Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord...”
Luke 2:10-11

Our little baby

It is an ultrasound picture when he/she is 13 weeks old :)

YTL is 20 years old

We were celebrating the 20 years of YTL with a special educator's symposium and with series of student outreaches.

After the Iron Curtain failed God opened a remarkable opportunity for us to reach multitudes of students and educators launching a ministry we now call "Youth at the Threshold of Life". The humbling start of YTL led to an accredited educational tool and to a ministry that is widely use in and beyond Hungary. As we look back to this two decades we are humbled to see how God has used YTL to reach hundreds of  students and educators with the gospel. We not only saw God using YTL to expose multitudes to the gospel, but we saw Him raising up hundreds of Christ-like laborers as well!
We have devoted a week to remember this milestone between September 29-October 6. 24 Americans came and spent this week with us to maximize the evangelistic opportunity we have in the schools because of YTL. We went with them to more then 100 classrooms in a week and invited hundreds of kids to some of the special outreaches we had during the week in dorms or at YTL weekly meetings.

We ended this week with a special jubilee educator's symposium held between 4-6 of October. We've invited some special guests and about 120 educators to this YTL symposium. The most memorable moment of this week-end-long educator's symposium was when we had a 45 minutes interview with those who started YTL: Dave Robinson, Dr. Denes Banhegyi and Gabor. (It's a missiological mystery of multicultural effectiveness how God brought together and used an American and a Hungarian missionary, and a Hungarian non-Christian doctor to develop a ministry that serves the society and is also an effective vehicle for the gospel.) Dave and Gabor have prepared several new talks to deliver at this jubilee symposium focusing on new aspects of youth problems (i.e. internet addiction). But as always in the past 20 years, the gospel was the same as Gabor and Dave have shared the saving message through their personal stories on Saturday night extending an invitations to all the educators to make a personal step of faith by confessing their sins and inviting Jesus Christ into their life! We've asked the educators to give a written feedback about the personal stories and the gospel they've heard. The responses were overwhelmingly encouraging and 5 educators expressed that they've made a decision on that night and gave their life to Jesus! We are just always absolutely amazed how God is still using after 20 years these symposiums to touch lives. Gabor has prepared a short video that highlights some of the memories of the 20 years in 5 minutes. 

 
Your faithful prayers and financial support made it possible this 20 years of miracles! Thank you very much!

Prayer requests

1. BHHP 2013 - the week-long mission trip is coming up soon (Sept 29-Oct 7). We will be hosting 24 Americans who will speak at classrooms, share the gospel with students at universities and dorms.
2. 20th-year anniversary of the birth of YTL is coming up. We'll host a special jubilee Educator's Symposium from October 4-6. Much preparation  needs to happen. Pray that educators would register and come to this evangelistic week-end.

Survival Kits - Túlélőcsomag

We've started to deliver thousands of Evangelistic Student Survival Kits for freshmen in many different universities.  Already hundreds of students signed up to have a personal conversation with someone about God.

Speak Out 2013

At the end of July the "SpeakOut 2013" ended with great blessings and success beyond our hope. We had a great 4 weeks long camp with American tutors, Hungarian volunteers and Hungarian non-Christian students. The Americans served toward non-Christian campers, the Hungarian Christian volunteers did beach and street evangelism. We had 32 Americans, 2 Ukrainian, 2 Bulgarian and 76 Hungarians in the project and 268 campers in three weeks.

In the camp were many activities like American Culture Night, Sports Day, Staff Hunt. We had a gospel night where we shared the gospel in Hungarian. In conversations, morning classes and personal group time the American students could share the gospel and their own testimony. The Hungarian students did surveys on the streets of Keszthely and at the beach around Lake Balaton. Through the last 3 question of the survey we had many conversations, and we could share our faith easily.

Numbers are very inadequate way to summarize the camp, but represents at least some of the impact of the camp.

·        We sent teams to 5 cities in 3 countries.

·        Over 268 non-Christian campers came to spend 3 x 1 week with us.

·        Our student volunteers approached over 2,710 students at those cities and offered the opportunity to discuss about Christ.

·        Almost 1,400 students have heard a personal gospel presentation from one of our student volunteer or staff.

·        78 students indicated a decision.

Please pray for the follow-up of the Speak Out camp - that most of the 78 converts would become remaining fruit.

Wedding

We had a wonderful day on June 22nd. I started the preparations early morning: hair-dresser, make-up, dress-up with my girlfriend. I did that usually a bride did in her wedding day. Norbi arrived just after we finished dressing up and we went to make some photos in Gellért Hill. There is a nice view from here to Budapest. When he saw me first time in wedding dress, he was so impressed :) He was so handsome :) Firstly we had a civil ceremony in the City Hall. After it we went to our church. The church ceremony was really-really blessed for us. Our pastor compared the marriage to sailing. It is an amazing journey, but sometimes there are storms and days without wind. We would have wonderful days, like our wedding day, bu we would have mostly normal, week-days. After the church ceremony we invited everybody to simple refreshment in the church building. At the evening we had a dinner with our family and with some close friends. We really enjoy our wedding day! We could just pay attention to each other and not deal with any organization questions. We got a lot of help from our friends. Our Lord blessed us with His lots of gift and we feel we are His gift to each other. Please pray for our relationship and marriage!

