Golgota Szeged update - 2015/2016 winter

it’s been way too long and so much has been going on here at Golgota Szeged, so let me ask for a few minutes of your time to share with you all that Jesus has been doing at Golgota Szeged.

Ongoing ministry to refugees

 When the Hungarian government locked down the Southern border with Serbia in the middle of September, the number of refugees coming through Szeged went from a flood to almost nothing. With the stream of refugees began being directed by the Serbian authorities to Croatia (then on through Western Hungary) we thought our role in the refugee crisis was pretty much over.  

 Little did we know that God had other plans for us. After the borders closed, staff & students traveled to a couple different refugee camps and began ministering to some guys (mainly from Iran and Africa). Because their request for asylum was rejected they were transferred to a small camp about 25km outside of Szeged. It’s basically a holding camp where they wait as they appeal their case. The students and staff came down to this camp in Nagyfa and got us connected with these guys. So over the past couple of months we’ve been doing what we can for them. This entails organizing 2-3 cars every Sunday to get these guys to and from church, as well as buying them groceries and topping off their cell phones with money that was donated for this purpose to Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe. 

hanging out with Saman and Peter after church

 It’s been amazing to get to know some of these guys and hear their stories. A few of the guys fled Iran because of persecution, one brother was taken away by the secret service & beaten multiple times, even being shot in the leg to get info from him about a home church network. A good friend from Calvary Vista, missions pastor Rob Nash, recently help get us some solar audio players as well as “The God Story” DVD’s in Farsi for these guys. It’s a way for them to share the Gospel in the camp.

 The logistics of helping these guys & getting them to church hasn’t been easy as the members of our church are all busy with jobs & families and we don’t have too many available cars. So please pray for God to strengthen us & provide for us so we can keep serving these guys by getting them to church & helping them to grow in the Word. A few of the guys have been approved for asylum and are planning on attending Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe. 

our refugee brothers worshiping with the body of Golgota Szeged

 Now I know there is a lot of talk in the media & the US presidential debates about the refugee issue, and trust me, as being someone “on the ground”, dealing with these people, and dealing with questions of people in the church about “why are they coming here?” and “are we safe?”, I can tell you that there are no easy answers to the questions that this crisis raises.. So while many people are torn, and welcoming these guys in our church has caused a couple people to stop coming, I would simply ask you to pray that the Gospel would change these people as they come to Europe for whatever reason. The fact is that the Gospel is the only thing that can change people, be it us in the West or people from the Middle East, Africa, or wherever. 

church news

What’s really been cool to see is that the church has been growing recently in size. We’ve seen new people come as well as believers who’ve been hurt in other churches. It’s exciting to see people come, get healed, grow in the Lord, and get plugged into the church.  We’ve also been blessed by the new births in our church & the great fellowship that happens at our monthly church lunches.

dedicating my little buddy, Máté

 Every year we do a Christmas Eve service and when we started doing this about 7-8 years ago I think there were 10-12 people at our first Christmas Eve service. This year the church was absolutely packed with over 70 adults. What made it really exciting is about 20 people who came had never been to our church before. I was so happy that 3 of my students brought their families totally 12 people. This was really good for the church to see that as we shine our lights and as we invite people, they will come. I told the church, if you’re afraid to share the Gospel, just invite people & I’ll do the work of preaching the Gospel. 

worship on Christmas Eve

 Because we’ve seen some growth over the past 4-6 months, there is an excitement in the church about what God is doing. As a result, we’ve felt that we don’t want to just try to do more but we want to stop and pray & figure out what God is doing and get involved in that.

  So we’ve decided to start of this year with a week of prayer. We’re in the middle of it right now & we’re just gathering every night to pray & seek the Lord for our church, city, region, and country. It’s exciting to see people come out and join us in prayer for the city. 

  The weekend of January 22-24 about 15 women from Golgota Szeged will be attending the Golgota national women’s conference. It’s always an encouraging time for them (pray for the men who will be staying home with the kids!!)

