Merry Christmas, The King is born!

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”Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people.” (Luke 1:68)

We wish you a New Year full of the peace of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. May He continue to guard your heart and bless you with a renewed and deeper understanding of a reconciled relationship with Him through His Son.

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Above: Benjamin and Elianna with cousins, RJ and Anna B.

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Above: A loud room with many "whoahhs!" and "oohhhs!"

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Above: Baby Kira taking a nap with daddy.

It's been an eventful few weeks as we celebrated Jesus' birth in the US with friends and family. This is one of the things we miss while being overseas, and we cherish the time we have and our children have with those we love.

News about the Christmas Musical in PetÅ‘fibánya

About a year ago, the team Julie was serving on asked our church planting team how they could help in spreading the gospel throughout our target area. We suggested a Christmas play that would be 'mobile', so that we could present the show in multiple areas in the North Eastern area of Hungary where we are located. Since the core of our church planting team is already involved in multiple outreach ministries in December, we don't have the resources or the time to organize such a Christmas Musical. Since we were not directly involved in the performance, but rather in the background helping, the Christmas musical allowed us to have more time to interact with attendees and also perform follow up. In years past, this was a challenge, as we were so involved in outreach that we couldn't mingle and interact with those we invited.

The numbers of those who attended the Christmas musical were truly amazing. To put things into perspective, four years ago we hosted the Jesus Film and passed out over 4000 Gospel of Luke booklets with an invitation to the film. Out of the 4000 invitations to various villages and small towns, there were 15-20 people that came to the showing. In contrast, the Christmas musical was promoted through posters and word of mouth in the same area. Over the course of three nights, there were over 230 people that attended. This has allowed us to develop many new relationships and get the word out about our local church.

Our vision is to initiate and facilitate evangelistic and discipleship ministries that empower Hungarians to lead a dynamic church planting movement. I believe this Christmas Musical has opened up a new opportunity for us to penetrate surrounding villages and share the gospel. It has also enlivened local Hungarian members of the church to get involved in ministry with their various giftings.

One attendee wrote the following to Julie:

"I am Kata, the Jewish believer who asked you where else the drama would be shown. I was deeply touched by its topic..your willingness as a missionary to learn our language, our folk music and study our history.This drama was a unique combination of Hungarian and Jewish culture and the Gospel message as well as the Jewish foundation of Christianity. It is well able both to touch and to shock both Jews and Hungarian right wing Christians. Unfortunatelly, in Hungary there is a painful schism between the Jewish and the Hungarian Christian parts of society. Hungarian folk music would be associated more with the Nationalist right wing as well as Chrisitanity and Jewish music and traditions like Pesach exclusively with the left wing. These associations lead to false conlclusions, and I was very glad to see the reconciliation of these cultural elements. I am a teacher in a Jewish school and play the guitar in a Klezmer band.My heart is for the salvation of the Jewish people as well as reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles. I was very honorued to meet you and see your music drama."—Kata

After members of two other communities saw the show, they have invited us to their own towns to present the Christmas Musical in January and February. Although Julie will not be available, she has spoken to the the Hungarian cast and crew and they have agreed to continuing this outreach. Movement is happening and the gospel is going out. We praise God that what began with a conversation months ago, has been brought to fruition through those God has called to make it a reality. Praise the LORD.
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