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Photos of the new Tengelic church compound, It's paid off !! ... T hanks to all of you who have supported us! ... A short summary of the year side bar
... Outreach work
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| Jesus means Life in the hidden pockets of the world !! |
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This is the village of Szekehid in the Hungarian speaking area of western Transylvania. We minister here and in several other small churches nearby that have been started by our friends and co-workers Dan and Marta Lewis. Most recently we took Pastor Gene Salsbury and a team from Lima, Ohio there for a couple days. This is the view from the front steps of the church
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To see this photo full size, please click on the
link below, then, use your browsers 'back button' to come back to this page after each photo.
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Jesus always reaches out to the, lost and the unlovely, and they receive him gladly!
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Gypsy kids 'after work' school
Can you immagine being sent off to work in the shoe factories as a child of 8, 9, or 10 ? These are the kids from the shanty town by the swamp in the picture above.
These Gypsy kids are going to a special school that Dan and Marta started in Szekehid. The two Hungarian teachers have to start with things as basic as just how to hold a pencil. Katy and I have just sent in cases of school supplies, socks, hats and gloves this month. It's about a 6 hour trip so we can't go very often.
Sometimes you get forced to make progress. Last October the cultural hall in Tengelic announced that they were not going to have enough money to heat the building this winter. We were welcome to continue renting the auditorium, (which was heated so poorly last winter that we all wore our coats and still froze!), but this winter instead of poor heat, there was just going to be no heat at all.
The photos above show the new Tengelic church property. The actual property is 4 times larger than what you can see in the photos, giving us plenty of room to build a new sanctuary, children and youth ministry space, playground with a ball field, etc. The church people have been holding regular work days thru the year, tearing down the old barns and pens from what once was a working hog farm with numerous other types of animals in different sheds and pens. Fifteen truck and trailer loads of rubble have been hauled off! The note on the first two pieces was paid off this year, and because of generous givers (both in Hungary and in the US) we paid cash for the third lot.
Instead of freezing in the Civic center this winter we decided to knock out a dividing wall between two rooms in our own building, and replace the wall with a pair of steel ' I ' beams. By the time you get this we will have held our third Sunday service here, rather than the civic center.
The double doors you can see through the archway above now lead into the church hall with two small new bathrooms and a coat area immediately to the left as you go in. When we build a new sanctuary, this space will be Sunday school rooms and youth department, and in the meantime ... We're warm!
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For three years we've had a weekly church service in the Csecsemo Otthon. This is the home, housing all sorts of disabled and mentally ill kids, where Pego teaches cooking every week.
Some of them, who have received the Lord as their Savior, lead out in prayer, share things that the Lord has put on their heart. Of course, all on a par with their disabilities, but it's amazing what they come out with!
As they grow up, the more mentally whole kids will have to leave the state system and live on their own. The cooking classes help them develop some basic skills. One of the guys put together a library of Christian books for all those who are able to read. One of the girls, who was chronically suicidal before she received Jesus, is now in charge of tracking the kids and communicating with Pastor Attila about the needs and progress of each regular attending member of the the church there in the home. She just became a member of the board of one of our Hungarian foundations.
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Budapest !! We hope that this finds you all well and that the Lord's blessings are on your lives. Thank you all so much for your love, prayers and financial support.
Please keep us in your prayers through the year.
Love ... Allen & Katy Lake
To write a quick e-mail, just click the blue link below !!
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| Looking forward on 2007 |
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It's real tough to sum up a year like 2006. God has done so much! I'll just try and give you a few highlights. Katy and I have put about 25,000 Kilometers on our new mini van this year. We've done hundreds of meetings in our weekly cycle that includes churches, home fellowships, orphanage and old folks homes.
The photos you see of the Tengelic property show the major changes taking place there. With the help of the Szolnok church, gifts that you have sent, and tithes and offerings of the church itself, this property has been totally paid off.
Meanwhile, the real story is written in the lives of people:
Pego, a man who was saved through the church this year is living on the grounds as the caretaker. Pego is a great example of the life changing power of the Lord Jesus. Raised by the state orphanage system, he had no family. Trained as a professional cook he had a trade but without the stability of a home and family he was always struggling. After he received Jesus as his Savior, he discovered that the church family was now his real family. Now in addition to cooking and hosting dinners at the church grounds for the bi-weekly discipleship class, Pego teaches cooking at the Csecsemo Otthon, (photo below) a home for orphaned, disabled and/or disfunctional kids.
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Praises: *New believers added to the churches
*Tengelic property paid off
*New people visiting the churches
*2 Dicsipleship classes graduate in June
*2 new home fellowships
*That our God is awesome and mighty
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Prayer Needs:
*That God would multiply our time and strength and that we would use it wisely
*That we would get 2 or more years on our residency renewal
*Funds to be able to build Tengelic church building (we are already outgrowing our new room)
*Jobs for many in the church out of work
(one women lost her job today because she is a Christian)
*God's provision for His people during a very hard financial time here in Hungary
(even those with jobs struggle to pay for the basics under new austerity measures)
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