 Even though there has been a lot of joy in the past months, one “sad” thing has happened. One of our elder, Badri (he’s from India) told me that he got a job in South Korea and will be moving with his family at the beginning of February. Badri came to Hungary about 10 years ago to do research at the University of Szeged Biology Center. A year after he got here, his future wife, Mary came to Hungary and it was almost 7 years ago that I was honored to officiate their wedding. A little over 2 years ago they were blessed with a beautiful little girl. Badri has been ministering to the “internationals” of our church for years and has led the English speaking Cell Group. He’s also been part of the worship ministry playing the djembe. Last year he finished his PhD and has been applying for jobs in Europe. But God is taking them on the next step of their adventure to South Korea. It’s sad to see them go but we know that God is leading them & will continue to use them in South Korea. Seeing someone go like this is a little exciting cause we don’t know what God is going to do next or who He will raise up to take over the things Badri was doing. One thing is sure, God has brought someone to replace Badri in the worship, but other than that we’re open to whatever the Lord has for what’s next for these things at Golgota Szeged.

 we don’t have any plans to visit California in the foreseeable future, mainly because of finances even though it’s been almost 2 years since we’ve been. It’d be refreshing to take a trip sometime so please keep this in prayer.

personal news

 we both continue to be super busy, raising kids, teaching English, and ministering at church. this is, honestly, a difficult time of life but we're looking to the Lord for strength and wisdom in it. 

oh Christmas tree

do you want to build a snowman?

we need to make a big decision soon for Zara. She'll start 1st grade in September and we have to decide which elementary school to send her to. In the next few weeks there will be "open houses" put on by schools and we'll be visiting them to see what is going to be the best fit for her. Please pray for us to have wisdom in this area!!

 we rejoice that the last time the doctor examined Zara's scoliosis, he said that he's not going to send her for an x-ray because he sees that her back has improved a little. this in it self is a miracle cause growing up, Odi never heard "it's getting better" only "it's getting worse". Sometimes what is super hard is having Zara do her exercise at home. Please pray that she'd look forward to and like doing her physical therapy at home. 

partner with us

as always, I’d like to let you know how to partner with us as we seek to build God’s Kingdom here in Szeged & the surrounding region.

 first and most importantly you can join us in prayer. here are some prayer points

  - wisdom, safety, and provision in ministering to the refugees

 - that the relationships in the church would grow

 - that we’d continue to be salt & light in Szeged

 - that we’d hear clearly from the Lord about His plans for Szeged & that we’d get involved in that.

 - for God to raise up more people to serve in different areas of ministry

 - provision for a possible trip to CA in the next 18-24 months

you can also help support the ministry here financially. you can give your tax-deductible offerings through either Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa or Calvary Vista.

 here is the info through Calvary Chapel Vista on their website. you can give by clicking here you just need to follow the process and when it asks for the donations put the amount in the "missions" box and in the memo note that it's for "Kyle & Odi Eckhart in Szeged, Hungary". They then will get that to us with our regular monthly support the beginning of each month.

 through Calvary Costa Mesa, you can give here (https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH) all you need to do here is go down the scroll down list to my name and the money will be sent to us.

thank you for taking the time to read & prayerfully considering these things.

in, by, and for Jesus,

kyle, odi, zara, kiera

2015 spring church and family update

Today is Pentecost, which is a holiday here in Hungary, and because that means I have some free time, I’d like to let you know about what’s going on here in Szeged.

Church stuff

the church is doing well. We seem to be in a season of weddings and births.  I’ve already officiated one wedding this month with another this Saturday.  One family welcomed their 3rd child in September and a couple that just got married last August, will welcome their 1st child this September. Things like this bring joy to our hearts and we wanted to share these with you.

Though we have joy in these, it also makes us keenly aware of the singles in our church and those who are struggling with infertility. Please join with us in prayer for them.

