Dear Friends,
Greetings from a Hungary on this rather cold late Autumn day. We hope that our Christmas newsletter finds you happy and healthy. We have had an incredibly busy year and hope that you will take a few minutes to read a little bit about what the Lord brought before us this year.

We have been blessed in ministry this year and seen a lot of growth in many areas. Relationships have begun and grown and old relationships have become deeper and stronger. You may remember from our newsletter a year ago that we asked for prayer as Kati was building a friendship with a blind lady. That friendship has grown and now that lady is attending the ladies’ coffee morning group and even hosted it once in her own home! We have also been blessed to now have a once monthly English language worship service. In conjunction with the Lutheran Church (we use their building for free), we lead a service for English-language speakers. Our first service had twenty-eight people present! We hold a Christmas service on December 11th and ask you to pray with us that many people would come and be blessed and that they would hear the Gospel message clearly. We are also pleased to announce that we started a weekly meeting of University age students in our home. We meet every Thursday evening for fellowship, Bible study and lots and lots of snacks! Typically, we are eight or nine present but hope and pray that this number will grow. Please pray for Gergő, Tobi, Zsolti, Zsuzsi, Katica and Reni that they would grow in the Lord and be bold and invite others to come along.

Our other ministries are going strong. Weekly adult Bible study meets on Wednesdays and we have just finished the book of Daniel and are now starting a study on apologetics. The work in the orphanage is going very well. We visit every Monday and help the kids with their English language skills, play games and speak into their lives. Many of these children are at risk of being trafficked into prostitution and our goal is for them to know the Lord, to develop strong moral values and to develop their language skills to enable them to do well in their studies and help them find good jobs in the future. In July we held a five-day club/vacation Bible school for about twenty kids or so at the orphanage. A team of seven from Northgate Free Methodist Church in Batavia, New York State came and were a tremendous blessing to all the kids at the orphanage. Kati also continues her work of food and clothing distribution and we currently have six large boxes of clothing in our living room that will soon be distributed to people in need in the east of Hungary.

We have also traveled a significant amount this year. I have been blessed to preach and teach both in Győr and Budapest in Hungary, in Brussels and Ostend in Belgium, in Ireland, France, Romania and Ukraine. I have been grateful to begin new relationships with people in places such as Riga and Kiev and I hope and pray that these will develop into partnerships in the future to see the Kingdom grow in a wonderful way. Although this travel may seem exotic and exciting it can be very exhausting and spiritually demanding. Often I go to places where people need encouragement and someone who will listen to their hearts. Please pray for good health and wisdom as I see that 2017 will also be a year busy with travel.

Our daughters are doing well. All three of them are working hard (two in University and one in high school) and are also all keen on keeping fit. Csilla and Zsuzsa are both studying social education in University in Győr and Zsuzsa is also doing a degree in theology with Calvary Chapel. Katica is doing well in high school and is currently considering her future studies. Please pray for her as she is unsure of what the Lord would have of her. Kathy has been enjoying lots of long walks with our handsome dog Barney and Gerry has been busy with sports and writing. His latest book, ’So you want to be a missionary…’ is currently available both in paperback and kindle format from Amazon. His other book ’Light in the Darkness: Christianity in Saudi Arabia’ was a big hit last year and we continue to support the persecuted church and Gerry hopes to travel to the Middle East in 2017 to teach and encourage the believers there. If you would like Gerry to speak at your church please feel free to contact him as soon as possible. You can write to Gerry at g.k.mcnamara@gmail.com

We appreciate your prayers, we love you and hope to see you soon!

Blessings,
Gerry, Kathy, Csilla, Zsuzsi and Katica McNamara