Dear Praying Friends,

Tamas took advantage of his ethnicity to land a tech job in Hungary.  He is an engineer from Croatia who has a Hungarian heritage, meaning that he can speak the language and get favored treatment as an immigrant.  Tamas also has a spiritual interest.  His friend Edit had visited Pecs not long ago and while here she visited Bible Baptist Church, having found our site on the internet.

Tamas decided to give us a try after hearing Edit’s recommendation.  He came the first Sunday in January.  Zoli Kiss sat next to him during the service and talked with him afterwards about his spiritual condition.  At the end of the their conversation, Tamas prayed to receive Christ as Savior.  Pray for him.  He is one of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

This month did not turn out the way we expected.  God had other plans for us.  Instead of starting the new semester of Greek in Romania and preaching several times in Nagykanizsa, God took us to the US for two and a half weeks.  On Sunday, January 10, my father, Wesley Potter, went home to be with the Lord.  Our trip to the US, which began at 2:00 AM on Tuesday, did not proceed as expected.  I have posted an account of how God took care of us and of the funeral services on our web site: www.hungaryhearts.com.

The trip to the US also afforded us a chance to see our new granddaughter, Brooklynn Katrina Potter, born on January 8.  I am sure that all of you want to see the pictures posted on our web site!

Please pray for several upcoming events.  I will be going back to Romania soon to start second semester Greek classes.  Our schedule must of necessity be more compressed, making an already difficult schedule even more difficult for the students.  They would appreciate your prayers.  On February 13-14, we will travel to Szolnok to speak for a missions conference at an independent Baptist church pastored by our friend, missionary Dan Peters.  Pray that God will stir the good people of the church to greater enthusiasm about missions and the need to support a national pastor for their own church.  Also, during this month, the Horvath family will be moving to their new home.  They would appreciate your prayers concerning this transition.

Please pray for Lajos Makura, who is now taking responsibility for the church youth program.  I believe that Lajos’ enthusiasm will be good for the young people, and that the ministry to the youth will be good experience for Lajos.  We believe that God wants to use Lajos in a much greater way in the years ahead.

Please pray for the ministry of the Olah and Hughes families in Nagykanizsa.  Over the last month they have seen five professions of faith.  Gedeon has asked me to speak for him at his Thursday midweek service several times over the coming months.  Pray that I will be an encouragement and help to the many new believers there.

Jean would also appreciate your continued prayers for her as I am away.

May God bless you for your intercessory work on behalf of His work in Hungary.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

The title of this post may sound like a contradiction in terms, but that is exactly how I would describe it.  Dad went home to be with his Lord in Sunday, January 10, with his wife, two daughters and two sons-in-law at his side.  Mother heard him say, “Let’s go home,” and thought that he was speaking to her.  She later realized that he was probably talking to God.  Among the last things he said was, “Great is Thy faithfulness.”

I had the priviledge of preaching for the two funeral services that we held for him, one in Flint, Michigan, at Maranatha Baptist Church, where he was a member, and where his son-in-law, Don Albright, is the pastor.  The other funeral service was at Allegany Baptist Church, Allegany, New York, near the cemetary where we laid his body to rest.  There I had the privilege of preaching to many friends and relatives.

We were overwhelmed with the number of people who attended, especially those who came from a great distance.  Many also wrote to express their sympathy.  We are grateful to God for the number of people whose lives Dad impacted.

Below is a picture of the Potter clan assembled for the funeral.  The only ones not able to attend were our daughter Ruth, who watched the service from Manila via Skype, Jerian (Micah’s wife), who was recovering from a C-section, and Brooklynn.   Click picture to enlarge.

The Potter Clan

International air travel is usually pretty much uneventful, but when you fly as often as we do,  you have stories to tell.

We left Hungary in a hurry so that we could participate in my father’s funeral service in the US.  We left our house at 2 AM on Tuesday, January 12.  By the time we got in the air, things started to go wrong.  Ami became sick to her stomach and had to use the airsick bag.  We hoped that the sickness was either caused by a lack of sleep plus all the stresses of what was going on, or that she just had a mild flu bug.

When we arrived in Frankfurt, we asked for help in getting from one end of the terminal to the other.  The airline helpfully provided a cart for her to ride on and we cleared passport control and security with ease.

Just as boarding was about to begin, the purser discussed the situation with us.  He said that if Ami became worse on the flight to the US and the authorities suspected that she had the H1N1 virus, they could quarantine the whole airplane.  He wanted us to obtain clearance from a doctor before she was allowed on the plane.  That clearance was impossible to get before the plane took off, and the next possible flight was the next day.

The bad news is that the airline was not responsible for our expenses.  The cost of changing the tickets, staying in a hotel over night, meals and paying for the doctor and medicine amounted to about 550 euros ($825 US).  The good new was that some of you prayed for us.  When I purchased the tickets for this trip, I did something that I have never done before: I bought trip insurance.   The agent that I contacted assured me that they would cover these added expenses.

The upshot was a one night stay at a 5 star hotel, no less!  Since we had very little sleep over the previous 48 hours, this was a welcome development.  We got 13 hours of badly needed sleep and arrived in the US a day later than planned, but much refreshed.

Our travel adventures were not over.  On the return trip, our flight was late taking off from Chicago O’Hare.  I was concerned, since we had a tight connection of only 1 hour, 10 minutes in Munich.  A helpful flight attendant moved us from the rear of the plane to near the front just before we landed, so that we could get off ahead of the other passengers.

