Who will stand in the gap?

The village of Kolontár flooded with toxic waste

You may have heard about the dam that cracked, releasing tons of toxic red mud into Hungarian villages and waterways recently. The mud is a bi-product of aluminum production and has been building up in a reservoir for some time now.  When the dam broke, it flooded the homes, fields and rivers in the area with its toxins, killing nine people, all of the fish and other life in the nearby rivers, and polluting the land for many years to come. 

Man dumping the mud from his house

People were evacuated from their homes. Workers started immediately building a newer and stronger dam to hold back the remaining mud before it too is released. Police and military were mobilized to begin efforts to clean up the enormous mess.The aluminum plant at fault was seized by the Hungarian government. Help is pouring in. People are standing in the gap to help those who have lost so much.

Yet many Hungarians are perishing still. Their spirits have been polluted, and they are living just downstream from a broken dam that is continually leaking toxins into their hearts. They have been displaced from their spiritual homes, and may never be able to see the heavenly dwellings that they were created for. Won’t you stand in the gap with us for these people and for this land. We believe that it is only through the humble prayers of God’s people that the land will be healed. We are praying for God to raise up an army of prayer warriors who would be willing to do battle for God’s work in Hungary on a daily basis. If you feel God sharing His burden for Hungary with you, please let us know. If you are willing to saturate this country in prayer, please let us know. God is putting together His army. Is He calling you into battle?

'And (if) My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’ 2 Chron 7:14

You thought the World Cup was a big thing? Check this out!

As we are getting closer to the finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the tension is increasing, there is something even more grand coming along the way: it's the 2010 Summer English Camps!


Although our motto says: 'Do you have a SEC? Because we do!' english camps take more than a second to plan, organize, and hold. It's roughly 6 months of intense work: finding a place, writing contracts, assembling the curriculum, advertising, recruiting staff, training at the orientation, and leading the camp. The staff is made up of the OMS Hungary team, missionaries and ECC workers, and also members of the church plant, friends and former students. Now the prep work is mostly done, and everyone is getting ready for Orientation on July 8th, and for Camp to start July 11th and 12th.

Please pray that in this intense - and tense - time would bring our team even closer and not pull it apart; that God would provide divine wisdom for the leaders and make their leading gentle and firm, and that God would bring all the students that need to hear about Him and about how much He loves them!

We will keep you updated as Camp goes along! In the meantime check out the galleries of former camps on the new SEC - Summer English Camp site!

Elections and Church Building

Hungary held elections in April, and the conservative party won 68% percent of the seats. It is about to pass sweeping reforms, like a 16% flat tax and a 15% cut in all government employees’ wages.
In a speech to the Hungarian Parliament last week, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave his reasons for a flat tax:

In eight years, the Hungarian national debt went up from 53 percent to nearly 80 percent [of GDP]. This is an assault not only against contemporary Hungarians, but against future generations too...we need a ... work friendly tax system… so simple that a person with only eight grades of primary education could understand the rules.

The Hungarian PM called for a temporary “full stop on telephone, furniture and vehicle purchase and replacement in the public sector.”
And he spoke against stifling bureaucracy:

It is not only tax cuts we need, but we must also start to cut red tape that is paralysing the economy in Hungary… the authorities should not rule, but should serve people -- should not set up barriers, but demolish them…

link

Also what I know from work is that ever since FIDESZ (the name of the conservative party) is in power the nationalist that have been demonstrating on the streets got absolutely no publicity in any media. This is rapidly draining their popularity and thus their activity as well.

Please keep praying that this country would be free, and that the leaders would obey God’s law of love.

Also we have been looking at new facilities for our church, since the office-apartment where we have been having our services will not be available as of October, and hopefully with God’s leading we may have found a building that would be perfect for us! Location is great, it’s cheap (relatively) aaaand it needs a lot of work. Our regional field leader is here at the moment and they are going to look at it to see if it’s something worth investing into.

Please pray that we would be able to make the right decision on this!

May 2010 Prayer Letter

When we were back in Canada for the holidays at one point God grabbed my chin, turned my face to Him and told me to ask Him what I should be praying for. When I did He showed me three things.

Pray that the enemy’s hold over the country would be broken.

Pray that there would be unity in the church.

Pray that God would raise up leaders after His own heart.

Now we would like to invite you to join us in this epic spiritual battle for the country, so that the dark reign would feign, the church of God would shine, and God would be glorified.

