September update from Leah and Baláz

Our Family
Thank you for your prayers regarding Balázs' visa. We were interviewed by a very nice guy who gave us a 10 year multi-entry visa!! With that, our trip plans have been finalized and we will be leaving for the states on November 20th for a week in Houston and then onto California for a few weeks. We will spend a week in Idaho and then be back in California until January 2nd. We look forward to seeing all of you then. We also had a great time visiting family and a few friends while we were in Budapest.

Balázs' mom came for a few days this month and we all had a great time visiting. She especially enjoyed having some Ellie time and being able to watch her for us while we had some meetings for the church.

Ellie continues to amaze us. She began taking three and four steps this past week and will be fully walking soon it seems. She is a huge source of joy and an amazing tool the Lord uses to teach us daily about ourselves and our relationship with Him.

Church
We began the process for registering the church this month and are in the paperwork process. Please pray for us to have wisdom with the paper work and for the officials at the court to approve all of the documents.

This past month during our monthly church potluck, we had a discussion with the church about ministry within and outside the church and the direction the church is going with missions. The time was very good as we heard people's perspectives from the church and were able to share honestly with them. Please pray as we monthly have these types of discussions with the church after the potlucks.

The students returned in full force this past month and it was great to reconnect with students from last year as well as welcome some new students to our group. Many of the students had difficult times while they were away, please pray that the Lord would use His Word to restore them and to use the body to minister to their needs. Also, some of the new students that are coming do not know Jesus as their Savior, please pray that the Lord would reveal Himself to these young adults. Please pray for Balázs as he teaches this group and for both of us as we disciple these students.

Our first women's bible study was great! The Lord used the time to build friendships and accountability as well as showing us through His Word how to establish Jesus as the center of our lives. Many women shared their struggles in this area and the ladies were all encouraged by one another. Nearly every women told Leah that the small prayer groups were a huge blessing for them as well. Please pray for our next meeting in two weeks that Leah would have wisdom in leading this group and for one of the elders wives as she teaches this time.

Balázs began the preparation for the worship team bible study and will meet with the guys this week. Please pray as he prepares for these times, as he teaches, and for the group to see God's design for the worship in our church. We began pre-marital counseling this past month with one of the young couples in the church who desire to be married and we will be beginning with the other couple this month as well. Please pray that the Lord would teach us and strengthen our marriage as we teach this and for the Lord to allow these young couples to see His true design and blessings of marriage.

Thank you for your prayers regarding Balázs teaching at the Catholic school. He has decided to teach through the bible again there this year. Please pray for Balazs to be faithful as he teaches this young child. Please also pray for Balázs as he weekly prepares for the mid-week bible study and the Sunday service to be led by the Lord and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit for the leading of the church.

Outreach

We have a team coming from the bible college this month to encourage the church. We will meet together on Friday evening for games and fellowship. Saturday we will do practical work and Sunday we will have our monthly potluck together with the team. Please pray for the team to be an encouragement to the church as we spend time together with them.

This month was better for Balázs at the prison. He keeps his lesson and meeting time with the guys shorter which allows the guys to have an easier time paying attention. Please pray for Balázs to be able to minister the Word with boldness and clarity and to have an increasing amount of love for these guys.

Update from Tom Stowe

Hey everyone, we have some recent news from Tom Stowe:

Hello everyone! I know it has been a long time since I last updated our blog, but we have been very busy with a recent outreach, retreat, move, and classes at the Bible College. It has been a little stressful, a lot of fun and really busy. But we are now all situated back at the Bible College and are really excited about everything going on here. Please check out our blog at the link below. Also please pray for us for our scouting trip to the Northeast the end of October to a city called João Pessoa, where we plan to start a church next year. If you remember it was in our last update we sent out. Anyways, thanks for all your support and prayers! Adn as usual, feel free to write us anytime, we love hearing from you all.
In Christ,
Tom and Lu
http://stowe.wordpress.com

Balázs & Leah & Joelle Stanzel from Pécs, Hungary

Our Family
We were very blessed this month by a visit from some good friends of ours from the bible college and one of their brother's and his wife (who are on a few months mission trip around the world). The time was a tremendous blessing and encouragement to us both. Ellie is 9 months already!! She is trying to walk (along everything and with help form us). We found out this month she also has anemia (Leah does also) and has to take some iron drops that make her stomach hurt pretty badly. She also enjoys testing limits and seeing how bratty she can be (we thought this didn't come until she was 2??), but we are having fun with it. Please pray for her stomach as she deals with this medicine, and for us to have wisdom with her eating, sleep, and discipline.

We are traveling Budapest this week to visit with Balazs' dad and his siblings and to apply for his visa to visit the states. We hope to be on the central coast for the month of December. Please pray for our trip to Budapest and for the embassy to grant Balazs his visa.

