17

Today marks my 17th anniversary of living and ministering here in Hungary. Here are 17 things I've learned (I've learned a lot more) in these years.


1. God's plans are different/better than mine


2. Mark 10:29-30 is TRUE!!


3. speaking another language has helped me see the world and the Scriptures 
    in a new light.


4. God is really, really good.


5. prayer is powerful!!!


6. I'm thankful for the advances in technology over the past 17 years that has 
    allowed for better connection with those "back home"


7. God has been faithful to take care of us (thank you to so many of you who 
    have joined with God to support us over the years)


8. serving Jesus in Szeged is an honor.


9. I've made mistakes (more than a few) but God's grace is bigger than my 
    mistakes.


10. doing the right thing isn't always easy.


11. seeing people leave is hard.


12. now is never the time to give up!


13. on the job training has been beneficial 


14. nothing done for the kingdom of God is insignificant, no matter what you 
      think.


15. dealing with people isn't always easy but it's always worth it.


16. neither life nor ministry are meant to be done alone. 


17. sometimes you've just gotta take a "grace-filled" chance on people. 

winter update 2012

Happy New Year! it's hard to believe that 2011 has come and gone! It was a year (like any other) with it's up and downs but as we reflect back on this past year we are thankful that in every point of the year, the Lord has been gracious to us and has been with us every step of the way!


family


 the last 5 months have been an adventure, to say the least. no matter how tired we get, and how many hours of sleep we don't get, we continue to be blessed to be the parents of the two most beautiful girls in the world! it's such a joy for us to see how much Zara loves her little sister. there are no signs of jealousy, which we're thankful for.
 zara has been going to nursery for a while now and loves it! she's there every morning till noon. we love it cause it opens so many doors for us to meet people and get involved in their lives for the glory of God. 
 we're so blessed to see how Zara is now able to communicate very well in both English & Hungarian. It's amazing to see how God has formed young lives to be so open to learn so much.
 Odi continues to enjoy being able to be home with the kids, knowing that these early years are so vitally important to their development. I'm also blessed to be able to be around a lot. Our deepest desire is that our kids would love, honor, and serve Jesus.
 now that kiera is a bit "older" we're able to have odi's mom come watch the kids while we get a chance to go out and "connect". these are times we love & cherish.
 we're also blessed to report that God is continually giving us opportunities through our friendships & relationships to share Jesus with others.


ministry


 november saw me reach an important "milestone" in the life of Golgota Szeged. After 10 years, by the grace of God, completed teaching through the Old Testament. because I've taught many of the New Testament books over the years (including the 4 Gospels and Acts) we jumped into the New Testament at the book of Romans. I'm hoping to make it through the New Testament in the next couple of years so has to have a complete through the Bible teaching available on our church website for Hungarian Christians. 
 as is our tradition we had a Christmas Eve service. It's usually at midnight but because Christmas was on a weekend this year we had our service at 10pm. We had 70+ people join with us to worship Jesus on Christmas Eve.
 to kick off our new year, the Lord has lead me to teach a series on Sunday mornings, which I'm calling "foundations of our faith". This is important as many of our members are young and grew up in churches but haven't made the important doctrines of the faith their own or they don't understand them. so we're going to take some time talking through these as we have this wonderful opportunity to train believers who will one day go all over the world (we've got people from many nations in our church - Nigera, India, South Korea, Romania, etc.) and it's our hope that people would leave Szeged with a profession & a solid Biblical foundation for life. 
 more than just training up our international students we want to see many in Szeged and our region come to know Jesus. here is where God is leading us in this.  first in Szeged, the Lord has graciously used me to get the pastors & leaders of the churches of Szeged together for monthly prayer breakfasts. we all have the desire to see people know Jesus and to plant churches. we're praying and asking God for His vision on how we're to reach Szeged. We've been doing this for a few months know & I know it's a process, but I'm very excited already about how the Lord is bringing the pastors together.
 one of the "strengths" of our church is that we're a bi-lingual (hungarian/english) church. and because so many people here in Hungary want to learn English, it's our desire to use English as a tool to reach out to the youth especially. we'd love to do an English camp this summer. if anyone is interested in coming to help, please let us know!
 over the years we've always had people attend our church from Hódmezővásárhely, it's a city 25km from us. it's been on my heart & the hearts of the leadership to venture out that way. We've talked with a few people we know there and in the next month or so will be going our there for prayer & meeting of a possible core group to launch a new Bible study there. 


 a while back I wrote about the legal status of Calvary Chapel Hungary. The Hungarian Parliament is supposed to vote by February 29th if we're to remain a recognized church or if we have to become a "religious foundation". I'm at the point where it doesn't matter what politicians say, we're going to keep loving Jesus, teaching His Word & sharing His love with people & they can classify us however they want. We want to win the hearts of the "man on the street" for Jesus.


 so there is a lot going on, a lot of possibilites & a lot that the Lord is doing, so we need a lot of prayer!

prayer requests

 - that we'd fall more in love with Jesus this year.

 - for wisdom to raise our daughters to love Jesus.

 - that God would continue to use golgota szeged to reach szeged and our surrounding area.

