Thanksgiving in Hungary

sometimes people in the US will ask if Thanksgiving is celebrated here in Hungary. The answer is "no". Thanksgiving is an American holiday. But every year WE celebrate Thanksgiving. This year we've invited some friends over and will feast on this 18.5lb (8.4kg) turkey.

We celebrate Thanksgiving not out of tradition cause here it's just a "normal" weekday (and there's no football on TV), we celebrate because as we look at our lives, even though there are difficulties & problems, we truly have so much to be thankful for. Especially with the arrivial of our daughter 3 months ago.

I think Thanksgiving should be celebrated all over the world. I think people do need to stop every once in a while & give thanks to the Almighty for the abundance of blessings that He pours out on us from day to day. If people gave thanks more & complained a little less, then their joy in life would increase.

We hope you have a wonderful day giving thanks to God for His abundance in your life.

"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." - Hebrews 13:15

good news for Calvary Chapel Hungary

today the Hungarian Parliament approved a bill in which was included the accreditation of Calvary Chapel Bible College Hungary. This is a great "victory" as the Catholic gave a lot of money to the "Christian" opposition to try to block this bill. Now the bill will be given to the Hungarian President who has 15 days to sign it into law. this means the Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (www.ccbce.com) will now be able to offer accredited Bachelor of Theology degree.

we're very blessed by this cause this could benefit so many people in their desire to get a degree in Biblical studies. what excites me personally about this is that for the past few years, the thought has been in my mind that, it'd be good to "go back to school" to get a degree. I've looked into a few places but never really acted upon anything, but now since this has really "fallen in my lap" I think it would be a good thing for me to begin a course to get a Bachelor's degree. So Lord willing, I'll start as soon as possible. I'll be sure to blog about it as things progress.

response from the mayor

yesterday I got a response from the mayor about our request for facilities to operate social services (soup kitchen & 2 pre-schools) in Szeged. the response was "at this time we don't have any buildings that meet the health board requirements". it was a little discouraging, but I guess this just means that we have to think a little "longer term" (maybe doing these things in 2011??). our rental agreement for the church is up in December 2010, so maybe we'll look to move to a different facility where we can have "multi-use" capabilities. please continue to pray with us about how we can be effective for the Kingdom of God here in Szeged.

christmas in cali

for those of you who've followed us on facebook you know that my dad was in the hospital a couple weeks ago with some breathing problems. the honest truth is that his health isn't so good. my dad is fully aware of his condition and there is one person who really "inspires" him to get better that that is his granddaughter. both Odi & I are so dad that we aren't as close to my parents as we are to hers. after talking to my dad a couple of times, we think the best thing for us to do, in his current situation, would be for us to spend some time with him. so we're gonna be spending Christmas in California. we're gonna be around from december 8th till january 7th.

we're very excited about this because we know how much of a blessing this will be to my dad. my mom & step-dad will come down to CA during the time we'll be there to see their granddaughter.

a trip like this for us, especially now with a child, is very expensive. not only the plane ticket but also a rental car while we are there. if you'd like to help us on this trip, there is a link on the left side of our blog - "support our ministry" - and you can click on that and donate to us via Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

as this will be our first trip to CA with our daughter (and our first trip in 2 years) we'd like to connect with as many of you as possible. we know that it is the holiday season & that there is a lot going on, but if you have time to fit us into your schedule please contact us via e-mail (kyleodi@gmail.com) so we can begin to plan our time there.

thank you all for your love, prayers & support.

kyle, odi, & zara

meeting with the deputy mayor - part 2

as I posted yesterday, I was called an invited to a meeting with one of the deputy mayors of Szeged in regards to the church's desire to open 2 pre-schools and a soup kitchen for the homeless. what really surprised me (oh me of little faith) is that they took my letter and our desire seriously. so, today I, and Balázs, one of the elders from the church who is a lawyer, went to the mayor's office & we met with the deputy mayor and the head of the social services office. they were prepared and knew who "Golgota" (Calvary Chapel) was. after them asking me some questions about Calvary here in Hungary and the church in Szeged they asked about why we want to do these things. I told them that as we look at the life of Jesus, He reached out to people on a real, physical level and met their needs, which opened their hearts to hear the spiritual message. I told them that it is our desire to meet the needs that are obvious in our city. the head of the social services was open to us from the get go and by the end of our meeting the deputy mayor was also open to us operating social services. when he asked what we want from the city I told him we need facilities. we will be able to get the money to operate these "ministries" from the central budget but we need places to operate. he said that they will look for places for us and get back to me in a week. so we left very excited and hopeful.

when I got home our "contact" in the mayor's office called me. he told me that he laid the ground work for the meeting by giving the deputy mayor a lot of info about our church. he showed our letter to his boss, the deputy mayor in charge of city development and said that after he read the letter there was a "sparkle in his eye" that we want to do this. and because of this we were given audience today. our contact told me that the request for facilities would land on his desk in a couple of days & that now he would be able to finish a study that the city commissioned this summer about were new pre-schools need to be operated. he said that the city stopped this inquiry for some reason but now with us wanting to open two pre-schools, his boss would reopen this inquiry.

needless to say, I am in awe of what is going on. when I think about this rationally, we're a small church, with not much experience in things like this, with little money. but I know that we've got a big God on our side and we've got a heart to reach out and meet needs here in Szeged. so if this thing happens all I can say is, "all glory be to God."

please continue to keep this in prayer & check back often for updates on this.

thanks!

meeting with the deputy mayor

a while back I wrote that we are taking steps towards opening two pre-schools here in Szeged next year. we have a contact in the mayor's office and he told me to write a letter to the mayor to introduce our church and tell them what we want to do. so last week I wrote to the mayor. much to my amazement his office called me today asking if I could come in tomorrow afternoon to meet the deputy mayor. so tomorrow I, and hopefully one of our elders from the church Balázs (who is a lawyer) will be going for a face to face. please keep this meeting in prayer.

family photos

we realized something, we had lots of pictures of Zara with pretty much everyone, and lots with mommy and lots with daddy but we didn't have any with mommy & daddy, so we finally had some pictures taken of us as a family yesterday.