Editor's Note: This article was posted on the website of the International Missions Society.

I just wanted to take a moment to share how God has used Peti and Virag Szabad, and their humility and leadership, to turn the Budapest Church around.

This summer in Budapest was a great conference for the Eastern European Churches followed by a mission week where we decided to clear out our schedule and just spend time glorifying God by sharing about him with people.  Taking time to pray throughout the day is great, but not quite like spending three hours on a mountain praying.  Taking time to read from the word of God in the morning is great, but not quite like spending four hours in a park on a blanket just reading all the Gospels straight through.  Sharing our faith during our busy days is great, but not quite like going out for a day just to share with people why you love Christ so much.  We love him so much that we would stop a perfect stranger to talk about Him!

This ignited a spark in our hearts, as well as the church???s.  After a week of this kind of devotion to God and those who are lost, it was as if scales had fallen from the eyes of all of us!  We realized that we have so much to give.  We were reminded over and over that we know the truth and the truth has set us free.  We remembered that we have salvation.  And as we went out in pairs we always reminded ourselves that we do not have to do this alone.  We were also reminded that there were many people who wanted to know more about God.  People are seeking for something more from their lives.  Everyone who is without God is doing this. 

When the week was over, the membership requested that the leadership continue to set up these daily evangelism events for the rest of the summer!  What started out as an outward challenge without a lot of internal desire has now caught fire in the hearts of the disciples (where your treasure is... there your heart will be)!  The Budapest church put its treasure in the mission and now its heart is there too!

Peti and Virag have made some changes as to how they are building and took over the students??? ministry.  Right now, at the beginning of the school year, there is a group of two students.  They are borrowing two singles to make it a group of six!  Peti and Virag are on campus sharing their faith.  Last month they held a special event on campus.  Although in number they are small, in spirit and faith they are large.  And GOD is even bigger!  They decided to try to rent the largest meeting hall on campus, more than 500 seats!  Peti came up with the idea to have a Da Vinci Code night.  There would be an explanation of why the book and movie is false and what the truth is!  They printed invitations, put up posters on campus and set out to try to fill the hall!

It was a classic David and Goliath situation!  God blessed!  Seventy brothers and sisters came from the church to help reach out to all the anticipated student visitors!  God brought 340 people to the evening!  Peti and Virag organized response cards in anticipation that not everyone could get reached out to.  Those who filled them out were those who were interested in knowing more about the topic of the evening and were encouraged to leave contact information.

One hundred and twenty people filled out the cards and are being reached out to!!!!!  The Harvest is Plentiful!

The Budapest church is coming off 14 months of no baptisms or restorations in 2005.  In 2006, now God has blessed the church with six baptisms and four restorations and 25 people studying the Bible!  God is pleased and His Spirit is moving powerfully.

For me it???s not these numbers that are most inspiring, although each of those numbers represents a soul that Jesus got on the cross for.  Each person is very inspiring and significant to him!  But mainly it???s the way God is always faithful!  As Nehemiah quoted God's heart, "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.'"

To see the heart of the church change so much is incredible!  If we hold to the teachings and imitate the heart of Christ ... if we love others as He loves others ... if we take up our cross and follow him ... if we devote ourselves to him, then he is able to do more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us!

It was awesome to hear that last week the Budapest Church took up its special mission contribution.  Their goal was 10x their normal weekly contribution - that is about 8,500 Euros.  I praise God that the church sacrificed 13,000 Euros!  That is more than 15x their normal weekly contribution, 50% more than their goal!!!  That is about $17,000 for a church of 130 members in the 3^rd World!

When the church's heart is focused on God, eternity, and salvation and is grateful, it is prepared to invest more of itself into the mission and the church!  When a church is distant from the mission, it is hard to call them to sacrifice for it.  This special reflects the change in heart and focus of the church.  It reflects their gratitude for their own personal salvation and their desire to see others have the same opportunity!

This I want to attribute to God and His Word, and also the humility and leadership of Peti and Virag.  Since we have come onto the team at the beginning of the year, our first priority and charge was to work with Peti and Virag.  I was thankful to the open invitation from Peti to disciple him and help train him to be a stronger evangelist.  It was really the change in Peti and Virag's heart and life, their re-engaging in the mission, that has led their church there.  Their stronger work ethic and desire to sacrifice has inspired their members to do the same.  Their boldness to stand up for Christ has inspired their membership!  The Spirit has been fanned into flame!

I appreciate their desire to get training.  I have always believed in these relationships as I have seen them work in Jesus' ministry, in the Bible, and in my own life in my relationship with Andy Fleming.

And as God always intends it, the relationship between Christians goes two ways!  I am personally grateful to Peti and Virag for the discipling Lena and I have gotten from them on our marriage!  It???s a treat to get to work together in serving God, as we were fasting together yesterday for the conference coming up, all the Euro churches and the New England churches (and the Kiev, Ukraine, church ;) )!

Please pray for the rest of the year and for the Harvest in Budapest!  Thank you for all you do to serve Him!

Editor's Notes: To read the announcement about the upcoming Women's Conference in Budapest, Click Here (.pdf file).  You can read a previous article about the Budapest Church by clicking here: "A Letter from Budapest" (May 2005).