Missions Blog

Serve Hard, Love Fully, Smile Alot

Today, after breakfast,  John Zanker led our devotion.  We then went back to work. John, Luke, and Nick continued working on leveling the ground to get it ready for concrete. They used shovels and a wheel barrow to move dirt then mix concrete. They were able to do about three quarters of the concrete floor today. Unfortunately, their hands started to blister.

Brad and Jordan continued painting the chain link fence. Jordan was happy not to get as much paint on himself today. Yesterday he was joking by saying that he got more paint on himself than on the fence.

Glenn and I went to work at the shop. Our job was to sand  and prime the steel that will be used to make the structure for the roof extension. Just about lunch, we finished priming the steel beams.
We then moved on to help Juan, Jorge, and Juanpi to dig the holes where the steel beams will rest for the roof structure. The dirt was so hard because it hasn’t rained. We would put water in each hole to soften  the dirt to make it easier to dig. I praise God for guiding my digging. I was using a steel pick to dig and I was very close to breaking the main water line for the whole camp. Ruben was very thankful I didn’t give him more work too!!!!

Jon Fowler is very happy with our progress. He told us that he didn’t expect us to work on the roof during this trip. He thought we were only going to have enough time to do the removal of the doors and the concrete work by the pool. We are praising God for the progress so far. We also are thankful for His protection. We have only had minor scratches. We have stayed healthy too.

Through a series of very fortunate blessings, John Fowler recieved a donation of 4 long range WiFi mesh repaters, about a week ago.  The dream is to light up WiFi in some of the dorms that will be used for Word Of Life Bible Institute Students.  This opens up many doors for both the students to practice their vocation and bless the kids and staff at the camp with their friendship and sharing the gospel.  The only problem is, nobody really understands how this stuff works.  This is where Bill comes in, he called a few of his network engineering work friends at Dick's Sporting Goods and used facetime to draw out a design, reviewed the documentation, and through John Fowler saying an extra prayer, it's working!  Now we just need to mount it.  Stay tuned for our next blog post :)

Tonight we had the opportunity to hear the testimony of several WOL staff and missionaries. It’s amazing to see and hear the impact that God has had in the lives of so many people throughout the 30 years of this ministry.
So many lives have been transformed. It is very especial for all 8 of us to be a part of what God is doing here. We are very thankful to our supporters for having sent us and for praying for us.

Faith In Action

We stared out our Monday with a construction project to remove doors and frames in two dorms.  We’re doing this because the new doors will help with security and safety of the students.

Jordan and Glenn AKA “Picasso” were working hard panting the chain link fence in the front of the camp property.  When they asked how far we should paint. Jorge, a missionary at the camp just pointed to the horizon.  This is where the language barrier brought much joy, and both laughed and kept on going ??

After Lunch, Luke, Nick, and John Z., started on the foundation of a storage building by the pool house.  They were hard at work with Ruben, the facilities manager here at the camp, and Jorge mixing concrete.  The footers were laid, first row of blocks set, and tomorrow we plan on pouring the floor. 

Besides the construction projects, the Chapel raised funds, and through the help of a few good Christians brought down twenty Chromebooks.  These blessings will help the missionary students at the Word of Life Camp while they attend Bible College in Argentina for a year.  Where God willing, they will multiply belivers as they learn how to share the gospel and the word of God.  We installed software, provided basic training, shared techniques in self educational tools.  Check out the thank you video linked below!!

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Good Morning from Panama…Palabra Da Vida!

It is Sunday morning 3/27/22.    Here is a recap of out trip so far which has mostly been traveling to Chame Panama, team bonding, some sleep and reconnecting with old friends at the Word of Life Camp.

We had a blessed and pretty uneventful trip from Pittsburgh to Panama City.   Waking up to Pittsburgh snow on Saturday made all of us think of how different it would be when we land in Panama.  (as I type this, it is sunny and 80 degrees this morning in Chame).  

At the airport in Pittsburgh, we realized what a different world it is traveling internationally these days.   Filling out forms and making sure all testing and documents were accurate took the most time.  Interestingly it is situations like this that help the team to bond, and we saw that happening right away. 

