Email Update - March 2010

Dear Friends:    Zsófi has been making some jokes recently about how often I post to our blog (not often!), so here's the plan: I will post to our blog in exchange for Zsófi writing the email update next month. Consequently, you will be our witnesses as to who keeps their part of the bargain! :-)    Last month we had a great time visiting friends and supporting churches down in San Antonio, TX! As always, the time was too short and there were some people we either weren't able to visit or who we wish we could have spent more time with.    After Texas, we drove up to Wheaton (near Chicago) for another round of classes. Many of you have asked what kind of classes I'm taking, so here are this semester's course titles: The Emerging Generation, Popular Culture, and the Gospel Unity in Mission Leadership & Evangelism Developing a Missional Church Theology of N.T. Wright Spiritual Formation & Witness So far this MA program has been impactful not only on my thinking in terms of our work in Hungary, but also has given me a much richer understanding of the Gospel - something that is bearing fruit even in my own heart and spiritual formation! Our itinerary for the next month: 3/15 - 4/1: Des Moines, IA 4/2 - 4/5: Memphis, TN 4/5 - 4/19: Wheaton, IL (Chicago) Financial Update    Another important purpose of our time here in the U.S. is to raise additional funding. In order to continue serving in Hungary, we need to raise $1000/month. One way this might work out would be for 20 people to commit to contributing $50 each month for the next 3 years. Would you prayerfully consider joining us in what God is doing in Hungary?    If you already partner with us, thanks again for your prayers and support! We couldn't do this without you! With our love, Zsófi & John Prayer Corner: Thanks: For your prayers concerning travel. Eszti & Eliza have done amazingly well! Prayer: For 5 new supporters to join our team in the next month Prayer: That I will be able to put into practice all the ideas I'm learning through this MA

Olive the pig

Hi dear Family and Friends! Greetings from Sping Branch, Texas!

Here is a little update from us: We survived the 5 days long road trip, which actually turned out to be much better, than I anticipated. We got to the land of milk and honey or in our case more avocados and salsa and are enjoying the wonderful hospitality and love from one of our supporting churches. Currently we are staying with Evans and Esther, who are such wonderful hosts and friends. They have 3 dogs, 1 pig and about a dozen deer in the house. Yes you heard me right. :-) Okay, the deers are all dead and are just looking down on us from the walls, but everyone else is alive and well (although one of the doggies, is pretty sick so Eszti and I are regularly praying for her). It has been lots of fun for all of us to be in this house and I am sure it will be hard to leave.

When we started this journey with John, I never imagined that being on furlough, or home ministry assignment as it is titled in our mission organisation, would enable us one day to spend 2 weeks with a cute little pig... but more importantly I never imagined that through these journeys we would meet so many inspiring people and make wonderful friends. And yes there are challenges and hard parts too, like living out of your suitcase for months, not having a daily routine or being sick in an unfamiliar surrounding and all these with two little ones. But looking back and looking ahead I know it is all worth it... just as our organisation's motto goes. So true.

Our Email Update - January

Dear Friends:

Next week we hit the road for our family's first 3-month road trip!! Hungarians love the idea of Route 66 and the open road (or so I keep trying to tell Zsofi!), and who am I to stand in the way of our daughters' yet undreamt dreams?! :-)

We will be visiting supporters and supporting churches in Texas and the Midwest, and in the midst of all our travels, I will also continue pounding down the coffee while taking more classes at Wheaton. It will be a crazy but wonderful time, and we are looking forward to connecting with you at some point during the HungaryWilsons' North American tour.