Last year the college chaplain of one of the Reformed churches here in Szeged, had the idea to have a Christian festival here in Szeged similar to festivals he and others have taken part of in different parts of Western Europe. Szeged is known for it’s many festivals throughout the year and this year in September will be what is called the “tágás tér festival” (it means “wide open square” festival). This will be an interdenominational Christian festival with concerts, four discussions, workshops, exhibitions, and sporting events. Because the Catholic church still considers us a cult their leadership has insisted we not be named on any promotional materials and really didn’t want Golgota Szeged involved but our friends at the Reformed & Baptist churches have pushed to make sure we're involved cause they believe that Golgota Szeged will be a valuable member in this venture of faith. 

on our part, we’re looking at planning a charity run during this 3 day festival to support the pediatric ICU. The reasoning behind this is that people here in Szeged aren’t really interested in the church & a charity run around the event will draw people that might not come to a Christian festival and if they come hopefully they will stay and see some of the other events / booths. Also the pediatric ICU is always in need of money to care for kids. This will take a lot of planning on our part but we believe it'd be great for us to show our love for Szeged in a tangible way.  Pray for open doors & open hearts as we plan the charity run and that people would come and hear the Gospel during this festival.

Personal stuff

 Life has been extremely busy for us, as both Odi and I are teaching at local schools. Being bi-vocational has been difficult but good. We’re really looking forward to the summer break to catch our breath a little! :-) 

we’re also looking forward to moving into our new house next month. The building process has been very trying and we will be so happy to finally be moved in and enjoy our new house.

 I was hoping to make it to California at the beginning of July for the Calvary Chapel Senior Pastors Conference but it’s just not going to work out this year. the finances just aren’t there for me to make the trip this year. maybe next year we can go as a family to California. 

 the girls are doing well. We continue to take Zara to physical therapy for her back and a couple months ago, Kiera got glasses because one of her eyes is crossed. Life is full of challenges, as you all know. 

prayer points

 - for God’s blessing and provision upon our family

 - for wisdom in dealing with the kids health issues

 - for God’s blessing and anointing as I speak at different churches / events

 - for God’s blessing upon Calvary Szeged and for church growth.

 - for fresh vision for the church.

 - for a fresh outpouring of God's Spirit upon us and the church

 blessings,

kyle, odi, zara, kiera

 here is the info through Calvary Chapel Vista on their website. you can give here (http://www.calvaryvista.com/give-2/) you just need to follow the process and when it asks for the donations put the amount in the "missions" box and in the memo note that it's for "Kyle & Odi Eckhart in Szeged, Hungary". They then will get that to us with our regular monthly support the beginning of each month.

 through Calvary Costa Mesa, you can give here (https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH) all you need to do here is go down the scroll down list to my name and the money will be sent to us.

thank you for prayerfully considering this!

winter 2015 family & church update

Church stuff

as I sit down to write this newsletter I realize that it was 20 years ago this week that I was making my final preparations to move to Baja, Hungary for 1 year to help at the church there. by the grace of God, that 1 year has now turned into 20 as February 21st marks 20 years of me living & serving Jesus here in Hungary. I am truly amazed and humbled that God allows me to do what I do. I am truly thankful to God & to all of you who have over the years partnered with me through prayer & financial support so that I can be part of what Jesus is doing here in Hungary.

since it’s been a few months since we’ve written, let us share with you what’s been going on with us & in the life of Calvary Chapel Szeged

Once again the members of our church prepared Christmas packages to take to 2 gypsy villages in Romania. This is something that we've been doing for a few years now & we are blessed that we know where the gifts are going. 

Last September we changed up the format of our mid-week Bible study. It was on Wednesday nights that I taught through the Bible. Now that I've taught through the Bible, we felt the Lord leading us to make some changes. Not to fear, we are still teaching the Bible but we're teaching in a rotation. Right now there are 4 of us in the rotation. This has eased the burden on me, as I'm teaching English at a bilingual high school and it allows me to focus more on our Sunday service. We are currently teaching through the life of David. What we've also done is set apart the 3rd Wednesday night of the month for worship, prayer, and communion. We've seen God bless the changes He has led us in.

 The Lord has given me a lot of opportunities to teach in the past & I have a lot in the future. Since April I've been helping, advising, and teaching on a monthly basis at a new independent church plant in a city called Orosháza, which is about 60km from Szeged. The leader of this church & his wife really love Calvary & have reached out to me being the closest Calvary to them. I blessed to be part of what God is doing in this new church plant. 

teaching at the new church plant in Orosháza

 As I've mentioned in the past, we've got a really good relationship with the Szeged Baptist church. The youth group regularly invites me to teach there, which is always a great joy for me. Once again they've asked me to speak at the national youth conference that they are organizing here in Szeged in March. I'll be speaking about what it means to be a "digitally active" Christian. 