 - for strength in this busy season of life.

 - for God to lead us in our desire for an English camp & bible study in Hódmezővásárhely.

 - that god would raise up people to help in the church in the areas of administration and other practical areas.

ways to help

 - pray!!!

 - give. if you'd like to help support our ministry you can send your (tax-deductible) offerings through calvary chapel costa mesa (https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH) or calvary chapel vista (hhttps://webview.shelbyinc.com/app/04423/Default.aspx tabindex=1&tabid=17). please be sure to indicate that your tithe/offering for us. 

 thanks again for your time and your prayers for us. please consider supporting us financially that the kingdom of god might expand in this part of the world.

 may the Lord bless you richly! 

 kyle, odi, zara, kiera

the legal state of the church in Hungary

tonight Christians here in Hungary began flooding the internet (mainly Facebook) with the news that the government here in Hungary has repealed it's "religious freedom" law from this summer. The reason being is that they knew the constitutional court would strike down the law. 


According the the original law this summer there were some 30+ churches (including Calvary Chapel's here in Hungary - known here as Golgota) that the Hungarian government was going to recognize but after a late night meeting of the committee which oversaw this law that number was slashed to 14. We, Golgota Hungary, were cut from the list along with other, good Jesus loving, Bible believing churches.  


we were under the impression that we could request official recognition to remain an official church here in Hungary. The leadership of Golgota Hungary put together a team who did great work in getting everything we needed together and they submitted it to the Parliament. Right now the ruling party in Hungary (Fidesz) has a 2/3 majority and it would take a 2/3 majority to remain an official church.


we've been waiting and waiting and then the news broke today. The majority leader of the Fidesz party has said that the government wants to pass the law but with no real structural changes. meaning they will include the 14 churches that they approve but since the original law has been repealed all the work that was done by the leadership of Golgota Hungary & of many other churches will be thrown out the window because our "appeal" was on the basis of the original law of June and not this new "last minute" law that they have said they will ram through the Parliament between Christmas and New Year's. 


where does that leave Golgota here in Hungary? or any other good Jesus loving churches for that matter? I have no idea!! I do know that regardless of what this (in my opinion, incompetent) government decides we'll continue to meet to worship Jesus & study His Word, as I believe it's God who defines what a church is, not a bunch of politicians. 


this situation shows me two things. first, that too much power is NEVER a good thing. as the old saying goes, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". but more importantly, I see the spiritual side to this. God IS working in the lives of people here in Hungary and Jesus is changing people and we have to realize that Satan hates this and is doing everything he can to stop what is being accomplished for the Kingdom of God.  


whatever happens, I know it will be for the furtherance of the Gospel.


please join with me in prayer for the work of God here in Hungary.


please join with me in praying for the people of Hungary. many people see what's going on and have completely lost hope in life.  we want to bring Jesus to them as He gives real hope.


thanks for your time.


kyle

united for Szeged

many years ago the previous Baptist pastor organized monthly prayer meetings for the pastors of the churches in Szeged but since he was "promoted" to a new position about 2 1/2 years ago these meetings stopped. something I've desired for a while was to "restart" these meetings.  this summer I was encouraged by a good friend to not wait for anyone else to start them but for me to start them because all of the pastors know my cause I've been in Szeged for a long time now. 

about a month ago I e-mailed everyone and got a great response. This morning was our first pastor's prayer breakfast at our church. 6 churches were represented (which is about all of the evangelical Christian churches) and turns out everyone has sensed the need to work together for the Kingdom of God and everyone expressed their thanks that I took the initiative and got us all together.

we're going to spend some time praying together and building inter-personal relationships and see how God might have us work together for His Kingdom in Szeged.

I thankful to God that I was able to play a part in getting everyone together and look forward to what God is going to do through these times.

please join with us in praying for Szeged!

Szeged Baptist Chutch

Tonight I had the honor of preaching to about 80 high school & college age students at the Szeged Baptist. I talked to them about reaching their generation for Jesus. The response was great. Praise God!

I left excited that there are many young people who love Jesus and want to reach their generation (a lost generation) for Him.

I also left so encouraged that God has started a new work of unity among the local churches in Szeged. The Baptist pastor was there tonight and said he loved what I preached.

Because I've sensed a greater need for the local churches to be on the same page, I've invited the pastors & elders of local churches to a prayer breakfast that we'll hold at Golgota Szeged. So far response is good and I look forward to building stronger relationships with other pastors & churches so that the Kingdom of God might expand here in Szeged.

Please join with is for this city that we love so much!

mommy's little helper

tonight Zara helped me make dinner for Daddy! I can't wait till she's older and I can teach her more and she can help more!!

late summer / early fall update 2011

family

  the biggest news in our lives is that our second daughter, kiera grace eckhart, was born on August 7th. we've been so blessed because she is such a good baby. we were curious to see how zara would react to and interact with her, well zara absolutely loves her baby sister!!  she always wants to be around her and kiss her. she is so gentle with kiera. 

