The EastLake Hungary team is off! Message from leader, Susan:
It’s funny. A few minutes before I started writing this, I came across a list I’d written on 2/13/09 entitled, “Things I’d do if I only had 30 Days Left to Live.” It was a homework assignment Pastor Ryan gave us back then. I was laying on the beach in Miami when I wrote it. The first thing on my list was 1. Go on a mission trip. Little did I know that only 2.5 months later, I’d be on my way to an orphanage in Thailand. And that 2.5 years later, I’d be leading a trip to Hungary…
This Sunday, September 18, 2011, my Mom & Dad, Mel, Abby, Kim and a Dutch pastor named Hessel will be on our way to northeastern Hungary to join a little church in Kisvarda in spreading love to their local Roma community (also referred to as "gypsies"). We’ve also got 4 gentlemen from here meeting us in Kisvarda to join my dad in the construction work.
We want to help this little Roma church build a safe place for their families to go, provide for those in need, teach English to those who want to learn, and reach out to their neighbors through a community event we're organizing at the end of the week. Dad’s going to assess the construction work that we can handle during the week we’re there, but our top priority is the daycare that the church is feeling led to build, specifically to feed and care for those Roma children whose parents can’t. Additionally, the yard needs work, so that the kids can play soccer and basketball. And the kitchen, bathroom, and outside steps are just a few of the other areas of concern. By building a safe place for the local Roma to come with their children, where they can experience the love of Jesus from their local community and learn how to build relationships and effectively integrate into society, we believe that we can positively impact the lives of this marginalized people. Our vision is for this trip to be the first of many, to build relationships, in the hopes to one day build a school for Roma children.
This trip is entirely grassroots…we’re not partnering with any organizations. We held a fundraiser last Friday to raise the money we’d need for the construction materials, paint, furniture, school supplies, food, and whatever else we need to help this little church help the local Roma. We even planned to hire local workers to get more of the work done AND bring work to the community (where 80% unemployment is the norm)! Amazing how God gave us JUST enough to meet our goal…not less, not more.
So we’re here, safe and sound -- Mom, Dad, Abby, Kim and I. Mel should be arriving in an hour or two… We’re meeting Jozsef, the pastor of the Roma church that I’ve been coordinating with tomorrow morning. And we’ve already met one of the 4 guys meeting us in Kisvarda on Sunday, Isti. He’s flying out to LA next week to get married, but not before doing a little mission work first. What a wonderful servant he is.
Stoked for tomorrow’s meeting and for the delivery of our 9 person minbus that I’ll be driving to Kisvarda in just two days (rad facebook profile picture to come)… Please pray that Mel arrives safely, for health, protection, and safe travels for our team, and that God continues to prepare the hearts of the people we’ll be serving in Kisvarda. Thanks so much for your love and support – miss you guys already!
Suzy
