We had our annual quiz event today. A total of 29 people came along (several who have never been before to our church). We played six rounds of 10 questions per round with certain questions that had bonus points. It was a hard fought contest but a team of University students were the eventual winners. Only a half point separated the second and third place teams.
Please pray with us that those who came today would have their hearts stirred to come worship tomorrow!
I was blessed to travel to Arad, Romania on Friday. Myself and fellow missionary, Wick Anderson travelled together to deliver over 100 jars of jam and a financial donation.
One of our local church leaders in Győr was touched by the need to provide food for the very needy that Philip More and Vis de Copil serve on a daily basis. So the way she responded was in making home made jam (including picking the fresh fruit). Many people responded to her call to help and 104 jars of jam were made. Along with the jam, an anonymous donor gave a very generous gift to help the centre continue meet the needs of those in poverty and the homeless of Arad.
Philip, Wick and I enjoyed good conversation and food as we our time together and dreamed a little about possible future plans. Please pray that Philip and Vis de Copil would continue to be blessed and be a blessing. I am very grateful to the Gyor local church for being so missional and reaching those in need! How blessed I am to be a part of such a great family of believers!!!
We had a wonderful week at the children’s home in Gyor. A team of five people from Decatur, Illinois joined us as we ministered each day at the camp. We sang Christian songs, played games, did handicrafts, had a Bible message and taught simple English language lessons.
Many children from these institutions in Hungary (between 60%-70%) end up being trafficked and working in prostitution. Our goal is to teach them of the love of Christ, help with their education and model for them Christian living. The team from Decatur is a team dedicated to fighting human trafficking and our partnership was intentional and powerful.
Praise God that a number of children gave their life to the Lord today (our final day). We have been invited back to continue this ministry. Kathy has been going in weekly to one group of kids for several years but will hopefully begin going in to a second group on a weekly basis also. We also made very significant connections with staff and hope to see some come along to visit our Sunday worship.
We purchased pizza for everyone yesterday and the kids and team enjoyed a July 4th celebration together! Thank you to all those in our local church in Győr who contributed to buying the pizza. Please continue to pray for this ministry and do contact me if you would like to support in anyway this ongoing work.
We had a wonderful service yesterday. The Lutheran church were very kind and allowed us to use their temple which has a baptismal font. With forty people in attendance we celebrated four baptisms and one new local ministerial candidate. Bianka, Eszter, Katica and Klaudia all made that public confirmation of their faith as they were baptised. Sylvia became a local ministerial candidate which means she is exploring the possibility of ordination in the future.
For me it was very exciting! To see such fruit all at the same time was a wonderful blessing. Kathy and I have been blessed to devote many years in service in Hungary and across Europe and to see these commitments was amazing! We believe that our fellowship in Győr will continue to grow and that many more will come to Christ in the coming years. Please pray with us for these five women of God!
Of course, with such joy a little sadness is often found. Our dear friend, Lucas Santana is returning to Brazil after nearly two years in Győr as a University student. He gained his Master degree in engineering and will return home to be with his family. Lucas played guitar for our worship team and we will sorely miss his leadership, friendship and gentle spirit!
We were blessed to welcome the Anderson family to join us in ministry this past week. Wick, Sarah, Addy, Sophie, Ruby and Phoebe arrived in Hungary on Monday afternoon (along with their cat Toby) and have been busy since they arrived.
We helped them find a home and prepared for their arrival. Then on Wednesday we prepared a fun orientation game for them. One exercise was to buy strawberries (in Hungarian) and get a photo of someone eating one. You can see Phoebe eating her strawberry, although her father had to be fast to take the photo as Phoebe was hungry! 🙂
They attended worship today for the first time with us today. Over 30 people attended and we worshipped the Lord and felt blessed to have them with us.
Please pray for the Anderson family as they continue to settle into life in Hungary. They begin Hungarian language lessons tomorrow with Kathy. Also please pray that they would have good health and that their ministry would be greatly blessed.
We had a wonderful trip to England recently. We greatly enjoyed the Free Methodist Church UK Annual conference which was held in Preston. It was a joy to connect with so many great leaders and we really enjoyed the preaching and testimonies. God is doing a wonderful work and we were glad to hear a little of what is going on in the UK.
I also spoke on Sunday evening at the Garstang Free Methodist Church. Approximately 70 people were present and I spoke on missions in Europe, with a particular emphasis on Hungary and Ukraine. The Lord is really expanding the work before us and we are trusting Him to see many souls saved all across Europe!
Afterwards, we enjoyed two days of rest together. We enjoyed walking, shopping, talking, fish and chips and a break from ministry! Lancanshire and Cumbria are just beautiful!
We enter a new and exciting period of ministry as a new family will join us in Győr. On Monday the Anderson family will fly into Budapest from America and will begin to minister alongside us. We are excited for this new partnership! Please pray for the Anderson family as they adjust to life in Hungary and for us to be good friends/colleagues and to help them as well as we can.
I have a busy travel schedule over the coming months. From May 9th – 15th I will be in the United Kingdom. I will be attending the UK and Ireland Free Methodist Annual conference and on Sunday May 12th I will be speaking at the Garstang Free Methodist Church at 7pm. Why not join us if you are in the area?
May 30th to June 3rd I will be in Kiev and Rivne, Ukraine. I will be continuing to help develop a relationship between the Garstang Free Methodist Church and the ongoing work in Rivne. Several members from Garstang will go on this trip to Rivne and connect with our team serving there. Personally, I will speak at a group for women who have lost their husbands/sons to the ongoing conflict with Russia. Please pray for wisdom and gentleness as I present the Good News to so many grieving women.