We landed in Atlanta around 3 pm and then flew out for Panama around 4:30.   We have already realized that joking around with each other it a great way for a team to connect and bond.  God uses laughter doesn’t He!

The team landed in Panama City around 7:30 pm (Panama is 1 hour behind Pittsburgh time currently).  Our team leader Fernando was a big help with the language challenges and got us through immigration quicker than expected.

The director of the camp, John Fowler and a few of the missionaries met us at the airport to drive us to the camp.   The drive to the camp is about 90 minutes without traffic.   On the way we stopped for a dinner to get a feel for the Panamanian culture and food.   The restaurant area is called Sabor Local (local flavor), and we really enjoyed the food and the glimpse of the culture.

We got to camp around 11 pm and were greeted with cheers and smiles from old friends (missionaries and staff) and new ones.  It was so good to see everyone!!!  Due to Covid restrictions, the camp has had almost no visitors over the last two years, so they were as glad to see us and catch up as we were.  It was a beautiful night at the camp with weather and connections.  God really blessed our day of travel!

Wake up this morning was around 7 and breakfast was at 8:30. Currently, there is a weekend camp here for local kids from 5-13 years old.  They are a having fun and hearing about the saving work of Jesus Christ in their lives and have many opportunities to accept Him as their Lord and Savior.  

We started our team time together studying God’s Word going through 2 Chronicles 20.  The key verse was 15, “For the battle is not yours, but God’s”.

Or work projects start tomorrow with the first one being the replacing all the doors throughout the camp.  Thank you for all your prayers during this week! 

DAY 7 IN HUNGARY 

Our last day in Hungary! It is crazy to think that the week is over already. We’ve done so much in such a short amount of time, yet we feel like there is so much more we can do. It is bittersweet that we are leaving this beautiful country, but we know we are leaving the ministry in great hands. We could tell from the beginning of the week that God hand-picked each of us and each of the missionaries working there to accomplish His plan. We saw firsthand how well they all work alongside each other, encouraging one another along the way. Their love of God was evident in how they spoke and the actions in their life and it was such an encouragement to know that this ministry will be well taken care of and that they care so much about its growth. Although we came to serve these people, they ended up enriching our lives along the way. We couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity to see how God can use us in any way to accomplish His work here on earth. All of us are leaving Hungary changed in one way or another and I asked everyone to write a couple of sentences on one takeaway from this trip. 

Jonathan-“God reminded me of His foreknowledge this week. None of what is going on in the world right now, or what has been happening for the last couple of years has been a surprise to Him. He was able to use all of this to open doors for us to be able to share the gospel and build relationships with students in ways that we would not have imagined. God's love for the entire world was evidenced to me this week, and the way in which He uses those who love and serve Him around the world to build his church across time and culture amazes me!” 

Meagan- Wow, this trip was a whirlwind! This trip for me spoke of “witness”. Being a witness to what God is doing all over the world. Being a witness to another ministry learning how to morph and change in this time of Covid and now a war so close to home. Being a witness to missionaries helping Ukrainians have a place to stay as they pass through. Being a witness to missionaries sharing their lives and experiences with high school and university students. Being a witness to growth amongst my own teammates and how God is changing and growing them. Being a witness to missionaries here being put in positions they are not comfortable with or expecting and learning to cope and grow from it. God has shown me through this week just how big He is and how much He is doing in us and through us in this world. What a mighty God we serve, and what an honor and joy it is to be just a small part of His work.

Matthew-“Something that really impacted me this week was the opportunity to speak to two students from South Africa. During our randoms, my partner and I spoke to these two students and ended up staying for roughly 45 minutes. In that time, we learned that one of them came from a Christian background, but never was able to get questions he had answered by people in his church. He ended up going to school in Africa for theological philosophy, and even there his professors constantly refused to answer his questions, so he's now in Budapest studying to become an engineer to start a new life here. He explained to us that he grew up without any real Christian community around him and that he ended up walking away from the church for now, until he finds someone willing to at least be willing to discuss his questions with him. Sadly, we were not able to immediately help because of time restraints, but we were able to get him into contact with some people from FÉK to sit down and discuss his questions and he seemed very excited to be able to do that. It really made me realize how important it is to have good Christian community around you and a community that is willing to talk about the harder questions.”