Hungarians are originally a nomadic people, who used to live rough lives way back in the Ural mountains (the large mountains between Europe and Asia). As their numbers grew they were forced to move from one place to the other to provide enough pasture for the cattle they were raising. The seven tribes moved west, making friends and enemies, fighting and running away until they arrived at the Carpathian Basin in the center of Europe, where they found the best land they had ever seen and decided to settle down. According to tradition two of the sons of the leaders chased a golden deer on a hunt for weeks and it led them to this land. After settling down they were raiding the surrounding countries, terrorizing, plundering and pillaging as they pleased with a fighting technique that was unknown to the western world. A hundred years later the leader of the tribes realized that things could not go on like this for long… their neighbors would soon make an alliance and wipe the Hungarians from the land. They decided to unite the tribes, make peace, declare Christianity as our religion, leave the old ways behind and have a new beginning. Now Hungarians were shamanistic people and it didn’t go over well with the shamans to place the people in a new god’s hand. They rose up against the decision and were all sentenced to be slain by the newly crowned king’s decree. Legend says it was at this point that the chief shaman placed a curse on the Hungarians just before he was killed: a curse of depression, disunity and historic catastrophes.

Have you been to Hungary? Have you seen the faces? Have you heard news, or read part of our history? Have you traveled here, and just sensed an immense load weigh down on your mind that was lifted almost instantly as you left the country? Not sure if the legend of the curse is true, or how much of it is, but the effect you cannot deny. There is something over here that is not letting us breathe.

Pray that the enemy’s hold over the country would be broken. (Daniel 10:12) – If the enemy got out, things would instantly change. Lives would change and the church would change. The country would change and the air would change. And I mean in weeks, maybe days. He is the problem, and he needs to go. The curse was placed 1100 years ago… it’s high time to end it.

Pray that there would be unity in the church. (John 17:22) – The world will know that God is with us because we love each other – in a land plagued with disunity it is the hardest of all things to accomplish and the most beautiful thing ever imaginable that can shine through any darkness. The church needs to be one to stand up against the spiritual forces and provide shelter to each other and to those who grow weary in battle.

Pray that God would raise up leaders after His own heart. (1 Timothy 3:1-13) – God is our leader, He is our King. And He wants to have servants to minister to His people, to lift them up when they are broken, to feed them when they are faint, to treat their wounds and to encourage them to keep going. He wants servants to point to God, who humble themselves and lift up His people in prayer. We need those servants so badly.

Please join us in prayer, as we go up against spiritual forces and authorities to free this country and these people from the lies, the deception and shackles of this merciless tyrant who’s been ruler here for too long, and bring the just reign of God to everyone. We are asking you to once a day pray for these three things, and fortify our battle.

We have lots of gracious friends who support us, but we are also asking all of our fellow missionaries here to ask their supporting friends the same thing. We are asking partnering churches to join us. We are asking former short term workers to join us who have been here and seen and felt this land. We are asking everyone we know. So far it looks like we are talking about an army of a thousand saints pleading to God to break through the clouds, to heal the land and to free and revive us.

Join us. We understand what we are asking for, that the enemy is not going to like this and a price will have to be paid for everything – for us and for you as well praying friend. But isn’t this what we are here for? To fight and to bring glory to His name.

Looking forward to see you on the field of battle,

God and Babies

I just received the most wonderful gift from God! You know how it is, when you do something that God asks you to do, sometimes even hesitantly, and He just blesses your socks off through the doing? You expect to minister to someone, and you end up receiving the greatest joy from the ministry yourself? That is exactly what God has done with the Baba-Mama club. I just got home from a wonderful morning spent with 5 other mommies, their adorable babies, and the Creator of the whole motley bunch of us! And He was on a roll this morning too! I guess He just hates to quit, when he gets a group of ladies together who sincerely want to hear what He has to say! He was fantastic! We have been spending the first part of our mornings together just chatting and playing with the babies, then reading a portion from the Bible together and discussing what God is saying to us through it, and finally, praying for one another.
Today, however, my friend Ági, who has been helping me arrange things for the group, suggested that it might be nice to go out to the park and enjoy the beautiful spring weather together. Since we would not be able to talk and pray very well, with 5 babies in tow at the park, we decided to skip the chit-chat, get right into the Bible and discussion, and finish our praying in time to go out to the park for a short walk. However, after reading about Abram and the Promised Land, then about the ultimate Promised Land described at the end of Revelation, Ági and the others were not ready to stop. When I asked them if we should stop and pray so that we could still have a short walk, Ági jumped right in and asked if we couldn’t talk some more instead, because it was so very interesting!
I came home with a heart full… full of wonder at our wonderful God… full of love for this little group of mommies and babies who are so open to hearing from their God, even if they don’t yet know Him as such!
Thank you SO much for being part of God’s outreach to these mommies and babies, way over on the other side of the globe. You can’t imagine the difference that your prayers are making. Please keep praying! These mommies and babies are hungry to know this wonderful God and to someday experience His incredible Promised Land! Pray that they would have the courage and faith of Abram, to step out into the unknown, following God wherever He leads, and bringing their whole families along with them!