Speak Out Hungary (Part 4)

I decided to post one more time on our trip to Hungary just to sum up the rest of our trip and share a few things that I learned.  Hungary was a very different experience for me...  Living in America, I don't think I fully realized how different some parts of the world are from us.  America is really just a baby country historically, but Hungary has a long rough history.  It was very interesting for me to learn about some of their history, especially about the impact of the Soviet takeover after World War II.  I had studied the Cold War in school, but it's different when you visit a country that was affected by it.  Between World War II and 1988, it was illegal there to have free speech or share your religious views.  Hungary was in extreme poverty because there was no will to work for something better...  It didn't matter how hard you worked, everyone made the same small amount to live on.  It was a very depressing time in Eastern Europe.  We went to a place called the Terror House Museum in Budapest after the camp ended, where people used to "disappear" during the Soviet occupation.  The stories I heard there about oppression, torture, murder, persecution, poverty, and depression was overwhelming... Though Hungary has come very far since, you can still feel the effects of it today.

Overall though, Hungary is a very different and open place now.  Western companies, cars, and ideas have come into the country and changed a lot over the past 24 years.  Democracy based on the American system has set in and Hungarians are very pro-American... it is obviously seen in their friendliness towards us, but also in their thankfulness to Americans for our part in the fall of communism in Western Europe.  In Budapest, there is even a statue of Ronald Reagan as a tribute to what he did for them by putting pressure on the Soviet Union to dissolve.  Hungarians can now speak freely, worship freely, and share their views freely without any fear of persecution... maybe even more freely than in America.  After communism fell, Campus Crusade for Christ was able have a much more open presence in Hungary.  Because of this, the new government approached them and asked them to design a moral ethics curriculum to be taught in their public high schools.  This curriculum shared many good moral things, but at the end it there is also a showing of the Jesus Film.  Now the Gospel is being shared all over Hungary through this program called "YTL" or "Youth at the Threshold of Life."  It is now an accredited program in Hungary and over 60 other countries around the world.  Because of this Campus Crusade has great credibility in schools there. Each year many English classrooms around Hungary advertise "Speak Out Conversational English Camp" to their students, and because of this, Speak Out has grown immensely and the Gospel is being heard by many students who have no Christian background at all.  Brad Daubenspeck our Philly director said, "Now I can honestly say I minister in a more closed country by working in America than this former communist country. (Pray for a fresh wind to blow through America.)"  For more on YTL, check out this short video by the co-author of the YTL program, Gabor Gresz:

Bullet marks in an old building left over from the days of Soviet oppression

The Terror House Musem:  There are pictures of people who were executed on the wall.  The tank constantly has a fountain of oil running out of it and down the side of the platform.

Me and Ronald Reagan!

I really learned a lot from this project, but the main things I learned were the importance of prayer and relying on God for everything, the importance of initiating to share my faith more, and the importance of discipleship.  Discipleship was really something that was on my mind before our trip.  I've always seen the potential impact college students can have on high school students and this was definitely apparent overseas as college Hungarians and high school Hungarians were integrated into a single community with discipleship and evangelism at the core.  I think everyone needs someone to feed them spiritually and someone else whom they feed.  No amount of group Bible studies, church messages, or anything else can replace this.  We in America often miss this... Jesus had 12 disciples, but only 3 (Peter, John, and James) were always with him.  Also, think about Paul and Timothy or Peter and Mark.  They spoke to many, but also had a close few that they really fed into and mentored.  Then those whom they mentored went on to do the same with others.  As I said in earlier blog posts, Brad and I mentored a couple of guys each this summer as they shared their faith with the Hungarian campers.  Here is a picture of our group:

Brad, Daniel, Scott, Nate, Me, and Henry (I worked mostly with Scott and Nate)

Finally a big thing I was reminded of while in Hungary, is that people everywhere are searching for life's answers.  Too often we assume people don't want to hear about Christ or fear rejection for talking to people about our faith.  This is a lie from Satan!  In Scott and Nate's tutor groups we had atheists, agnostics, universalists, catholics, and all sorts of views.  Almost all of these guys were completely open to talk and discuss Christianity and what it means to have a relationship with Jesus.  One week one of our groups had a guy with an atheist background, a Catholic, and a guy we weren't sure about.  After a week of bonding with the guys, the guy with the atheist background wasn't ready to accept Christ, but said he had a lot to think about and thanked us for sharing with him.  The Catholic guy had a hard time believing Jesus was the only way, but there were no hard feelings and we still maintained a good relationship despite it.  The guy who we weren't too sure about wanted to pray to receive Christ!  God works in mysterious ways, who are we to judge who will or will not accept His gift... all we can do is be obedient and God will bless us through that.  Long story short, Nate and Scott had 18 total campers combined between the 3 weeks.  7 of them indicated decisions to receive Christ!  All of them however, at least had a seed planted or watered as they heard the Gospel taught!  For the project as a whole, including statistics from all 146 staff, even the ones sent to other cities and countries: 3,197 people were initiated with in spiritual conversations, 1,878 of these led to Gospel presentations, and 119 people indicated decisions for receiving Christ (58 were campers).  Praise God for all he did this summer and please pray for the Hungarians as they follow up with the new believers.  Also, pray for the ones who heard the Gospel, but were not ready... pray that God will use what they learned at Speak Out to open their hearts and prepare them to eventually accept Christ into their lives.   To finish out my Hungary blog posts, here are a few final pictures and a video I compiled about our trip.  

