Dear Praying Friends,
Since his retirement, Istvan spends a lot of time tending his garden. He lives in a cottage which is attached to a rather substantial patch of garden, fruit trees and grape vines. His genial face suggests a pleasant sort of personality.
A few months ago Istvan met one of our church members who was passing out tracts at a bus stop. She invited him to church and he came. His interest sparked concern in his family, especially from his daughter-in-law, that he was in danger of being involved with a religious cult. Nevertheless, he continued to attend. Zoli and I visited him in the middle of December and asked him about his spiritual condition. I went through the plan of salvation with him and he said he agreed with everything I said, but he could not put his finger on a time that he had personally asked Christ to be his Savior. That morning, he prayed to be saved. He has now agreed to have discipleship classes, which two of our church men are planning to conduct with him. Pray for Istvan. He is one of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.
During December we had two Christmas programs: a children’s program and an adult musical program. Numerous visitors attended both. Pray that the Gospel proclaimed by the music and the preaching would bear fruit in hearts. I also completed the Bible Exposition class in Romania.
Please pray about new English language classes and new Bible institute classes. Pray that the English classes will bring us more prospects for the church and that the students will have the time to benefit greatly from the Bible institute classes.
Please pray for Lajos Makura as he continues to seek permanent employment. We are grateful for Bela Gado’s new job, an unexpected blessing in the present economic climate.
Please pray for Marika Gombos, who lost her husband on New Year’s Day. He had made a profession of faith some time ago, but was not able to attend church due to ill health. Marika now lives alone in a village that is a long bus trip from the church. Pray that God will comfort her and enable her to attend church on a regular basis despite the distance.
Yesterday I was diagnosed as suffering from gallstones. I would appreciate your prayers concerning my surgery which is schedule for sometime in early February. Pray that I will recover quickly.
A number of people in the church are going through spiritual struggles at this time and need your prayers. At the same time, we have seen a lot of progress in the lives of a number of people. God is at work.
God blessed us with visits from two of our daughters over the holidays, one expected and one unexpected. Ruth came from Manila before Christmas and stayed until after New Year’s. On New Year’s Eve, after we had returned from church, Rachel appeared on our doorstep. Ruth and Ami had conspired with her to arrange the trip as a surprise for us.
Thanks for your prayers on our behalf.
Yours for Hungary hearts,
David Potter
PS–Please visit our web, www.hungaryhearts.com, site to see a number of new posts, including lots of pictures and some video clips from the Christmas program.

The chimp that played Cheetah in the Tarzan movies from 1932-34 died last week at the age of about 80 in an animal shelter in Florida. What does this have to do with Hungary? It reminds us that the first man to play Tarzan in the movies was Johnny Weissmuller, who was born near Timisoara in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Before he became an actor, Weissmuller was a world class swimmer who won five Olympic gold medals.

God has been good to us this year.  We are blessed to have Ruth visit us this Christmas season.  Merry Christmas to all our prayer partners!  Click to enlarge.

Here are some videos from our Christmas program.

O Little Town of Bethlehem (alternate tune).

Sing Ye Angels

Come, Savior of All Peoples

Here are some pictures of our Christmas program last Sunday evening.  I hope to post some video later.  Click on images to enlarge.

For the grand finale, the men lit candles and sang a song about Christ dispelling the darkness.

We had a number of visitors, many of whom came for the first time.  Please pray that the seeds sown will bear fruit.

Announcing the arrival yestereday of Ashlyn Potter (middle name still under discussion) to Micah and Jerian.  She weighed 8 lb. 1 oz.  Mother and daughter are doing fine.  Click to enlarge.

Update: Her full name is Ashlyn Faith Potter

On Sunday, December 4, the children recited Psalm 139 for the congregation–all 24 verses.  We believe that these verses, hidden in their hearts, will guide them away from evil and toward righteousness in the future.  Click to enlarge.

Our Children’s Christmas program was really outstanding this year, thanks to the fine direction of Rita Makura and her helpers and the hard work of the children.  They did the familiar “Three Pine Trees,” along with appropriate music.  Then they all recited John 3:16 together.  Here are some pictures, but they cannot begin to convey the impact of the presentation.  Click on pictures to enlarge.

This picture gives you a sense of the crowd.  We had a dozen or more visitors.

At the close of the program, the children gave out Christmas tree ornaments which they had made.  Each one contained John 3:16 inscribed on a piece of paper on the inside.

Of all the uniquely American holidays, Thanksgiving is, in my opinion, the best.  Hungary does not have a comparable holiday.  As an incentive to our English language students, we promised to fix them a typical Thanksgiving meal with turkey and the trimmings.  For the evening’s program, I told the story of the Mayflower Pilgrims.

We celebrated on Monday, November 28.  One of our church ladies photographed the meal.  We were fascinated by what Hungarians thought was fascinating.  Here are some pictures that Karmen Fazekas took that night.  Click on pictures to enlarge.

Jean makes this dish with the cornbread mix, canned sweet corn, canned creamed corn and sour cream.  You have to do some substatuting in Hungary, but it still tastes great.  The Hungarians thought so, too.

Since they do not sell applesauce in the store here, we had to make our own.  Jean added some Redhot candies to spice up the flavor and enhance the appearance.  This dish was also a big hit.  You cannot buy canned pumpkin here, or evaporated milk, but Jean makes a great pumpkin roll.  Imagine a jelly roll made with pumpkin bread and filled with creamed cheese instead of jelly.  All of it was gone before the evening was over.  They were suspicious of the stuffing (upper right).  I am sort of glad, because I got to finish it.

We had lots of turkey plus mashed potatoes and gravy.  Gravy in general and mashed potatoes and gravy in particular were new to them.  Both pretty much disappeared during the evening.

And yes, there were people, too.  Five of the students have promised to attend our Christmas concert on December 18.  Please pray that these visitors will find Christ as their Savior this Christmas.

This is the first of a series of catch-up posts. On Novermeber 27, Zoli Kiss announced to the church his engagement to Johanna Andrasik, Yoli Olah’s niece. A June wedding is planned. The newly engaged couple sang a duet in the morning service. Click on the picture to enlarge.