Church
As the summer comes to a close, we look forward to a changing city with the influx of nearly 60,000 university students. We are excited to have our students return and to welcome new faces. Many of our students are English majors and want to reach out to the nearly 20,000 international students that study here. Please pray for the Lord to guide as as this new year
starts with the students. A couple of the young adult guys in our church want to begin a teenage group for the few teenage boys in our church who are currently do not have a separate meeting. Please pray that the Lord would provide time for this and wisdom to Balazs and the guys leading this. In two weeks we will have our first ladies bible study. Thank you for
your prayers as we have seen the Lord really bring together Leah and the elder's wives in preparing for this. We have decided to have guided discussion time followed by small group prayer and accountability groups. Please pray as we prepare and begin this that the women would come wanting to be changed and that we would see Jesus in this above all else. Balázs will also be beginning the bible study with the worship team as they look into what the Word says about worship. Please pray as he prepares for these times, as he teaches, and for the group to see God's design for the worship in our church. Two young couples in the church desire to be married and we will be beginning marriage counseling with each of them.

Please pray for us to be able to lead this as it will be our first time and we want to help these couples as they enter into marriage. As fall begins again, Balazs was asked to teach the bible at the Catholic school again twice a week. Please pray as we seek the Lord for direction as there are many things to consider in making this decision. We continue to have monthly potlucks with the church. Last month we BBQ'd hamburgers and everyone was quite impressed with real "American" hamburgers. It was a great time and we always look forward to these times of fellowship. Please pray for Balázs as he weekly prepares for the mid-week bible study and the Sunday service to be led by the Lord and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit for the leading of the church.

Outreach
This month was difficult for Balazs at the prison. The inmates were not attentive and were mocking the Word. Please pray for Balazs to be able to minister the Word with boldness and clarity and to have an increasing amount of love for these guys.

Other
Leah had a break from Hungarian lessons for a couple months as her teacher was away. Please pray that she would be able to jump back in where she left off and that she would be faithful to study during the week.

News from Kagarlyk, Ukraine

Greetings from Kagarlyk!

Summer has come to an end here in Ukraine but instead of the usual peace of mind that we gain from that experience we are faced with a busy schedule. I guess that makes up for a mellow summer. Let me bring you up to date on our summer and what is ahead of us.

This summer our church stepped back from the usual full throttle/ make every moment count/ do as much as we possibly can schedule that we have had the last couple summers. We felt that God had other things for us and that this year we should focus more on personal ministry. Instead of organizing concerts we just sat in public places to play music and talk to people. Instead of soccer tournaments a couple people made some portable soccer goals and have started once a week to head out to the school fields with their friends to play pick up games of soccer. Instead of a huge vacation bible school the children's ministry decided to spend more time with the kids that come to church and visit them in their homes and now that summer is over instead of being tired out from a long summer they are ready for the school year and preparing to expand the children's ministry. I don't think this change in ministry direction will be permanent but it has been good for our church to move from an event oriented way of looking at evangelism to a personal way of looking at evangelism.

Our role in all this was really low key and I spent most of my time doing more "pastoral" stuff like meeting with people and preparing bible studies as pastor Wayne and his family were in Australia for most of the summer.

Now that Wayne is back he is going full throttle with the bio-diesel production and over the summer they set up equipment to produce foam blocks. (Foam blocks, the translation of what they are called in Ukrainian, are cement building blocks that have a structure similar to foam so they are insulated and better for building than regular bricks.) The mushroom farm is now completely replaced by the block production which stands to be just as profitable a venture as mushroom farming, a lot less risky, and it offers more stable work hours for the workers. The goal in these enterprises remains the same: provide jobs for people in our town so they can work in Kagarlyk and not go to Kiev, teach Christian business ethics and in doing so build a platform to transform the business community in Kagarlyk. Please pray for these enterprises that God would continue to lead Wayne and that God would use them to transform the lives of the workers and the business community.

This week our church starts back up many of the ministries that take a break for summer. Computer classes, English lessons, and dance/aerobics are the main ones. Please pray for these ministries that God would use them to bring young people to Himself.

Coming up at the end of this month is a conference/retreat in Chernigov. It will be a small gathering of 5 or 6 of the smaller churches in the Calvary sphere in Ukraine. The theme of the conference will "The Church" and Danny will be teaching one of the main sessions. Our worship team will be leading worship for one of the sessions as well which is a huge step for our worship team. Please pray that the conference would be a time of growth and encouragement for all who go, and pray for Danny as he teaches.

Check out more of what we have been up to at our blog and also at our church website.

Thank you for your prayers,

Daniel and Annaliese Foote

Update from Tom Stowe

Some exciting news from Tom Stowe this month. Just click this image to read it.

Pécs, Hungary Mission's Update: Balázs & Leah & Joelle Stanzel

Our Family

We celebrated our two year anniversary this month. It's hard to believe that it has only been two years because the Lord has blessed us so much in that time, we often feel like it has been much longer. Marriage is a definite blessing and we are so thankful to the Lord for giving us one another. Ellie is 8 months now and doing amazing. She got two teeth this month and they are sharp! She loves standing up on everything and walking along. She is a real source of joy and laughs in our house. We have no idea where she got it but she is a stubborn little one:) Please pray for wisdom and guidance as we learn how to love our child, discipline her, and teach her who the Lord is.