As we rushed into the terminal, I checked the monitor to make sure we were headed to the right gate.  That is when I discovered that our flight had been canceled.  The airline graciously paid for our lunch and booked us on the second of the three flights they make to Budapest in a day.  As it turned out, a blizzard shut down the airport in Budapest the whole day.  Again, we stayed all night in a nice hotel and had our meals furnished at the airline’s expense, this time.

We arrived in Pecs yesterday afternoon in time for me to preach for the evening service.  The extra night in the hotel gave us a head start on getting over jet lag.

Experience has taught us not to take travel for granted.  A lot can go wrong (and has!).  Thanks for praying.

I have always welcomed your comments and would like to publish them.  Unfortunately, I have had to endure an increasing amount of spam, which used to average about 10 per week.  These “comments” were usually offers to sell prescription drugs over the internet.  Lately I have been receiving more like 10 per day.  Because of this problem, I am not allowing comments at this time.  If I can figure out how to use a spam filter, I will try to reinstate comments.  In the meantime, feel free to write to us.

While we were in the US, we visited our new granddaughter.  Here are a couple of pictures.  What, you think a grandfather can resist showing you his pictures?  Click to enlarge.

Brooklynn with her grandparents

Brooklynn with her parents

Brooklynn

I am writing this from my mother’s home in Flint, Michigan.  On Sunday of this week, my father, Dr. Wesley Potter, passed into the presence of the Lord.  He was 86 years old and suffered from Parkinson’s Disease.  Funeral services will be held tonight at Maranatha Baptist of Fint, where he was a member and his son-in-law, Don Albright, is the pastor.  A second service will be in Allegany, New York. at the Allegany Baptist Church, with interment at the Protestant Cemetary in Allegany.

You can find his obituary at http://www.sharpfuneralhomes.com/_mgxroot/page_10756.php

The family would appreciate your prayers.

Brooklynn Katrina Potter was born by C-section to Micah and Jerian Potter on January 8.  She weighed in at 8 lb. 5 oz. and was 19 inches long.  We are grateful to God for the skill of the doctors.   The baby was in distress from having the cord around her neck.  They intervened in time and both mother and daughter are doing well.

The grandparents are very happy.

Like Americans, Hungarians love any excuse to set off fireworks, and New Years is as good an excuse as many.  (Whereas Americans love to see red, white and blue, Hungarians love to see red, white and green.)  After our New Year’s Eve fellowship time, the church folks went to a hill to view the fireworks in the center of town.  Despite the steady rain, all enjoyed the view.  Pecs has an added reason to celebrate this year.  In 2010, Pecs is the official Cultural Capital of Europe.  Pray that God will give us opportunities to witness to some of the many tourist who will visit town this year.  Click on pictures to enlarge.

Fireworks 1

Fireworks 2

Dear Praying Friends,

Csilla is growing up in many ways. You can see this from the way she helps take care of her two kid brothers, for whom she often has responsibility at home while her mother works. Her family is not well educated by Hungarian standards, and, because of their social class, the system does not expect much from her. She has only begun to realize her own potential. She is now setting her sights higher educationally.

The church youth group had a New Years all-night activity at our place yesterday. What a joy to hear Csilla talk about how she was saved and how God is now working in her life. She has just taken up the piano for the purpose of learning to accompany congregational singing at church. Because her family cannot afford their own piano, she must find other places to practice. We welcome and share her excitement. Pray for her. She is one of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

The all-night youth activity also marks an important step in the growth of the church here. We now have a new youth leader: Lajos Makura. Lajos fears that he does not have the ability to do the job, but his humble, prayerful approach is just what the young people need. Yes, he was the Lajos who survived the car accident two years ago. Pray for him.

In our last letter we requested prayer for the problems with the church roof. Competitive bidding and newer technology have brought the price down to something that the church can afford to do without borrowing any money. The work has already begin, but will probably take several months to complete due to the winter weather. We praise God for this definite answer to prayer.

Thank you for praying about our new residence permits. We started assembling the paperwork in July. The last of the papers went in on December 19. The lady at the interior ministry with whom we dealt was optimistic that we would get a favorable answer by the end of January or early February.

Thanks for praying for our Christmas programs. We had several unsaved visitors who heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. Please pray that the seed sown will bear fruit. If you would like a taste of the Christmas program, go to our web site: www.hungaryhearts.com, where I have posted a video of one of the musical pieces. You can also see many more pictures about the work here and in Nagykanizsa, where God is blessing the efforts of the Olah and Hughes families.

For the next several months I will be traveling to Romania and to Nagykanizsa on a regular basis. I would appreciate your prayers for safety as I travel and that God will use me as I train national workers. Jean would appreciate your prayers for strength for her while I am away.

The church had a New Year’s Eve service followed by a game time. We were happy to see Miklos, the unsaved husband of one of our members, and Attila, who has made a profession of faith but has not been faithful in church attendance. Both seemed to enjoy the time. In addition, Tamas and Erika, a couple with a Seventh Day Adventist background, attended and had a good time. Pray that we will be able to reach and disciple this young family. This family came because of the outreach of the Ladies’ Craft Circle. Please pray that God will give us a more effective outreach to men.

At the New Year’s Eve service the pastor asked for testimonies about God’s goodness over the past year. This question prompted me to thank God for His goodness to the Potter family. We saw Bela Horvath installed as the first national pastor of our church. We witnessed the kindergarten graduation of our grandson, Trent Potter, the high school graduation of our daughter Ami and the seminary graduation of our son Micah. The alumni of Daniel Burt Academy feted my wife, Jean, to mark her retirement from twenty-five years of home school teaching.

We wish a blessed and spiritually prosperous New Year to all our prayer partners. Thank you for praying.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter