An Unexpected Opportunity

Last time I posted, I shared about my attempt at launching a soccer chapel at Truman and the difficulties that I had with that... In the meantime however, God has been working on something else without me knowing.  A few weeks ago, we planned a pastor's prayer event.  Our goal was to connect with youth pastors and pastors from local churches to pray for our community and specifically the needs of teens.  In a lot of ways the church is not very unified in our area, and we wanted to try to help this by bringing pastors from different denominations together for prayer.  We did not have a great turn out for the event, but one of the guys who showed up was Scott, the local FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) director.  For over a year, we have been somewhat connected with Scott and FCA through a football chapel that they are doing at Truman.  Scott asked us if we knew the basketball coach at Truman, and he told us that the coach had him come out to speak at an event a while back.  He said that the coach seemed very positive about building character and leadership in his team members.  Through Scott, the door opened for us to connect with the coach about doing a weekly chapel program with his team.  He was very positive about us doing it and strongly encouraged the team to take part.  The first week, we had the whole varsity and junior varsity teams out for our chapel where we had pizza, a student from the Bible club shared his testimony, and Josh from our staff team shared the Gospel with the students.  Even though it has not been a manditory meeting, we have been getting just about all the guys from both teams coming out the past three weeks, which is usually around 23 guys.  It has been fun connecting with them, and we are slowly learning names and getting to know the guys.  Please pray for us as we encourage them as a team and as young men, and that God will work in their hearts and reveal Himself to them through His Spirit.  Also, pray that Scott, Josh, and I will be able to get together with them some outside of chapel time to get to know them at a deeper level.  It can be difficult to get to know them deeper when there are so many of them at the meetings... but that's a good problem to have!

Here are a couple pictures from a basketball game Josh and I went to.

Sometimes God Has A Different Plan

So... it has been a while since I posted a blog!  I apologize for that, things have been busy and truthfully time has been flying by so fast I had hardly realized it had been so long.  So, to update on everything.... Since Hungary, I have made it back to the Philly area and I've been focusing on launching a new high school here.  Before I get into that though, here are a few other things we have been doing.

We did a Head Start Retreat in Ocean City, NJ when I got back.  We took our Action Team students there to do beach and boardwalk evangelism.  There were a lot of cool opportunities to talk to people about our faith and to challenge our students and help them grow in their relationships with Christ.

Sadly it no longer looks like this after hurricane Sandy = (

Me, Katie, and Josh (our new staff guy)

 There was a drawer with goofy sunglasses in the house we stayed at, so we took a picture with them!

Another thing that we have been doing is a new meeting we creatively named "Cru" (after our name). This is a once a week meeting where we really key in on our Action Team students to lead.  Every other week they lead the games, lesson, and everything else.  During the weeks in between, some of our staff help prepare the students for the next meeting they lead, while the others do a staff lead Cru meeting.  So far it is going really well and it has been a great opportunity to challenge our leadership students to lead Bible discussions, but also to share their faith with the students that come out!

Student lead game: 4 players, two with bread & Fluff (marshmallow cream) on their heads and their partners had to toss gummy worms on top... then they had to eat it... messy messy!

Trash can game... everyone tries to make everyone else touch the trash can without touching it themselves... the 3 football players from Morrisville took everyone else out first.    

The Annual Bulldog Dinner is another big event we had.  For this we invited students out from the high school sports teams, cheerleaders, and band.  We partnered with a local church to feed them a spaghetti dinner, had a local guy share his testimony and I gave the Gospel presentation.  Then we let them hang out in the Solid Rock Youth Center afterwards.

