Hungary, Ukraine and Romania – Wow!

May 4-6
Just a short 24 hours after leaving San Diego, we arrived in Budapest, Hungary. What a beautiful city! Sadly, there was no time for sightseeing on this trip. We were able to enjoy the new office which is located in a courtyard of one of the main streets on the Buda side of the river. This has been a great answer to prayer. The location is better, the space larger and the rent cheaper. God is good!

The meetings with the staff and the board were extremely beneficial. We witnessed the solving of some misunderstandings, the healing of relationships and the eagerness of all involved to see the children reached and the children’s workers equipped. God accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.

May 7-10
Arriving in Kiev, Ukraine we were greeted by five Ukrainians, Igor and Natasha, and the regional team. It was quite the welcoming party! We finally met Michael Lozovoi, the new national director for Ukraine, and his family. What a joy they all are! We all traveled together in a van for the next four hours over some beautiful countryside to Uman for the board retreat for this very new ministry.

Friday and Saturday were full days of training for the board. There were a lot of things to discuss and plan and God gave Joe just the right words at just the right time, even if it had to go through translation most of the time!

On Sunday, Joe was asked to speak in the church service. He was the second speaker of the required three messages. Then Joe asked for the blessing of the congregation to dismiss us so that we might experience the children’s ministry going on downstairs. It was good to be with the children, but following the translation we realized how important it will be for EGM to offer training and help to the children’s workers. We’re thankful that Michael will be there to help them reach the children for Jesus.

Those same teachers participated in a training session after a quick lunch. Several churches from the region were represented in the training. They came in very skeptical and stoic, but it wasn’t long before they were laughing and learning new ways to teach God’s Word to the children. This will be the beginning of a new relationship with the churches in this region of Ukraine.

May 11-14
Once the training was complete, the 9 of us jumped back in the van and headed for the city of Dnepropetrovsk where the national office is located. It was about a 7 hour drive over very rough roads, and we were all ready to sleep when we arrived. Michael had made arrangements for Joe and me to stay with a family from his church. Hospitality is BIG in Ukraine and we enjoyed sweet fellowship each evening with this dear family who support the ministry of EGM.

The next few days involved completing Michael’s training, visiting his office and meeting with Sunday school leaders from the area. Another opportunity arose to share with a large group of people from various churches who are in charge of the camping programs in their churches. In every group it was the same reserved manner in the beginning that ended up with extreme interest in the training and the materials available in Russian.

We traveled with Igor and Natasha to Kiev by train late in the day in order to meet with an American missionary who is leading a Bible school for national leaders. We are praying that this might be another key way to reach the churches in Ukraine.

After a quick flight back to Budapest, we met up with our co-worker, Francie Overstreet. Francie is in charge of our leadership development program and joined us to attend two conferences in Romania. We took another long van ride over the border into Oradea, Romania. We’re thankful for Persida, the curriculum development leader in Romania who picked up our weary bones and delivered us to a wonderful place to rest for the evening. All three of us needed that!

May 15-17
We were blessed to spend the next three days at a beautiful, little conference center in the middle of the mountains. It was a perfect setting for the intense training that we delivered to the 15 participants from various regions of Romania. These key leaders will assist our staff in training other children’s workers in their churches and surrounding areas. They are serving on a volunteer basis and are thrilled to be sharing all that they can with their fellow workers who believe in the impact of reaching the next generation. Their dedication was a challenge and we are looking forward to all that they will do in the days ahead.

May 18
Sunday evening we traveled by car with Daniel, the Romanian national director, to Cluj in order to be at the EGM-Romania board meeting early on Monday morning. Joe serves as the EGM-US representative on the Romanian board so his day was spent with the board while Julie spent time with Emese, who is the leadership development director in Romania. Having friends around the world makes the traveling fun. We had been praying for Emese as she faced the possibility of cancer treatment, but praise the Lord, while we were in Romania she received the news that it was not cancer and she is looking forward to her wedding in August.

Daniel delivered us to the train station following a meeting arranged by one of the board members who has a passion to reach out to the families in the churches partnering with EGM. (They are considering a family outreach in the fall which would be a blessing to the parents, reach the children and promote the ministry. Pray that they will be wise as they plan.) The night train is an interesting experience! Let’s just say that with the heat, noise and movement we didn’t get much sleep, but watching the sunrise was amazing.

May 19-24
Time in Bucharest was fun! We enjoy being with Alex and Cami, the regional director for Central Europe, and their little boys. Alex is still waiting for the funds for a vehicle so we traveled by tram and bus to the office for meetings—it takes over an hour to get across town all the while fighting for your place to stand! Alex says he has a spa experience on every commute: a full body massage, aroma therapy and a sauna. We agree! Alex really needs a car!

The time flew by quickly and before we knew it was Friday. We were off again! This time we traveled about four hours north of Bucharest by car to Galati, Romania in order to assist with a church training that was being organized by one of the teachers we had met the previous weekend. She is the children’s director for her church and arranged for other churches in her area to participate in this conference. There were 75 registered and it was great to work side by side with our Romanian team.

One group of 10 men came from a church in a small Roma community (gypsy village) where a revival has been taking place for the past few months--over 500 were baptized recently! These men came because they know it is important to teach the children, but didn’t know where to start. It was so much fun to see these children’s workers light up with excitement as they viewed the curriculum and then learned how to use it effectively. Pray that they will continue to see God at work in their village.

The long drive back to Bucharest was filled with praise for what God had done. Just 12 hours later we were boarding the plane and heading for the USA.

We want to thank you for praying for us. Three weeks is a long time to be away from home and the office. Our hearts were full but our bodies were weary. We came home exhausted and headed into a busy week of preparing for the US board meeting. Now this week finds us getting ready for Jonathan’s graduation and a house full of our kids! Wish you could be here too! We would love to show you all of our pictures and tell you “the rest of the story!”