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Many of you are aware of the wonderful ministry taking place in Hungary that we are involved in, With two church groups (one in Budapest and the other in Győr), I (Gerry) am honoured to lead this ministry. However, it all takes money and that means we need your support! We are not asking for you to support us but rather to support the church itself.

So what do our churches in Hungary do? Bible studies, counselling, ministry to children, high schoolers, University students and families, church services in prisons and work with the homeless are just some of the areas we serve in. We are seeing communities and lives transformed by the love of Christ. Although we currently have two churches in Hungary, we connect to a number of ministries across both Hungary and Romania. For a relatively small group, the Lord has given us a huge territory and blessed us with many connections into ministry. Actually, we struggle to meet the demand. We struggle to finance everything the Lord is calling us to be involved in.

Our vehicles are old, yet we need to drive a couple of hours each way to hold services at the largest prison for women in Hungary. What a blessing to be able to reach those who are currently imprisoned! We desire to offer good quality training for those in pastoral development but hosting teachers requires finances as does the paying of bills for the facilities we use. We reach women who have been abused and have left their homes, prevent children from being forced into prostitution and human trafficking, yet to do all this we need to ensure that staff are paid. We need you! The smallest of gifts will make a difference and enable us to reach more and more people with the Gospel. Perhaps consider skipping one meal this month and using the time of fasting

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Photo by Wendy van Zyl on Pexels.com

to pray for the church in Hungary and give the money you would have paid for the meal to support this minstry.

See the following video if you would like more information. The end of the video contains a link where you can give. I urge you to consider giving to the development of the church in Hungary.    https://vimeo.com/371887075

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I had my final trip of 2019 when I visited our partner ministry of Vis de Copil in Arad, Hungary. It was a time of meeting friends new and old and an opportunity to connect with a lot of people.

This time I had the pleasure of meeting musicians Beki Hemingway and her husband Randy Kerkman. They live in Dundalk, Ireland and travel to various places to bring a mix of gospel/country/rock music to help people turn their attention to God through the medium of music. They were both in Romania serving at Vis de Copil for ten days or so which is something they do every year. We all had the pleasure of sharing peeling potatoes and stacking gift boxes for the needy! You can find more about them on bekihemingway.com Those of you in Ireland may be interested to note that they are willing to travel to your church or home group and serve through the ministry of music.

After a busy year of travel, I am excited to be at home now until February 1st when I travel to visit ministry in Russia. Prayers for a blessed Christmas season and time to rest and enjoy family is appreciated!

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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.

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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.

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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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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!

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Please not that this newsletter has been sent to a number of churches that support us. The newsletter itself has been slightly modified for the internet.

Dear Friends,
A big Hello! from Győr, Hungary. After an unusually warm Autumn, the weather has recently turned very cold and we expect to see snow soon. We have really enjoyed this wonderful weather and are already looking forward to Spring 2019.

We are so pleased to report that ministry in Győr has grown incredibly well this last year and we are seeing so much fruit! Our many years of faithfulness and hardwork are being blessed by the Lord! Our local church has grown, as have all the related ministry programs. We have more and more people coming to worship regularly and they are also bringing friends and family with them. MOPS (mothers of pre-schoolers) is growing significantly, with up to ten young mums present on each occassion. The ladies coffee morning has had as many as twelve women present when they meet and is helping to bring women closer to God and to have a place where they can discuss significant issues in their lives. We now have two Bible study groups, one in English and one in Hungarian and are grateful that God is raising up local leaders who are taking responsibility to lead. Our high school program has as many as twenty five teenagers coming together! We also continue our ministry in the orphanage and had a great VBS there in July. We also continue to offer counselling for those experiencing marriage difficulties and for others who are struggling with problems, such as mental health issues. I am pleased to report that one couple I counselled with this year have experienced the healing power of Christ and are living in marriage together rather than in divorce! God is good! Please pray for wisdom and strenght as we meet and counsel people who are stuggling in life.

I was blessed to travel this year. Although I didn’t make it to Ireland (which I am sad about), I did make it to England. I was pleased to play a part in encouraging a partnership between Garstang Free Methodist Church and our work in Ukraine. The church in Garstang is helping to financially and prayerfully support this ministry in Rivne, Ukraine, which involves alcohol and drug rehabilitation. Contact me if you would like to know more!

