Friday, September 21, 2012

2012 fall update

Dear Friends,

summer is over and it's time for us to share with you what's been happening in our lives & the ministry here in Szeged.

because we haven't really been able to take a furlough in a couple of years I took 6 weeks off of teaching and preaching at Golgota Szeged. partly to rest & recharge and partly to step back and let God speak to me about the next season of ministry. my 6 week sabbatical started with us attending the Eastern European Leadership Conference (Foundations Conference) at the Calvary Chapel Conference Center in Vajta. to make a long story short there was a lot of spiritual attack upon us there because Satan didn't want us to stay there. It was there that God spoke to me through Pastor Rich Chaffin that I need to be fellowshipping and encouraging other pastors. In August I began this new season of visiting/encouraging other pastors. for me to have the time to do this I've stopped teaching private English students. This makes money even tighter but I know that this is what God is calling me to do and will provide for us as I seek to share with other pastors the things I've learned over the years so that they'd be encouraged that their labor for the Kingdom of God isn't in vain.  along with visiting other pastors I'll be spending more time investing into the men in our church and using technology (mainly skype) to encourage a pastor who came out of Golgota Szeged and is now ministering in north eastern Hungary.

another thing that is happening in Golgota Szeged is somewhat of a restructure of the different ministries in the church to allow for more people to get involved in different aspects of ministry. we're really excited to see what God is going to do through this to expand the ministry of Golgota Szeged.

 summer is usually a down time for us but this summer wasn't. we give glory to God for the new believers and those Christians who were not attending church anywhere but found us via our webpage. now that school is back in we're pretty much full on Sunday mornings which presents us with a (good) problem. if we continue to see this kind of growth we're going to have to look to expand to a larger facility. we're just waiting to see what God does.

 we're currently organizing a youth outreach with the Szeged Baptist Church. The national Baptist church is bringing over a group from the UK called Superhero (www.superhero.org.uk) to do 3 outreach concerts. Because we have a very good relationship with the Baptists here in Szeged they asked for our help because we have some experience organizing a concert like this. We're praying that God will fill the hall with 500-600 people to hear the Gospel. A group call The Bible League will be giving everyone at the concert 2 brand new copies of a simplified translation of the Hungarian Bible. I'm super excited that Gábor, who is leading our little youth group, will be taking a large role in helping with things for this concert.

this summer two teams from Golgota Szeged went to Romania to minister at a two week youth camp at a gypsy village. a few of the new believers came back with a new vision to be on mission for the Kingdom of God. 

we as a church are praying and pursuing missions opportunities both locally and in other countries. I know my life was changed when I went on a two-week missions trip in 1993. I'm hoping that God would do similar things in the lives of the believers at Golgota Szeged.










family stuff

 the end of summer saw us celebrate Kiera's 1st and Zara's 3rd birthdays. Zara began kindergarten at the beginning of September and loves it. 

With Kiera getting bigger life is getting a little easier and Odi is getting more freedom to be part of the church life again.



this winter will be 3 years since we've been to the States so we'd really like to go next year. as a family of 4 it's not going to be cheap (probably between $4000-5000 just to get there). so we're praying, planning and trying to save to get there. we'd like to ask you to join us in prayer for God's provision for this.

we're very honored to serve the Lord in the city of Szeged which we so love and we're thankful that so many of you pray for us and give generously to support the work we're doing here for the Lord. so THANK YOU and we ask that you would continue to join with us in the work of the Lord in Szeged through prayer and financial giving.

we're more active on Facebook & Twitter (@kyleeckhart) so if you're on those social media outlets please look us up!

prayer requests

 - many would come to know Jesus through the outreach concert at the end of the month
 - for 10,000 people to meet Jesus in Szeged
 - for wisdom for the leadership of Golgota Szeged.
 - for provision and protection and wisdom for Kyle as he travels and ministers to other 
   pastors.
 - for financial provision for the needs of our family and a possible trip back to the States 
   next summer
 - for more opportunities to preach the Gospel and make disciples here in Szeged

for Jesus' fame!

kyle, odi, zara, kiera 


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

run for your life charlie brown

pre-race picture
this last weekend was quite an adventure for me. I ran in my first half-marathon. it was in Sarajevo of all places. Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina. I've been running for a couple of years, just to stay active and healthy. it's also my way to "recharge" my batteries (I'm thankful that my wife allows me the time to do this). my good friend Laci Németh asked me a while back if I'd join him in running the Sarajevo half-marathon. He's been to Sarajevo a few times, has friends there & I liked the idea so we began preparing. In April this year I came home from a run with extreme pain in my ankle. turns out that I broke my ankle. I was out for 8 weeks. I didn't think I would be able to do a half-marathon this year but I got back in to the swing of things over the summer and was pretty confident after August that I could do this.

after and exciting trip getting there (we took a wrong turn in Serbia) and a short night of sleep we began on our first ever half-marathon. The guys we were running with we both much faster and more experienced runners than us so Laci & I stuck together. Which was good cause we took turns pulling the other one on over the course of the race.

close to the finish line
we were expecting a flat course (cause that's what the race website said - "the course is fast and flat") they don't know what flat is. I live in one of the flattest places in Hungary and for me the most uphill I get is going over the bride to Újszeged. My GPS told us that there was about 350m (1,150ft.) climb!! so for me it wasn't so easy.

Hungarian pride
I was confident I could do the race because at the end of August I ran 21K here in Szeged in 2:07:37. People told me I'd shave 5-10 minutes off my time in a race because of the adrenaline. Well they were wrong. We finished the race in the official time of 1:55:52. that's almost 12 minutes better!!
just so you believe our time

as we crossed the finish line both Laci & I teared up cause for us this was a pretty major accomplishment. I was totally honored to run this race with him and look forward to many more, although I don't think we'll be shaving 12 minutes of this time anytime soon

the 4 brave runners
but I think the best part of this was meeting wonderful people who are living and serving there. 

so 1 down, hopefully many more to go