Church

In an answer to prayers, we were able to move the church to it's new location in a kindergarten. There is space for the children's ministry, an outdoor play area, and we can even have our monthly potlucks at the church now. It is a huge blessing, thank you for your prayers. Several people from our church attended the Southern Hungary conference with the theme of genuine faith. We were all encouraged as we heard teachings, fellowshipped, and sought the Lord together. Thank you for your prayers for Balász as he coordinated the worship for the conference. It went very well and he enjoyed leading on a couple of occasions with people from our church. In response to a need in the church for women's ministry, we will be starting a women's bible study beginning next month. Please pray for Leah to be led by the Lord as she leads this, for direction in teaching, wisdom with the women, and for encouraging others to also lead the group. Balázs will also be starting a bible study with the worship team as they look into what the Word says about worship. Please pray as he prepares for these times, as he teaches, and for the group to see God's design for the worship in our church. The college group continues to meet though many students are away for the summer. We look forward to their return in September and as the Lord continues to bless this time together in our home on Wednesday nights. Please pray for Balázs as he weekly prepares for this bible study and the Sunday service to be led by the Lord and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit for the leading of the church.

Outreach

While we were at the conference (which is at the Bible college), we were very happy to be able to lead two teams (one was a team from CC Irvine who were doing a VBS for the conference and the other was the Vision for Life students currently at the Bible college) to Palfa, the mental hospital where we led outreaches to during bible college. We were so encouraged that after a year of not being there the patients remembered us, the songs and most importantly the gospel. We had a great two days there and took Ellie with us, the patients loved her and we all rejoiced together. Some of those that had received Jesus previously are bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in their lives. It was an amazing time.

Balázs was asked to give seminars at the summer conference for MEKDSZ, the large university organization in Hungary. He had a great few days meeting with many different people from all over the country and from many different churches. His seminars were on being double-minded from the book of James. It was a difficult subject but the Lord used it to teach him as well as the students at the camp.

The prison continues to be a challenge and a reward for Balázs as he visits there weekly to teach the bible. The prisoners have asked that he come more frequently or for a longer time. Please pray that the Lord would guide us with this, that the guys would repent and turn toward the Lord, and for Balász as he ministers to these guys.

Other

Leah has gotten to know two of the neighbor ladies who have babies around Ellie's age. Please pray for her Hungarian to be clear, for her as she develops friendships with these women, and for them to see Jesus in our lives.

Update from Tom Stowe

Hey everyone, I just updated the blog with some new information about our
building search. Check it our and please pray for us as we search. And
while you are all enjoying a beautiful summer, we are pretty cold here in
our Curitiba Winter. So, I put a couple of pics of us here.

In Christ,

Tom

The Blog:
http://stowe.wordpress.com/

News from Kagarlyk

Hi everyone!

Summer is in full swing here in Ukraine with the thunderstorms, humidity, heat, bugs, and bright wonderful sunshine. This summer is different though because it is not packed crazy full of a million things to do. It is kind of weird.

I've been spending a lot of time studying and meeting with people these last few weeks. With Wayne in Australia I teach each Sunday and we've been having bible studies/discussions every other Sunday evening. We've been going through the Gospel of Luke on Sunday mornings and talking about what a church is and does in the evenings.

Liese has been leading worship quite a bit, but it's been easier now that she is in a support role as others are able to lead.

This weekend (6th-8th) there will be a Franklin Graham festival in Kiev. They have been planning it for three years and it will be huge. A group from our church is going to help in whatever way they can, and the youtha group is going to go on Saturday. Please join with us and Christians all over Ukraine in praying that God would use this event to draw many to Himself.

Next week just about all the young people in our church are going to "Camp 120" a Christian camp on an island in the Dnipro river. It is a 5 day camp hosted by some missionaries in the town of Rzhyshchiv which is about 10 miles away from us. This is the third year they've been doing it and it has been a great thing for the youth. The youth group decided that the camp would be a good thing to invite their friends to, so out of about 30 people that are going to the camp from Kagarlyk 17 don't come to church. We are praying that at the camp they see more than just a bunch of Christians having fun - that they see Jesus alive in each person.

In a couple days we are going to take a trip up to Chernigov to visit the missionaries up there. While there I hope to spend some time with Jake Knotts talking about book publishing and possibilities for producing short Christian videos for TV.

That's the news from Kagarlyk, Ukraine. Hope you all have a great Independence Day,

Daniel and Annaliese Foote

June update from Leah and Belazs

Our Family
We have had a great time this month as it is summer and that means lots of hiking, free concerts in the city, bar-b-ques, and swimming! As a family, we were definitely made for the outdoors and God has blessed us beyond measure with the city He has called us to. We love it here! Ellie is seriously on the move now…crawling everywhere, getting into everything, she is even standing up on things and taking steps! She loves to eat and gets very upset if someone is eating food in front of her and won’t share. Swimming is by far her favorite activity, in the lake or at the pool, she was definitely made for the water.

Praise the Lord and thank you for your prayers for Balázs’ sister and sister in law. They are both past the first half of their pregnancies and both babies are doing well. Both girls are off of bed rest but are still not allowed to work. The Lord is faithful indeed. Please continue to pray for them and the babies. Also, we will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary at the end of this month.

Church
The Lord is continuously showing us and defining for us the new roles we are in…it is good and
challenging at the same time. We are almost daily realizing how absolutely unable we are to do this ministry but we are at the same time encouraged that God is able and He gives us strength, wisdom and help as we need. Please pray for us to cling to Him for all we need each day.

