I had an excellent visit to Ireland this past weekend. Sunday morning I spoke at Mallow Street Gospel Hall in Limerick. As always I received a very warm welcome and it was good to catch up with old friends.
On Monday morning I drove about 3 hours to visit Drewstown (Drewstown being two of my photos on his post) Christian retreat center (in Co. Meath) and met with the leader of the Dublin Family Outreach, Billy Swann. It was exciting see what God is doing in that part of Ireland and I look forward to possible future partnership with these ministries.
Later on Monday I drove to Co. Monaghan where I spoke at the 66th annual Missionary conference in the Presbyterian church in Ballyalbany. About 80 people were present (great for a Monday evening). These people represented many denominations, including Elim, Baptist, Methodist and of course Presbyterians. Wonderful to see people coming together across denominational lines for the spreading of the Gospel.
My hosts for the evening, the Condells, have a mushroom farm. This is something our team in Ukraine is beginning to work on at the rehab centre and I was excited to see a real mushroom farm in operation!
Today I fly home. I am excited to see my family and rest a little. Later this week I have meetings organised, a sermon to prepare for Sunday and Bible study for tomorrow. I am blessed to serve and blessed to have you partner with us!
Ireland
2020 filling up!
Although we are still in 2019 with two and a half months before the end of the year, my calander for 2020 has gotten rather full already. I have a number of trips to America, Bulgaria, Ireland, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Russia, UK and Ukraine either set up or in the planning. Along with these trips, I will be setting up courses in Hungary for people wishing to study towards ordination and welcoming/hosting a couple of teams to Hungary to work with us in Győr.
All this to say that I am very open to visiting your church if you would like to hear more about what God is doing in Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe. I am (as always) very willing to Skype into your church service, Bible study etc. or indeed just video a short greeting from us and send it to you.
Also, if you would like to visit this ministry in 2020, please be in contact very soon so we can set up a date for you to come and see a little of what we are doing!
We appreciate and value your continued partnership and support of our ministry in Hungary. We couldn’t do this without your love and support!
Irish speaking engagements and meetings, November 2019
As regular readers of my blog will know, I typically travel to Ireland once a year to visit family and meet with supporters. This year I visited in January but will also be returning in November for a number of meetings and speaking engagements.
I will fly into Dublin November 1st and travel to Limerick to visit my parents. On Sunday, November 3rd I will speak in Mallow Street Hall at 11am. Please join for worship if you are in the area! On Monday, November 4th I will drive to Co. Meath for a meeting with a possible future ministry partner at 1pm and in the evening at 8pm I will speak at a missions conference in Co. Monaghan at the Ballyalbany Presbyterian Church. Again feel free to come along to the missions conference and hear a presentation about the ministry we are involved in across central and eastern Europe.
This does mean that I am free to speak Sunday evening, November 3rd. Would your church or small group be interested in hearing about what is happening in Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and about our newest potential work in Moldova? If so, please contact me! I would be delighted to have the opportunity to share with you!
2019 – A busy year ahead
As 2018 winds down, we are already deep into planning 2019. Here is a little of how it looks:
Continuing to develop the local work here in Győr – Bible studies, worship services, anti-trafficking work, counselling etc.
Focusing more on developing partnerships in Hungary with other churches and possible church planting efforts in other cities.
Trips to speak and minister in Ireland (January), Spain (February), America (June and July) and Ireland again in November. As of yet no dates for potential trips to Romania and Ukraine, but to be organised soon.
Conferences in UK (May) and Bulgaria (September)
Wedding of Zsuzsi and Zsolti in April.
Preparing for and welcoming new full-time partners to Győr (the Anderson family) in April.
VBS at a local orphanage in July.
We still have a limited number of free time slots where we can come and visit your church. Feel free to contact us and we can arrange dates and details.
We look forward to seeing many of you in 2019! May you all have a blessed and joyful Christmas and New Year!
Short trip to Ireland
January 24th through to the 29th (2019) I will be in Ireland and am available to speak at your church or Bible study group. This is an opportunity to hear about the ministry we are involved in here in Hungary and across Europe. Many of you will know that we actively work against human trafficking, in Christian discipleship and developing church leadership. Also it is an opportunity to hear about the persecuted church in the Middle-East.
I have a limited amount of time and availability whilst in Ireland, but hope to see many of you while I am there.
Ireland will likely be my first trip outside Hungary in 2019. I will also be in America, Canada, Romania, Ukraine and likely Belgium and Spain. Please feel free to contact me and we can try to arrange a time when we can meet and talk and pray together!
