joy of attending a baptism here in Hungary.  Gabi attends the little church in Puspokladany, but as there is no baptistry there the baptism took place at their sister church in Kaba. 

Gary preaching the sermon, explaining the meaning of baptism

 
The youth provide music

 

Pastor Tibor baptizing Gabi

Please pray for our dear sister Gabi as she continues to grow in Christ.

International World Changers

Our International World Changers planning meeting in Prague went great this last week!  We were really impressed with the IWC program, and with Mike Landrum and Chet Andrews, who are the leaders for our project.  The plan is to build a small playground in an area of Debrecen that has nothing for the kids, and to also do children's Backyard Bible Club-type ministry with the kids who are there.  This will be in partnership with Debrecen Baptist Church (the Hungarian church we attend), which is working to plant a church in that area.  We believe this is a great opportunity to minister to individuals and families and show them the love of Christ, and also to assist in building bridges with the community to help the new church plant.  The project is planned for July 25 to August 1, 2009.

Please pray with us that if it's the Lord's will for us to do this, that He will burden the hearts of the right people to come and help.  At this point we have no young people registered, and it's already time for the teams to be forming.   If you or someone you know might be interested in this project, you can find more information about IWC at http://thetask.org/youth/IWC/default.htm. You can also register for our project online.



Chet, Gary & Mike discussing plans for the IWC Hungary project

You may remember us asking you to pray for our friend Tibi, who has been working in Holland to support his family.  They haven't been able to give him many hours to work there, and things are not going well at all for the family.  Please pray for encouragement and provision for Tibi, Marian and their girls, that the Lord will use this time to draw them closer to each other and to Him.

Holidays, technical disasters and serious prayer requests

Here we are just 11 days into 2009 and it's hard to believe everything that's happened over the last couple of weeks....[scene fades as flashback begins] 

Christmas here was quiet, just the two of us at our house.  Of course we missed our kids (one in Missouri, one in Africa), our parents and other relatives in the States, and Holly and A.P. (Holly went to America for a quick visit with her family, A.P. was with a friend in Budapest.)  We did have a great day, though, celebrating Christ's birth, opening some presents, and relaxing.  Thank you to everyone who called or sent us cards, pictures, and emails...it's so encouraging to know we are loved, remembered, and prayed for!   It was a wonderful treat to get to talk to some of our family members on the phone for Christmas, and even getting to do a chat complete with video with our son Danny and his girlfriend Nicole.  We got to talk to Jennifer, too, some days later when she was able to place a call as she passed through Kenya.    Got to love this modern world and its technology....except when now and then something goes terribly, terribly wrong...[ominous music cues a change of scene]

...a couple of days after Christmas the hard drive on Gary's laptop CRASHED!     Thankfully, Gary had just backed up his files, so no data was lost.  After finding out that the computer was not fixable we got a new one here locally--a no-frills "workhorse" according to the online reviews--and begin the process of getting it set up.  It came with XP Home in Hungarian, so we tried to install our XP Pro in English instead, only to find out that it just isn't that easy!  Technical problems abounded, and after several conversations with Hungarian tech departments (and having to tell them that I'd already tried all their suggestions) we found out that we'd have to get some special drivers so that our version of XP could recognize the hard drive because of how things were set up on the laptop here in Hungary.  After some tricky little work-arounds we finally got it going, and Gary is now finishing setting it up and getting used to it.  MORAL OF THIS STORY--backing up your files really is a great idea.  There's enough to deal with when your computer crashes even without the headache of missing files!

Just about the time we think we know what an emergency is, we get a jolt of reality from the outside world and realize the little situations in our lives just aren't that important.  This last week because of some problems between Russia and the Ukraine, the flow of natural gas to a big part of Europe was cut off, right in the middle of an unusually cold spell.  We had already been hearing of people freezing to death in their own homes here in Hungary and across the region, and now this happened! I'm sure you've probably seen something about this on the news, but if not here's a recent article:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7822694.stm.   This is an extremely serious for hundreds of thousands of people, so please pray!  Countries affected are Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Serbia, and Austria.

Back in the Miller household, a couple of evenings ago our home telephone, internet, and Vonage suddenly quit right in the middle of our work.  The next day we contacted the phone company, and they had no idea what the problem was.  We were told to call another number (thankfully we have cell phones!) and request a service call.  Gary called, and they said they would call us back to set up an appointment...but they never called.  We had so much to get done before we leave for Prague for a week, and we were afraid there was no way to get up and running before our departure...but praise the Lord! after only about a day and a half our phone rang, and it was all working again.  God is good!We had our first class of this semester with our English learners in Hajduszoboszlo (an outreach ministry in partnership with the Baptist church there) and it went great even though numbers were down because of illness.  I had a brand new student in my beginners' class, Erzsebet (Elizabeth in English); she's very motivated, but it's tough on her since the others have now had some basics that she hasn't. Please pray that she can catch up and feel like a part of the group.  She wants to learn English so she can go visit her daughter in London.

Tomorrow morning Gary and I, along with Holly and A.P., will be heading to Budapest for a language exam(AAAK!)  What I mean to say is, please pray for us!  Gary and I will go on from there to Prague, where we'll be in a series of planning meetings throughout the week with team leaders in preparation for a group of International World Changers who will be coming to serve with us later this year.  Please pray for wisdom and direction in the planning process, as well as for safety in traveling for everyone attending the meeting.

Holly and A.P. are getting to join in with some of the ministry and outreach with a volunteer team from Biola University who are here working with Russ and Trudy Chun of Good Sports International.  Please be praying for them, too.  Thanks!

I'd better get off the computer and get some sleep--morning's coming soon.  Good night!