From June 7th to 18th I will be in Alexandria, Louisiana. I will speak on two Sundays (June 9th and 16th at church services – I am waiting on the names of the churches). I will also speak five to six times as the missions speaker at the Gulf Coast Family Camp. If you are in the Louisiana area, please feel free to contact me and perhaps we can arrange a meeting!
I will then return to Hungary as we hold our annual vacation Bible school at the orphanage in Győr from July 1st to 5th. We have a team of five people coming from Decatour, Illinois to serve alongside us.
July 14th to 29th I will again be in America. I will be at the Free Methodist General conference in Orlando, Florida from the 14th to the 19th where I am available to meet with people. If you are attending this conference then please write me a message and lets meet for a coffee or a meal together. On July 21st I will speak twice. At 0930 I will speak at Compass Church in Bend, Oregon and in the afternoon at 5pm, I will speak in Lebanon, Oregon at Ignite Hope Church. On the 24th of July I will travel to Missoula, Montana where I will spend a couple of days serving with a local church helping in an impoverished area. After that I will travel to East Wenatchee, Washington State, where I will speak on Sunday July 28th at the Eastmont Community Church.
If you are near any of these churches, I would love to have you visit and hear a little about what God is doing in Hungary, across Europe and in our lives.
You may be asking why travel so much? Well, we recently lost a lot of support. Without adequate support it is very difficult to reach the lost. Travelling and speaking at c hurches is one way of raising support. However, more importantly, we need prayer partners. People who pray for this ministry and for us.
It was not the nails that held Christ to the cross, rather it was His love for us! As I looked out over the beautiful city of Győr this week, I was reminded how much God loves this city and all the people who live here.
Having served here for many years I can honestly say that although the city is magnificent, the need for Christ is beyond belief. Behind the amazing architecture we see the homeless, along with the Audi cars we see the children who are trafficked, drugs flood the streets and alcohol holds so many in its evil grasp. Sometimes I lose hope, I feel powerless against the flood of evil. Yet, I have a God who rose from the dead, gave sight to the blind and made the lame to walk! Won’t you join us in praying for this great city? For every single person, man, woman and child, to come to faith?
We too are held to Győr by love, not by nails. We love the children at the orphanage, the refugees at the detention centre, the Hungarians and foreigners who live here and worship with us. We love to preach, teach, counsel and help. We have rescued women who were trafficked, counseled men and women with PTSD, visited the ill in hospital and comforted those who mourn. Will you now consider supporting us both prayerfully and financially? We have only 46% of our support needs for 2019 raised and/or pledged. Unless significant support is raised, we will be struggling to make ends meet and will have to consider our future in ministry. We lost support from a couple of churches at the end of 2018. Perhaps your church, your home group or you yourself would like to partner in Kingdom work?
Please help us by sharing this post in your churches and amongst your Christian friends.
A gentleman who recently began attending our church in Győr is a refugee from the Middle East. ‘H’ was born into a Muslim family but as an adult he gave his life to Christ. Forced to flee his country he is now in Hungary and attends worship at our church. He speaks little English and even less Hungarian but we were able to communicate a little. Every week I pick him up from the refugee detention center before worship starts and he helps me set up the church. After service he kindly cleans up our worship area. I have nothing I can offer him except a little food. I wish I could speak Farsi and communicate clearly with him but I am grateful for Google translate!
Having left his home for fear of death (because of giving his life to Christ), he fled to Europe. He is now ‘in’ the Hungarian system awaiting a decision on whether or not he will be allowed to stay in Europe. If he is refused, he will be sent home and that means execution for his faith. He misses his mother and she was accepting of his decision to follow Christ, Sadly other family members were not so loving…
This morning I wrote a letter on his behalf which will be given to the authorities. I ask that you pray that my letter will be looked upon favourably and more importantly, that ‘H’ will be allowed to stay in Europe.
Those of you who regularly follow our ministry will know much of what we do. Church planting in Győr. Discipleship. Leading Bible studies. Preaching. MOPS (mothers of pre-schoolers). Marriage counselling. PTSD counselling. Helping to further develop ministry across Europe, particularly in Hungary, Romania and Ukraine but also to a lesser extent in Belgium, France and Spain. Raising support for those in need. Anti-trafficking. Ministry to children in orphanages. I genuinely believe it would be nearly impossible for us to do more.
Sadly, our support has dropped significantly in 2019. Two churches who were supporting us have dropped their support for us (not because of any issues with us but because of their own church financial situations). We are hoping that other churches who have been supporting us will renew their commitments to us.
At the moment we are currently at 32% of our yearly needs. I believe that this will increase significantly as churches renew their commitments to us, however we still need new supporters. Would you and/or your church consider supporting us?
So what do we use this support for? It is used to pay for all our ministry related costs (travel, food, support to the needy, phone bills, items such as Bibles etc). Without your partnership, we struggle to minister. This is truly a partnership. Your prayers and support enable us to serve God in Győr, Hungary and across Europe. Not all are called to go to the mission field, but all are called to be involved in reaching the lost and supporting us allows you to partner in spreading the Good News!
If you are in America, you can give by using the following link: https://give.fmcusa.org/donation/mcnamara_missionary_support (you may need to copy and paste the link into your browser). If you are in Ireland, then you can give through Imap.ie by using the following link: http://imap.ie/forms/standing_orders/so_hfc.pdf
(you may need to copy and paste the link into your browser). Alternatively, feel free to contact me on how to give or use the Paypal button (yellow with Donate written on it) found on this site. Thank you for your continued support of this ministry,
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