This past month has been defined by nearly daily meeting with different people from the college group or the church. It is cool to see how God is using these times of discipleship to minister to the individual needs and questions of our body. Please pray that we would have discernment, wisdom, and offer the Word as the answer for all to stand upon and hold to.

The college group is doing well, even though many have left for the summer, many remain and we are continuing to study David’s life, now in 2 Samuel. During the final exam period we had the students over for a “study break” with brownie sundaes and we watched End of the Spear, the movie about the Indian tribe in Ecuador where 5 missionaries were killed some years ago. It was a great film and a great night.

Please pray for the students who have gone home for the summer, most to unbelieving families, that they would be remain close to the Lord and shine His love to their families and friends at home.

Outreach
Balázs is weekly ministering in a youth prison and teaching the Word to the boys there. He is having a great time but is very burdened for these boys, as apart from placing their trust in Jesus their lives truly have no hope. Please pray for these boys salvation, their futures and for Balázs as he needs wisdom and love to reach these youth. Also, please pray for the church to be involved with the boys through prayer.

Other
We attended the Eastern European Mission’s conference this past week and were beyond blessed by our time there. The teachings were great, with the theme of “We would see Jesus.” Personally, we were reminded of the centrality of love to the gospel and to our lives as believers. We were challenged to abide in Jesus as many of the speakers referred to John 15:5 where Jesus reminds us that without Him we can do nothing. The fellowship with friends from many Eastern European countries was also a great joy for us. Overall, we left feeling refreshed and encouraged.

Upcoming month
This month is the Southern Hungary conference for all of the Calvary Chapels in Southern Hungary. Balázs is responsible for coordinating all of the worship. Please pray for him to have wisdom and to be able to organize this before next week. Balázs was asked to speak at Hungary’s university ministry’s (similar to Campus Crusade) summer conference. Please pray that the Lord would give him a clear message to share.

Check out our blog for current updates, prayer requests, and pictures… http://www.leahstanzel.vox.com/

whose reading?

we just revamped the "look" of this site and are in the process of adding a lot more. At this point I'm just curious whose reading this thing.
so, could you just leave a very fast "I am" post...along with your name...thats it!!
no email address
no request for your mother maiden name
no need for your home address

JUST YOUR NAME! (we're just interested in whose reading this!)

Balázs & Leah & Joelle Stanzel in Pécs, Hungary

Our Family

The Lord continues to pour out His love on us as we daily experience His gentleness as He guides us through many changes. Ellie is doing great! She is 6 months now and is ready to be on the move! She rolls everywhere and is beginning to crawl. She takes a lot more watching now and continues to bring a tremendous amount of joy to us daily. We ask for your prayers as we are daily humbled by the responsibility God has entrusted us with in this little girl. Please pray for us to have wisdom with each new stage that comes. We had a couple of friends from Germany as well as a family of 5 staying with us this month, and were encouraged by their fellowship. We traveled to Budapest to share with the church there about what God is doing in Pécs as were very blessed by their reception and love for us. We also spent time with friends and family while there and enjoyed our time greatly.

Please pray for both Balazs’ sister and sister-in-law as they are both in the hospital with high-risk pregnancies. They are both in the second trimester and have both been trying to conceive for many years. Please pray the Lord would protect these babies and keep both girls healthy.

Church
Praise the Lord for hearing your prayers! The Lord has allowed us to get another room for toddler/baby care and we have began that ministry this past month. The mother’s have been more than blessed as they are able to hear the teachings now, some for the first time in almost 3 years!! The Lord has also stirred up many in the church to serve in this ministry as well as teachers for the older children…it is amazing to see the Lord move people in response to His desires. Also, we have been seeking a new place to have the church as we have need for a different location. The Lord has now closed the door where we are currently meeting to push us to really pursue this. Of course, as He closes one door He opens an even better one.

We are currently working out a contract to be able to use a kindergarten to have the church in. It is downtown, has the space and rooms we need and will even allow us to have our monthly fellowship potlucks there. We are very excited but please pray for the contract to be worked out as well as for the church in general as these are a lot of changes all at one time.

We are weekly amazed at how the college group continues to grow and mature. The students are hungry for the Word and for living it out in their lives. They come with questions and challenge us as they seek to know how to submit their lives wholly to being obedient to Christ. There are many conferences this summer that we are sending students to, Please pray the Lord would use these conferences to draw the students closer to Himself. Please pray for Balázs and Leah as they individually disciple these students to be full of wisdom and love. Pray for Balázs as he teaches this group and encourages the students to be men and women after God’s own heart. in these areas.

We have a couple of teenage boys who do not really have any covering in the church, they are too old for the kid’s ministry and a bit too young for the adult services. Praise God! One of the guys in the church has a desire to meet with these guys and pour in to their lives. Please pray for him to have time to meet with them and wisdom and direction for these times.

Outreach
We received another outreach team from the bible college this month and had a great time preparing for a women’s day. We had chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels (a first for these Hungarian women!), we made cards and crafts, one of the women shared and we had a great time of fellowship. The men watched the kids during this time and really, we were all very blessed by the day! As a result, we have felt led to have a women’s fellowship every 6 weeks, as many of the women are mother’s and are isolated from fellowship with other believing women. Please pray as Leah heads up this and other women’s ministry events for her to have wisdom and be sensitive to where the Lord want to take these times.

