That’s right! The newest film has rolled into town!! It is a little longer than normal (a little more than 10 minutes)…but I think you will find every moment worth it! So sit back, relax, pop some popcorn, and celebrate what God is doing in Hungary with me! And please feel free to share this video and this website with your friends!
http://lukeys87.wistia.com/projects/10lpsrby0p
Life is certainly anything but dull!! This morning I was informed that the authorities had found a bomb from World War 2 in my neighborhood. In order to remove it, they shut down the university that is 2 blocks away and stopped traffic on my street for several hours. The authorities also decided to deny walking access on my whole road, but didn’t have to evacuate anyone from my building. This made life interesting since I was hosting our weekly staff meeting. Fortunately, all but one member had already arrived before the police stopped allowing anyone in 🙂 Imagine what a great excuse that is to miss a work meeting…Sorry, I couldn’t make it, but there was an old bomb needing to be excavated! I certainly never ran into anything like that in America! There is never a dull moment living in Hungary!!
One of the most hectic and busiest months I have ever faced is nearing its end. If you know me well, you know that is saying quite a lot! God has definitely poured down opportunity down upon me and gave me just enough stamina to make it through! While I am very thankful for all that was accomplished this past month, I can also say that I am hoping things will calm down a bit and that I don’t face another month that is quite as crazy as this last month has been! It has been a blessing to see all that happened…even though it feels like a lifetime happened all in October 🙂 But, I hope you will join me in praising God as I reflect back on all that He did and brought about:
Here are a few pictures that capture my past month!
Well…they say better late than never. Hopefully that is true since I find myself in that camp a lot! Hopefully you have already received a copy of this in your mailbox since I usually do get those out on time 🙂 If you haven’t and would like to, just send me a message and I can add you to my list!
It is here! It has made its comeback! Check it out:
Wow! That is all I can say as I reflect back on this past week! It was crazy, it was busy, it was awesome, and it feels like it will take me some serious time to unpack all that happened!
You can read more about this week in my upcoming prayer letter, but I did want to share some additional things to try to give you a more complete picture of all that happened! 22 Americans from all over the states came over to spend a week with us. During that time they participated in English classrooms (high school and university), helped with numerous dorm outreaches, participated in the big university and high school outreaches, and shared their faith with students during the afternoon. This is an amazing, jam packed mission trip week. If you are interested in learning more, or if you would like to come (PLEASE DO!!), you can find more information on in the How Can You be Involved Section.
Within 4 days we were able to visit 18 different high schools. This included numerous new schools that we had never been in before. It was amazing to see how God moved and acted! Several students joined us after school. During that time we were able to engage them in gospel conversations. Many of the students have already found me on Facebook and I am currently messaging with a big group of them! A lot of these students turned out to our Friday night outreach! It was incredible to see how God worked and acted!
Thank you so much for your prayers for me! I can tell you that I desperately needed them and God greatly used them! Despite being in charge of organizing the high school side, visiting schools myself, planning for the Friday night format, and being the main speaker, I was able to find peace in God and enough energy to survive. God worked through your prayers to accomplish this! Thank you so much! Be sure to check out my prayer letter and the latest Live with Luke for more info on how God moved this past month!!
When things crank up, they really crank up! So much has been happening that I haven’t had time to even think about adding any new posts recently! But, I did want to take a quick second to through out a fast update. So here are some things that I have been up to lately, some things that are in the calendar, and some things to pray for!
I hope that gives you a small snapshot of what God has placed on my plate so far! Your prayers are definitely appreciated and I look forward to updating you soon on how God worked, is working, and will work through what He has set before me!
Here it is…only a few weeks later than I intended 🙂
Well, we are all set to kick off another ministry year! These past couple of days and weeks have been full of preparation and planning. This past weekend was the wrap-up to our annual staff conference. We enjoyed being challenged by a phenomenal speaker as well as opportunities to bond, plan, and prepare.
This time was especially valuable for me as I am trying to sort out what my upcoming ministry year will look like. I have just completed a year that was dominated by language learning. Moving ahead, I will be focusing 50% of my time on ministry activities and 50% on language learning. So, I am having to discover what that balance means practically. To make matters more interesting, I am a part of seeking to effectively follow up and reach out to students living outside of Budapest. This is something that has been near and dear to my heart. Thus, I am really excited to be a part of doing this!
To give you a visual picture of the need, attached is a link to a google map that has all the NON-Budapest cities plotted. This represents students who came to SpeakOut from OUTSIDE of Budapest. The color pins showed you whether they indicated on their evaluations if they said yes to wanting to talk more about knowing God, maybe, or no. Take a look! I think you will find it amazing! There is a great need! Please join me in praying for opportunities and effectiveness in reaching out to these students!
http://batchgeo.com/map/fd829243468f1bd311a6584e782434bf
Everyone enjoys escaping and getting away for a bit…and I am no exception to that! These past few weeks I had the opportunity to take a trip to Spain to help with the ministry of L’Arcada camps. I met the founders, David and Deborah Franks, during a mission conference. They invited me to join them for a few weeks to see and be a part of what God is doing through their ministry in Girona, Spain. For two weeks I had the opportunity to help cook for the 140 staff, students, and families who came to be a part of their annual family week. During the camp, families were exposed to the gospel as well as walked through Biblical principles for guiding and structuring a family. Many of these families pledged to return next year because they enjoyed the camp so much!
Along the way, I had a few hours to get out and explore during a layover in Zurich, Switzerland. I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit some new sights, but more than anything, it was amazing and encouraging to be a part of what God is doing in another part of the world!
Have you ever considered taking a mission trip for your next vacation? The harvests are ripe all over the world! I can guarantee you will walk away amazed, encouraged, envisioned, and excited about how God is at work! Take a second to seriously pray about doing this! I know we would love to have you join us in Hungary (for info about our opportunities check out the How Can You Be Involved? tab above)!
Halfway Around the Globe 