Praying before athletes started showing up

Football players starting to arrive

Me giving the Gospel presentation using the diagram we learned in Hungary

Hanging out in the Youth Center afterwards

Other than these types of events, I have been working a lot on networking with people at Harry S Truman High School.  A lot of this has been trying to connect with students on campus or in the Bible club there, but also teachers, coaches, administrators, parents, community members, and local churches.  At the beginning of the year, I planned out what I wanted to see happen there this fall.  One of those things was a soccer team chapel because a student from the Bible club was really interested in reaching his team for Christ.  After talking it through with him, we approached his coach about doing it.  He seemed very positive about it because Truman sports have a bad reputation of having a bad attitude and he thought this would be a good way for them to grow in those areas.  To launch this sort of chapel we will usually come in and give a non-spiritual team motivational talk, and then invite students out to a non-manditory pizza party where we can talk about Christ.  I was all set up to give the talk, but then the day before, the coach told me he wanted to ask for permission from the athletic director first.  I was a bit bummed out, but still excited about the possible doors that could be opened if I had a positive conversation with the athletic director.  I spent several weeks struggling to connect with him, so I finally connected with a guidance councillor at the school who is a Christian.  I asked him if he could connect me with the athletic director and he said he would.  Finally, after a couple of weeks, we heard back.  He told us that we had gotten permission from not only the athletic director, but also the superintendent of the school district!  Sadly however, we heard back the week after the soccer season ended... I can see now that though "my" plan had been to do a soccer chapel, God had another plan.  In His plan, I was able to connect with the coach and get to know him a lot, but also to meet several soccer players and parents.  In addition to that, I made some connections with people high up in the administration.  Also, because of the guidance councillor, I was given the opportunity to give a motivational speech to students with behavior issues on "success amongst difficulties" during the school day.  Though I cant see the whole picture, it is exciting to see connections being built and I look forward to seeing where they may lead in the upcoming months!

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!

Speak Out Hungary (Part 2)

Our first couple of camper weeks have been awesome!  God is really doing a lot here.  Last I heard, between our 146 or so Speak Out staff that are here, Slovakia, Albania, Transylvania, and all over Eastern Europe, over 2,000 people have been initiated with about spiritual topics, about 1,100 led to Gospel presentations, and 77 decisions were made for Christ!  Praise God!!!  For this blog, I want to share some details to what I’ve been doing here during the camper weeks.  Like I said, many Hungarians are going around the country and the local beaches doing random evangelism with people, but as a non-Hungarian speaker, I have been focused on the English camp portion of the project.  

First off, at Speak Out, everything has tons of energy!  Even in the beginning, we throw a huge welcoming party as the campers are arriving.  We have music and dancing outside the dorm and a welcoming committee with loud music, dancing, water guns, and various sports balls and frisbees!  From the start we are getting them excited to be here and excited about the rest of the week!  Here is a video and a few pictures from our welcoming day.  

They do an awesome job of lessening the boredom of registration!  Also, each time a new camper arrives, they form a cheer tunnel for a grand welcome!  

Some Speak Out artwork on Welcome Day

Here is the inside welcoming group.  They help guide campers where to go and start their paperwork.

This is the registration room

I helped with the t-shirt table, but even there we had cheers and excitement.  

Here at Speak Out, I am a discipleship group leader.  I co-lead a group with Brad Daubenspeck from Philly.  We have 4 high school age guys in our group that we are mentoring while here.   Each week on Tuesday we have a Bible study to challenge them in their walk with Christ and we guide them throughout the time we are here.  The guys in our group are working with the not-yet-Christian Hungarian students as English tutors.  They have been trained in how to share the Gospel through different tools, their testimonies, and apologetics.  Our guys have a tutor group each week with 3-4 Hungarian campers and they spend from 2pm-5:30pm with them each day.  During tutor time each day they have time to play games, sports, or go to the walking street or beach, but also each day has a topic to be discussed.  The first day our students share their personal testimonies and how they came to know Christ.  Second day, they share the Gospel using a picture diagram.  Third day, is just a sports competition day, so no tutor time.  Fourth day they go through Bill Bright’s “Four Spiritual Laws” booklet which is the Gospel in a short little booklet.  They have the booklet in Hungarian and we compare the English and Hungarian.  There is an invitation to accept Christ at the end of the booklet.  The last day of camp is decision day.  Our tutors divide their students into 1hr times and talk to them individually about the week.  They then ask their campers if they want to make a decision to recieve Christ or ask what’s holding them back.  

This is Jake (with the hat) from Philly, leading his group through a spiritual conversation tool called Soularium.  They chose pictures that describe their lives and views on God.  The two adults with him are his disciple group leaders.  For more info on Soularium, see my older blog post: College Evangelism with Soularium

This is an awesome diagram that we use here to explain the Gospel quickly and effectively.  For more info on the diagram and how to draw and explain it go to:  http://speakoutstaff.wordpress.com/the-diagram/

Jake playing basketball with his tutor group

Scott (green shirt) from Philly and Nate (back right corner) with their groups at the beach waiting on a couple of their guys to return from the water

Several tutor groups playing water football in Lake Balaton.  

Scott's (red shirt) group doing Soularium right before going through the "Four Spiritual Laws" booklet.  Maty (far right) made a decision to receive Christ the following day!