Balázs continues ministering at the prison, it is a challenge every week as he meets with these boys to communicate the Word and principles of life that they have never learned. Please pray for these boys salvation, their futures and for Balázs as he needs wisdom and love to reach these youth. Also, please pray for the church to be involved with the boys through prayer.

Other
A young couple in our church is getting married at the end of the month and has asked Balázs to play the music for the wedding. Please pray that he would have time to practice and for wisdom for writing and learning new songs. Please pray for Balázs and the elders as they deal with some issues due to the transition as well as some issues regarding the worship leader. They need guidance from the Lord with how to handle these things. Balázs will be finishing at the Catholic school next week for the summer break. Please pray for him to remain faithful until the end and to have a fresh heart for this next school year. Leah continues to have a weekly Hungarian lesson but struggles to study during the week. Please pray for her to be disciplined in this and make it a priority.

Upcoming month
We are going to be attending a mission’s/leaders conference this month and will be taking a couple leaders from our church as well. Please pray for this to be a refreshing time and a time for the Lord to encourage us with fresh hearts to be able to pour into the church when we return.

News from Kagarlyk

Hi everyone!

I'll just jump right in and try to bring you up to date with everything that has been going on.

In the end of May we went to a conference for all the Calvary Chapels in Ukraine. The conference is always a good time to see people that we don't get to see very often and just hang out and fellowship. It was good for our church to go and relax, fellowship, and seek God. One young lady that just started coming to our church decided at the conference that she was going to follow God and she went and got baptized during the baptism time.

Last Thursday Liese and I made another trip to Priluki. This trip we were able to see some old friends that we hadn't seen in quite a while. It is good to keep in touch with the church there. Our next trip to Priluki will probably be in July for a purity conference that some of the missionaries in Chernigov are putting on and the Priluki church is hosting. We want to bring a bunch of our youth to it so we'll try to fill up our car and our church van and drive out for a day.

Last week I met with our summer ministry team about what our summer will look like. We feel this year that it is a time to move away from big organized events that are meant to draw people to the church and move toward doing things on a personal level in order to build friendships with people and shine the light of Christ into our city. With that in mind we want to spend time hanging out at the popular hang outs, playing volleyball and soccer, playing music on the street in the evenings, and perhaps starting a home bible study with the goal of having a place to invite people to hang out and study God's word together. Some of the team want to go visit the elderly in the city and either help them in their yards or just sit and talk with them and love them.

So we are not planning any large scale youth activities, vacation bible schools, or anything like that. We will organize a soccer tournament or two but that is about all. This year is not the end of those type of ministries it is just a pause while we do the things that the church should be doing - that is being out in the city and involved in peoples' lives.

Wayne and his family flew to Australia today. They will be gone for two months and during that time I will be pastoring. Please pray for me that God would give me wisdom to lead this church and strength as it looks like there will be a lot to do this summer even though we are not planning any big events.

Liese will be in charge of the worship ministry while Olya is gone. It is a whole different situation than two and a half years ago when we first came. We now have 9 people involved in worship ministry and 3 of them are leaders. So Liese will mainly just be organizing and filling in for people which in and of itself is an answer to our prayers. Please pray for her and please continue to pray for the church here that it would grow closer to Jesus, deeper in its relationship with Jesus, and closer as a body of believers.

That's the news from Kagarlyk, Ukraine. Thank you for your prayers,


Daniel and Annaliese Foote

Update from Tom Stowe

Tom Stowe has some new news on his blog. Check it out!

http://stowe.wordpress.com/

News from Kagarlyk

Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since the last update. I've been updating our blog regularly and I've forgotten to send out e-mail updates.

So here is what has been going on here in Kagy and what we are planning.

Liese and I are still leading worship, I play guitar once a month or so and Liese leads once a month and sings every other week. In a few weeks pastor Wayne and Olya are going to Australia for two months and while they are gone Liese will be leading the worship ministry.

I'm still preaching every other Sunday and right now we are going through the gospel of Luke. I've also been teaching a series of bible studies about the church on Sunday nights. Last fall we started meeting every other Sunday night for fellowship and to talk about the church's vision. After a few months we thought it would be good to have a more in-depth study of what a church is and so I've been teaching those. Please pray for me as Wayne is in Australia this summer because I'll be teaching a lot. Also pray for my Russian - it seems I've been taking steps backward for a couple months now and I'm going to try to start taking lessons again. Oh, and I'm going to start a bible study this summer with a couple young men in the church to study the foundations of our faith.

We (those in our church who want to be part of our summer ministry team) have started to plan what outreaches we will do this summer. It seems like this year we have less time, less people, and less money than in other years so we are praying about how to best focus what we have. Last year's outreaches were really great and everyone who was involved has seen that the fruit that has remained from those events has been in the friendships that were built. So this year we are praying about how to encourage more relationship building and how we can go out to people instead of just inviting them to come to us. We are praying about how to combine the good things that we've done in the past with more personal outreach and it looks like we may do a lot less this year in terms of events but try to be more active in getting to know people as we play soccer, hang out at the popular hangouts, do vacation bible schools, and invite people to youth group and church. Please keep us in prayer that God would lead us.

