All, you will never believe what I received today. Hanna sent me a letter and included a four-point tract. She had her personal testimony printed inside! I immediately wrote to a friend in Hungary and asked him to translate it for me. He sent it to me today and I was almost in tears when I read it. I went through this whole process with her (I am the Christian girl that she mentions meeting at the camp) and was overjoyed to read it from her point it view. Please enjoy and let it warm you heart like it did mine.
I grew up in a Christian family. I have known of God since my youth, and I knew many Bible stories, thanks to my parents. Yet I still wasn’t a Christian myself. How is that possible? I simply didn’t have a personal relationship with God. I didn’t know Him.
When I became a high school student a new world opened up to me. New people. New relationships. I decided to change. I no longer wanted to be a quiet student. I wanted to be the center of attention. Within a month I knew the entire school and everyone came to me if they wanted to know someone’s name. I enjoyed this position…for awhile.
There was only one problem. I didn’t have friends. What I mean is, I didn’t have real friends. I was a very surface-y person and didn’t try to get to know anyone.
Anyone I called a friend was really just an acquaintance. I didn’t have a true friend to whom I could tell anything. From whom I could ask for advice. I didn’t think of Christianity as a solution until the summer of 2006.
At the end of my freshman year I attended a Christian English camp. There something changed within me: I began to inquire after God. Because this was a Christian camp they talked a lot about Jesus and faith. Yet the biggest impact was the positive, radiating, easy attitude of my the camp leaders. I could see that they really loved one another and they loved the campers too.
I was sure that this kind of love only came from above and I wanted to experience it. I decided that I wanted to be a Christian. I wanted to belong to God’s family.
I still didn’t actually trust Christ in the camp, however. How is this possible? Why did I hesitate? The main reason was that I somehow didn’t feel that it was the right timing…I didn’t feel anything unique yet.
I began to meet from the fall onward with a Christian girl who I met at the camp. I began to talk about much with her regarding a relationship with Jesus and Christianity began to become more clear to me. Yet I still waited. I didn’t know why. I was waiting for something unique to happen to prove to me what should happen.
On a February afternoon we sat down to talk and I learned something that was an important goal in my life: there is no particular unique sign to look for when making this decision. It’s not an emotional reaction. I needn’t experience any unique feeling to accept Christ. I just needed to believe. Therefore, as all of my doubts had been erased, on that Saturday afternoon I prayed a prayer to God and He came into my life. I didn’t feel different, but I knew that that decision was the biggest and best of my life.
Since then I have much changed and many have noticed. I notice ever more frequently God’s change in my life, as he is changing me. Thanks to his endless love and grace that surrounds me, I am capable of deep, sincere love. I am no longer so surface-y.
Of course there are many things to still change, but what Jesus has already done…to that I can only say: I am truly grateful and I can’t wait to get to know Him more.
Hanna
I would like to share an exciting ministry opportunity with you. During my first summer in Hungary, in 2005, I had the joyful opportunity to room with Jen Cassel. She and I have become wonderful friends and I was honored to be a bridesmaid in her wedding last year. Jen and her husband, Joe, are a committed Christian couple whom God has called to work with Campus Crusade for Christ.
There are 110 million college students in the world who need to hear about the Lord. Joe and Jen’s vision is to turn lost college students into Christ-centered laborers. Their outreach will be in Albany, New York reaching out to 65,000 students at 23 colleges and universities.
I believe that God will greatly use them to touch the lives of many students with His love and forgiveness. Like many other missionary organizations, Campus Crusade staff members have the responsibility to develop a team of financial partners who provide the necessary finances for their outreach, including salary and business-related expenses. Currently, Joe and Jen are developing their support.
I would love for you to join me in supporting this committed young couple who is doing the Lord’s work. Please prayerfully consider joining their support team. Contact me if you would like more information on the Cassels or on supporting them. I would be happy to put you in contact with them.
Thank you again for all of your prayers. God is doing amazing things here in America, and around the world!
~Lauren
My Dear Friends,
One year ago today, I left Hungary and came back to America. Sometimes it feels like I just left, and sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. During this past year, I have done my best to keep in touch with the wonderful students I got to know so well while I was over there. The one I talk to the most is Hanna.
