Dear Praying Friends,

Karmen is tall and slender, almost to the point of seeming to be delicate.  She has a ready smile that communicates how glad she is to be in church.  I first met her on the first Sunday we were back from furlough and her story is one of many good things that God has done for Bible Baptist Church of Pecs during our one and a half month absence.

Karmen’s spiritual background is in a group that stresses obedience to the Law so strongly as to leave people thoroughly confused about God’s requirement for salvation.  Karmen has wrestled with this problem for some time.  She visited our church about a month ago.  After receiving counsel from the Word, she concluded that she really had put her saving trust in Christ about a year ago.  The joy and relief shows on her face.  The contacts between her husband, Imre, and her former church were not happy ones.  He reacted strongly against their high-pressure tactics.  In a friendly visit with Bela, Imre brought up the subject of spiritual things.  He did not seem to be off-put by Bela’s response.  Meanwhile, Karmen continues to attend church faithfully, along with her young son.  Pray for her and her family.  They are three of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

Lots of good things happened to us while we were in the States, including the wedding of our daughter, Hannah.  Please go to our web site for news and pictures: www.hungaryhearts.com.

Last Sunday I had the privilege of preaching for Jim Knies at Capital City Baptist Church in Budapest.  Pray for the success of this new church plant in the population center of Hungary.

Monty Budahl, retired head of the music department at Maranatha Baptist Bible College, spent three weeks in August here in Hungary.  The weekend before we returned, he spoke for a special men’s weekend seminar at the Horvath home.  Fifteen men attended, including two who are unsaved: Miklos and Tamas.  Please pray for the salvation of these two men.

The baptism of Peter, a teenager about whom I wrote recently, is another of the blessings that happened while we were away.  Peter was the first to sign up to go to family camp.  He thoroughly enjoyed being with other Christians and hearing from the Bible during that week.  Pray for Peter’s mother to be saved.

Speaking of family camp, we had 42 in attendance this year, the largest group we have had for several years.  We greatly appreciated the ministry of Dr. Budahl during the week as he spoke about the Christian life, the family and music.  Seeing the interaction between various church members was a real blessing.  Among those who seemed to profit a great deal from the week were Zoli, Judit, Niki and Vivi.  Miklos, a teenage boy, made a profession of faith during the week.  Pray that the campers who made decisions would stick to them.  We are very grateful to Dr. Budahl for devoting the time and energy to minister here with us.  His sincerity reached the hearts of all who heard him.

Please pray for the church youth.  Three of them will be entering college this fall: Ami, Belus and Judit.  Belus and Judit will be studying in Budapest and Kaposvar, respectively.  Pray that they will be able to maintain a testimony and a walk with God in the ungodly environment of the university.  Also pray for Zoli and Jozsi as they complete their university work this spring.

Pray for the English Sunday School class for international students which starts this Sunday.  Pray that we would have an impact on these students which would extend to their native countries.

Bible Institute classes begin on September 8.  We will be repeating New Testament Survey I and II this fall.  Pray that my teaching would not only be accurate and factual, but energetic and useful.  Pray that the students would absorb and act on what they learn.

While this fall promises to be a busy one, new opportunities seem to be opening up for next year.   Stay tuned.

Thank you again for your prayers.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

Dear Praying Friends,

I first met Gabor more than five years ago.  Ami, an eighth grader at the
time, was about to audition for the arts high school.  Ami’s teacher asked
Gabor to listen to Ami’s audition pieces and give her some advice.  I was
very impressed with the way Gabor made suggestions and at the same time
built up Ami’s confidence.  Last Thursday, there sat Gabor as one of four
judges when Ami auditioned for the University of Pecs.  Besides Gabor’s
position as a violin teacher at the university, he is also a member of a
string quartet based in Salzburg, Austria.  I wonder if he gets tired of
shuttling back and forth between the two cities.

My friend Monty Budahl, retired head of the fine arts department at
Maranatha Baptist Bible College, has well said that there is more gospel
witness in jail than in the symphony orchestra.  I have not yet had a chance
to find out about Gabor’s spiritual condition, but I may get my chance if he
turns out to be Ami’s teacher at the University of Pecs.  Pray for him.  He
is one of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

This past month the Pecs church celebrated its fifteenth anniversary and the
Nagykanizsa church celebrated its second.  Along with the celebration in
Nagykanizsa, twenty-two people signed the church charter.  It was my
privilege to participate in that chartering service.  I have posted pictures
of these events plus some video of special music on our web site.  Please
check it out at www.hungaryhearts.com.

Sixteen students finished the Bible Institute class on Psalms today.  Please
pray for the Lord’s guidance concerning a busy schedule of classes for this
fall, both here in Pecs and, hopefully, in Nagykanizsa.  Pray for wisdom for
the national pastors, Bela Horvath and Gedeon Olah, as they guide these two
churches.

