Anyone Hungary?

During the second full weekend of February, I had the opportunity to travel to and minister in Hungary. Originally, the plan was for me to travel with two colleagues (Dieter Knospe and Paul Schmigall) to Debrecen and Hajduszoboszlo to map out and plan the upcoming Eastern European/Eurasian Leadership Conference for the fall. But while there, we were asked to be involved in the local ministries there.

As it turned out, Paul Schmidgall fell ill (flu) and cancelled at the last minute. Dieter Knopse drove to Hungary and combined it with ministerial responsibilities in Austria. So I ended up doing most of the speaking and teaching in Debrecen.

So.... after a great Friday of planning with our local organizers (Csaba Tenkeley and Dan Smith). I was asked to teach on Saturday in a training program for gypsy pastors (see picture) -- eventually teaching for almost four hours on leadership and conflict resolution and servant leadership. Later that afternoon, I then spoke at the International Church of God in Debrecen. An English speaking congregation serving the university community led by Dan Smith. On Sunday morning, I spoke at the Hungarian congregation pastored by Daniel Kriszt.

This was one of the few trips in Eastern Europe where my knowlege of German came in really handy. One of my translaters worked better from German into Hungarian (leadership classes), while the church services went from English into Hungarian. But then again, when one remembers the strong bonds between Hungary and Austria, it shouldn't come as a surprise that German is used broadly as a second language there.