The Project
This project builds upon the summer intern work dating back to 2005, so giving you some background information will help you understand the project in the context of the overall work. For two summers groups of university students traveled across eastern Hungary conducting ethnographic research work. It was great way to get to know people quickly and we gained a lot of information.
After that project was completed we wondered how well bicycling could be used to form new relationships for evangelism and church planting. The problem was that it seemed impossible to have a bicycle tour group travel across Hungary studying the culture and yet remain in one place long enough to build significant relationships. I thought that we could use a series of bicycle teams coming for two weeks at a time. Each team would cover the same towns and allow us to share Christ over and over in the same places. The problem with that plan has been that the bicycle teams have not signed up consistently.
This of course meant a total rework of the strategy. I was in the middle of revising the plans when I met Dr. Rodney Harrison at Midwestern Seminary. He has successfully initiated church plants in an overseas cross-cultural setting using short-term volunteers. A long conversation with him and Dr. Dan Morgan at Southwestern Seminary brought together the idea that our summer interns could not only spread the Gospel, but also be the catalyst for new church plants. One day the thought came to me that we could use day trips as a way of being both a bicycle tourist group and yet stay in a town long enough to build relationships. I could explain to people that we travel out from Debrecen and stay so that we have better access to the local sites.
In 2007 four university students put it to the test. It was our third summer of bicycling, but our first with the new focus. Under the supervision of Dr. Morgan the summer project also became my master's thesis project. The project was partially successful with us being able to build relationships and share Christ with a lot of people. We were not, however, able to get a group formed to move toward a new church plant.
In 2008 the U.S. students planning to come had to cancel. A Gypsy church-planting intern from Romania came to help us build on the relationships developed in 2007 and establish a new work among the Gypsy community. It was an interesting experience. The door is open for future work, but we believe that a national needs to develop it.
This brings us to this year's plan. The rough schedule calls for one week of orientation and then touring/working in three different cities. Two of these we have been in many times before, so we are building on established work; in the third we are trying to start something new. We may be partnering with a national church in each of these, but that has yet to be finalized.
You will also get to work in an orphanage for a week with a partnership project with Good Sports International. GSI has extensive experience in orphanage work and they are helping two national churches start a new work in another orphanage.
"Bicycling around eastern Hungary telling people about Jesus" is how we promote the summer in the U.S., but prayerwalking is the real heart of the work. Bicycling is an effective tool for penetrating the communities, but prayerwalking gets us out in the street to talk. You will receive more information about how it works during orientation. You don't have to flexible, you have to be fluid. Just go with the flow.
You do not have to carry everything on the bicycle. A home base is arranged where you can store things you will not need on the road. When biking between towns, a safety vehicle with trailer will following you on the road. You will stay in a variety of different places which could include private homes, bed and breakfasts, church basements, or even camping. You will always have at least one other teammate of the same gender staying with you. In some of the homes they may speak very little if any English. The families will be carefully chosen, but they likely will be cultural Christians, not born-again believers. I will be with you most of the time, except for one week while we are at our Annual Missions Meeting and you are at the orphanage.
This is an evangelism project, so of course witnessing is not optional. 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. We will have your testimony translated and printed in both languages so you can leave it with someone.
There will be culture classes and more training on how to witness to Hungarians during orientation. In the past we had internet-based training before the interns arrived, but my schedule this year is not going to allow it. That means that the on-field training will be more extensive than times past, but this year the schedule has more time allowed for it.