Sunday Worship
June 17, 2007
Above: Dezső's mom and wife Marcsi helping prepare for today's worship service.
Today we had the equivalent of a church picnic at Miki's house. One of the unique cultural activities of those who live in Petőfibánya is to go for a hike on weekends, set up a kettle over a fire and whip up goulash soup for a meal. This has been a successful tool for outreach and has helped people like Edit (pictured below) step into our Sunday worship service for the first time.
Above: Edit tossing water balloons with her daughter.
Above: Julika and Brenda led game time and were kind enough to include water balloons in the mix. This was a great way to interact with new visitors to our church and led to a lot of laughter.
Above: Miki going for the long water bomb toss.
Above: I love to see the diversity in age and background of those who have come to Jesus in our church.
Above: After game time, we transitioned into our worship service. Zoli's grandmother told me later in our small group discussions how she often finds herself singing the worship songs through the week. They are a true source of encouragement.
Our study from God's word tonight was focused on the Biblical meaning of church. Afterwards, we enjoyed goulash soup together and continued our conversation in small groups with questions related to tonight's study. Zoli's mother and grandmother were in my discussion group. Ildiko began to share how her understanding of church has changed over the past few years. She initially came to our church with suspicion to see what her son was 'involved' in. Throughout the course of a year, after visiting our small groups and seeing real change in Zoli's life, she has grown in her faith in Jesus. Tonight when I asked why church was important, Ildiko said, "It is where I grow in my relationship with Jesus." A guest for the second week in a row, Géza, said that our church is a place where he receives God's grace. Zoli's grandmother said that she wished she had found our church much earlier in life (since the church is not that old, I don't know if that would have been possible.) Praise God for His work in Petőfibánya, redeeming those who have put their trust in His Son.
PLEASE PRAY
Tomorrow, we ask for your prayers as many of us will be working together painting and preparing for this year's VBS which is 20 days away and counting. The theme for this year's VBS is similar to Pilgrims progress. Please pray for unity, wisdom and strength to complete all that is necessary. We will be working through this entire week to be ready for VBS next month.
blog comments powered by Disqus