The Project
This is the second half of a huge ethnographic research project. It entails bicycling from town to town, prayer-walking, conducting ethnographic surveys, and helping with evangelism projects. By nature of the work, most of your time will be spent out of doors. Tentative plans call for six to ten days on the road, and then two or three back at home base to get rested and laundry done. These plans will be modified along the way according to need.
This summer's work is the type that may not show immediate results, but will effect missions in Hungary for years to come. In fact, we changed our base staffing plan according to the information gathered during the first half of the project last year.
Please keep in mind that bicycling from town to town is not the goal. The goal is to study the culture in eastern Hungary to locate "key cultural centers" and find culturally relevant ways to share the gospel. Bicycling is an effective tool for penetrating the communities so that people will more openly share about life in general.
A home base will be arranged where you can store things you will not need on the road. A safety vehicle with trailer will be following you on the road so you will not have to carry your things on the bike. You will be traveling in-country as a group, but staying in pairs in a variety of different places including private homes, bed and breakfasts, church basements, and even camping. In some of the homes they may speak very little if any English. The families will be carefully chosen, but will likely be cultural Christians, not born-again believers. I will be on the road with you most of the time, except for one week while we are at the Annual Missions Meeting.
Even though the project is not an evangelism project, witnessing is not optional. Opportunities will arise for you share Christ with others. Write out your testimony on one sheet of paper in common vernacular. The optimal length is 1 minute. The max length is 3 minutes. After you write it, reread it, then take out all churchy words and rewrite it. Share face-to-face with another believer and have them observe your mannerisms to ensure that you appear natural and relaxed. Then begin immediately sharing with nonbelievers. If you don't do it in the States you won't be able to do it here.