Hanna is definitely one of the reasons God took me to Hungary. She became such a dear friend while I was there and I miss meeting with her very much. I have had the pleasure to talk to her often over the internet and even a few times on the phone. I want to share with you the amazing things God is doing in her life.
First of all, Hanna was baptized in the town of Vajta through her new church last fall. She is so happy to be a member of a church and to be in fellowship with other believers. She told me that she has learned so much about evangelism from her new friends and through her involvement with FÉK (Fiatalok az Élet Küszöbén, the Campus Crusade organization that I worked with). Hanna recently led her sister, Lydia, to the Lord! Praise God! (The picture above is of Hanna and Lydia.) After that happened, she told me the following:
I decided that I wanna do missions! Everywhere I am! I am getting so passionate. It’s so great that we have the honor to share the gospel and give the chance to other people to get to know GOD! I know hard times will come, and I really just wanna strengthen my faith. Right now it is like incredible! GOD IS INCREDIBLY BIG! I couldn’t imagine such big things in my life!It warms my heart to hear Hanna so on fire for the Lord. She is going to be on staff at SpeakOut this summer. And she has asked me to help her find a mission project that she could work on here in the DC area so she could come visit me and some of her other American friends as well. She will graduate from high school in a year, so I pray that she can come next summer.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for Hanna (and all of the other FÉK students in Budapest). Please pray that her passion for the Lord and for evangelism would continue. Please also pray that she and I can continue to keep in touch so that we may work in each other lives for months and years to come. I am so blessed to have Hanna as a friend.
As for me, things are going so well right now. I have been working for the past nine months at a software firm in Reston, doing technical writing. I will be at that job for two more months, before I leave to go to Denver. There I will attend the Publishing Institute at the University of Denver for four weeks. I will be in workshops every day from 9-5 that will teach me more about editing, marketing, production and design, and all other things having to do with the publishing field. The teachers of these workshops are professionals in the industry. I will meet and work with people who are in the publishing field and who will, hopefully, help me make further contacts to get a great job back here at home.
After I return from Denver, in August, I will begin study toward a Master’s Degree in English, with a concentration in Professional Writing and Rhetoric from George Mason University! I’m very excited about the opportunity to study in my chosen field and hope that this, as well as my experience in Denver, will lead me to a career in publishing. I also look forward to getting involved with the Campus Crusade team at GMU. My time in Hungary has given me a great passion for reaching the lost and I hope to continue that while I’m in school.
Please continue to pray for me as I enter this new phase of my life. I’m very excited for what is to come and excited to see what God has in store for me!
Thanks for everything!
All my love,
Lauren
Well, a lot has happened over the past few weeks since I last updated. Here's a short synopsis and some pictures :)
First, BATTLE OF THE BANDS was a great success! We had over 500 students attend and 15 bands competed. There were rock bands, punk bands, psychadelic bands, and lots more. 3 of the bands won prizes voted on by the crowd. We had an American Christian band sing in between the student bands and in the middle of the night, the lead singer shared his testimony and we were able to pass out comment cards and get students' opinions on spiritual topics. We used the cards to get new student contacts. Everyone seemed to have a great time, and we only had one bloody nose from the mosh pit! :p It was a fun night :)
To advertise the event, my team members and I spent two weeks speaking in English classrooms. Through these two events, I have been able to meet with four new girls and share my faith with them. The Lord is doing a lot through the FEK program to reach out to new students.
Check out BoB pictures here:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/558622537ZsgYWY2. The Opera!
On March 17th, the day after BoB, Ashely treated me to a night at the opera. We saw La Cenerentola at the Budapest Opera House, which is absolutely beautiful. The show was a little hard to follow, as it was in Italian, but we really enjoyed it.
Check out opera pictures here:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/558666501zpmhxC3. Statue Park
A couple of weekends ago, my roommate Kirstin and I went with the girls in our Friday afternoon Bible Study to Statue Park, or in Hungarian, Szaborpark. This is a big lot of open space in the outskirts of the city whre the government has placed all of the communist statues that stood at one time in the squares of Budapest. There are some huge and also strange statues in this place and you can pay $3 to see them all. So, the seven of us went and took some crazy pictures on a beautiful Saturday afternoon :)
Check em out here:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/558621656hjkOyp4. Prague!
