2009-01-31T09:29:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and supporters,

Once upon a time we lived in Michigan. Then we moved to Hungary, and we forgot what it’s like to be really cold (still pretty cold, mind you, but not really, really cold). But now we remember! Here in upstate New York the mercury has seemingly dropped out of the bottom of the thermometers. But February is almost upon as and so we wanted to update you on what’s been happening in our lives and ministry over the last couple of months.

The holiday season provided an enjoyable break and an opportunity to spend time with family. In January, our schedule again began to pick up as we headed out for more deputation and John began to get more involved in working with students at Houghton College. This last week John substitute taught a class for the professor of missions at Houghton. It seemed to be well received by the students. The class was on “Global Issues,” and John taught a one-hour class on poverty. It was an interesting opportunity, as John was able to present some material from his master’s thesis for the first time in an educational setting. It was a good chance to get some feedback and response on the material. It was also just fun for John to be “back in the saddle” again with one of his favorite activities: teaching.

To cap the week off John participated in an Eastern European night at the college coffee shop. There were missionaries and other people from several Eastern European countries. Everyone shared stories, had some goodies from the countries in question (Tricia made some Hungarian cake squares for the event), and John shared his “Hungarian 10-question challenge.” He also presented the OMS English Camps in Hungary as a short-term missions opportunity for students and interested community members from Houghton. John has made a goal of recruiting a team from Houghton for English camps this summer in order to expose students here to the ministry that we are involved in. We hope this will bear fruit not only for the short-term staffing needs for English camp this summer, but possibly for the long-term as students are given the opportunity to see missions in Hungary as a future ministry option through OMS.

Missions in Europe is a both a great challenge and also a great opportunity. A survey from a two years ago showed that while only a minority of people in European countries call themselves believers in God, there is a number of agnostics that is often just as large or larger—people who don’t believe in God but don’t consider themselves atheists, either. At the same time, a great many people are interested in spirituality. While old religious institutions in Europe are largely viewed as antiquated and irrelevant, many people are searching for spiritual meaning in their lives. Another recent survey shows that young people in Europe are more interested in religion than their parents were. A new generation is rising up with unanswered questions about the meaning of life and many of them aren’t satisfied with the secularized answer of the last 100 years. A fresh presentation of the old, old story of a God who gave His only Son for the sins of the world has an opportunity to get a new hearing in our day, provided that it is presented in a way that is relevant and well-grounded in life, reason, and experience. Please pray for us as we continue to move towards returning to Hungary to share that message with a new generation that desperately needs it.

God bless you wherever you are, and however cold you may be!

John and Tricia

Family notes:

We’re so blessed to report that the kids are thriving. They enjoyed being with Tricia’s family over the holidays and being able to share Christmas with them for the very first time in their young lives. Hannah has been making friends here. She’s involved in our homeschool co-op and in a children’s choir and she greatly enjoys both of these. Matthew still wants to play games all.day.long, board games, card games, computer games - - any games with anyone who will play with him. Hannah and Matthew both start their first gymnastics class next week as well. Jonathan is growing very quickly and we think he’ll be walking very soon! He continues to brighten our days and delight us with his smiles, giggles and waves. It’s hard to believe his first birthday is only 6 weeks away.

2008-09-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hi to all of our prayer supporters,

Big news here! We are moving to Houghton, NY in just a couple of weeks. Here are our reasons for the move:

We still have a long way to go in our funding before we’ll be able to return to Hungary. We hope to have more speaking opportunities in the northeast region. Indiana seems to be pretty saturated with missionaries. A lot of our most recent sharing about Hungary has been done in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Our regional director in the northeast has been encouraging us to move that direction because he could get us more opportunities to speak in churches, etc. but we can’t keep commuting those long distances.

We will be living near the campus of Houghton College and will be able to assist Bruce Hess, the OMS representative to the college. When we’re not on the road, John will have ministry opportunities with the students there, and we’re hopeful that this will help OMS recruit future missionaries as well. This will also help John have an outlet for ministry during this waiting period of our lives.

Tricia’s parents live in Rochester, NY, just an hour and half north of Houghton. Another reason we’ve been encouraged by some of our leadership to work more at developing support in the northeast is because it is her home area. Looking down the road, as we ask the question, “where do we want to live on our NEXT furlough?” making this move now makes sense.

We have found an apartment there, in a great location, and the kind folks at the local church and college will be working to find furniture for us to use. We’re praising God for this provision and also for the fact that we’ll be saving quite a bit in rent over what we pay now – which will help us get back to Hungary too.

We will miss living here at OMS headquarters. It has been a great blessing to us and we’ve made some wonderful friends here, who will be sorely missed. The fact that we’ll be closer to Grandma and Grandpa is making it much easier for us, and especially for Hannah and Matthew, to say goodbye though. They are very excited about the move.

We ask for your continued prayer as we raise support to return to Hungary. And please pray as we make this move as well. John is leaving on Saturday for a week of meetings in W. Virginia, so Tricia will be home packing and homeschooling. So we’re praying for sanity, patience and energy for her and for safe travel for John. Upon his return, we’ll have one week before our moving day – Sep. 29.

Thanks so much for your prayers which uphold us!

John and Tricia

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