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
