Saturday - Monday, July 5-7

Wow, what an amazing couple of days we have had since I last wrote you. It is about 6:15pm in Kaposvar on Monday night. We will be leaving Barb's around 7:30pm to walk back to the church. Along the way is the live camera in Kaposvar Kossuth Square. We will stop and wave at the camera to anyone who wants to log on. It is not a very clear shot, but you should be able to see 4 American women in a group waving up at the camera. Here is the link.

http://www.kaposvar.hu:8080/snapframe.jpg

Saturday started off as a day of greeting some of the children and giving them an English test. We were able to test most of the children, paint faces and arms, and meet the translators. None of the girls would let us paint their nails since they are not allowed to wear polish in school.

Afterwards, we began sorting through the 8 bags of luggage...well 7 bags, and setting up our classrooms. Then we all went over to Barb's for dinner and fellowship. During this time you could see "the body of Christ" being lived out: some of us sorted lesson materials, some organized the supply room, others prepared the rooms with tables and chairs, and others set up the main activity room. And we all finished at the same time. What an object lesson to participate in. It was wonderful to share our testimonies with each other and get to know the other 2 members of our team.Sunday was even more special.

The church, Békevar, did not have a service in the morning because they have been holding special Evangelism meetings in Nagyatád about 45 minutes away. Tracy, Barb, Brett, and Abby had been approved to go to the jail to hold services. So many men signed up to come that they could not hold the service in the regular room and had to actually hold the service on the cell block floor, right in the middle. So even though the others did not sign up to come, all the men on the block heard the singing, testimonies, and message from Brett. The activity coordinator for the prison came as well. Barb has never even met her before Sunday. It was an amazing time.

We were invited over to Imre and Babi's house for lunch on Sunday and to the services in Nagyatád that evening. Dinner was actually very similar to what we would eat: baked chicken, smashed potatoes with herbs and butter, some kind of pork loaf, Greek salad, rice, and a wonderful cherry yogurt gelatin for dessert. Before we ate dinner we had to take about 20 photos. Everyone wanted pictures. When dinner was over we were all able to sit and share testimonies of how God is working around the world. I

will bring my card reader over to Barb's next time and include a photo or two. The trip to the service was filled with ohhh"s and ahhh"s as we past field after field of sunflowers in full bloom. The service that night included a singing group from Pécs and a Russian magician. Several people accepted Christ at the invitation, including one of the children Tina has in her English class.

Afterwards, there was a hospitality/mission bus outside the church providing tables, snacks and drinks for anyone from the church or the city. The man driving the bus was from Sweden and he was with a mission group called OM. The people from the church would ask us if we were from IM or OM. All the way home to Kaposvar we sang hymns and praise songs in the van in English with Imre and Babi joining in to sing the ones they knew in Hungarian, or just to hum along.

Monday at last: The big day had arrived. Our classes were set up, our lessons were ready and the children were tested...except the 14 that showed up that morning. All together we had 43-45 children on the first day. Because Patty had joined us, Barb allowed a 5 year old and a 6 year old to begin. So I guess you could say we have a young beginner class, 2 other beginner classes, 2 advanced beginner classes, and an advanced class. The morning seemed to fly by as we went through the Bible studies and English lessons. I was able to tell by responses to questions that there are at least 4 children out of the 8 in my room who know nothing about Christ. The other 4 could answer the questions, but I don't know about their salvation yet. Pray for them each this week: Mark, Mathew, Csongor, Gergő, Attila, Kristian, Sandra, and Kristof, as well as the other children in camp.

When parents came to pick up the children at the end of the day, there was standing room only in our meeting room. If we grow like this next summer, we will have to meet in the main sanctuary!

Tonight we are meeting with some of the children who have gone through English camps and should be able to get to bed at the first descent time since we arrived. We are looking forward to a good night's rest. You can actually become "spent for the Lord" here...or like the Steve Green song, “used up for thee."

Tomorrow is day 2 of camp and the Ladies' Tea in the evening. Pray for this meeting. Oh, and the suitcase has been located and should be delivered tomorrow. They tried to deliver it Sunday but we weren't in town. We need these supplies for Wednesday. Pray that these are delivered tomorrow. We can really see the effects of all your prayers here, so don't stop.

We miss you all and can hardly wait to see you again and share with you live what is going on here.