 To my great surprise, I've been invited to speak at the Calvary Chapel Scandinavia conference outside of Stockholm, Sweden at the end of July. I'm humbled by the honor to go & teach and see what God is doing in Scandinavia. Turns out the Finnish wife of the organizer used to be a part of our church about 13-14 years ago. 

 Odi continues to lead worship on Sunday  mornings and meets regularly with our worship teams to practice & learn new songs. 

family stuff

 it’s been a hard couple of months for us as a family. Odi’s grandmother, who many of you knew, passed on to Heaven in December. This marked the 3rd hard Christmas for us. We rejoice knowing that Mami is in the presence of the Lord and with those who have gone on before in faith. 

 Right before Christmas Zara came down with the chicken pox and that began a 6 week period where at least one of us were sick. We’re all better now, but it wasn’t fun being sick for so long.

 As we shared back in October, Zara has a curvature in her spine, like Odi. According to the x-Ray, her curvature is already 20 degrees.  At this point the doctor has recommended swimming & physical therapy. Zara is going swimming twice a week with her kindergarten class & we are taking her to physical therapy twice a week. We are trying to do physical therapy with her at home at least 4-5 times a week but it's hard to motivate Zara to do the exercises. Please pray that she would continue to have a good attitude about doing her daily exercise.

Kiera is starting to show signs of having a curved spine so we are starting to do the physical therapy with her as well. 

Zara & Kiera dressed up for the Farsang (Carnival) event at kindergarten

One thing we both know is that we want to avoid putting our kids through the “traditional” forms of treatment for scoliosis. Odi had a brace growing up and it wasn’t helpful at all. Both the orthopedic doctor & the physical therapist support our decision cause they know that movement is more important that a brace. 

God has given both Odi & I opportunities to teach English to help make up what we are lacking in terms of financial support. Odi is teaching at an elementary school & I'm teaching at a bilingual high school. We're thankful that God is providing for us this way & that we have many opportunities to share with co-workers & students. We know that God has us in these schools for a reason!

a request

 I’d like to share a request with everyone. I’ve been in Hungary for 20 years & the senior pastor of Calvary Szeged for 15. Every year I get the invite to the Calvary Chapel senior pastors conference in California. This year the conference is July 6-9. I’ve never been able to go but I would really, really like to go, be encouraged & connect with many of the pastors in the Calvary movement. A plane ticket for me to go to the conference is $1500. Would you pray about helping make it possible for me to make it out to the conference this year? if you would like to make a financial donation to help make this happen you can follow one of the 2 links below. thank you so much!!

prayer points

 - for God’s blessing & provision upon our family

 - for wisdom in dealing with the kids health issues

 - for God’s blessing & anointing as I speak at different churches / events

 - for God’s blessing upon Calvary Szeged

 - that God would continue to use us & Calvary Szeged as lights in this wonderful city

 - for God’s provision for me to make it to the senior pastors conference in CA this year.

support the work

if you'd like to support the work we're doing here at Calvary Szeged you can do so by sending your tax deductible donates through either Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa or Calvary Chapel Vista

 here is the info through Calvary Chapel Vista on their website. you can give here (http://www.calvaryvista.com/give-2/) you just need to follow the process and when it asks for the donations put the amount in the "missions" box and in the memo note that it's for "Kyle & Odi Eckhart in Szeged, Hungary". They then will get that to us with our regular monthly support the beginning of each month.

 through Calvary Costa Mesa, you can give here (https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH) all you need to do here is go down the scroll down list to my name and the money will be sent to us.

thank you for prayerfully considering this!

 blessings,

kyle, odi, zara, kiera

   

Summer 2014 update

we've been back from California for a few months now and a lot has happened. Let us give you a brief update on life and ministry here in Szeged.

