September 1, 2016
Dear Special Friends ,
Wow. We are now in our 20th year as serving here in Hungary. It seems like so long ago when we moved here back in 1997 with our four children, with our youngest daughter, Audrianna, just ten months’ old. Now just our daughter, Alexandra (22) is here with us.
When we moved here we really didn’t know anyone. We had a few acquaintances but didn’t really know anyone at all. We thought we would be here for maybe one to three years.
As we look back on all these years and all the things that have happened we can only look on with amazement. Seeing all the churches started, all the lives impacted, all the countries touched and all the trips we have made throughout the years in this part of the world. WE ARE IN AWE . . .
We still love traveling to all these different countries over here. In the past couple of weeks I have been in Slovenia, Serbia, Czech Republic and Bulgaria. This month I will be in Slovakia and Poland. I drive to most of these countries and usually only fly to Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria.
While I’m in each of these countries, I am working with a different language. Even after all these years I am still amazed to be working with leaders in 11 languages. Just about everyone is used to going through interpreters so it’s very normal for them. I too am used to ministering with interpreters.
Most of the people I work with speak some English so that helps immensely. I know a few sentences in many of the languages and that helps too. Rarely does anyone speak Hungarian in Eastern Europe except for Hungarians. No big surprise in this, as it’s one of the hardest languages to learn. There are several million people that speak Hungarian in the countries right around Hungary as most of these countries have territory that was formally a part of Hungary.
So for the rest of the year we will continue what we have been doing for almost 20 years now. Reaching cities, towns, and countries by helping start churches.
We continue to invest $4000.00 in each of these new works to help get them started. We want to help start at least FIFTEEN churches again this year. We have the finances for ELEVEN of them already. We are so, so thrilled and encouraged.
Loving our Lives as Missionaries in Hungary,
Jim and Brenda