Autumn Newsletter from Hungary 

Dear Friends
We hope you are well. We have enjoyed sharing quick updates in our facebook group, (which of course has more photos) but we’re aware not everyone has access to this, so I am sorry it’s been a while since we sent an email.
The summer seems quite a distant memory but through the peak of the 40c heatwave James helped at an English Bible camp and we took a group from Tiszadob to a worship festival in Budapest, and towards the end of the summer we organised the first bible camp (holiday club) in Tiszadob, which had its fair share of both highlights and difficult moments.

In our last newsletter, we mentioned about our desire of funding a gap year for a Hungarian to join our team. Unfortunately this wasn’t achieved. Still, with the right funding in place, and the right structure, we hope this is something for the near future.
Our youth group continued through the summer. The kids really enjoy our games but to be honest the discussion part is a little difficult, because they simply don’t shut up! Still, we are sharing bits and pieces from the Bible, recently focussing on the inherent value we all have as humans, and starting to think about the nature of Jesus. As we head into winter we’ll be exploring the meaning of Christmas in more detail.

Two of the newer kids, Benji and Gabor, are cousins both aged 13, and they both smoke. We pray through our youth group and coffeeshop, God will be able to make a positive impact in their lives. 
At the end of the summer, I (James) was offered a job teaching English two mornings a week in a primary school in a nearby city, which I started in September. We had already decided that the coffeeshop wouldn’t be open on Mondays or Tuesdays outside of the summer season, so it fits well with that and it is refreshing - although a bit demanding - working in a completely different environment. Virág is continuing her English teaching to little ones in the coffeeshop, since the library has closed for the winter due to the heating costs.
The coffeeshop is continuing to be a real blessing, and is being used by more and more groups as well, which we are really pleased about. Whether with passing tourists or village regulars, there are often opportunities to share our story, and our hope and faith in Jesus. 
Unfortunately, the coffeeshop’s financial situation will be severely threatened in 2023 due to the huge increase in electricity costs, meaning the most viable long term solution is getting solar panels installed. We will be sending a further email about the coffeeshop shortly.

Like in many places now, most people are finding the current energy crisis and huge food inflation very difficult to handle. Sometimes we're in the right place at the right time to say the right thing, like last night when I spent a good while discussing right and wrong ways forward with one of the families we are in regular contact with. 

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers, and for supporting our activities with your generous giving.

James, Virág, Sophie and Annamari  
[Greater Europe Mission]