Last weekend, Kirstin and I decided spur of the moment to travel to Prague for a couple of days. We left Saturday evening and took the night train. We arrived in Prague about six a.m. and stayed there til 3 the next afternoon. We had a great time. Prague is a beautiful city!
Check out the pictures here:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/558624883BENLCL5. Finally, Kecskemet.
We've just arrived home from our Spring retreat in Kecskemet. This was a time for the Christian students involved in FEK to spend time together in worship and fellowship. The topic was hardships and we had some great discussions about personal, physical, emotional, and spiritual hardships. I had a great talk with Hanna about the kind of hardships Christ went through. It's so great to see her learning!
So, it's just four weeks from today that I return to the states. I'm feeling anxious, excited, nervous, scared, sad, and totally ready all at the same time. It's a whirlwind of emotions. Mostly right now I'm just starting to say goodbye to people, pack a bit, and focus on the relationships that I've formed this year. Please pray for our next few weeks of work. Ashley and I are taking a weekend trip to Milan just before we leave, and I have a few weekend trips to villages to visit girls planned before I go. Please pray that I am dilligent in my work and really get to say goodbye to Budapest properly.
Love to all!
Lauren
March Prayer Letter
Hi! This month I would like to tell you about two students that I have been working closely with.
This is Hanna. (I have mentioned her in two previous prayer letters.)
Hanna and I met at SpeakOut last summer. We have been getting together several times a month since September and have formed a very close friendship. Last week, Hanna told me that she has recently prayed to receive Christ! Praise God!
This is Meli. Meli became a Christian last year and has been regularly attending Fék programs and retreats. She joined our girls Bible study this fall and has really been growing in her faith.
Meli and I have been meeting regularly for the past several weeks. We have begun doing initiative evangelism and accountability together. She will be applying to join the SpeakOut staff this summer!
Please pray for these girls. Hanna is very excited about her new relationship with God and is eager to learn. Meli is very excited to share her faith with people and grow in her walk. I have started doing a Bible study with these girls individually and we continue to meet regularly. I know that these girls are two reasons that the Lord brought me to Hungary and am so honored and blessed to have them in my life and to be a part of theirs.
Battle of the Bands!!
On Friday, March 16, we will have a huge outreach at our Fék weekly meeting. Student bands from all over the city have signed up to compete in this annual amateur music competition. We on the Fék staff have been going into classrooms every day to promote the event. A group of American Campus Crusade staff and students are coming the second week of March to help us advertise. We will collectively speak in nearly 20 different schools throughout Budapest. Last year we had over 700 in attendance and are hoping for even more this year!
Prayer...
Please pray for Meli, Hanna, and all of the other students that I am meeting with individually. Pray that I would be faithful to the Lord’s calling and have a servant’s heart when it comes to serving these girls.
Please pray for our “Blitz” week, as we spend our days in classrooms. This is a very busy and tiring time and I would ask you to pray for strength and endurance.
Pray for Battle of the Bands. An American Christian Band is coming to play at the event and one of the band members will be sharing the gospel. Pray that the hundreds of students would be open to what they’re hearing and that we would see many souls won to Christ!
Thank you very, very much for all your encouragement and support! All my love, Lauren
Hi!
First, my apologies for such a long interim between updates. I can't believe it's been two months since I last shared with you. Please know that I am thinking about you all and praying for you regularly. The good thing is that I'm busy... SO busy and I just haven't found the time to update regularly.
This week we are in our spring blitz. We're spending all of our days March 5-12 in classrooms, advertising for our big outreach, Battle of the Bands, on March 16. We have a project team here from Orlando this week helping us with classroom talks and evangelism.
The last couple of months have been so busy. I've been doing a lot of initiative evangelism and I've had a lot of personal appointments with Hungarian girls. I've really been able to get into some deep conversations and relationships with students. It's really helped my emotions; I enjoy being here and that makes the time fly.
Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:
At the end of January, my friend Lorraine invited me to go to Romania. She has missionary friends in Arad and ended up with two extra train tickets to visit them. My roommate Ashley and I went with her for the day. We were able to visit the church that they have built there, as well as an orphanage that the church supports.