church news

we really hit the ground running because as soon as we got back we we quickly approaching Easter and the city-wide, multi-church "Easter in the Park" service. We were doing all we can to get the word out and get churches involved. We advertised on Facebook and Szeged's local radio station ran radio spots every hour in the week leading up to Easter. The weather the week before Easter was chilly and rainy. The forecast called for showers on Easter Sunday. So much so that I said if it's raining at 1pm we will cancel the event. God was very gracious to us the temperature was nice and mild and we had no rain that day. 
 In total we had 9 churches participate in the Easter in the Park event and a few hundred people showed up for the event. It might not seem like a lot but we were very encouraged to see many Christians come and also many non-Christians. We estimate that there were about 200 Christians and about 100 non-Christians at this event. We rejoice that the Gospel was preached & the body of Christ in Szeged was encouraged. We also look forward to what Jesus is going to do in this city as His people come together as His church to be about His work.

myself & some of the other pastors involved in the Easter in the Park service

a picture of our multi-church worship team (4 churches represented here)

preaching about the death & resurrection of Jesus

we walked away from the event rejoicing that Jesus made it happened & we also learned a lot about what we want to do next year. For a first time, we believe it was a great success.

 a few of the churches that participated in the Easter in the Park followed up by having a Pentecost Picnic in Pentecost Sunday. It was wonderful time of hanging out and getting to know each other better.

 some of the leaders of Golgota Szeged were blessed to attend the annual calvary chapel leadership conference in vajta last month. We were greatly blessed and encouraged by the fellowship and the teachings of Pastors Brian Brodersen (Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa) & David Guzik (Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara).

 by the end of this month, we will reach a real milestone at Golgota Szeged. One of the hallmarks of Calvary Chapel is our chapter by chapter teaching through the Bible. It's been 14 years in the making but by the end of the month we will complete our first journey though the Bible. It will be the first complete teaching through the Bible in Hungarian & English that we know of and it's completely free through our website. We know that God has used our through the Bible teaching to reach Hungarian speakers as far away as Canada and Sweden. Now that we're coming to a completion of teaching through the Bible the thought has gone through my head of "what now?" Well, it seems that the Lord is leading us to make some changes in our Wednesday night service. We are going to dedicate one Wednesday a month to prayer, worship, and communion. We just want to have a time where we are open to the moving of the Spirit amongst us. During the other weeks we will start a teaching rotation which will include me and some of the other elders and teachers in the church. We will pray about and pick a book of the Bible to teach together. I think this will be a great opportunity for others to grow in their gifts and it will also allow me more time to focus on the Sunday message. 

 our cell groups are on break now but we're looking forward to relaunching them in September when school starts up. We always have a new influx of students at the end of August / beginning of September so we want to try to get as many people plugged into the cell groups as possible. 

 in the fall we might have the opportunity to host a couple of outreach groups. Should these opportunities pan out then we look forward to going into schools for conversational English classes. 

family news

probably the biggest news on the family front was that I (Kyle) became a Hungarian citizen on May 8th. I am now a dual-citizen. Last year the Hungarian government changed the law & I was able to apply on the basis of marriage. I felt it was something I wanted to do since I've lived half my life in Hungary. 

 since 2009 Odi has been on maternity leave & has been at home with the kids. (Maternity leave in Hungary is 3 years - YES 3 years!!!!) When Kiera turns 3 in August, Odi's maternity leave will be over. This last year the amount of money she has received has dropped 50% from the previous year (the 1st two years are about 70% or your salary & the last year is a fixed $130 for everyone). With this ending we're going to have to make a decision about the future. Should Odi look for a job or not? (right now we are both teaching private English to private students - another option would be taking on more students??)) We'd like if she could stay at home & focus on family, the kids, and the worship ministry but a lot of that depends on finances. One of our hopes in CA was to raise some support to make this possible. As of today, we haven't seen an increase in our support that would allow this to be possible so  we’d like to ask you, if you’re reading this to prayerfully consider joining with us in the work of the Kingdom of God here in Szeged but partnering with us financially. We’re looking to raise more money which will enable me to continue to travel to encourage other pastors, as well as invest in the work of the Kingdom of God here in Szeged. It will also enable Odi to spend more time focusing on being the main worship leader at Golgota Szeged so she can translate new songs into Hungarian for the benefit of the body of Christ not just in Szeged but all over Hungary.

