Greetings dear friends and family in Christ!                                                                  Aug. 2000

Praise God, we know our destination in November...Szeged, Hungary. Many of you have kept us in prayer as we’ve been seeking the Lord on where He wanted us to go. We’ve been praying that specific prayer for over a year now, and just a month or so ago, finally heard the country—Hungary. Back to Norbi’s home country. It didn’t feel much like going out as a missionary for Norbi to consider “going back home”. Mostly for that reason we’d been considering everywhere else BUT Hungary. All we can say is that God changed Norbi’s heart.

As some of you involved in Calvary Chapel missions may know—there are many Calvary Chapels (C.C. from now on) in Hungary, and many works that we could help with. We did consider a few, had thought God had finally shown us where, when a CC missionary pastor asked us to come help him—in Szeged, Norbi’s hometown. Kyle Eckhart really does need help. The church in Szeged has been through so many heartaches and hardships since we left five years ago. The latest happened several months ago, when the church lost its pastor and went through a church split at the same time. Pastoring a church at the best of times is hard work, this is not the best of times in Szeged, and Kyle has been shouldering the load to God’s glory. He’s asked us to come and help, and that’s just what we feel God had been preparing us for.

We already know and love these people, and are anxious to get settled and start sharing God’s unfailing Love. Norbi will be helping to lead worship again, and to raise up an Hungarian brother who’s been struggling to lead on his own. We both love discipleship, and hope to have some great relationships with members of the church, one on one. We’ll also be doing just abut anything that the church needs us to do. With Norbi being Hungarian, the language problem will not be so much a problem. Sadly, none of our kids are bilingual, and Rachel only knows some basics in Hungarian—but we do have a built in teacher and translator :-) . There are only a few children in the church right now, so our family arriving will double the children’s ministry! Rachel will be helping in that area too, and as she learns more Hungarian, be able to help further. (Our own kids would need an English-speaking teacher at first anyway).

Moving to Szeged will be almost too easy, as Norbi’s mother and sister are there, and we’ll be able to live in an apartment his mom has been renting out. We also greatly see God’s hand in the timing of our return to Szeged, as Norbi’s little sister Nora is now 12 and at an age to question and make life-changing decisions. We pray we can be a great influence on her life, and encourage his mother to get back into Christian fellowship. In that sense, our mission may be twofold—to the Calvary Chapel and the lost in Szeged on one hand, and to Norbi’s family on the other.

We are amazed at God’s timing in all this. We were able to meet personally with Kyle and his wife Odi when they came to the States for a very rushed and short three week trip. Rachel knows Odi from her time in Baja, Hungary and we actually both met Kyle before we left Hungary back in 1995, but it was brief and we had to admit to not remembering much of it. It was a wonderful afternoon with them, and we’re both so looking forward to working with them. We’ve also stayed in touch with another dear brother in Szeged, who has become Kyle’s sort of right-hand guy, Laci. Laci is from Yugoslavia, and was going to High School in Szeged when we left. He is now, gulp, graduated from college and married (we are getting way old!). Kyle has asked him to be on staff, and Laci has accepted. This is totally cool, and we can’t wait to see Laci again and meet the Mrs.

Our plans right now are to leave in early November. Three more months! That time will go by so fast, and yet also not fast enough. Rachel is already bouncing around the house—she wanted to move back to Hungary as soon as we left in ‘95! We have much to do, and covet any and all prayers. Read below for some more specific prayer requests. Can you believe that we’ll be taking TEN pieces of luggage? Oh, for the days when Rachel left with two suitcases, or even the four that we returned to the US with. Children sure do have a lot of stuff.

If any of you are in our area, or within an hour or two’s drive, we’d sure love to see you and share our excitement in person! And please keep in touch with us too...okay? Here, there, or in the air!

* The packing and sorting, that we would have wisdom on what to take, what to leave, what to ship, etc… and that Rachel will have the time and patience to handle so much of these details on top of caring for the kiddos.

* Travel mercies. For our move in Nov. that will include a 14 hour flight to Budapest, and then a 2 hour train trip to Szeged. Also for a trip that Rachel and the children take Aug. 14th to Maine for two weeks to visit her family. Pray specifically for the six hour flight there, for Rachel by herself with the three, Anna on her lap. And again for the return flight, Aug. 28th.

* That we can prepare spiritually. We’ll be stepping into a spiritual battlefield, and know there can be many attacks as we prepare to leave and as we are newly there.

* For the town of Szeged. For the lost souls. For those searching.

* For the Calvary Chapel in Szeged and Kyle and Odi Eckhart, encouragement through this difficult time.

* That we can be sensitive as we enter into a ‘church mess’, that we can hear the Lord’s leading in all we do and say.

Another major reason for sending out this letter is to determine which of you still want to get our newsletters, and to let you know how to keep in touch with us. We have thanked God for your prayers in this last year of decision making, especially, but will need them even more in the years to come. These letters, and our web-site, will be how we’ll keep you all updated on how to pray, and just about what’s going on. Please drop us a line, or an e-mail, and let us know if you still want to be on our mailing list. This will just help us to get that ‘master mailing list’ all made up.

We are also very modern, and as I mentioned earlier, do have our own web-site up and running. It includes recent photos and news updates, check it out:

www.balaamsdonkey.com

We also really use e-mail more than any other form of communication:

Snail mail address:

Lastly, we really do need some financial support. It’s never an easy thing to ask for, but as well as your prayer support, we could use some monthly support, or even one time gifts to help cover the moving expenses. Checks can all be tax-deductible and sent through our home church, with a note that it is for Norbi and Rachel Lakatos.

Calvary Chapel of Simi Valley 23 W. Easy St. #204 Simi Valley, CA 93065

Thank you, and God bless.