Christmas Carol Service
We had the pleasure of leading an English language carol service in Győr this afternoon. Although the attendance was smaller than we hoped (we were 26 in total), we were delighted to be with those who turned up and it was a great blessing to also welcome people via the internet as we live streamed the service on Facebook. People from Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Romania, the USA,and the UK were among some of the countries who joined us this way. We also had our good friends and colleagues Ildikó and Julia join us in person from Budapest. Thank you ladies for making the trip from Budapest to be with us!
We sang a number of traditional Christmas hymns such as ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O come all ye faithful’. We particularly enjoyed a solo of ‘Go tell it on the mountain’ by our friend and missionary colleague Sarah Berta-Somogyi. Sarah is a missionary with the Lutheran church and it is through her hard work and contacts that we are able to use the Lutheran church facilities for free. Thank you Sarah!
Many others helped of course. Thanks to András, Gwen, Kathy, Yoli, Katica, Attila, Zsolti and Zsuzsi!
Christ is Risen!!!!
Today I had the privilege of speaking in Mallow Street Gospel Hall in Limerick, Ireland. It was a blessing to spend time worshipping the Lord in my ‘home’ church surrounded by family and friends. I preached on the need of the church to wake and arise at this crucial time in history. Kathy also spoke on our ministry work in Hungary.
Myself and my four ladies have had a short (but very needed) holiday in Ireland. A day trip to Lehinch beach was the highlight for me even though it was very windy and cold!
We enjoyed lots of great food, a trip to the cinema to see the movie Risen and plenty of shopping!!! Have any of you ever noticed how amazingly good women are at shopping? 😉
It was good to be home in Ireland and we look forward to going home to Hungary tomorrow. Please continue to pray for travel mercies!
Happy Easter friends, He is Risen!!!
Easter plans
Easter Sunday, March 27th, we will have the privilege of speaking in Mallow Street Gospel Hall in Limerick. If you are there we would love to see you and chat for a while.
The whole family will be there and we are excited to worship together with our friends.
As we will be in Ireland for only a few days we will not be available to speak elsewhere. Sorry! However if your church, Bible study group etc would like us to visit then just drop me a note and we will work something out for the next time. We are keen to have as many people as possible praying for the ministry work in Hungary and in the Middle-East.
2016, the year ahead.
2016 is shaping up to be a great year! We have so much planned already and are excited about what the Lord has planned for us this coming year. We want to share a few of our planned trips and ministry events with you and ask you to partner with us in prayer for this year.
In January we hope to be in Denmark for a few days as we celebrate the wedding of a wonderful Christian young couple. I was very honoured that they asked me to do a pre-wedding blessing for them over the Christmas period. Please pray for Erin and Jonathan as they prepare for married life together!
In March I hope to visit with Free Methodist church leaders in Belgium and France and serve them by helping to further equip these men and women of God and hopefully be an encouragement to them also.
Come the Summer we hope to have a team of eight people join us from America who will serve by helping run a five day evangelistic camp at the orphanage we serve in on a weekly basis. In June I hope to travel to Ukraine to help equip church leaders there and God willing we will travel to Ireland in August for a few weeks to talk at churches and have a vacation.
We will also continue with our Bible study group and weekly ministry at a local orphanage in Győr. Kati and I will also continue our twice monthly trips to Budapest (she will continue teach English to social workers and I will teach English at a family help center for a few weeks). We also hope to continue our work supporting and helping the needy of Győr and we are actively trying to gain access to a local center for the homeless. Kati has already made good contact with them and we believe the Lord is opening this door before us.
We are grateful for your prayers and support and are thankful that we can call you our partners in ministry! We pray that you are all blessed in 2016!
Upcoming trip to Ireland
Katica and I (Gerry) are planning on being in Ireland for a few days in October. It will be a whirlwind tour from October 16th to 21st, which will see us in Dublin, Limerick, Laois and Monaghan. On the morning of Sunday the 18th we have a family event but that evening I will drive to Monaghan to visit a church of Congolese believers who are now resident in Ireland. Whilst there I look forward to being blessed by them and hopefully being a blessing to them also.
I’m booked fully for the 16th and 18th, however if you would like me to visit your church, Bible study group, ladies group etc I would be delighted to do so on either Saturday the 17th, Monday the 19th or Tuesday the 20th. Just send me an email or comment on this post and we will work details out.
