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.