Day 2 July 4th
Today’s Prayer Focus: Boldness, Peace, Calm- Pray for Boldness! Pray that all team members and translators would have boldness and creativity in sharing Jesus. Pray for continued peace and unity.
Todays Update:
“For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.” Proverbs 8:35 NLT
The Favor of God! Or, as I like to call it - The FOG. You know, those moments in your relationship with God that amount to actions and answers in life that can only be described as “orchestrated by God.” It’s all in his hands. Sometimes you can see it tangibly and sometimes you just have to trust it is there.
After months and months of preparing, hardcore raising support and meeting together many Sunday afternoons - ten individuals from our 29:11 community are finally taking the faith filled steps to step out and try something unique that is drenched in sharing the message of Jesus halfway across the world from where they normally already do so.
Hungary is a nation that needs pioneers that will trench the gospel for Jesus. After years of communism and breaking the chains of it, rebuilding, restructuring and renewing itself, this nation is at the precipice for a spiritual revival. Over the last twenty years, atheism and other non-committal forms of faith have drifted into the hearts of it’s people. Most people do not know Jesus. In some parts of Hungary, there are less followers of Jesus than in some middle eastern countries. As we get into these camps in the next two weeks, we are praying for the salvation of just a handful of young souls who could literally light a revival fire to re-ignite a nation. That is why we are here. Working with JosiahVenture, we will be conducting English camps during the weekdays so junior and high school age students can start to learn the language and then in the evening keep the connection going by sharing the love of Jesus. So, we will need the FOG to reach hearts!
Speaking of FOG, while boarding our flight yesterday from Toronto to Budapest, I knew the incredible hearts of our team were hungry to help and do something to bring the light of Jesus into this dark part of central/eastern Europe.
As we entered the plane I silently wondered why we were boarding in Zone 1 when most of our ministry trips were usually somewhere around Zone 10 (that meaning we were just scraping enough to get us there and back in economy/coach class). When our seat numbers reflected First Class seats, I questioned the flight attendant thinking there was some mistake. Nope…somewhere we found the FOG amidst us and we were sitting in First Class on our way to Budapest. How? What? Something that had never happened before. The team, diverse in all ages, giggled and laughed like little kids the entire way. Somehow we had been given an extravagant gift and we were grateful for the awesome ride.
Midflight, I couldn’t help but reflect on a thought that I couldn’t let go of. Our heavenly Father wants to share His favor and love with each one of his kids. He has a first class seat waiting for all of us, full of destiny and purpose that is far greater than sipping on free beverages, eating off china plates and watching movies in Lazy Boy like seats.
He wants every human to experience the extravagant love and grace of God that comes as an unexpected gift. This is the gift he wants to share with the students we will meet in Hungary next week. So I am praying we can give to them what God has so freely given to us…. authentic kindness, mind blowing mercy and true God driven love that is more inclusive than exclusive. This love is FOR EVERYONE.
Tomorrow we start our training on how we can prepare to give the love that every human seeks that only eternity can fulfill. Training to speak the language. Training to share through teaching something like English. Training for a week of summer camp fun. All of it is for the opportunity to allow a chance for someone to say, “Hey, I want to follow Jesus.”
We need the FOG! Do we ever need the “Favor of God.”
⁃Pastor Mark
Day 1 - Travel to Hungary
Day 2 - Training for JosiahVenture camps with the leadership team. We are the small village of Vezprem about an hour outside of Budapest. Current temps are about 75 degrees with humidity.