Here is Lorraine with one girl. A lot of the orphans in Romania actually have families and know them or see them regularly; but their families simply cannot afford to take care of them. It was really sad.
I got to play with another dog! This dog lives at the church and was so excited to get petted. I loved her!
Here I am in front of one of the church buildings.
In mid-February, I went to a town near the Slovakian border with my friend Juli to visit her family for the weekend. I met Juli in the summer of 2005 at SpeakOut, we kept in touch all last year, and now we meet every few weeks to talk and hang out. It was a wonderful weekend filled with good family times and good food! No one else in Juli's family speaks English, so it was a bit of a struggle, but we had fun :) Here I am with Juli's parents. They were so wonderful!
A few weeks ago, my roommate Ashley was invited to sing at a local Rec center. She does the music at our Friday night programs and one of the students that comes told her father about Ashley. He runs the music program at the Lighthouse club and asked Ashley to perform. I went with some of our regular students to support her.
Here is Ashley and our friend Andrew accompanying her:
Hanna, Lilla, and I had some fun before the show started :)
Here's what they normally look like! :p
Ashley got in on our picture :)
So, hope you enjoyed the pictures and I'll try and update again before two months go by... !
Take care, all my love,
Lauren
This weekend I went to a town called Kalocsa to visit my friend Flora. We traveled to her grandparents town, called Faisz, and attended her family's annual Disznóvágás, translated as a pig killing. Luckily, Flora and I arrived after the slaughter, but not late enough to miss all of the meat being prepared. We spent the rest of the day helping to cook and clean, and then had a big feast.
One good part of the day was that I found a dog to play with. Dogs aren't always very friendly here in Hungary - they are used mostly for guarding - but this dog wanted to jump and play and be petted, and I was very much obliged :)
This picture is of Flora and me standing next to the table where all of the large slabs of pork were being prepared :O!!
I don't know what that was hanging on the fence, but it was the first thing I saw when we pulled up in the car and I have to assume it's some kind of fat. It was being dried in the sun and man did it smell bad!
Here I am in the smokehouse. It smelled bad in there too. But it was pretty funny to be surrounded by rows and rows of sausage. Flora and I had a good laugh :)
Here is me and Flora, waiting for the feast to begin :)
Okay, be prepared that the rest of the photos are kind of graphic and pretty gross...
This is Flora's dad, pretty pleased with his efforts... ;)
Here is one of the men working hard...
These women were taking the meat off the pig from the men and preparing it... We didn't spend much time out here ;)
So, that was my Saturday. We got back to Flora's house around 9 pm, all took showers, and had something to settle our stomachs from all the meat we ate. It was something I'm sure not to forget for a long time!
January Prayer Letter
DECEMBERDecember was a great month. We had our annual Christmas party with the Friday night outreach on the 8th. Csaba, one of the University staff members, shared the gospel with the whole group. We passed out cards and asked for the students’ responses. Over 150 students attended the party and several indicated that they had made a decision for Christ! We staff members will be following up with those students this semester. It was a great night and big step for the ministry.
In December I had the opportunity to travel to Italy! My roommate, Kirstin, and I traveled to Florence and Tuscany for one week. It was an amazing trip and a beautiful country.
This is a picture of me and Kirstin chowing down on Italy's famous gelato. I'm eating Walnut and Kirstin has pistaccio. Let me tell you that those things were gone in a flash. Italy sure knows how to do it!
This is a picture of me in front of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence :)
On the 24th, my family flew into Budapest! We got to spend a week together here and it was wonderful to spend time with them and share with them where I’ve been living :)
JANUARY
In January, we are spending a lot of time going to schools to meet with teachers and telling them about the FÉK Program. We are planning a lot of speaking engagements and hope to meet a lot of new students.
Another thing that we are telling teachers is that in the spring, FÉK (Fiatalok az Élet Küszobén, Youth on the Threshold of Life) will hold a teachers’ symposium. This will be an event for teachers to learn about the FÉK program and all the opportunities to have members of our team come and speak to their students, both in English and Hungarian. All of the teachers we are meeting in the next few weeks will get an invitation to attend this symposium, Please pray that we would be diligent in visiting as many schools as possible in January and that hundreds of teachers would be able to attend this event and learn more about FÉK.