Since getting our car we've been able to make a trip to Priluki to visit the church there. It was great to see everyone and I got to teach at their Thursday night service. We hope to go out to Priluki about once a month if we can swing it. We have also been up to visit our missionary friends in Chernigov.

This weekend is a conference for all the Calvary Chapels in Ukraine. It is always a good time to see people from other churches that we don't get to see very often and everyone is always encouraged by the fellowship.

That's what is going on with us. Check out our blog for pictures and more on what we have been doing.

Thank you for your prayers and I'll try to send out these updates more often,


Daniel and Annaliese Foote

a new book

Our third book God is the Gospel by John Piper is going to print this Monday. We had some trouble with our first translation and had to completely retranslate the book from scratch, which was a big disappointment. However, I am really pleased with the new translation and very excited about getting the book in hand.

In two weeks there will be a large international Christian book fair in Kiev that we will be taking part in. We are hoping to get the new book out and are thinking now about some marketing methods.

We also decided to print 500 out of 5000 in hard back. Our mission is to print books that are affordable and available and hard back bindings push the price of the book up a lot so we hadn't considered printing hard back. But after seeing how many of our books were wanted by Seminaries and libraries, we realized that there is a need for hard bindings and we are hoping to meet that need with one tenth of our print run. This of course increased the cost of each book by 3.5 grieven (70 cents) which is going to cost us a bit more, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

We would appreciate your prayers that the book would be ready by the 23rd, the first day of the festival.

Chris Zurbach's May update from Ukraine

Greetings!!!
I really was hoping to get this out a bit earlier but I have a good reason for being delayed. We’ve had many guests this past month and a few hours ago I just sent off the last crew. I’ll get to that
towards the end but before that I just want to catch you all up on what has been going on here this past month. I ask that you pray for our church as many of the young people have been going through a really hard time. One gal in our church just lost her Dad as he pretty much
died from alcoholism and got sick suddenly and died. It has been a hard time for her so I ask that you would pray for Marina as she is home most of the time taking care of her Grandma who just had a stroke and now needs 24 hour care. Yesterday we were also informed that a very close friend to everybody in the church just lost her mom. We all knew her mom as she came to church sometimes. It was very unexpected and related to kidney stones. All to say it is a difficult time for many and it would be great if you could be praying forthe young believers here that they would continue to grow in trusting God in all things.

May means holidays here in Ukraine. Last week we celebrated May Day which is a big holiday here and then yesterday was Victory Day. Everything kind of shuts down in Ukraine when there are holidays so it was a bit complicated getting things done but the flip side is that everybody had some days off and we were able to get away as a church and spend the night at a camp in the forest 20 minutes outside of Chernihiv. It was a lot of fun to get together a build a bon-fire that would set California a flame in 2 seconds. No rules here means - Big Big Camp Fires made up of entire trees that the guys cut down. Not too many environmentalist in this
part of the world. Anyways it was a great time for us to be together and eat borsch.

Visitors
I was really blessed to be visited by 3 ladies from California whom I’ve known for a long time. Sherry Stupar, Karen Stump, and Jenny Schlenker came out to visit to just hang out, see what is happening here in Ukraine, and bring me lots of presents. The present part was pretty overwhelming as I didn’t expect the Women’s Group at my church to come through with Costco size amounts of everything. I think I have 8 pounds of Craisins and enough heavy duty aluminum foil to make my own space station. It was a huge blessing to share my life here with them and for them to meet the people and see what we get to do. We laughed a lot and ate a lot.

They were bearers of huge blessings for Reenie and myself. Because of some generous people that sent over money we are now able to buy a new djembe for the church and some more needed sound equipment. We were also able to visit Priluki to goto a church service and visit Luba and her grandson, Anton (check picture above). Luba was so thrilled to have guests and
just fellowship as she pretty much does not leave the house anymore having become completely blind because of the brain tumor. We also visited Halavin (Children’s Mental hospital), the internaught, our Kid’s Club, and the school where Tracy and I teach English to show the ladies some of the different ministries we’ve involved in and give them a chance to meet people. God really blessed our time with the teachers in the local school as we talked about life, God, and Ukraine.

Up and Coming Events
Please be praying as we have many events in these next couple weeks. We will be traveling down to the National Conference for Calvary Chapels in Kiev then heading over again to Priluki for a wedding of two young people in our church. We also will be finalizing plans for beginning our summer Kids’ Outreaches so please be praying that will be allowed to meet in one of the local parks. We also are planning a conference for singles at the end of July. It will be for all the churches in our region but we will be having it in Priluki since they are centrally located and have the biggest building. Please pray for wisdom as I plan that with Conor and Reenie.

I am also getting ready to go to America for a few weeks to go to a family wedding. I am really excited that my parents bought me a ticket to come back for the wedding as I was not planning on going back till next November/December to visit and touch base with churches. I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I was last back there. I will only be there for a short time so I will most likely not see a lot of people but I am excited to be with my family at my cousins wedding in Tennessee. I think of so many of you often and do pray that God is blessing you and I hope you know how thankful I am for your prayers and support.

