Our Caroling Adventure

(Posted by John)

I was around 8 years old the last time I went Christmas caroling, so as the group gathered together on Saturday night (12/23), armed with lanterns and lyrics, I admit I was a bit nervous. To make matters worse, out of our 6 song repertoire, only one was in English ("We Wish You a Merry Christmas"), and I had never even heard several of the other Hungarian songs. But I figured that if at Pentecost the townspeople thought the Christians were drunk, perhaps the neighbors would just chalk up my strange sounds to some spiked eggnog...

In the end, however, the evening went great. Though it took several days to regain feeling in my toes, the reactions we received from the people more than made up for the numbness:

• Several familes with small children asked us to wait while they bundled their kids up so they could listen to all the songs, and then even requested an encore.


• One mother commented that she was more touched than we could imagine and thanked us for making this Christmas a lot nicer for their family


• An older Russian lady (who spoke neither Hungarian nor English) was touched to tears, and after thanking us profusely, commented that I had a really nice voice (or so I assume...)


• A family with several children tried to give us 5000 HUF (Hungarian Forints) for our performance; another family gave us a few boxes of cookies.


• One family even invited us in for some Tea/Hot Chocolate

But the most precious response of all, was one father who was home alone with two small children, and after listening to our songs, we each received a gingerbread Christmas-tree decoration made by the kids! So like many other times in life, though we intended to simply bless others in a small way, we ended up being quite blessed ourselves.

Caroling, Christmas, and Church Planting?

(posted by John)

How do you lay the foundation for planting a new church in a neighborhood without many Christians? Well, that’s something that we have been thinking and praying about. And one of the ideas that we came up with is a kind of Christmas Eve outreach.

Working with another missionary family in the area (the man that Zsofi mentioned), our plan is to go Christmas caroling on Dec. 23rd, around the neighborhood where we live. It should be a great opportunity to get to know more of our neighbors, plus we plan to leave them a little bag of treats with an invitation to come to a short, candlelight service on the 24th.

For the candlelight service, since most of the people coming won't be Christians, our plan is to keep it short, enjoyable, and friendly. In fact, it's not even going to be in a church. We will just read the Christmas story (excerpted from Luke), sing a few Christmas songs, and then have a short time of fellowship over a warm drink and traditional Hungarian Christmas sweets! Our goal is simply to create a warm environment where people can get to know each other and in some small way connect Christmas with its spiritual roots.

We would also really appreciate your prayers, both for the actual events as well as the relationships that might develop out of it.

Roses

(posted by Zsofi)

Recently Eszter got her first roses from Grandma. She also got her first letter written by her Great-Grandma from Arizona. Plus we read her first book together a couple days ago... I guess there are quite a few "firsts" when you are two and a half months old. :-)

Eszter has received lots of cards, emails, packages with gifts celebrating her arrival. She is a precious little girl and is blessed by having so many people who love her. Thank you!

Being a mommy is an incredible experience. It would be hard for me to express how much it has changed me and my life and probably to fully understand that you have to be a mommy (or a daddy) yourself. So if you are one, then you know what I am talking about. And if you are not yet one but plan to be in the future then you can be sure it will be one of the most incredible things that can happen to you.

One other thought: lately it has been faith building to watch God-sent people enter our lives. For example one morning a man stood at our door, who had been walking around in this neighborhood, praying and hoping that he would meet some Christians. God put it on his heart to plant a church in this area.

But more on this soon from John...