Please pray for Timea

October 23rd is a Hungarian holiday. It commemorates the 1956 revolution against the Russian tyrrany. It was short lived, as the Russian army quickly brought in reinforcements, but it was a significant turning point for the Hungarians, and a hugely inspirational display of their nationalism. It's really an incredible story, and I recommend reading James A. Michener's "Bridge at Andau" for some second-hand accounts of people who lived through it all.

Every year we have a 4 day weekend in honor of the holiday, and so my students wanted to use the time to go into the city and have another outreach, where they perform the street drama and hand out tracks and do one-on-one evangelism. Before we went in, we spent the morning listening to talks given by some of the dads and teachers at the school about the why and how of evangelism. The kids had been asking for some training, and while they were able to just skim the surface on a lot of aspects to evangelism, the kids were given some tools that they could put to immediate use. Equipped with these tools and encouragement, we headed into downtown Budapest. Our destination tu jour was one of the subway stations. Surprisingly, people actually hang out there. There are a number of stores and even a Burger King there. We were at least 30 strong in our group.

Overall it went really well. I didn't want to be there at first, as I was tired and resentful of kids who are in constant need of being told what to do, what not to do, where to go, how to act, "Miss Blomquist, where are we going?" "Nyugati.
Were you not listening during any of the 5 times that I have said it before?" "Miss Blomquist, where are the batteries?" "I don't know. You were supposed to be responsible for the CD player" "Ben, please don't hang from the handrails on the bus". "Mason, please don't run up the down escalator"... =) I really do love these kids, but a days worth of these types of questions and admonitions can be a little draining. So, I for one didn't want to talk to anybody. But I prayed, acknowledging that I didn't want my pettiness to get in the way of the Lord and His work. And He changed my heart. Moreover, He chose to use me in spite of my bad attitude. He brought to me Timea, a lady in her late 40's with permed, Euro-red hair. She was carrying two big grocery bags, apparently on her way home from the market. God timed it so that she would "stumble" upon the students doing their skit as she walked through the underground. She stopped and set her bags down and watched the drama. Somebody handed her a track, and she started to read it, but then she looked around for somebody to talk to. That's when I noticed her. She didn't speak English, and so Tina, one of my sophomores, come to my rescue and translated everything for me. Timea wanted me first of all to pray for her. She is sick and needs medical care, but can't afford it. She is alone. She believes she will go to heaven, because she's done more good things than bad things, and she doesn't understand why God would let a child of His suffer like she is. She sees her country in an economical plight and senses that the end of the world is coming. HOPELESS is a word that comes to mind. I spent a good 20-30 minutes listening to her and talking with her. I wont go into details, but I was able to offer her hope and peace through God's Son, Jesus. Please pray for her! Pray that she will understand her need for a Savior and that she will turn to Him and allow His amazing love to lighten her load and replace confusion and fear with faith and hope. Thank you for your prayers!