On January 27, the FÉK program will hold a guy/girl day at our area office. This is a seminar day for Christian high school and college students. It will be called “The Color of Relationships”. Here they will participate in small and large group discussions, hear from a panel and talks about what the Bible says about relationships. This will be a great way for young Christians to learn about what the Lord intended when he created the relationship between a man and a woman. Please pray that many of the students we have been working with will be able to attend and that we can present a fun and informative day for them.
PRAYER AND UPDATE
- I have been praying for several months about how long the Lord would have me stay here. I do not feel Him leading me to participate in a third SpeakOut camp this summer, and therefore, I have decided to stay only through the end of the school semester and return to the States in mid May. This is a very big decision and I would ask that you please pray that the Lord continues to honor this choice that I have made.
- Please continue to pray for my health. I am having regular trouble sleeping and this is definitely affecting me. I feel weak and tired most of the time. Please pray that I can get medications all worked out and start feeling 100% again soon.
- Thank you for all the encouragement and support so far, and I ask that you would continue to pray for my spiritual strength. Ask the Lord to keep himself present for me. I feel a little weary thinking about starting a new semester, but I know the Lord will enable me through the next four months and when I return home.
Thank you for everything. All my love, Lauren
(Check out my webshots for more pictures - www.community.webshots.com/ldmathews )
November Prayer Letter
Hi everyone! I would like to first thank you for all of your prayers and support. I have been going through a major struggle and spiritual battle and the amount of encouragement and support has been wonderful. I have received so many letters, phone calls, and emails. It uplifts me so much knowing that you all are thinking of me and praying for me.
UPDATE
Right now, the ministry is going extremely well and we are getting ready to wrap up our first semester. Our last Student Leadership meeting will be December 5, and our last Friday night meeting will be December 8. Both nights will have a Christmas Party. Our Student Leadership party will be an intimate time of sharing and fellowship. Our Friday night Christmas Party will be a large outreach. We will go into the schools all day, every day like we did in October, for the first week of December to advertise for the party. Hopefully, we will get a large turn out, as the students will have the opportunity to hear the gospel.
Since Mid-October, we have had solid, standard work weeks. My days consist of occassional classroom talks and meeting with students in the afternoons. I spend every day after 1 pm in evangelism. I have met some interesting students and learned a lot about what is important to Hungarian young people. If I don’t have any appointments set up, my colleagues and I will go out with surveys to do initiative evangelism. This has been one of the hardest things I have had to do, but God is teaching me a lot about my boldness with the gospel in accordance with His will.
Please pray for the last four weeks of our semester. December 14th is our last work day, followed by two weeks of vacation. I am planning to do some travelling, as well as have my family visit for Christmas!
The month of January is a slower time for the ministry, as we will not be having our Friday night, Student Leadership, or staff meetings. We will still be meeting with students as they are available and everything else will start up again in February.
PRAYER
Thank you again for all of your prayer and support throughout this extremely difficult time in my life. I am adjusting slowly to being in Hungary and being involved with this job, but the Lord is using me and teaching me in incredible ways. I am not sure what the Lord has planned for me in the future, but for now I will stay focused on and committed to the fact that I am here through this school year. I will remain faithful and obedient to His calling and pray that He will show me incredible things through my time here. As for now, my depression has lifted and I seem to be much happier lately J
Please, please continue to pray for me. I am always in need of God’s guidance and your encouragement. Pray for a daily and consistent time in the word, as this is a big struggle for me, as well as for my being bold in sharing the gospel and meeting and talking with students. I am also praying for friends right now. I am asking the Lord to provide me with some solid Christ-centered friendships. Being with fun people also makes the time go by a little bit easier J
Continue to pray for the girls I am meeting with, especially Hanna (pictured above). I can see the Lord working through her and I pray that she would accept Christ very soon! Pray for community among our team and especially in our apartment, and please keep Zach and Julie, our team leaders, and Dan and Kelly, our directors, in your prayers as they are all in new positions this year and are still adjusting to that.
Thank you all again so much for everything you do for me as a support team. I couldn’t be doing any of this without you, and for that I am eternally greatful!
All my love,
Lauren
