This morning we all piled in the vans again to go to church at the little local Hungarian Baptist church. We went there last week and already yesterday when we drove by it group members pointed and said, "There's our church!" It doesn't take long to grab hold of something familiar. The service itself is not unfamiliar - quite similar to many Baptist churches in Canada (well, not similar to Yorkminster Park, but it is unique).
One of the differences is that people don't stand to sing. They have a worship team that leads the music, which this morning included a flute and a piano as well as singers. Aside from them, nobody else stands. Lyrics were projected on the wall but unlike last week, none of the songs today were familiar tunes that we could at least sing along to with our English words. Hungarian is not too hard to follow phonetically, if you remember that J sounds like Y, so some did try to follow along. One of our group members is Hungarian so she translated for us and some American visitors who were also there. So we all sat in the back rows with headsets for the translations. Each week time is given for prayer and the focus this morning was on praying for the Americans who are commemorating the 4th anniversary of 9/11. One of the members just came back from New York City and she encouraged people to pray for America to know comfort and hope, and not to be living in fear. Time was given for various members of the congregation to pray out loud and many people did so. Later there was a time given for testimony, with a young man prepared to share his testimony (related to the message) and then an opening for anyone else who wanted to share. After each testimony the pastor would ask someone to pray for that person. The pastor is a fairly young man and preached an encouraging sermon this morning based on 1 Corinthians 15:58 -
Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
It was a good message about the importance of persevering, even when it seems there is no fruit to your labours. God calls us to be faithful and in our faithfulness we will experience the fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. At this point I don't feel overburdened with a great deal of work at all - in fact I am feeling very relaxed and thankful for a stress-free September - but I know that the time will soon come when I will need to be reminded of the need to keep on keeping on and to be steadfast in whatever God calls me to do as I begin in Moldova. I suppose the first thing will be my language learning - I will need to be steadfast and diligent in that.
Meanwhile, I am conscious that many of my Canadian friends and family are well into the harriedness of the fall season: beginning classes, starting fall programs, preparing for various events that are upcoming. Please know that I am thinking of you often and holding you in prayer as I bring your name and your needs to the Heavenly Father who loves us so much.
Tomorrow morning - Monday- I will be sharing the story of God's grace in my life in our morning devotion time. Please keep me in your prayers for this.
And - thank you to everyone who responded to my request to know if you are out there! Karen, I've taken care of the junkmail problem with help from James, our local techno guru and the only single male in this household of females. Erin, not to worry, I am keeping an eye on my dear Dana and look forward to being in Moldova with her. She is truly a gem. Thanks for writing! Kevin, I don't remember if I ever met you or not, but glad to know that you are following my blog and I took a look at yours too. Ron, thank you so much for copying my blog for Kate and Winnie. It's great to know that you are all there and I value your prayers so much. I suppose the choir is back in full swing for the fall and I can just picture you there on Thursdays getting the chairs all set up for them. I believe I have one of the choir CD's copied on my MP3 so I will have to get that out when I am homesick for the church. God bless you all! Barb
PS - Watch for my next post when I will report - with photos- on our visit to Budapest yesterday.
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Barb, I am also here keeping up on how you are doing and eagerly read your new posts whenever I get a few minutes to pop in! I really enjoy the photos. It's great to be able to "see" the face behind the name.
ReplyDeleteLove ya!
Carol
Barb, glad to hear you've met another James who's a tech wiz! I'm delighted you're using this blog so regularly. Both Brooke and I will feel like we're travelling along with you.
ReplyDeleteJust as an aside, my company has begun importing Moldovan wines from a company called Acorex (which sounds like a generic drug company!). The wines are called Terra Verde and are organically grown. Not sure if you'd be able to find them in Moldova, as it seems the wine business is very export-oriented.
Will catch up with you again soon!