Nick Vujicic in Hungary

Between April 18-20 Nick Vujicic, the man without limbs visited Hungary and spoke at 3 different venues 5 different times. It was breathtaking to see the impact as he boldly and clearly shared the gospel in front of thousands of people. He deeply impacted the audience as they saw him being happy, living with hope and sharing them how he has found eternal hope in Jesus Christ after he wanted to commit suicide not seeing any hope and meaning in life without limbs. He shared a very provoking challenge to the 20,000 people in the stadiums: "I thought if I would just have arms and legs than I would be happy. Than I look at you all. You have arms and legs and you are not happy. Arms and legs are not the key to happiness and hope. Jesus is the key to happiness and hope." WOW! Very profound statement from someone without limbs. After his presentations hundreds and hundreds were coming in lines to give him a hug and talk to him. Many were crying as they hugged him. One student shared that he wanted to commit suicide, but now, after hearing Nick, he has new hope in his life. 

In between his presentations Nick and our director, Gabor (Gabor was the interpreter in his talkings)  had some good opportunities to talk and dream about how he could come back and speak to all the students in Hungary. Gabor had a chance to give him our book: The Outrageous Promise -  which gives him a greater insight of what God is doing in and through this little country! The President of our country told Nick that if he comes back to Hungary, he will help him to reach all the students!!! We pray and hope that the near future Nick would be able to come again to Hungary and we could do a major evangelistic effort to reach many more with the message of HOPE that Nick communicates so powerfully. 

This is one of his talking in Debrecen (second biggest city in Hungary).

Student retreat

About 150 student from Hungary, Transylvania and Slovakia spent an awesome weekend together close to Lake Balaton. The speaker, Dan Hayes spoke on the power of prayer and on spiritual awakenings! 

Engagement

Dear Friends,

I'd like to tell you a true story. There was a boy and a girl who met three years ago at a church Alpha course. They were in a different group though. After the course the boy wanted to continue to know God and the Christian faith more and started to go to a Betha course at the girls home group. Unfortunately they didn't meet after the course because the guy went to a pre-confirmation course. After a year, as the girl was preparing her home group again and invited members, she sent out an email to the guy as well. He replied and told the girl that he goes to a different church now, because he moved and that church is closer to his hometown. But he asked her if she wanted to meet, since they had not seen each other for a long time. So after a few days they had lunch together, and a four hour long conversation over their empty plates. The next day the girl went to a conference in Turkey and promised that she would send photos of Ephesus. The guy invited her to his new home dedication party, but she couldn't come. After her trip, the girl forgot to send the photos and the guy forgot to take photos of his party. After a few weeks, the guy emailed her that he was still interested in seeing those photos... and they met two weeks later.

They kept meeting more and more often and love started to develop between the two of them. Week after week they enjoyed each others company more and more and they missed each other when they couldn't meet. They started to see how God puts all circumstances in place and how He helps them get to know each other. Everything in their relationship seemed so natural, there were no questions or doubts. They confessed their feelings to each other and decided to search together for God's will in their lives. From this point, things speeded up - after lot's of praying and asking for the advice of common friends, the guy decided to propose on the girls birthday. He took her to her favorite restaurant and after a delicious dinner he knelt down before her and asked her to be his wife. The girl happily said yes, because she loved the guy and wanted to live her life with him.

I guess that by now you found out that the story was about me. I would like to introduce to you my fiance: Norbert Nyiro. He works as a journalist at a magazine called "Our home". He became a Christian a few years ago at our church, and his relationship with God is an example for me. I'm thankful to God that He led us to each other, to be each other's mates. Our wedding is going to be at the Gazdagret Reformed Church on June 22nd. I attached a picture about us.

I'm also thankful to God for the decision of my leaders at Cru, who allowed me to stay on staff. Normally, husband and wife here serve together, so that they can synchronize their everyday lives better. But since I'm in the background ministry anyway, and my schedule looks more like one at an "ordinary" workplace, I will be able to continue my ministry even if I'm married to someone who is not part of Cru.

Thank you all for standing by me in prayer and thank you for your support!!!

With much love,
Ibi

3 new full-time staff

January is the time to go through new staff application. We have a very exciting news to share. On Monday we've accepted 3 new staff as full-time missionaries to serve with us. Let me give a brief introduction of them:

Lilla Pecsenka - is 23 years old, just graduated from university. Lilla started to come to one of our YTL High School groups 7 years ago. She had been faithfully serving with us, sharing her faith, leading small groups, discipling other students in the past 7 years. As her university graduation was getting closer it became evident for her that the Lord is calling her to give her life to evangelism and discipleship full-time. As she went through the application process her calling and qualification to be on staff with us was confirmed. Lilla is a very sweet and kind young lady with a teachable heart for the Lord!

Attila Egressy and Flora Katona - Attila and Flora is an engaged couple getting married this April. Attila became a Christian 2.5 years ago at the YTL Student Retreat. He is graduated as an electrical Engineer. He had been growing fast in his faith in Christ to the point where now he felt called to be in the ministry full-time. Flora came to know the Lord in 2006 at a SpeakOut camp where she came as a high school student. She graduated university as an economist. She grew to become a key leader in the women's side of our student ministry. Her enthusiasm, love for people draws many to Christ. 

Please, pray for the 3 new staff to be able to raise their full support fast. Much work needs to go into that from our part as well to help them get started. Next week there will be a training for these new staff.

  

You can watch Flora's short (1.5 minutes) story at the next "I'm not ashamed" video.