Brad and I are in and out of these groups, interacting, observing, and guiding our guys as they lead their groups.  We then have a one on one time with each of our guys and challenge them and help them to grow in their relationship with Christ and in their own personal ministry.   I primarily work with two of the guys, Nate and Scott, and Brad takes the other two.  It has been awesome watching them grow this summer from timidness to boldness and see their delight as they are making a difference in the campers lives.  The first week, I got to help Scott lead one of his guys to Christ, then the second week he lead two guys to Christ while I was with Nate’s group.  Also, all three of Nate’s guys prayed to receive Christ the first week!  It has just been exciting seeing God work here!  Each week the campers hear the Gospel several times in both English and Hungarian, and many here are open and ready to make a decision.  It has just been amazing to see all God is doing here!  I still have so much to share, but this blog is getting long.  I'll try to post again soon about some fun activity nights we do here and some other cool stories from the project.  

Speak Out Hungary (Part 1)

So far our trip to Hungary is going great!  I apologize for not posting a blog sooner, but we have been sooo busy!  It has been an amazing blessing to see what God is doing here.  I have way to much to say to fit it all in this blog, so for now I'm just going to focus on our first week here.  I'll try to post another blog soon about our first camper week.  

The trip over was very tiring as we spent about 22hrs traveling between plane travel, airport layovers, and a 3hr bus ride.  When we finally made it to Keszthley, Hungary we were exhausted!  We then spent the next few days recovering from jet lag as we are 6hrs ahead of Eastern time in America here.  It was really tough, but they kept us really busy, so we eventually got so tired that our bodies had to adjust to it.  Originally, I thought I was coming to a conversational English camp... but I quickly realized that was only the tip of the iceberg!  Our project “Speak Out Hungary” is like a mission control center for all sorts of outreaches in Eastern Europe.  Speak Out is an English camp where campers come to speak conversational English and learn about God.  However it doesn’t stop there...  throughout the years many Hungarians have come to know Christ though this project.  Many of those are now back as staff.  We Americans teach English to non Christian Hungarians students... however, the Christian Hungarian staff members are sent out to do evangelism in the surrounding areas.  

Our first week in Hungary was training week where we practiced evangelism tools, teaching techniques, and really just got our hearts and minds prepared to do ministry.  After that, we had groups sent out to Slovakia, Albania, Transylvania, Macedonia, and also many cities around Lake Balaton which is one of the largest lakes in Europe.  Many are still here with us working with the campers and going out to the beaches here in Keszthley too!   It has been awesome to work along side them worshiping God, learning about Hungarian culture, and reaching out to both campers and the surrounding areas!   I had no idea how well structured Speak Out is!  Our American high school and college students teach English by sharing the Gospel in several different ways encouraging conversation on spiritual topics.  Hungarian high school and college students help us and go out to the beaches to share their faith.  Then Brad, Katie, me, and other Cru staff both American and Hungarian lead and guide them through discipleship and Bible study groups so that they are challenged to grow in their own walks with Christ as well as lead others to Him.    

Overall, I have learned how ignorant I was that not everywhere is like America... I mean everything is different here!  Electrical outlets, toilets, food, language, currency, etc... sooo different than I am used to!  I am slowly learning important Hungarian phrases like “Where’s the bathroom?” or “yes, no, and thank you” but overall I am still totally lost... I cant read simple signs, menus, and even food labels or ask simple questions since most people have very limited English outside of the project.  Needless to say, I have gotten very good at hand gestures and pointing at the foods I want!  Another thing is, of the people who do speak English, it’s still not like Americans.  I have to say things very slowly and clearly... I have learned to not use big words if I can avoid it and try to say most things with 4 or 5 letter words.  It has been a challenge, but a blessing!  I have a lot of cool stories from our first camper week too, but that will have to wait a few days because this post is already long enough.  For now, here are a few pictures, and I hope to write again soon!   

Can you guess this song even in Hungarian?  So cool to worship God in two languages at once!  

The first full day we were here, we were all tired from the trip, so we kept the meetings short and just spent time getting to know each other, the area, and the town.  This is a huge palace here in Keszthley.  

The back of the palace

A beautiful church here on one of the main walking streets near us.  

After the palace and exploring the town, we went on a boat ride on Lake Balaton.  

Here is the boat we were on.  

I'll have more pictures up soon from the first camper week!