  (here is a picture of us going to church for the first time as a family. at this point kiera was only 5 weeks old.)

  with our growing family our needs are growing. one of the biggest needs we have is for a larger car. some time next year we'd love to get a minivan, as we feel it would be perfect for us with our 2 kids and also with having my (kyle's) dad living here in szeged. we've learned that the bible is so true that the "borrower is slave to the lender" (proverbs 22:7) and we don't want to be enslaved to a bank over a car. please pray with us that God would provide for us and provide the right car for us next year. 

 we both agree that the "jump" from 1 kid to 2 kids is both easier and harder. easier cause we're more relaxed and more "experienced" but harder for obvious reasons. zara has a lot of energy and to help with that we've been taking her to nursery every day since july. she really loves being around other kids and we know that this is just another great opportunity for us to reach people for Jesus here in Szeged.

 speaking of zara, we can't believe that she turned 2 on september 5th. we're so proud of our "big girl" and excited to be part of her life as God has entrusted her to us. 

 odi is doing a great job being a full time mom and God is giving me the strength to do all that I need to do (pastor the church, teach english, study for school).  

 on september 4th, calvary chapel hungary celebrated it's 20th anniversary here in hungary. about 20 people from calvary szeged went to budapest for a "nation-wide" celebration. what was a real blessing to me was to think that God has allowed me to be a small part of His work in hungary for 16 1/2 years. I'm looking forward to many more years of serving Him here in Hungary.

church/ministry

 as i've written in the past, summer tends to be a "down time" for our church with many students going home for the summer and people going on holiday. this summer was different, in that we didn't see such a great drop off. as a matter of fact over the summer the church grew some.

 one of the most amazing stories of this summer is a young man named ovidiu. the amazing thing about ovidiu is that he's from timisoara, romania. he got saved a couple of years ago by listening to bridge.fm (calvary chapel old bride - pastor lloyd pulley) and by watching hischannel.com. god moved on ovidiu's heart and showed him that he needs to be in fellowship with other believers and because there isn't a calvary chapel in timisoara (yet) he decided he'd drive the 120km (75miles) one way to come fellowship with us at golgota szeged because we are the closest calvary chapel to him. we are blessed (and so is he) that he comes when he can. we've prayed with him about starting a work in timisoara. I believe that God has brought him here for a reason and we continue to seek the Lord's will regarding this. 

  this summer i was blessed to preach at an outreach that the baptist church of szeged organized in hódmezővásárhely. not only did I preach but many of the members of calvary szeged took part in the week long event because we believe that Jesus loves our region and we're excited to be a part of whatever He is doing!  i personally was blessed to spend time with the baptist pastor, barna balogh, who came from debrecen and was close to bodi (zsolt bodogán).

  i'm looking forward to spending more time with him and some of the other pastors here in szeged. i know we all have god's heart for szeged and i hope we can all work together for his kingdom! 

  because of my growing relationship with the baptist, i've been invited to speak to about 40-50 of their youth this month. i'm excited to talk to them about loving and serving jesus here in szeged in their youth. the youth of this city are the hope of this city and the only way we're going to reach them is if we're in love with jesus and taking his message to them.

  september always sees an influx of new people into our church. this year we're blessed that many students who are returning have a few more years left in their studies and we have more time to help train them to be missionaries for Jesus wherever they might end up after college. 

  to help "ring in" the new school year, this sunday (september 18th) we're hosting a "welcome (back) to szeged" bbq after church. there is already a lot of interest in this and we're looking forward to building relationships with many of our new members.

  on wednesday nights i've been teaching through the old testament and in the next 6-8 weeks i'll be finishing it, after which we'll jump right into the new testament. i hope to complete teaching through the bible in the next 3 years. to the best of my knowledge this will be the first complete "through the bible" in hungarian/english by a calvary pastor here in hungary. i'm continually amazed that god is using our church website to get his word out to hungarians (and others) all over the world.

prayer requests

 - for wisdom to raise our daughters to love Jesus.

 - that God would continue to use golgota szeged to reach szeged and our surrounding area.

 - for strength in this busy season of life.

 - that the hungarian government would approve golgota for official church status. (a blog about this coming soon)

 - that we as a family would love jesus more!

 - that god would raise up people to help in the church in the areas of administration and other practical areas.

ways to help

 - we really need help in some practical things. we're looking to redesign the logo and "artwork" of our church. if you can help, please let me know. we've got some genearl ideas but would need someone who knows what they're doing.

 - as many of you know i've been teaching english to supplement our income. i've been blessed to do this but sometimes i feel as if i need to put too much time into this. having a family with 2 kids, i need to make sure that our needs our met. if i wouldn't have to teach so much i believe i could invest more time into the church and the work of God. if you'd like to help support our ministry you can send your (tax-deductible) offerings through calvary chapel costa mesa (https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH) or calvary chapel vista (hhttps://webview.shelbyinc.com/app/04423/Default.aspx tabindex=1&tabid=17). please be sure to indicate that your tithe/offering for us. what you give helps us not only meet our monthly needs but we will be putting part of it aside for a bigger vehicle next year.

 thanks again for your time (that you read this) and your prayers for us. please consider supporting us financially that the kingdom of god might expand in this part of the world.

 may the Lord bless you richly! 

 kyle, odi, zara, kiera