“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love continues through all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5

We pray you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family, friends, great food and especially an awareness of all we have to thank Jesus for.

Not The Summer We Expected

Starting in July our family began an almost three month run of illnesses—which peaked with the Chicken Pox Joshi caught at preschool and then kindly shared with Anna. (Josiah had it for his first birthday years ago) Joshua had the mildest case of Chicken Pox imaginable, and as it came only several weeks before all those conferences, we really prayed that Anna would get it quickly and as mildly as he did.

Sadly, neither of those things happened. She broke out the Friday before the Missionary conf., and Saturday night she was showing possible symptoms of Meningitis and Encephalitis—both are deadly brain diseases that would need immediate attention. Norbi took Anna to the Emergency room while I stayed home with the sleeping boys. It took hours, but we finally knew she didn’t have either of those diseases, just an extremely bad case of Chicken Pox. Anna ended up staying in the hospital the whole week, something we hadn’t been expecting when we took her into the emergency room. Long hospital stays are very much the norm here, where the HMO does not determine your care, but the doctor. Because Anna was contagious, we had our own little room, with a window and a stool for one of us to sit on and hold Anna (two cribs side by side filled up the rest of the small space). We were so thankful for our own space, as all the other children were in three large rooms together.

Anna was very sick for the first few days, not doing much besides wanting us to hold her—but by mid-week she was much more her old self and became quite difficult to keep entertained. It was obviously an emotionally hard time—at first horribly scary, (she was on an IV her first day), then more and more frustrating. It was also hard as Norbi and I would sort of pass each other, with Laci and Keri or his mom staying with the boys while we switched places at home and hospital. The boys were real troopers, never complaining.

It was an eye-opener to the conditions in Hungarian hospitals—which are clean, efficient, and with very well educated doctors and nurses (Szeged actually has a Medical School with tons of foreign students, like Americans who can’t afford it in the States). That all said, there is almost no one-on-one attention from the nurses, who are too few for the amount of patients. And at least for small children who can’t read or listen to headphones, there is basically no distractions. There was a nice new TV, but it was in the nurses’ office. Rachel is feeling more and more that the very possible reason we went through having Anna in the hospital, was to see the need for a ministry to entertain and minister to the children in Hungarian hospitals. We’ll keep you updated on that one, it’s still in the prayer stage.

It wasn’t until September that we began to see all our sicknesses as a spiritual attack—and by then the list was just too crazy—continuous colds, Rachel getting hay fever and discovering an allergy she’d never known before, stomach flues. You name it, we had it. And it got to where enough was enough—we just really began to pray more offensively, not just for healing and recovery but against any more sicknesses in our family, in the name of Jesus. The attack stopped. We’ve all been really well since early October—in fact, October has been about the best month we’ve had in a long time—thank you Jesus! And thank you too to the many who prayed after we sent out those e-mails. Another example of how you are all involved over here too.

We'd like to include you all in a prayer request we have been presenting to the Lord since about March or so. We need a car. Back in March a friend here in Hungary, who is with Creation Research Institute, offered us his old car. CRI was raising money to get him a new car. Until that point, we hadn't really seen a car as a possibility - so that began the praying in earnest. As we now joke, our prayers were effective, we just prayed for the wrong thing. Josiah's daily prayers at meal times have been something like this: "God please get Romulus enough money for his new car so we can have his old car, Amen". God totally provided for our friend Romulus, only his old car now is beyond repair and is headed for the scrap yard as soon as its registration expires this month.

It was also back in March that Norbi was totally blessed with his amplifier, which has since become the church 'sound system'. We've been taking a taxi to church each Sunday to get our family of five, plus Norbi's guitar and amp there. Also five years ago all the shopping was done downtown, just a five minute walk from our house. There are now huge shopping centers, all built way out of town and with cold weather coming again, a car would be such a blessing - and really is becoming a necessity.

