There is no greater joy for a parent than to see the child he raised make it into God's Kingdom. The church in Budapest is 17 years old, and although we have children who have grown up in the church since they were young, unfortunately they all decided to not become Christians. We started to become more desperate in prayer seeking God's guidance to do whatever it takes to convert our children, and God has answered our prayers.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9).
This summer the Wooten family spent a few weeks in Budapest to encourage the church and to train Virág and me. We had a great time together, and one of the things we asked them to do is to lead our Preteen and Teen Camp for us. We had a fantastic time and all of us, parents and teen workers alike learned so much about how to reach out to and love up on the teens. Shawn and Lena and their young Christian son, Andrew gave our teens a lot of hope and faith for them making it in God's Kingdom. They came back to Budapest determined that whatever it takes, they want to be ready!
After just two weeks of intense Bible study our first teen, Anna Gobina was baptized. Anna and her family moved to Budapest from Riga, Latvia a couple of years ago. They have been a great source of encouragement for the church. Anna started studying earlier this year, but when she studied with Lena she was confronted with some of her sins that she needed to take seriously. She had an amazing heart and repented in a way that was visible to all of us. On July 31, just three weeks after camp she was the first Kingdom Kid ever to get baptized in the Budapest church! There were tears of joy in our eyes. Anna and her family moved back to Riga at the end of August, and she will be part of the Teen Ministry there. If that was all the good news it would have been great, but there is more . . .
In 1998 we converted a young widow, Anna. She came to church with her son, Attila, who was 7 years old at that time. She has not had an easy life before or even after becoming a Christian, but she persevered. Attila today is almost 19 years old, just finishing High School. He has been a very active part of our teen ministry and studied the Bible a number of times but always stopped short of getting baptized. After teen camp he decided that it was not going to happen again. By the middle of August, he had done all the studies and got together with the brothers to count the cost, yet something was still missing. Attila decided to start fasting until he was ready to get baptized. He determined to have a forehead of flint and not let Satan keep him out of heaven. He fasted for 7 days and was baptized on August 25.
I am very grateful for everyone God used in the lives of our teens, and I am especially proud of our teen ministry, led by Fece and Ildi Varga. We have over 60 children in our church, most of whom will be teens in the next ten years. These milestone events that happened this summer give me great faith that the next generation of Hungarian children will make it into God's Kingdom.
Peti Szabad
Budapest, Hungary
www.missionssociety.org