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

   

thrown for a curve

as everyone knows, life doesn't always work out the way we want. In times like this we say that "life has thrown us for a curve". Well, life has thrown our family for a curve. As many of you might know, Odi has scoliosis. It's something that runs in her family. Her father has it, as do her siblings. Though many people say that Zara and Kiera look like me, I'm glad they've inherited their Mom's beauty.
While I'm very happy for that, we've always hoped that this is curvature of the spine is the one gene that our kids wouldn't inherit. 

unfortunately, this is not the case. In late August, Odi showed me a difference in the symmetry of Zara's back. We called our pediatrician and were referred to a specialist. Tonight, I took the girls to see the specialist. He confirmed what we saw, that Zara does have a curvature in her spine. It's similar to the curvature in Odi's (upper spine). Since we were there, I asked the doctor to look at Kiera. He said that she has some curvature in her lower spine. 

even though we were expecting this, it still weighs heavy on our hearts. 

so what now? the doctor wants to do an x-ray on Zara to confirm the degree of the curvature in her spine. After that, he will prescribe physical therapy & swimming therapy for her. With Kiera it's a little more unclear outside of physical therapy. 

we'd like to ask you, if you're reading this, to pray for us, but especially for Zara & Kiera. Please pray that God would give us wisdom moving forward with treatment for our kids and that God would heal them of this, if that is His will. 

thank you for joining with us!

kyle & odi

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.

2013 winter news

Dear Friends,

  it has been a while since we've written about what's happening in our lives & the ministry here in Szeged. Part of the reason has been the tragedy that struck our family this winter. Odi's 11-year old sister was diagnosed with leukemia on December 11th and moved home to be with Jesus on January 16th. As you can imagine it's been a very difficult time for us. we created a blog to inform people about Emi's battle and we know that God has used this blog (www.prayforemi.blogspot.com) in a great way in that many people from all over the world turned to God in prayer for Odi's sister. Ultimately we know & have been assured by many testimonies that Emi is now with Jesus and is healed. 

 it's been over 3 years now since we've been to the States and we'd really like to go this summer but as we've looked into plane tickets we've seen how expensive it's going to be with 2 kids (upwards of $4000). We feel it's time for us to go back and reconnect with many of you, so we'd like to ask if you'd prayer fully consider giving to help make this trip happen. (there will be 2 links below if you'd like to give)

 as I've shared in the past, I've been spending more time encouraging other pastors and leaders in our church and our region, which I hope has been a blessing. this has come at a financial expense as I've given up teaching private English lessons to do so. We know that finances are tight for many people right now and there are many requests for funding, we'd like to 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. 

 I'm pleased to report that this is my last semester at Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe and if all goes well in a couple of months I'll be receiving my BA in Theology. All I've got left to do is to write my thesis. I've selected the topic of "Biblical leadership: lessons from Nehemiah". I've got till the end of March to submit my first draft. So we're hoping for the best. Having a degree means a lot to people here in Hungary, especially here in Szeged which has a very good University and is know for academics. 


church

 the church here in Szeged continues to do well as we are witnessing God bringing growth in numbers and in depth. because of this we're again at the point where we need to make a decision about our rental agreement, which ends June 30th. More room would give us more room to grow and we're also needing more room for the kids on Sundays as we've got little ones & bigger ones and it's hard to keep them in one group.

 we're really excited about some new opportunities that we have as a church. the first is that we've started a YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWIyjV_CHWqh75BoM3xLu_g) and have begun uploading our church services there. So far we've had really good and positive feedback and are excited about how this could be used to expand God's Kingdom and the teaching of God's Word here in Hungary. 

 another great opportunity we have is a church is to plant a church in a city 25km from Szeged called Hódmezővásárhely (yes it's hard to say!). We've been praying for the city for a couple of years now for a couple of reasons. First, it's close to Szeged & the two cities are naturally connected. Second, we've always had people from Hódmezővásárhely who've attended the church in Szeged. A few weeks ago one of our elders, who is an English teacher, out of nowhere got a job teaching at a high school there & we believe that this is an open door for us to begin planting a church there. So we're looking at building a core group with which to start a church there. We're even open to streaming in the teaching via video now that we can. But this is something we'll have to think/pray about. 

I (Kyle) hope to finish going through the Bible on Wednesday nights in the next year. To the best of our knowledge this will be the first complete through the Bible teaching available in Hungarian for free online. It has taken a while but we know that over the years many people in Hungary & Hungarians from all over the world have listened to the studies and have been blessed. 

 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

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

 Calvary Szeged's webpage - www.golgotaszeged.hu

 prayer requests

 - that we'd continue to experience the comfort of the Lord and that we'd be 
   able to comfort others in their suffering.
 - that God would provide for our family to go to the States this summer for 
   refreshment & reconnection.
 - for the new church plant in Hódmezővásárhely
 - for continued growth in the church here in Szeged.
 - wisdom in regards to our rental agreement.


 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 all so much for your prayers, love & support. We know that Jesus will richly reward you all as you take part in the ministry with us.

 we hope to see many of you this summer.

 for Jesus' Kingdom!

 kyle, odi, zara, kiera

the last few months

a lot has happened the last few months it's been a GREAT blessing but not without it's hardships. 

