Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you to each one who has so faithfully supported us in prayer. We are also very thankful to the many new prayer partners that have been added over the past few months. God is at work redeeming the Hungarian people to Himself, and it's exciting to get to be a part of it!
There are many things scheduled for this summer. The first and most important is bathing eastern Hungary in prayer during the month of May before we start our summer mission projects. We will be using the Heart for Hungary prayer guide again this year. We discussed changing the requests, but decided that these issues are critical to the mission work and there is a great need to keep these before the Lord. The difference this year is that we are not going to send the requests out daily on email. The frequent group emails caused us to be black-listed on some email servers, a problem we still struggle with. The prayer guide is available online at our website at http://www.hope4ehu.com/prayer_quide_intro.html. There are also some of the printed booklets available, or the scrollable version can be printed off and copied. Please pray each day in May for God's work in eastern Hungary.
Also coming up May 17 and 18, an American philosophy professor will be presenting two lectures in the town of Hajduszoboszlo (HI-doo-so-bo-slo) on faith and reason. Because of the many mineral baths, this town of 20 thousand averages 10-15 thousand visitors daily from all over Hungary and eastern Europe, making it a key cultural center from which the gospel could potentially flow across this nation and into the neighboring countries. We are looking at the possibility of having these types of lectures here on an on-going basis. Pray that God will use this tremendous potential to help cover Hungary with the Gospel.
Our summer missionaries from Georgia are scheduled to arrive on May 30 (our daughter Jennifer arrives May 25). After receiving several days of training, they will hit the road for two months on bicycles, touring across eastern Hungary conducting ethno-graphic surveys, prayer walking, and doing evangelism. The logistics for this project are overwhelming, and many things are yet to be arranged. Pray that God will bring the pieces together, and for the team's safety and God's guidance as they work and travel. We are planning to have a map on our website to show the team's route and progress. The map will not be up until the team actually gets started on their journey.
June 11-21 a volunteer mission team will be here from Arkansas. Macedonia Mission Ministries is bringing a team to prayer walk, conduct free blood pressure tests, give out free reading glasses, and help the summer missionaries with their survey work. We worked several times in Romania with this team and are very excited about their coming to help us in Hungary. Please pray for them as they continue making plans, raising funds, and preparing themselves spiritually.
Let your computer's down time become your prayer reminder! Our first eastern Hungary screen saver is available at our website in the downloads folder. This is the "light" version, containing 11 pictures with accompanying prayer requests. A larger version is under development, as well as our virtual prayer walks. Carolyn and I are both using the screen saver and have been amazed at how many "sentence prayers" we send up before the Lord each day because of it.
"Church planting is war." When I first read that in a book I thought, "Now that's a little exaggerated." We are discovering, though, just how true the statement in the book was. A missionary's job is taking the gospel into areas where it is not being proclaimed. It is like establishing a spiritual beachhead in the enemy's territory. Never before have we encountered such strong forces of opposition.
The Apostle Paul tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness. Satan, however, still attacks the flesh. We have both had a series of medical set backs that defy explanation other than the spiritual battle we are in. Things actually came to the point where our supervisor asked if we needed to move into Budapest and take six months to a year just to recuperate. We declined and said we really felt it was about under control. Since then things have gotten worse, but we still feel the right course of action is to remain steadfast in our commitment to what the Lord has called us to do.
The physical struggles have definitely effected our work and slowed us down, but have also increased our determination. Your prayers are greatly needed to strengthen us as we go on. We can not do it in our strength, but rather only in His. Please continue to stand with us for His glory and praise, and for the furthering of His kingdom.
A quick recap of the requests we need you to pray for:
- May 1-31: Month of Prayer for eastern Hungary
- May 17 & 18: Lectures in Hajduszoboszlo
- May 25: Jennifer arrives in Hungary
- May 30: Summer missionary team from Georgia arrives
- June and July: summer missionaries' safety and guidance as they work.
- June 11-21: Volunteer mission team from Arkansas
Love in Christ,
Gary for the Eastern Hungary Team
Gary and Carolyn Miller
4026 Debrecen
Bem Ter 8, fsz. 3
Hungary