Thanks again - Until next month...
Chris

Balázs & Leah & Joelle Stanzel May, 2007

Our Family
The Lord is good to us! We are so blessed to have each other and to have our little girl; each of these relationships make us more fully understand our relationships with and the character of God. Ellie is so much fun to watch as she explores the world (mostly with her mouth!) She, like her mom and dad, loves to be outside and is having a great time now that it is spring. As a family we have had some great hiking adventures as we are so blessed to live in the part of the country where there are hills and trees. We have also enjoyed the outdoors with some of the families in the church- playing soccer in back yards and taking the kids to a farm near us. We are really happy that we have such great friends in the church body.

Church
We had our annual sunrise service for Easter on a mountain top over looking the city. It was cold but very fun to meet together to worship the resurrection of Jesus. We went to one of the families in the church and had a traditional Hungarian Easter food, it was very tasty.

On April 15th, the head of Calvary Chapel Reaching Europe came to Pécs to hand the church over to Balázs. He encouraged the church through Moses and Joshua’s lives about how to respond to this change and he challenged Balázs in his new role. After church, we had a big Mexican food celebration (the day before several of us from the church got together to hand-make 120 tortillas!), it was a great afternoon.

The college group continues to be a great joy and challenge to us. The group is made up of people from a very diverse church background but everyone comes together for the single purpose of knowing God, it is amazing. The group is weekly bringing new people, roommates, classmates, workmates, and we are encouraged by their excitement. Please pray for Balázs and Leah as they individually disciple these students to be full of wisdom and love. Pray for Balázs as he teaches this group and encourages the students to be men and women after God’s own heart. As we have said before, we really see a need to have another building to meet in as the toddlers and babies have no where to be during service causing the parents to have to watch them in the halls and miss the studies every week. We are planning on meeting with the landlord of our current location to ask if we can have a third room each week. Please pray for them to agree to this and for a new contract to be signed.

We met with the girl who is currently serving as the children’s ministry teacher and addressed the needs in the children’s ministry. She and her fiancé will continue to lead the ministry but they need more helpers to come alongside of them to teach the kids. Also, once we have a third room, we would like to be able to offer child care to the parents during service. Please pray that the Lord would raise up people to serve in these areas.

Outreach
Balázs continues ministering at the prison, he has been burdened for these youth not just now but especially once they are released. Please pray for these boys salvation, and for Balázs as he tries to love them and show them who Christ is for them. Also, please pray for Balázs as he seeks to build relationships with the pastors of other churches so that after-care may be provided to these teens as a unified effort in the city. Balázs was asked to share at one of the university’s Christian clubs. After he shared his testimony, he stayed for almost two hours answering their questions about our lives and faith in the Lord. Some of the students expressed interest in wanting to come to college group for teachings, please pray that they would be encouraged by the Word to follow Christ fully.

Balázs was able to visit a gentleman who used to come to the church but is now in an old folk’s home. He was able to encourage the man and he asked for us to come and read the bible to him whenever we could. Please pray for this man to remain strong in the Lord and for some in the church to have a burden to minister in that place. Leah was able to continue ministering to a woman who is struggling in her walk with the Lord and who is afraid to come to church. Please pray for Viktoria to love Jesus and welcome the body He provides.

Other
Praise the Lord for the elders in the church who are completely behind and desiring to labor with Balázs in leading the church. Please pray for wisdom as they define roles in the leadership and for these men as they seek the Lord for the direction the church should go in. Balázs continues to be challenged as he teaches at the Catholic school weekly. He has a great time but desires to remain faithful in preparation for this time each week. Please pray for his faithfulness. God has been faithful to provide a teacher who can meet weekly with Leah for Hungarian lessons. Please pray that this time would be fruitful, for the Holy Spirit to enable Leah to learn quickly, and for her to be faithful to study and use what she learns.

Upcoming month
We have another team coming from the bible college this weekend. Please pray that they would encourage the church and that the women would be blessed and fed during our girl’s day. There is a youth conference this month that we are sending a couple of our youth to, please pray for them to be challenged in their walks and encouraged by the teachings.

Chris Zurbach's April update from Ukraine

Happy Belated Easter!

We have just finished a very busy week of pre- Easter Sunday activities and are really thankful to the Lord for how much He blessed us in all that we did. First of all I hope you enjoy the pictures that are scattered about that include a couple of this weeks activities of our Easter service, Easter sunrise gathering at the park at the edge of the city, “Krepost” Kids Club, and egg decorating.

“Miracle Maker” film showing

We were able this past week to show the film, “Miracle Maker” in an elderly living center, a school, the children’s mental hospital, local internaught, and the museum where we have our Sunday service. I was so excited to be able to go to the Elderly living facility where there are about 650 residents. It is an enormous territory that is very reminiscent of Soviet times as the buildings are large gray brick structures and it is decorated just as it had been 30 years ago. We were pleased to see that it was clean and people seemed to be well taken care of. About 80 people came to watch the film and we were able to talk with them and share about how much Jesus loves them.

Some of them were very touched by the film as I think seeing what Christ did, even in clay-mation, is so powerful. Some of the women came up after with tears and said, “thank you”, even though it was hard for many of them to speak. There are also about 20 residents who
are physically/mentally challenged as there is no facility in the Chernihiv State to care for them. After 18 years old this is where they are sent. We are praying that God would open more doors for us to be able to help out there.

Besides showing the film in all those different places we also prepared an Easter puppet show to perform at “Krepost” and the internaught. Two girls in our church, Oksana and Mira, wrote a little scenario and did a great job performing it for the kids.