Baptizing Gábor at our Easter service

we've seen many people in the past 6 months come to know Jesus. A couple of them wanted to express their faith in Him publically by being baptized. So on Easter Sunday we borrowed a baptismal tank from the Biblia Szól church and baptized Gábor & Anette (from Nigera). Gábor was so excited about making this public comittment to Jesus that he invited all his friends & family. they ALL came. We had our biggest Easter service ever (over 75 people). Gábor is so excited about reaching his friends for Jesus that he's starting a youth group in our church next week (July 4th). We're really excited about how God is going to use this to reach a generation that SO needs to meet Jesus.

Church lunch made by the Indian believers

We've been encouraging fellowship in the church by having church lunches once a month. because we're an international church we invite people to take part in making some food from their country. we've had Nigerian food & Indian food recently. 

As an international church we really have a vision to reach nations and generation for Jesus. many come here to study (mostly medical school) and I tell our students that I want them to leave Szeged with a diploma and a heart to love and serve Jesus wherever they might end up in life. 

Baptizing Réka to the glory of God in the Tisza river

God kept working & touching people's lives so on June 17th we had "church by the river" again and were blessed to baptize 5 new believers. I think one of the best stories was that of Réka. A couple of years ago her husband Robi got right with Jesus and has been coming to the church faithfully and has begun taking part in the worship team. After attending a marriage conference at the Calvary Chapel Bible College this spring she has committed her life to Jesus and they are now living the Christian life as a new family in the Lord.

Robi & Réka after her baptism

Baptizing Eszter

Eszter fully committed her life to Jesus after seeing her mom (Zsuzsi) walk with Jesus for a while. It was our great joy to see this young woman make a public confession of Jesus by baptism. 

Eszter's mom couldn't be prouder

Ovidiu traveled 120km (75 miles) to be baptized

Ovidiu came to know Jesus via the internet by watching Bible Studies by Pastors Brian Brodersen and Lloyd Pully on www.hischannel.org. He is from Timisoara, Romania and he looked on-line for the nearest Calvary Chapel to him and found us. He's about 120km (75 miles) but travels up to fellowship with us about twice a month. For his baptism he brought his parents and a friend. 

Eszter, Barna & Chuks after the baptism (a future worship team??) 

It seems that we've come to a real turning point in the church. It seems like the time of preperation is coming to an end and we're starting to see things happen. We're really excited to see what God will do with the youth group and how many of the new believers will connect to the ministry of the church.


  Another thing I'm really excited about is how bridges are being build between churches in Szeged. Since October I've been hosting a monthly pastors prayer breakfast and God is using this for use to truly be working together for the glory of God here in Szeged.


 Right now I'm preaching in the book of Nehemiah on Sunday mornings and God has us in a prayer/dreaming stage as a church. We want to have God's heart for our city and for Him to show us what He is doing so that we might get involved in that. Szeged (the 3rd largest city in Hungary) is a city of about 200,000 (including students) but less than 2% of the population are believers in Jesus. God has laid it on our hearts to be praying for 10,000 people to meet Jesus.


 As we've been praying about how to reach Szeged for Jesus, God has shown us that our strength is English. Not only are we a bi-lingual church but we have many members who are English teachers. English is the most popular second language here in Hungary and now students can't get their degree without an intermediate level language exam. Our desire is to host an English camp next summer. This summer we're going to have some people participate in English camps to learn and then in the fall we're going to plan our first English cam for next summer. If anyone wants to come help with that PLEASE let me know!!! the more native English speakers we have the better.


family news

 as a family we're doing well. Zara was accepted to the only Christian kindergarten in Szeged and will start going there in September. Because we're not going to be able to make a trip to the states this year I'm taking a few weeks off of preaching just to spend time with the family. We're looking forward to all the fun things that Szeged has to offer and a lot of ice cream!!! 


 I know I'm really bad about blogging but I think the best way to keep up with us is to follow us on Facebook or follow me on twitter (@kyleeckhart)


 we are thankful for all of you who support us in prayer and also financially. as many of you know I've been teaching English to supplement our income (which I'm thankful for) but as of late God has shown me that there are better thing I could be doing with my time than teaching. There are some pastors within a 120km (75 mile) radius that I could and should be spending time with and encouraging. But for this to happen we'd need to see an increase in our support. So if you're reading this would you please pray about supporting us so that we could be encouragments to other ministries in Szeged and the surrounding areas?? You can support us by the link on our page here or by sening tax-deductible donations to Calvary Chapel Vista. Please indicate that the donation is for us.


prayer requests


- for God to bless the youth group that will be starting next week and that many would come to know Jesus through this.
 - that we as a church would be able to have more of an impact on our city for Jesus.
 - for God to guide us in the planning of an English camp next summer.
 - that 10,000 people would come to know Jesus in Szeged.
 - that God would continue to build bridges between churches in Szeged that we might work together to expand the kingdom of God.
 - that God would provide for us so that we would be able to do all that He is showing us to do.
 - that we'd grow closer as a family this summer.


 thank you all for your love, prayer and support. we look forward to that day when you can share in the joy and fruit of what Jesus is doing here in Szeged!


for Jesus' fame!


kyle, odi, zara, kiera