so if you'd like to join with us you can send your tax deductible donations through either Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa or Calvary Chapel Vista. 

 here is the info through Calvary Chapel Vista on their website. you can give here (http://www.calvaryvista.com/give-2/) you just need to follow the process and when it asks for the donations put the amount in the "missions" box and in the memo note that it's for "Kyle & Odi Eckhart in Szeged, Hungary". They then will get that to us with our regular monthly support the beginning of each month.

 through Calvary Costa Mesa, you can give here (https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH) all you need to do here is go down the scroll down list to my name and the money will be sent to us.

thank you for prayerfully considering this!

praise reports

we’re thankful to God for the amazing Easter in the Park service we had & the participation of 9 churches.

we praise God for a continued commitment by the churches in Szeged to work together for the Kingdom of God

we praise God that many are able to download the messages taught at Golgota Szeged via our website and that our reach goes far beyond our walls.

 for the encouragement that our leadership team received at the annual leadership conference

prayer requests

for a fresh outpouring of God's Spirit upon Golgota Szeged

for more people to know Jesus in Szeged

for God’s provision for us and for the church here in Szeged

for more open doors to minister to people in the name of Jesus here in Szeged

that we'd have more people join the cell groups for the fall semester

much love in Jesus,

kyle, odi, zara, kiera

2013 fall update

Dear Friends,

we hope you all had a great summer. let us share with you some of the happenings in our life & ministry here in Szeged.

family news

We were blessed to take part in 2 difference conferences this summer. the first was Central & Eastern European Leadership Conference at the Bible College in Vajta. It was a wonderful week of encouragement & fellowship with many leaders from all over this part of the world. We were super blessed to take some leaders from Golgota Szeged with us.

In August we were blessed to be able to go to the annual Calvary Chapel Missions Conference at The Castle in Austria. Again, a real time of encouragement through the teaching & meeting some new friends who are ministering in different places around Europe & the former Soviet Union.

We had our first real medical issue with our kids. A week ago Zara had an operation to repair a hernia. She was our brave little hero throughout the operation. Thankfully Odi was able to take her to the Children's Clinic in the morning & they were home in the afternoon. She is fully recovered and back in kindergarten. 

As we've said before we'd really like to make a trip back to the States next year, we're still looking at that and hope things work out for us to go.

ministry news

we had a wonderful time partnering with the Baptist church doing outreach in both Szeged & Hódmezővásárhely this summer. We continue to look forward to how God is going to use our partnership for His glory & kingdom in this region. We continue to host a monthly prayer breakfast for local church leaders & pastors. These are always great times to connect with and encourage one another.

as of late I've had a lot of teaching opportunities. Last Tuesday night I was once again invited to speak to the Baptist Youth Group. It's really a youth group for all the Christian youth here in Szeged. There were about 80-90 people in attendance. It's always great to be able to share with the next generation.

as I'm sitting down to write this I've just finished preparing a message that I'll be teaching at Calvary Budapest tomorrow evening as Pastor Phil Metzger will be out of the country. I'm truly honored to be teaching both services there tomorrow night as I talk about "the attitude of gratitude"

on October 20th I'll be teaching at Calvary Subotica. I always love being there & seeing what God is doing just right across the border from us.

On September 15th I began teaching a series through the Sermon on the Mount. This is in conjunction with the launch of 4 cell groups in 2 cities at Golgota Szeged. In our cell group meetings we're focusing on the things that are taught on Sunday mornings and discussing them more in depth.  We're hosting a group in our home and I'm co-leading it with a young man named Gábor. Gábor is a great guy & a future leader in the church and so I'm just coaching him as he leads.

On Wednesday nights we're continuing our journey through the Bible. At our current pace we hope to complete the first English/Hungarian through the Bible teach (which is all available for free online) in the next 6 months!!

