Balázs and Leah Stanzel

Our Family
Ellie continues to be a great source of joy for us as we watch her grow more and more beautiful each day. She is a big girl for sure! She weighs over 14 pounds already. Smiling and laughing take up most of her time and she loves to chew on her hands (she tries to get the whole thing in there). Please pray for us to have wisdom with balancing our marriage and family and for guidance as parents.

Our trip to Budapest was very fun as we shared Ellie with Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles who had never seen her. We also spent time with friends and took care of business. Ellie was not granted American citizenship as we could not prove the time Leah spent in America but are waiting for some documents and will submit those. Please pray for the paperwork to come and for the embassy to accept the documents and provide her citizenship. We were also able to share Ellie with some of the doctors and nurses who told Balázs he would not be able to have children. They rejoiced in what a miracle God has performed. It was a great encouragement to these people who see death daily that God is so good and loving towards His children. We are still awaiting the blood and CT results from Balázs cancer check but the doctor feels everything continues to be completely healthy after 3 years…Praise the Lord!


Ministry
The Lord certainly does work in mysterious ways! A little over 9 months ago we finished bible college, moved to Pécs, and began to minister alongside the pastor and his wife. This past month, the Lord has called them on to pastor at the bible college and from there their hearts are to begin a work in Bosnia. The pastor asked Balázs to accept the pastorate of the church beginning in May. We sought the Lord and felt that this was His hand moving us to accept and our decision was confirmed by the church elders who agreed this was the Lord moving. The pastor informed the church and everyone was very supportive of us. Please pray for us as we embark on this new road, for the church as we transition, and for the pastor and his wife as they close doors here and move on.

We held the evangelism concert at the coffee shop and were amazed once again at the Lord’s faithfulness. The song writing and rehearsals went well for the band but the day of the concert two of the guys were sick and yet the Lord gave them strength to play and the concert was great. Leah shared the gospel and her testimony and the coffee shop was filled twice surprising even the owner. The church body invited people they would not normally invite to church and we were blessed to see them step in faith. We would like to continue these events in the coming months. Please pray for the church body to lead these events in the future and for continued evangelism opportunities within the city.

Balázs began to minister at the prison this month and was very blessed to find out that the prison will allow him to be both an individual and a group counselor. His first sessions went well as he began to form relationships with the inmates and staff. Please pray for wisdom and Spirit-filled teaching, for the salvation of the adults and kids he comes in contact with, and for relationships to grow.

Prayer has been on our hearts a lot this month and the Lord is moving in this area also. Balázs was able to attend a prayer meeting at the University campus to pray for the unsaved students in the city. These prayer meetings will continue weekly. On March 14th there will be a city wide prayer meeting with all of the Christian churches in the city to unite and pray for the lost and hurting in this city. Please pray for unity among the leaders, for one heart and for love to transcend at these meetings.

We continue to see the college students growing as we study 1 Samuel and are weekly challenged to spur the students to follow Christ with complete abandon. During the prayer times and individual discipleship, we are encountering more and more difficult concerns from the students. Please pray that we would have wisdom as we meet with these students, and for the Holy Spirit to guide us as we counsel them and for Balázs as he teaches.

We are becoming increasingly aware of the need for the church to have a permanent facility for church services and mid-week activities. Please pray for the Lord to lead us to the right place and for financial provision.

Also, as the Lord is directing us to be foster parents, we need to purchase a home in order to have foster kids. Through some crazy circumstances and relationships, the Lord lead us to a village outside of Pécs where housing is quite cheap and the mayor is very supportive and helpful. Please pray for guidance, timing, and provision from the Lord and help as we seek housing loans and government resources. This next month, we will be hosting an outreach team from the Bible college for the weekend. We are thinking of having some nights with just the guys and girls for fellowship and encouragement but we are unsure at this point. Please pray for wisdom with how to best utilize this team as well as for the practical details like housing, etc. Also next month there is an evangelism conference hosted by the Baptist church that we will be a part of. Please pray for our relationships with this church.

Please keep our other ongoing ministries in prayer:
-Monthly church fellowship potluck
-Balázs as he leads the worship twice a week and his teaching at the Catholic school and teaching guitar lessons.
-For Leah as she studies the language (we are praying for a teacher or course for her).

Chris Zurbach's February update from Ukraine

Greetings!!!

Did the ground hog see his shadow or not? I missed catching that bit of information on the news and am wondering how long winter is going to last because it finally arrived to Ukraine and the word on the Babuska corner is that it’s going to be a long one… virtually no spring. Hoping that they’re wrong but experience proves that they are probably not.

Well there is a lot happening here in Chernihiv as we prepared this past month to move our Sunday services to a museum located not far from our church building. We held our first Sunday service there this past Sunday and it went really well as our church body was really excited to take this step forward in renting a larger space. Along with having more space for adults we are able to also have a Sunday School as there is a large hall that the museum said we could use for children’s ministry. We are very excited to be able to have a place for kids to be a part of the church on Sunday’s. Please pray for us as we begin developing a Sunday School and raising up teachers to teach the kids. Pray that the kids from Krepost kids club would come with their families to church as parents have expressed interest in coming.

Kids Club – God is truly blessing our kids club as we have a group of about 15 kids that come on a continual basis. It is amazing to see them beginning to understand more about the love of God. Please pray for our group that serves there that God would continue to unite us and give us wisdom as we begin preparing for summer and all the different festivals/camps that we want to do.

School Outreach - We truly have an amazing open door at one of the local schools here as we teach English there every week through Bible lessons. We are seeking to get permission to show the movie from a few years back, “Miracle Maker”. We want to show it in Ukrainian the week before Easter at the school. We also continue to meet with the teachers and some advanced English students helping prepare them for the English Olympics. Woohoo

Church Prayer Needs – We are planning on meeting together with the gals in the church every Friday in the month of March to get together and do some topical Bible Studies regarding issues that they deal with everyday. The guys will be meeting together simultaneously too. One interesting fact about Chernihiv is that it is known as the city with the most women. In the 70’s it is said that women outnumbered men 10:1. Now the figure is about 6:1. Our church demographically represents the city as we pretty much have a church of young women. All to say the girls are very excited to get together and discuss women’s issues. Please pray that God would give us wisdom in planning and preparing.

Thank you again for praying for this ministry here. I ask that you would also pray for me as I will be going to another city, Rjischiv, at the end of the month to do a Bible Study for their women’s group. Please pray that I would be able to prepare well in Ukrainian and speak clearly. I’ll also be taking a group of gals to go down and do worship in Priluki which will be fun. So please pray for safe travels and encouraging times with the other churches.

Tom Stowe Update for February!

Tom Stowe has updated his blog. Make sure to read up on God's work down in Brazil.

http://stowe.wordpress.com/