Our Philly staff team: Katie, Brad, Kim, and me

My roommates for the project:  Me, Caleb, Caleb, and Cody

Me next to the Danube River in front of the parliament building in Budapest, Hungary

Budapest city market (there are restaurants, shops, and also places to buy fresh produce and meats

Fisherman's Bastian Castle with Matthias Church behind it

Some of the American students on top of St. Stephen's Basilica.  There were 364 stairs in spiral staircases, but the view was amazing and worth the climb!

A short video with more pictures and video footage from our trip

Speak Out Hungary (Part 3)

Each day at Speak Out we had a different activity for the campers.  Just some fun activities to help develop relationships and also to encourage a little healthy competition.  For most of these activities, they split into groups to compete against each other.  Saturday, the first night of each week was the welcome night.  This was when the campers had their grand welcome and like most things at Speak Out there was tons of energy!  This was the night that the campers were introduced to the staff, they met their tutors and tutor groups, and they learned the rules and expectations of the camp.  Here is a video of the welcoming night... the staff lined the walls of the cafeteria and played loud music, clapped, and cheered as the students came inside!

Sunday night was American Culture Night!  The campers always seemed to love this night!  There were six stations:  Music, Reality Show, Food, Lifestyles, and Holidays.  Each group came up with 20min worth of fun and games related to American culture in these five areas and then the campers rotated through each group.  I was part of the Lifestyles group and we had a lot of fun!  Each person in our group had a different job.  Caleb did movie trivia having the campers guess the movie by using popular soundtracks like Indiana Jones, Jaws, and Superman.  After movie trivia, Shelley taught them how to surf like a Californian.  Then, Mark raced them to see how fast they could shuck corn.  Once they finished that, Savannah had them milking cows using rubber glove utters.  Finally the last thing was Anna and I taught them a couple Swing Dance moves... mostly Anna, but I explained the history of Swing and Jazz and she taught me the moves so we could teach the campers.  It was tons of fun!  Here are a few pictures:

Caleb playing the movie trivia music.  They earned points for how many they answered correct.  

Shelley teaching them how to surf, they are paddling out.  They got points for participation, everyone had to do it.  

Mark explaining the corn shucking race rules.

Savannah running the rubber glove cow milking...  the gloves actually worked quite well!  They got points if they could do it gently.  If they got too rough, Mark or Savannah would Moo!  

Anna and I teaching the swing dancing.  We taught them the basic step and two moves.  We then asked  for 5 pairs to do a move and gave them points if they could do it.  

Monday night was the Staff Hunt!  Basically all the staff dressed up and went out all over the town.  The students were assigned groups and they had to go find us and get our signatures.  The team with the most signatures won.  It was a lot of fun and the people in the town always laughed and gave us a lot of weird looks! 

Zombies!!!

Me and Brad

Their costume was awesome!  Usually he is painting her!

Caleb, Alice, Cody, and I on the walking street.  Caleb, Cody, and I usually dressed and went out to eat before the staff hunt and got a lot of weird looks... a cowboy, a baker, and where's Waldo... something about that just doesn't seem right...

Turo Rudi!!! It's a really good Hungarian chocolate cheesecake bar thingy!

Alice singing, she was really good and some people actually left her some money in her bucket!

Tuesday night we had off, but earlier in the day we had sports day where the campers and staff competed in soccer, basketball, football, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee.

Wednesday night was the Hungarian outreach.  Americans don't participate in this directly.  This is the night that the Gospel is shared with the students in their own language and there is an invitation and time for them to talk to Hungarian staff about questions they may have about Christ or spiritual things.  The Americans meet and have praise and worship and prayer for the outreach during this time.  

Finally, Thursday night is the closing night of the camp.  We throw a huge wild west party with all sorts of fun and games! 

Students won tickets as they played the different games.  Once they earned 15 tickets they could pie any staff they wanted in the face.  This is Caleb running the pie table.  

Caleb suggested Brad should pie his two new staff team members.... little did Brad know Katie and I wouldn't go down without a fight!

We then ended each camper week with a hoedown!