Gyuri & Aniko Varga – Erd, Hungary

Dear Friends,

VERITAS – Abigel started her 11th grade. She had to choose 2 subjects to study at an advanced level. She chose Math and History to keep her possible college majors wide. Right now, a sweet American teacher teaches Math but that is not enough for the Hungarian advanced exam Abigel needs for the university entrance. So, she sits at the back of the classroom and studies alone to prepare for the exam (May 2024). This is an experiment until the end of January. Meanwhile, without hearing and practicing she has to write all the tests the others write in that class. Last week she wrote an A+ test in 20 minutes. She is awesome!

In May, her class is going to visit the Veritas school in Washington DC. The others come home at the beginning of June, but she plans on staying until the end of June. She hopes to visit Maine for a short time as well!

She did her SAT on Dec 3rd, which was hard, but she got 1360 points!!!

Gyuri came up with a curriculum for class teachers. They have a meeting biweekly to talk it through for all 3 classes.

Gyuri teaches how to apply the Bible in everyday situations in all 3 classes. It is a challenge because only 5 children are from Christian families out of the 32.

Most of the teachers are not Christians, so their values and teaching philosophies are very different. Lately, this caused much tension.

CHURCH – This fall a core of 4 started to meet to establish our church culture, plan events and provide leadership. We began a cell group (for couples and singles living in Budapest) in the coffee shop, and it goes very well. There are 5-8 people coming together every time to talk about applying biblical truths in our lives. We really enjoy it! The online group is not very visited for some reason, so we might stop that. We always have to watch, evaluate and correct what we do so it suits the people, while not compromising the Truth.

BTA – In October Gyuri met his teacher who leads him in his thesis. He shared with him about the series of crises he went through in the last 5 years. Then he said, why don’t you write about how people in the Bible dealt with crises, so they came up with a new idea. Gyuri has to finish his thesis by the end of March (he did not begin yet). This is a huge challenge, so please pray for him!!! He still has some subjects to complete as well.

RETREAT – EVALUATION – REFOCUSING

Last week of October we went away for a retreat to rethink and evaluate our last year. Gyuri was very tired and stressed out, so we knew something had to be changed. We talked through a lot of things and came to the conclusion that we needed to narrow down the scope of what he does and focus on the things he does best. It came down to 2 ministries: church and pastors. We came home and planned steps to make it happen. Gyuri approached the Baptist Union’s leadership with the idea that he could give more time to Pastors’ Training if they give him more financial resources. They listened and said they’d answer in December.

HEALTH ISSUES – In late November Gyuri had to tell the principal of Veritas High School that he would leave the school at the end of the school year (they had to buy plane tickets for students and teachers for the exchange program in May). Then 1 week ago Gyuri got the news that he has a tumorous skin problem that needs to be cut out. We decided that he’d leave the school immediately. Tuesday, he told the principal that Thursday was his last day, and thank God she was understanding.

He gave up his paid job before we heard anything from the Union.

GOD’S PROVISION – Next day he was invited to the Union’s Christmas Celebration (he never was before). Nobody approached him, but he asked the president if they had decided. He told him about the plan they agreed on but had not communicated it to us yet. We got more than what we hoped for. His salary is raised and Aniko is offered a status to serve pastor wives part-time.

It is interesting that we always have to make decisions by faith, not knowing how we can have enough income for our family, then in the end the Lord shows HIS PLAN for us. We are thankful for HIM!!!

WE WISH YOU A JOYFUL AND PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS!

Thanks for your continual support,

Gyuri and Anikó

Budapest, Hungary

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