Amber- “This week has been a whirlwind of emotions and experiences for me! I had a chance to live out my dream of serving Him overseas! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a spark in the ministry of crew, and to be a part of something so much greater than myself! God has blessed our team so much this week, between fellowship with other believers and getting to see God work through us so much! We were able to have good conversations with teens and college students that have so many questions about life and their identities! It was overall a life-changing experience for me. Our prayer is that it was also life-changing for those we got to talk to!” 

Emmy-As this was my first mission trip, I really was not sure what to expect. I assumed we would be serving people and that God was going to use us for His plan, but I didn’t realize how this trip was going to impact me as well. God took a lot of my insecurities and things I never would volunteer to do and made me face them head-on. Throughout the week, I could see how He would put me in situations I wasn’t the most comfortable with in order to grow and mold me as a Christian. It was an incredible ministry that we were a part of and I already can’t wait to go back! 

We want to thank everyone who prayed for us and supported us on this trip. There were many factors that could have stopped this trip from happening, but we were able to continue to see God show up and move any and all of the obstacles in our path. Please continue to pray for the ministry happening here in Hungary and for our safe trip back tomorrow. Thanks for following along! :) 

Your last Hungarian word of the day is “barátság” which means “friendship” because we are leaving with so many new friends here in Hungary. 

Day 6 in Hungary 

Today was the day we all were scared of…(and by all of us, I mean myself) Random evangelizing… For introverted people, like myself, the thought of walking up to complete strangers and starting conversations with them (take out the fact that we are in a foreign country) has never sounded like a fun time to me. Funny enough, God has a specialty of taking the things we are most uncomfortable with and using those things to accomplish His goals. (I mean if Moses couldn’t barter his way out of Egypt, why would I think I could this week) This entire week I have been thinking that maybe everyone forgot about the “randoms” as the missionaries affectionately nick-named them, but of course… they did not. We split into groups of two and walked around the universities nearby walking up to people, introducing ourselves/ our organization, and asking if they would be interested in taking a ten-minute survey. *This was actually the first time the “Crew” team was using their new survey tool called “soularium.” Basically, we have a stack of fifty cards with different pictures on them. We then ask five questions where they have to answer the question by choosing three of the pictures and explaining why they picked those pictures. The questions are designed to provoke deeper, theological conversations in a non-threatening manner.* At first, it was a little difficult finding people because it was a Friday afternoon and most students had left for the weekend, but after a couple of minutes, each of the teams started to find people who were willing. One team actually talked to two guys for about 45 minutes about the gospel and gave them information to get connected to “Crew.” I went with one of the missionaries and I, as I said, was super nervous. We met a girl who agreed to take the survey and as soon as I started talking to her, everything changed and I realized why this ministry is so important. This girl had never heard the gospel being presented to her and didn’t actually know who Jesus is or anything about Christianity. She is struggling with a lot in her life right now, and said she has been searching for something missing in her life, she just can’t figure out how to find it. We were able to use the survey to open the door to give her the gospel presentation and she said she would like to follow up with us to know more about Christianity and what makes it different than everything else she has heard about. If I would have let my own insecurities get in the way, this girl may have left school without hearing about the only thing that can save and heal her life. As much as I was afraid for today, I am so glad I went, and although I’m sure I will still have some nerves the next time, I am actually excited to do it again. 

After the “randoms” everyone finished setting everything up for the event at Gönczy. We all had a group prayer before the event, then waited for the children to show up. The event went well and all the people who showed up had a lot of fun, and we had some great conversations in our small groups after with the students. We are hoping this will be the first event of many at their new building and that God will keep showing up and changing lives. 

Please pray for everyone we met today at the university campus that God will reveal Himself to them and they can have their own relationship with Him. Please also pray for the ministry at Gönczy that the students will show up and that God will transform lives there. 

The Hungarian word of the day is “menjünk haza” which means “let’s go home” because we will be heading back to the states Sunday morning!