When we were blessed with that tax return check so many of you were also blessed with, we discussed and prayed about putting it toward a simple and cheap used car - something that would get our family to church and shopping. But after some prayer it became obvious that we should not waste God's money on an old piece of junk made in the communist block that will need to be fixed just about every weekend and is unsafe to drive at any speed. We would also like to have at least a mini van so we can also use it for church things - only three people in our church have cars, two of those are what's considered compact in the US (they fit four people OK). There have been times when it would have been good to have a van. We are praying to raise about $6000-7000, which would buy a good used van or mini van. Please pray with us that the Lord provides all that's needed and if you are one of the ways God wants to provide, please do not hesitate. Our thanks in advance for all the prayers - we just wish we had been praying "right" since March!

The Lord is giving us more and more opportunities for reaching out into the community. Two big ones lately have been through the boys’ schools, and the gym where Norbi works out now every other day. Neither of us are very big evangelists, in the sense of street witnessing or just major preaching—but we both fully believe in simply making real friendships, and loving them with the love of Jesus. And we know we’re here to be a Light in our neighborhood and in the community.

Rachel has been thrilled with several conversations she’s managed to have (all in Hungarian!) with several other moms picking up kids at school. Josiah has a special friend named Máté and God has worked out the timing many times for Rachel to be picking up Josiah at the same time as Máté’s mom is getting him. Even though it’s very hard to deeply communicate, a friendship is growing. Please keep Máté and his mom in your prayers (Rachel asked her name, but couldn’t understand the response! Hope to clear that up next time they meet.), and for more of those perfectly timed meetings!

Norbi has been pumping iron for many months now at a gym downtown, and has been getting to know the employees there and the regulars who come at the same time he does. Most of the guys there in the mornings when he goes aren’t those with ordinary 9-5 jobs, but appear to be, well, mafia types. They certainly need Jesus!

Josiah has given us a great idea for a mini-outreach. His birthday is in December, and as we discussed party ideas he said he wanted to invite friends from school. This led to talks of how many would fit in our home—not enough. To get to the point, we’re going to be having a ‘Triple Birthday Party’ sometime in mid-January, in between Siah’s b-day, and Norbi’s and Joshi’s in February. We’ll rent a large room (stadium the way the boys are talking!) and be able to invite tons of new unsaved friends plus everyone from church. It’ll be a great time to meet more parents and spouses and share Jesus in a fun setting—we’ll let you know the date via e-mail, possibly Sat., Jan. 19th.

A Welcome Addition

At the end of August we welcomed back a very welcome addition to Szeged—an American music student named James. James was a Bible Student at the Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (the fancy name for the Castle) last year and came here on that outreach in April. At that time he was able to meet with some of the faculty at the Music Conservatory here in Szeged (also where our old friend Kirsi went—she helped him meet the right people there), and was actually asked to come back right then and there. James is like a Mozart or something—he’s never had a piano lesson, and can’t read music, but he can compose and plays so incredibly beautifully. He’s here officially to learn from some of the best and to learn to read music. But James knows he’s here to reach the other music students for Jesus, and whoever else he can as well. And as an added bonus for us, he’s become an instant favorite with our boys, and is happy to baby-sit whenever. He calls it his stress reliever, getting to play with our kids. So we’re all blessed! Welcome James.

Left to right: Norbi, Kyle, Anna, Josiah, James and Joshi at the Monster Truck Show that came to town! The ‘big boys’ were more excited than Siah and Joshi.

Worship CD Project

Norbi and Laci are going to be recording a simple worship album to help people learn new worship songs. There aren’t many worship albums available in Hungarian, and several people have been asking if Norbi has a tape they can listen to at home to learn the songs from. Just that people want to learn the songs is an answer to prayer! There’s a recording studio in nearby Baja, Hungary and they’ve already spoken to the owner and have just to settle on a date that’s good for everyone. It won’t be the quality to sell in stores, but that’s not the point anyway. The idea is to offer it for just the price of the tape (We’ll get just one CD made and then copy it to tapes ourselves). Norbi is busy selecting the songs. We’re really excited about it!

Joshi, Anna and Josiah at the Burger King play area for Anna’s 2nd birthday treat. Joshi had just gotten his much asked for ‘baldy-waldy’ hair cut—once was it, being grown back out, never to be that short again!

Praise Reports and Prayer Requests