This is one thing that I'm really blessed to be doing is coaching / encouraging leaders. Myself & the leaders of Gologta Szeged are getting together on a regular basis to talk about leadership as we're going through the great book "Spiritual Leadership" by Oswald Sanders together.  I'm also blessed to spend time with other pastors in our region & others on Skype. I know that these guys have been blessed by our time together too.

The elders of the church & I agreed that we need a little more direction and oversight in the worship ministry thus we've appointed Odi as the worship coordinator. She is now responsible for organizing the worship schedule and for implementing vision and new songs. Odi has the time, vision, and passion for this so it's a great fit. We're really excited about the changes that are happening in the worship ministry.

Later this month we'll be hosting a 10-day outreach team from the Bible College in Vajta. 7 people will be coming to minister with us. We've got opportunities for them to go into schools for conversational English lessons at schools in both Szeged & Hódmezővásárhely. We're excited to see what the Lord does during these 10 days.

One thing I've been encouraged to do by a couple people is to share some of the things I've learned over the years by writing. So recently I've been sharing my thoughts on different subjects & posting them on our blog here. Some of the posts are in both English & Hungarian because they are things that I'd like to communicate to our church.  So far there has been good response especially on a post I wrote a couple weeks ago with my thoughts on missions & money (http://kyleodi.blogspot.hu/2013/09/some-thoughts-on-missions-and-money.html) 

There is an exciting possible ministry opportunity opening up for me. should it happen I'll let you all know!

things to pray about

• for wisdom for Odi as she is leading the worship ministry & for provision for a new guitar
• for continued blessing upon our friendship with the other churches in Szeged
• for the 10-day outreach from Vajta to be very fruitful
• that God would continue to use Golgota Szeged locally and also to reach many who follow us on different social media outlets to get the Word of God to people.
• boldness in sharing Jesus with people
• more opportunities for ministry 
• that God would use me to continue to encourage other ministry leaders & pastors. 
• for God's continued provision & protection for our family

stay in touch

If you'd like to have more frequent updates about our lives and ministry here in Szeged here are how you can do so...

 Kyle's facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/kyleodi

 Kyle's twitter - @kyleeckhart -  https://twitter.com/kyleeckhart

 Golgota Szeged's facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Golgota-Szeged/136419214162

 Golgota Szeged's webpage - www.golgotaszeged.hu

Golgota Szeged' YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWIyjV_CHWqh75BoM3xLu_g

giving

we know that finances are tight and there are many requests for funding, we'd like to ask once again if you'd prayerfully consider committing to a monthly donation of $20 to support us so that we can continue to minister in ways which we feel will be beneficial for the Kingdom of God in Szeged & our region.

If you'd like to support our ministry monthly or a one time gift you can do so through the following websites...

 Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (in the pull down menu please select us)

 https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH

 Calvary Chapel Vista 

 https://webview.shelbyinc.com/app/04423/Default.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=17

 here you need to designate your offering to "missions" and in then in the note please say that it's for us.

Thank you!!

2013 spring/summer update

Dear Friends,

 we'd like to share with you some of the happenings in our life & ministry here in Szeged.

Family news

better late than never! 

  this month I (Kyle) finished my studies at Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe and received a BA in Theology. I was honored to be part of the first class to graduate from the accredited degree program.  I wrote my thesis on Biblical leadership focusing on lots of practical things from the book of Nehemiah. I'm been encouraged to expound on some things (I was limited on space in my thesis) and consider self-publishing this as a short book. It's something I might do over the summer but my real desire would be to have it translated into Hungarian so I can help provide a resource for Hungarian church leaders (good resources are hard to come by in Hungarian).

 we were hoping to make a trip to California this summer but it's just not going to work out for us this year so we're going to being to focus and save for a trip next summer. we're kind of disappointed that we can't go this summer but on the other hand we're excited to be going to Austria in August for the missions conference at the Castle. 

recently we found out about a change in the immigration laws here in Hungary and now because we've been married for over 10 years (coming up on 14 years this summer) I (Kyle) am eligible for the expedited citizenship process meaning I don't have to take a test in Hungarian history and politics that most Hungarians couldn't pass and even better I don't have to pay for the test (about $240 or the entire process). So a couple weeks ago I applied and I should get Hungarian citizenship in 4-6 months. People might think I have to give up my US citizenship but that's not the case. I will be a dual citizen. 

now that the kids are a little older Odi has picked up the guitar once again and has been practicing a lot. Recently she began participating in the worship ministry at church and now regularly leads the music at church at least twice a month. God really as blessed her with an ability to lead in worship & I know the church is blessed when she leads. 

at the end of June we're looking forward to going to a leadership conference with some of the leaders of Golgota Szeged.

