It's been 2 weeks since we got back but I just didn't find time to write the update of our outreach. This is kind of what I wrote for my outreach paper..
While we were having meetings in the month before the outreach, we prayed and I did expect God to do a lot of things but I'd never thought God will do so many miraculous things.
There were 15 people on our team and our schedule was busy all the time. People who run church in Pecs are Leah and Balazs and a correspondance couple from Australia who are helping them. It's not a really big church but it's growing.
We had 2 youth nights, we went to 2 different nursery homes, we went to prison, fed homeless people at the park, hang out with kids in the park and played soccer with them, had a »give-away« thing for people in need, we went to the worst high school in the city and did the »Everything » skit there.. and while doing all of those things, we did things the church usually does; church service on Sunday and Wednesday and prayer meeting on Tuesday. It was a crazy time but it was so good.
We got to Pecs on Friday and had a day for our team; we got to meet the church people, we all shared our testimonies, hang out and prepared things for Saturday when we had youth night. We went to the park to invite kids and didn't really find a lot of them but on Saturday, on youth night, there was around 30 kids! It was amazing, unexpected, and 80% of kids were new ones! That was the first sign of God's work and we were all so amazed how well the outreach started.
We went to old folks home on Monday and Balazs asked me + Mike and Cindy, a couple from Australia, to share our testimonies. We also played some songs in Hungarian and English (yes, I learned 2 songs in Hungarian), we baked a lot of cakes and cookies.. I had no idea what to share with people about my past, I had no idea what kind of words to use and which part of my testimony to emphasize. Balazs introduced me and I started talking. I'm not really even sure what I talked about. I told the basics and focused on Jesus' love for me and for them and how he's with them and cares for them. I cried by the end of it. It was really hard to see those people's faces at the end of their lives. I really hope something's changed in their hearts and that they'll except Jesus into their lives and go to heaven when they die.
We went to old people's home on Tuesday as well, a different one. We repeated the »program« so the same people shared their testimonies, the same people sang.. It was even more challenging for me because I didn't remember what I said about my testimony on Monday but God spoke through me again and it was great. It was so amazing to see how He takes care of everything, how we don't have to fear at all, we don't have to worry at all. He has everything in control and I realized what it really means to be God's instrument, how it wasn't my strenght, how it was totally Him.
Our team went to prison on Wednesday but I didn't go. Leah told us at the beginning of the outreach that not all of us will probably go because people at the prison sometimes complicate things but we didn't talk about it until Tuesday. I heard God saying to me not to go but to stay at home and pray. Everytime we went somewhere or we did something, at least one person (usually 2) stayed back and prayed.
So, on Wednesday, I stayed at home with Kim, one of the correspondence people. We prayed for almost an hour and a half but it seemed like we'd prayed for 20min. It was crazy! I was really scared of praying for so long and I think that's why God wanted me to stay at home and experience talking to Him for so long. I'd never done it before and didn't know if I'm able to talk to God for so long but I was! It was really an amazing experience but the most amazing part is that God answered all of our prayers! Crazy! When the girls got back, they explained everything that happened and it was funny to hear that every single detail Kim and prayed for got answered. 4 girls got to share their testimonies and women in prison all cried. Even Leah was amazed. + they got to see the whole prison, with cells and everything. God was working in a big way that day!
The church also ran into opposition. It was expected with all the work that God's been doing. Homeless people started coming to church after months of talking to them and inviting them but the problem is that the church is in a building where there is a lot of stores and store owners started to complain. After a couple of days of »arguing«, the owners of the whole building said the homeless people are not welcome in the building anymore. On Satuday a lot of youth smoked in the hallway and was loud and the church was in trouble. We had a meeting and we had no idea what is going to happen. We prayed a lot that evening and believed that God is faithful. We had another meeting in the morning and Balazs said the church is going to move to another buidling, they had no idea which one yet. We were all pretty much bummed. But God really is faithful. We had church on Sunday right before we left for Vajta and so many people came that we ran out of chairs! I talked to Leah and she said:«We're not gonna move because of the opposition, we're gonna move because the church is growing and we have no space for this amount of people!« It's amazing how God showed us that we don't have to worry because of all the trouble we/they had this week. He's gonna take care of them and they really don't have to be stressed out.
It was a really crazy week. One of the most important things I've learned is to pray all the time. We really prayed all the time for everything. We had a big team and so we could afford to leave 1 or 2 people at home to pray while doing things and it was amazing to see how God answered all of our prayers. I've never experienced anything like this before!
One thing we prayed for a lot was unity in our team and we were all amazed how there were no big issues or conflicts. God helped us to be more patient and nice and we tried to be a big blessing to people from that church.
It was awesome to see Leah and Balazs + Kim and Andy and how they dedicated all of their lives to God. In 10 days I didn't see any selfishness or complains. Even in bad moments, they had a smile on their faces (weak smile but it was a smile) and tried to encourage us. They always turned to God and never lost hope. That's how I want to be when I'm a missionary, if I'll ever be. They were a great example of people who serve God with their whole hearts and don't give up.
We had Speakers' week this week and Leah and Balazs came. They went back to run the church service on Wednesday and when they got back, they had wonderful news! Almost all the homeless people got saved that evening! They said it was amazing, they all sensed the Holy Spirit in such a powerful way and.. oh man, God is so GOOD!
I'll write about the Speakers' week too.. I hope it doesn't take me as long as it did for this one :)
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