Easter Sunday
As Chernihiv Church tradition goes we met at the “stronghold” of the city at sunrise to celebrate Easter, drink tea, and eat special “Pasxu” (Easter) bread that people only bake and eat on Easter. There were many people out eating “Pasxu”, eggs, and sausages at 6:00am as
many Ukrainians gather outside the churches there to eat the food they just had blessed by the Orthodox priests.

Our service was later in the day and we were so excited to see neighbors and family of people in our church come. We are now meeting in the larger hall of the museum which is much nicer as it is much lighter than in the movie hall we were in. The lady that works there is now able to see the service from where she sits on the second floor and she was so excited to hear the music and the sermon. She shared with us how amazed she is to see young people that love God and one another. We also had two other women in their 60’s who came and loved hearing the Bible read and taught. We so want older people to be a part of the church as we know that is God’s desire for there to be older and younger people.

Hope you enjoyed hearing about Easter here. We have much to do this coming month as many guests are coming and we are helping house 7 refugees from India as the police have asked for our help in that. Please take note of my new email at the top.

Thanks and Blessings to all of you.
-Chris

chriszurbach@gmail.com

Stowe's Update for March

Hey everyone, I just updated our blog with pictures and info about our recent retreat for Carnaval. It was a great weekend! Our church had a great time together and really deepened some relationships with each other. It was a blessing. Please pray for more maturity, humility, and intimacy with Jesus for our church, especially for our young people.
Check out and blog and don't forget to make comments for us. We really value hearing what you have to say.

In Christ,
Tom and Luciana

stowe.wordpress.com

March update from Balázs and Leah

Our Family

This month has been a very difficult month for us but we can sit back as we reflect with joy and peace knowing that our God is a good Father, He is gracious and so faithful and blesses our lives in more ways than we can number. The delay in the newsletter and lack of photos is due to our computer dying this month. Please pray that somehow we can retrieve all of the data from the hard drive as there was many very important things including all of Ellie’s baby pictures. Please also pray that the Lord would provide a new computer as is it a great need at this time.

Praise God! We were able to get the paperwork we needed and the American Embassy granted Ellie her citizenship. She now has dual Hungarian-American citizenship. We visited Balázs’ mom and step-father this month and had a great time seeing them with her as she is the first grandchild. She is of course continuing to amaze us each day as we realize what a gift she is. One of Balázs’ brothers and sister-in-law is pregnant after trying unsuccessfully for years! Please pray that the Lord would protect her womb and the baby as she has lost three previous pregnancies.

Church

On April 15^th, the head of Calvary Chapel Reaching Europe as well as the regional overseeing pastor will be coming to Pécs to pray for us as Balázs will be taking over the church that day. Please continue to pray for us as we walk on this new path. Also please pray for the pastor and his wife as they pack and prepare for their next steps. The church has had some great times of fellowship this month at our regular potluck and at several other times of meeting.

The Lord is continuing to build friendships and offer healing to those who have been wounded before. Tracy, Leah’s former roommate in Ukraine came to visit and shared with the ladies one afternoon. All of the women were encouraged by her sharing with them and enjoyed the time together.

The college group continues to be a huge joy for us as we see these students desiring to be in fellowship and to study the Word together. Please pray for Balázs and Leah as they individually disciple these students to be ull of wisdom and love. Pray for Balázs as he teaches this group.

We really see a need to have another building to meet in as the toddlers and babies have no where to be during service causing the parents to have to watch them in the halls and miss the studies every week. Please pray for God to provide a place for us to use for church that meets the needs of the body. We also would like to see the church burdened with hearts to pray both individually and corporately at our weekly prayer meetings. Please pray that God would move hearts to pray for each other and beyond.

Outreach

This month Balázs continued ministering at the prison. He is weekly burdened by the depravity of the youth there as well as their seemingly hopeless situations. Please pray for these boys to find hope in our Savior and for Balázs as he tries to show them the way to Him. We were asked to share our testimonies at a coffee shop this month in a sort of forum type setting. We were blessed to see people so attentive and stay after to talk with us. The night was made into a DVD which is now being distributed in Hungary for free! Please pray that God would use this for His glory.

We had an outreach team come from the bible college in Vajta this past weekend and were very blessed to have five Hungarians and two Americans stay with our church body. The team helped in practical ministry as well as building up and encouraging our church as we spent a great deal of time together. What a true blessing the greater body of Christ is!

Other

Balázs continues to lead worship a couple of nights a week and is working with other musicians to raise them up to lead as well. Please pray that God would stir up these people as well as the church as a whole in worship and praise. We and the elders in the church have a vision for pouring our lives into the lives of those in our church, discipling them and allowing them to then disciple others. Please pray for wisdom, direction, and most importantly the Holy Spirit to fill us as we see to do this.

Balázs continues to be challenged as he teaches at the Catholic school weekly. He has a great time but desires to remain faithful in preparation for this time each week. Please pray for his faithfulness. God has been faithful to provide a teacher who can meet weekly with Leah for Hungarian lessons. Please pray that this time would be fruitful, for the Holy Spirit to enable Leah to learn quickly, and for her to be faithful to study and use what she learns.