Greetings!

Hello from Hungary! The week is going great so far. Rain was forcasted for today but with the exception of some sprinkling in the morning it was a beautiful day here. Baseball has been going well. We have almost 40 kids doing it! Today at the afternoon practice we made teams and started playing games. We will be doing that the rest of the week. Of course there will be a lot of things they don't know that we just kind of teach them as they go. It impresses me everytime just how fast the kids that have never played before catch on. It is also a real blessing to see some kids returning who had played last year. I will go into more detail about some of them in another post. I want to describe what the pictures are I just put up. The one on the bottom is Hentes (Andris) he is a missionary which our church supports. He did a message sunday night first with his puppet team and then with his drawing. There is no doubt that his calling is childrens ministry and is just amazing to see him doing it. The picture with all of the kids on stage is the kids who went up to show they had accepted Christ!!!!!! What a miracle to be a small part of. That night is always so special. Laci, who did the invitation, had them raise their hands and asked each one personaly if they meant it and then asked them all to come up on stage so they could each talk to one of the counselors. acouple of the pictures are from the baseball practices. The last one is from the campfire they had this evening. Thank you so much to everyone who donated hats or gloves or drove us to the airport or are going to pick us up. It is all important and all plays a big role in everything that happens here. Thank you.
-justin

camp time in Hungary

Experiencing Hungary

The campers arrived today at Word of Life Bible Camp in Hungary. There are around 85 kids...37 are doing baseball, 26 are doing English and the rest are doing soccer. I (Rachel) am helping to teach English, and Justin will be teaching baseball again. Yesterday we got to tour the city of Budapest - a really beautiful city! The history and architecture are amazing. One of the train stations here was designed by the same guy that designed the Eiffel Tower and is stunning to say the least, and we got to look out over the city at night with the bridges outlined in lights and the buildings lit up. I got to try a Hungarian pastry which we saw on the TV show "Bizarre Foods." It was shaped like a hollow cylinder and tasted like a warm cinnamon pretzel but better. The camp is really cool as well. The castle where we stay is a well known historical landmark in Hungary and actually has trees on the property that aren't found anywhere else in Hungary because the original owner had them brought in special. During the communist rule this property was used as a camp to teach the Hungarian children the communist rules and way of thinking...today it is used to teach Hungarian children about Christ - how amazing is that? Pray for the campers and their salvation this week. Many come from broken and alcoholic homes. Pray for the staff and all involved too...this is the first week of camp for the summer! Hopefully some pictures will be posted soon.
Rachel

Pictures from Romania

Made it to Hungary

We had a really great few days in Romania with the Cocars. It was nice to get to see some of where Rachel has served doing various mission things. Thursday night they had a church service at their church we got to go to. We even each had our own personla translator for the service! Mine did an excellent job. Daniel did a sermon from Acts and talked about the Holy Spirit and how it can and should change us. They had a very good crwod for a thursday night and also for it being vacation season there. One of the things I really enjoyed was getting to know Mariana's mother some. Her name is Sofie or Sofia....not sure...anyway, everyone calls her oma which I am told is german for grandma. Don't ask long story. Anyway her and her mother (who is 92 and still very sharp!) Live with them now. Her mother loves to garden so has snuck in a bunch of tomato plants wherever she can amongst everything else. I got some good tips from her for my own and told her I would send pictures of mine when and if they grow. I will try to get a picture of her up here soon. We left Timisoara at 430 and took the train to Budapest. It was a very enjoyable ride. That is a great way to get to see a lot of the country. When we got to Hungary, I saw 7 deer 2 pheasant and a bunch of rabbits in fields. Let me tell you these rabbits here are huge!!!!! It was he first time I had seen them here. Anway, that is enough for now. Monday we start baseball and Hentes Told me we have 32 kids doing baseball!! 22 boys and 10 girls. Please be in prayer for them and all of the kids that come to camp here in the next week.

Ok, so this is the same one used last year for both teams that went to Hungary and Romania, but I figured not a lot of people will read it this year so it doesn't matter. Anyway, We arrived ontime in Budapest ysterday and everything went well as far as meeting people and getting to the train station and taking the train to Timisoara. Daniel was there to get us when we arrived. Daniel and Marianna (Cocar) are doing well and send their greetings to all. Thats all for now, talk to you sll soon.
-justin

more from Hungary