Pécs, Hungary Missions Update

Balázs & Leah & Joelle Stanzel January 2007

Our Family
This month we experienced the peaks of amazing joy as parents as well as the valleys of utter frustration as we learn how to love and care for our little girl. She continues to do well, gaining lots of weight, loving to eat, smile and roll over. She loves to hear Balázs play the mandolin and definitely prefers that to the guitar or banjo. We are learning the new balance of marriage and parenting and are enjoying seeing how God enables us to continue to put our marriage as a priority. It certainly is not as easy as before Ellie was born. Please pray for us to have wisdom with balancing our marriage and family and for guidance as parents.

The weather here has finally decided to act like winter after weeks of warmth we are seeing snow and cold. It is still fun for a California girl like Leah to see snow falling and covering everything. Please pray as we travel to Budapest in February for some rest and time with family & friends as well as having Balázs’ cancer check and Ellie’s citizenship appointment at the American embassy.

Ministry
The Lord has worked in astounding ways this month bringing together things that have been in prayer for this church for the past seven years. We stand in awe of how He works in His timing to accomplish what He wills.

The Lord opened a radical door this month as we have been praying for evangelism opportunities for both the church and the college group. We met with a gypsy man who is a fellow believer that just opened the first Christian coffee shop in the city. He was open to allowing us full use of his coffee shop for any evangelical event or really anything the Lord leads us in. We are very excited to see the ways the Lord will use this both in the church body and to reach the community. Our first event will be a concert with Balázs and three other guys from the church on the 24th of February. Please pray for the church to be a part of the evangelism through sharing during the evening and passing out fliers ahead of time to invite the community. Please pray for Balázs as he writes music for the concert and for he and the other band members as they practice. Also, please pray for our relationship with the owner and for the future opportunities here.

The college group had some great times of fellowship and growth this month as we continued through 1 Samuel. The Lord continues to be faithful with His Word as Balázs teaches and is challenging the group in their personal walks with Him. We had a fellowship dinner before one of the studies and had a great time eating and just hanging out with each other. Please pray that more students would come to the prayer meetings as we feel it is critical to spend time in prayer before taking these students out who are eager to evangelize.

Balázs was able to teach for three weeks this month as the pastor was away. He was challenged as there were many difficult topics in the passages he taught but was amazed at the Lord’s grace in making clear His message for the church. Every 3rd Thursday home group Balázs leads the group in a night of prayer and worship. This last time was very special as the Lord led His church closer to Himself. Please pray for this next Thursday as we seek the Holy Spirit as a group. Please also pray for Balázs as he continues to lead the worship twice a week as well as for him as he teaches at the Catholic school.

Please pray for him to be enabled as he teaches guitar lessons weekly. Leah was able to meet with some of the girls this month for discipleship. She is encouraged as the girls are more and more honest but challenged as she is ever aware of her not being able to help but needing the Lord to give wisdom for how to handle the various things that come up. Please pray for her to have wisdom in dealing with these women and for them to grow in Jesus and be more aware of His love and grace for them.

Also, please pray for Leah to resume studying and to be diligent in learning the language.