Kara: The Teams of April

In a previous post we mentioned all the different teams that are scheduled to come.  Thus far, we’ve had three successful team visits, and there are many more to come! 

For Easter we had our team from Kaiserslautern.  With their help we dyed Easter eggs, played soccer, had a traditional American Easter meal, and had an “Easter Egg Hunt” – although with nearly 600 eggs in the tiny orphanage yard, we use the term loosely.  We were also able to share the true Easter story – Christ and His resurrection.

Off to the Easter Egg Hunt!

Not two weeks later we had a team from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta (south of Budapest).  Our own, Mate Zoli, lead the team of 5 students – 4 Hungarians, and 1 Chinese.  For 10 days they worked endlessly in many different areas, with many different audiences.  With them we were able to:

-Feed the homeless of Debrecen, in conjunction with the Hungarian Reformed Church’s Reménysugar (“Ray of Hope”) ministry.

-Teach English in a local primary, and secondary school, in conjunction with LOGOS Language School.

-Visit two different orphanages, Miskolc and Berettyóújfalu, in conjunction with on-going GoodSports ministries.

-Attend two different university outreach events, in conjunction with the International Mission Board and Calvary Chapel Debrecen.

-Conduct a worship service for the Roma community of Hajduböszörmény, in conjunction with Calvary Chapel Debrecen.

-Conduct an outreach event for disabled/handicapped children, in conjunction with the Hungarian Reformed Church’s Immanuel Otthon (“Immanuel’s House”) ministry.

-Conduct an outreach event for the children of the E.U. Refugee Camp, in conjunction with Menedék (Hungarian Association for Migrants).

-Paint and do building maintenance for Calvary Chapel Debrecen.

-Attend and assist with the Youth Group for Calvary Chapel Debrecen.

-Teach Kid’s Church for Calvary Chapel Debrecen.

…and so much more!

We also had a large team from Word of Life (NY) join Vajta & GoodSports for a sports day at the orphanage.  Because of the specific needs of house three we had several indoor activities – complete with a presentation of the gospel (video).  The weather was beautiful (thank God for no rain!) and with 20 orphans, and a combined team of 60 we had sports, games, crafts, a scavenger hunt, and a BMX exposition (video). 

Word of Life, Vajta, GoodSports & Miskolc Orphans

All in all, it’s been an amazing month for teams visiting GoodSports!

Russ: Baseball is a roller coaster

Baseball can be like a roller coaster ride.  How so?  Some days are like the long hard climb up to the top of the roller coaster ride.  Learning how to catch a ball without it hitting your face (or other body places).  Hitting an oh so tiny ball traveling at 50 miles an hour.  Running to the bases, but being tagged out when we forget to keep our foot on the base...all the things that make baseball so challenging.

Then there is the high point.  When it all seems to come together and you can see forever (we've won all our games so far)...but then comes the equally awful plunge...when your seniors team simply does not show up for a game on Saturday.  Then the very next day, Sunday, your majors (the littlest guys) decide taht fishing is a better idea and skip a game, leaving you to wonder, "is it all worth it?"

GoodSports continues to build it's baseball field backstop at the Christian Camping Center (called Dorcas).  it is a month after the planned completion date, but MOST of it is up.  Two boys even showed up to try to help (they spent half of the time swimming though).  But serious momentum in getting our little league field in shape for use.  Last year, our contractor skipped out on us, taking 500,000 HUF (about $2,500).  So our recovery has been a slow and costly one.

Our dream is to have the only place where the Hungarian Baseball League can host games, and have the kids sleep over for the weekend (there is a pool at the campground).  GoodSports hopes to handle the evening programs, and to introduce the idea of good, clean, fun and even demonstrate Christ's love.  It is still a dream, we have yet to play a game there, but we persevere.

The Teams Are Coming!

One of the many ways people support the work of GoodSports is by coming as part of a short-term missions team. Here in Hungary we are very excited about the teams we have lined up for this summer. These teams bring fresh eyes, creative ideas, craft supplies, sports equipment, refreshing energy and a passion for Christ.

These teams also do important follow-up work in the States. They are able to return home and give first-hand accounts of the work happening here. By caring all of this back to their communities and churches they are expanding our prayer base – something that we cannot function without. People around the world are praying for the children on the baseball teams, the children in the orphanages of Berettyóújfalu and Miskolc, the people in the Refugee Camp, the participants of summer camps, the team living and working in the field, the Hungarian churches we partner with, etc.

Each of these teams has a different plan, but all with the same focus: building relationships with people in an effort to introduce them to Christ. With these teams we will visit the orphanages, teach English, put on Summer Camps, and more.

This year we have teams from:

Phil’s church in South Carolina (arriving later today) 14-18 March

Kaiserslautern Team 4 – 7 April

Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta 20 April – 1 May

Hearts for Hungary from New York 24 May – 4 June

Cedarville University in Ohio 2 – 14 July

Cadence Ministries from Germany 16-20 July

Together with these teams we will dive into these events:

Easter celebration

Orphanage Outreach

Teaching English

LOGOS Camp 1 (2 – 6 July)

Interpreter’s Camp (2 – 6 July)

Calvary Chapel English Camp (8 – 14 July)

LOGOS Camp 2 (16 – 20 July)

Mikepércs Sports/English Camp (16 – 20 July)

Two-day Refugee Kids Camp (date TBA)

Please be in PRAYER:

For the Teams as they prepare to come

For the Individuals they are going to meet and interact with – that their hearts would be open

For the Hungarian Christians who act as our interpreters, translators, and cultural advisors

For the GoodSports team on the ground in Hungary: the Chun Family, Phil, Zoli, and Kara.

Hello 2012!

From Phil:

January saw the start of preseason football. Due to weather conditions the Miskolc team rents an Elementary school gym on Mondays and a High School gym on Thursdays in order to hold conditioning practices during the months of January and February. The Nyiregyhaza Tigers rent a city gym on Wednesdays and Saturdays also due to weather conditions. So football is back in full swing with a minimum of four practices a week in two different cities.

FOOTBALL’S PROBLEM - EQUIPMENT In the past week we have seen 10 new potential players (high school students) come to practice. They are interested in playing football and they know about the game as the NFL is broadcasted live on the national Hungarian sport channel every Sunday. HOWEVER, minimum wage in Miskolc is $2.50 and for a player to buy all the necessary equipment to be able to play cost a months pay.

GoodSports as a registered U.S. Nonprofit has the ability to give tax deductible receipts not only for monetary donations but for EQUIPMENT donations as well.

Also in January we started our nanny appreciation project in which every month we will do something special for the nannies, as a way of thanking them for taking care of the kids and all their hard work. For January we cooked lunch on a Saturday in order to give the nannies the day off. We severed them first and presented them with thank you cards signed by the kids.

As the new year starts GoodSports is looking forward to another busy summer camp season. Currently GoodSports is budgeting to be able to take 10 kids from the Miskolc orphanage to the English/sports camp in Debrecen. This is the same camp I participated in last year and the same camp where 4 kids from the orphanage were baptized last year. We would like to take more than 10 kids, however, we simply don’t have the funds. The cost is $130.00 per camper and I would strongly encourage you to consider helping send a child from the Miskolc orphanage to this camp. A place where he/she will hear, see, feel and experience God’s love.

January was an exceptionally good month at the Avasi Gimnazium, and I was asked to/ given the opportunity to stay on for another year as the native conversational English teacher.