Here is our itinerary for the next two months:

• 2/1 - 2/14: Spring Branch, TX

• 2/15 - 2/28: San Antonio, TX

• 3/1 - 3/14: Wheaton, IL

• 3/15 - 4/4: Des Moines, IA*

• 4/5 - 4/17: Wheaton, IL

Viki's Experience on Alpha

In closing, we wanted to share with you something that really touched our hearts. Before the end of each Alpha Course, we ask the guests to fill out a short feedback form concerning things they liked about the course as well as ways we can improve it. Responding to the question, "What effect has Alpha had on your life?", one of the young mothers on our most recent course wrote:

"Finally I understood who Jesus was and this changed my life. Until now I thought I was a Christian, but in reality I wasn't. I went to church and hoped that there was a God because many smart people told me so, but deep down in my heart I did not believe. Through the Alpha course--the excellent teaching and the wonderful people--now I truly know that there is a God and that He loves me."

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Through it, you are impacting people's lives!

With our love,

John & Zsofi

Merry Christmas!

We would like to wish you a peaceful, joyful Christmas. Tomorrow our little family will sit on a plane and we will fly to Washington DC to celebrate with John's family. Thank you for your support, prayers and love for us in 2009. May your 2010 be filled with God's blessings!

Love,

John, Zsofi, Eszti and Elizabeth

T.I.M. = This Is Mission

What comes to your mind when you think about mission?

Long trips...?
Eating something weird...?
Serving Christ in a different culture...?
Being blessed and to bless many...?

It would be really interesting if we could collect all the associations because I am sure we all have a little different ideas, pictures but let me share with you what it meant to me during the week we served together with a wonderful mission team from the US.

We spent a lot of time together and it was a joy to get to know the team better. The friendships that were formed and deepened are an extra bonus to the many wonderful things that were accomplished during our joint service. The team consisted of 12 amazing people, with open and willing hearts to bless and pass on what God has been teaching them throughout the years. I have seen God using them in many people's lives, they encouraged, built up and brought healing to so many. I drove them around, translated for them and together with John tried to take care of the logistics of their stay here and we ourselves were ministered to and so blessed by experiencing how God meant his children to work together in unity.

Here is a video of the trip Mercy, one of the team members put together. Enjoy!

Cheeese!

I recently updated our web gallery. Check out some new pictures of our ministry and family.

http://www.hungarywilsons.com/photogallery/index.php

Enjoy and we love to get pictures from you too!

Go Johnny go!

I have been asking John hundred times to write a blog entry, he seems to be willing but rather slow accomplishing this (my mom-in-law whose maiden name is Quick always says Wilson has s-l-o-w in it :-). But so here am I again giving you a little update about our ministry and hopefully we can all enjoy John's perspective sometime in the near future. (I hope you are reading this dear John. :-)

So we have 2 Alpha courses running. One in the morning designed for mothers with small children and an evening course. I am involved with the morning one as a table leader and it has been a stretching but good experience so far. The evening course is running smoothly too. We have lively discussions after the teachings. Last time one of or guests who is a Buddhist asked why is it if Jesus came to overcome sin, that the world is still in such a sinful state. Pretty good question, don't you think?

An other update on the ministry front is John's summer interim pastor role. Before we joined this church, our prayer was that God would use us to strengthen this body of believers. It seemed like this summer this is exactly what happened. The end result of our summer service is that we have gotten to know many people, were able to serve in different capacities (e.g. making sure the service would run smoothly, discipleship, teaching, prayer ministry etc.) and now John has become a very valued adviser, helper to the pastor and the elder board.

So go Johnny, go! :-)

Happy Birthday sweet Eszti!

Eszti turned 3 today. What a nice thing to celebrate that God made her and gave her to us! She wanted some trains and a bear on her cake. So that is what she got. :-) My favorite part of the day was in the morning when after Eszti's favorite breakfast (pancakes), John and I prayed for her and blessed her. It was such a precious time. In the afternoon we had guests and some nice presents, like the little house you can see below. The building together process was hilarious.

Our Hungary Team

Here is our United World Mission Hungary Team. They are a wonderful group of people and we feel blessed being able to serve with them. One part of this group works at a Christian School, where the children of the missionaries study and the other group is the church planting facilitation team on which John and I serve.

The making of our newsletter

Here you can see some of what goes into making a newsletter.

First you write it...



Then you make it ready for the long journey over the ocean...


It is all about team work. :-)