We know that finances are tight for many people right now and there are many requests for funding, but we'd like to once again ask if you'd prayerfully consider committing to a monthly donation of $20 to us for 2013. This will allow us to minister to others in a way in which we feel will be beneficial for the Kingdom in Szeged & our region

church news

summer is traditionally a down time for us as a church because many students are gone and people go on vacation. but so far this summer is shaping up to be busier than normal. 

in June the Szeged Baptist church as asked us to partner with them in 2 one week outreach events. the first will be here in Szeged. They will have family programs throughout the day and teaching in the evening. Every afternoon from June 17-21 we'll be teaching kids how to play American Football. On Thursday night I'll be giving a talk called "meeting with friends". I'll be focusing on what Biblical friendship is and how God calls us into friendship with Him through the Gospel. 

the second week of outreach will be in Hódmezővásárhely. The Baptists have a church there and they want to help us plant a Golgota there & to do so they've invited us to be involved in the week long outreach event there. They will have a "Golgota night" there as well where one of our elders, Norbi (who is leading the core group in Vásárhely) will be preaching. The Baptists are doing some advertising there with the local radio station. The organizer of the event there called me and asked if I'd be willing to come over for an hour-long interview on the radio to talk about this outreach. He said that the radio was very interested in having an American on their show, so next Wednesday morning I'll be going to Hódmezővásárhely for a radio interview.

Fekete Sas Cultural Building in Hódmezővásárhely

one thing we're really excited about is launching small groups (we're calling them "cell groups") in September. our desire is to see authentic Christian friendships form in a group that is focused on the Word of God. Our cell groups will be based on the sermon from the previous Sunday. So this fall we're going to be studying through the Sermon on the Mount on Sunday mornings and then we'll be looking at how those principles work out practically in the context of our cell groups. there seems to be great intrest and buzz for the cell groups so we're excited! We're going to spend the months of July & August training cell group leaders and hosts so we can launch in September. 

we continue to be blessed by the reports of God using our online live-streaming of our services & our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWIyjV_CHWqh75BoM3xLu_g) to reach believers all over the world. In the past couple of months we've heard from Hungarian Christians from Canada & Sweden who are regularly listening to our services along with many others from within Hungary.

we're hoping that our church website can be redesigned and updated soon with more and new content. 

prayer requests

 - for wisdom with possibly writing a book on leadership
 - for Odi to grow in her worship leading skills & for a new guitar
 - for God's continued provision for our family
 - for fruitful outreaches as we partner with the Baptist church here in Szeged & 
   in Hódmezővásárhely.
 - for wisdom & favor as I do a radio interview in Hódmezővásárhely on 
   Wednesday June 5th.
 - that God would bless the cell groups that are launching in September
 - for God's continued blessing upon our social media as the Word is going out 
   online & on YouTube.
 - that we'd be able to get our church website redesigned soon 

thankful for you all!

in Jesus,

 kyle, odi, zara, kiera

stay in touch


If you'd like to have more frequent updates about our lives and ministry here in Szeged here are how you can do so...

 Kyle's facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/kyleodi

 Kyle's twitter - @kyleeckhart -  https://twitter.com/kyleeckhart

 Golgota Szeged's facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Golgota-Szeged/136419214162

 Golgota Szeged's webpage - www.golgotaszeged.hu

giving


If you'd like to support our ministry monthly or a one time gift you can do so through the following websites...

 Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (in the pull down menu please select us)

 https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH

 Calvary Chapel Vista 

 https://webview.shelbyinc.com/app/04423/Default.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=17

 here you need to designate your offering to "missions" and in then in the note please say that it's for us.