I also traveled to Romania with a mission team from the Győr church we lead. Five of us worked with the homeless and the poorest of the poor. We peeled vegetables, played games with kids, did handcrafts and offered medical care. Our church raised money and we were able to stock the shelves and freezer of the ministry centre for a whole month. We also saw the need for a new washing machine (the old one was falling apart) and our local church (along with a sister church in Spain), have raised the funds to buy a new washing machine. Other travels included preaching and teaching in Belgium, studying church planting in Greece and education and leadership meetings in Spain.

We also continue to be very involved in figthing human-traffiking. We were involved in rescusing a young woman we know from a dangerous situation in Greece back in April. It was complex, with numerous people involved, including the Greek police, the Hungarian embassy in Greece and others. After a short stay in hospital in Greece she was returned to Hungary, where both Kathy and I visited her and her infant child. We prayed with her, gave her advice and promised to help her as we could. She promptly went back into a former dangerous and unhealthy relationship. Much of ministry is discouraging and frustrating. Pray with us for this young woman ‘L’.

Support is becoming an issue for us. Unfortunately I just received an e-mail from a wonderful pastor who is leading a church that has been one of our main supporting contributors. The church has run into a difficult financial situation and therefore has decided to stop supporting us. We absolutely understand that finances are often a difficult area for many churches, however, without your support this work will struggle to carry on. Don’t misunderstand, we are in no immediate danger of stopping this ministry, but if we lost another large supporter it would have a significant impact on our ability to serve. Would you or your church be willing to commit to us? Perhaps you know of someone seeking a way of supporting God’s work? If so, let them know about our ministry.

Our three daughters are all well. All three are in University now. Csilla is studying social education and is due to receieve her degree in May of 2019. Zsuzsi is also studying social education and separately she is studying theology for a second degree. Katica started studying physiotherapy in September. Both Csilla and Zsuzsi live at home but Katica has moved to Pécs in the south of Hungary (about a four hour drive) and we miss seeing her every day! Zsuzsi is engaged and her wedding is scheduled for April 13th of 2019. She is engaged to Zsolt Mecséri, a wonderful young man who came to Christ through our ministry in Győr. Zsolt recently finished his University degree and is an engineer.

We are grateful that you are our partners in this ministry and without your prayer and financial support, none of this would be possible. Please feel free to write to us, ask us more questions and send us encouraging notes We enjoy hearing from you!

Enjoy some photos from ministry this past year$

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The term ‘Lest we forget’ is often used in reference to war and the loss of life. Here I use it to remember the refugees who have been forced to leave their homes in Iraq and Syria. Last week I had the opportunity and privilege to meet a number of these people who are now living in Amman, Jordan.

The evangelical Christian community in Amman are actively reaching out to these people and showing the love of Christ. One such church is the Marka Philadelphia Nazarene Church. This church provides love, friendship, medical care, education and skills training to refugees and their families. Please see some photos. You will see some examples of beautiful woodwork the refugees have made (which are for sale along with other items such as soaps and jewellery). You will also see drawings that children have done, showing their lives under ISIS and now.

I cannot express how amazing a job that this church is doing amongst the refugee community! Some Christians have been very unwilling to help/accept refugees (even though Christ was one as an infant). Well, now you have an opportunity to make a real difference! Shop from this church and support them and the refugees in a positive way.

For further details see:  http://www.facebook.com/MarkaChurchNProject/

Also see the site  http://www.asenseofcommunity.org to learn more about this ministry and how you can support it.

For purchasing goods:  http://www.shopwithamission.com and click on Jordan.

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Recently we have been praying and hoping that the Lord would send some others to join us in ministry in Gyor. As ministry grows and changes we need help and are simply unable to do more. We have some great local people who help with various different ministries, but we really could do with a missionary/missionary couple or missionary family to partner with us. Could that be you? Or perhaps you know someone who may be interested? Here is a list of areas that we need help in:

  1. Expanding ministry to orphans (we have a desire to see this work grow)
  2. Leading Bible studies (we have two weekly)
  3. Helping with worship and/or preaching
  4. Starting an English language club
  5. Helping with ladies coffee morning or starting a group for men
  6. Pastoral care
  7. Hosting visitors and teams
  8. Whatever else the Lord puts on your heart!

If you might be interested, please contact me via the contact form. Looking forward to hearing from you!

 

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The following video is a report from the team that recently joined us in ministry at the orphanage in Győr where we serve on a weekly basis. The team were with us in Hungary for nine days and served at the orphanage for five days. I hope you find the video interesting and informative!