Lajos Makura, one of our church members, would appreciate your prayers
concerning a job.  The company he worked for went bankrupt last month.  We
are thankful that most of the men in our church have secure jobs, but with
economic conditions as they are, we realize that we have to rely on God for
our living, not our employers.

Next week Ami will audition, June 29th, at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.
We may not know the final results for several weeks.   She would appreciate
your prayers.  The auditions are highly competitive, since an Academy degree
carries a lot of prestige.  Pray that God will use the auditions to direct
Ami to the place He wants her to study in September.

Our plane leaves for the United States on Friday, July 2nd.  The purpose of
our trip is to attend the wedding of our daughter Hannah on July 6 and to
report to several of our supporting churches.  I plan to write the next
“Hungary Hearts” at the end of August.  In the mean time, pray for the
church Family Camp, August 23-27, with Monty Budahl (mentioned above) as the
main speaker.  This year we want to have a sort of mini-music camp parallel
with our normal camp.

Pray also for the Knies family as they transition to a new ministry in
Budapest.  God has wonderfully provided them with an apartment and a meeting
place at very low cost in an expensive area of the city.

Again, we thank you for your prayers.

Yours for Hungary Hearts,

David Potter

Dear Praying Friends,

The first time I laid eyes on Robert, I would never have suspected that he might someday be a candidate for the Gospel ministry.  His smile is very pleasant, but the hair that ran down his back as far as his waist just didn’t quite fit my picture of a Baptist pastor.  Robert and his wife had come to Christ from the witness of his wife’s cousin in Budapest, but they had not grown much spiritually, because they could not find a good Bible-preaching church to attend.  Last year they enrolled in English classes taught by Tim and Sheryl Hughes and the Hughes invited them to a Friend Day Sunday at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Nagykanizsa.   They have attended faithfully ever since.

How things have changed since the first time I say him.  I still recognize his smiling face but the long hair is gone.  He realized he needed to cut it before he was baptized and joined the church.  Last month he accompanied Gedeon Olah on a preaching trip to Albania.   The experience has had a very good effect on Robert.  As I have been teaching the Baptist Distinctives to his church over the past couple of weeks, Robert has taken in every word.  From such people we expect that God will raise up the next generation of pastors and church planters in Hungary.  Pray for Robert.  He is one of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

Thank you for praying for the end of the semester for the Romanians students taking Greek.   All did very well on the final exam.  I believe that all of them have enough of a grasp of the basics to enhance their preaching and teaching.   Thank you for praying for the home school conference where Jean and I spoke.  About 30 home schooling families attended from Timisoara, Romania, in the east, to Sopron in the far west of Hungary.  Our teaching was very well received.  Thank you for praying for our new English language Sunday School class which I am teaching to English-speaking university students.  This is a bad time of year to start such a class, yet we have had seven attend so far.  We will suspend the class from the middle of this month until school starts again in September, since most of the students will return to their home countries for the summer.  We would appreciate your continued prayers for this new ministry.

In May I began teaching a class on the book of Psalms for the Pecs Bible institute.   Sixteen students have enrolled.  I expect to finish by the end of June.  Please pray that the students will finish the class and learn and grow spiritually from studying this very rich book.

Peter, whom I asked you to pray for last month, has been attending services.  Pray for his continued growth.  Pray also for the continued growth of Nikolett, who is taking the discipleship class taught by two of the church ladies.  I have asked for prayer for Attila numerous times.  We were encouraged to see him in church last Sunday.  Please pray for his spiritual growth.

This month will be another busy one.  Besides the Bible institute class, we plan to attend the second anniversary and charter signing service for Lighthouse Baptist on the 13^th.  I will be preaching there on June 27^th.  Ami faces auditions for the University of Pecs and for the Liszt Academy in Budapest.  Pray that the Lord’s will would be done and that He would guide her as to the next step in her training.  The Lord willing, on July 2 we are flying to the States to attend the wedding of our daughter, Hannah, to Lieutenant Kenneth Earnshaw.  The wedding will take place in Greenville, South Carolina, at Mount Calvary Baptist Church.  In the weeks following, we plan to report to a number of our supporting churches in the Midwest.

Zoli Kiss, a member of the Pecs church, would appreciate your prayers regarding the Lord’s guidance for his future service for God, as he will be graduating from the University of Pecs next year.

Ami and I have faced some minor health issues over the past couple of weeks.  We are thankful that God has enabled Jean to nurse us both back to health.

Thank you for your continuing prayers on our behalf.  We depend on you.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

PS—Don’t forget to visit our web site, www.hungaryhearts.com, for all the latest pictures.

Dear Praying Friends,

Peter seems to be a bit shy and socially inept, but his outward demeanor hides an active brain.  He is a tenth-grader who specializes in information technology (computers) in high school, with hopes of pursuing advanced education in that field.  He lives in the same apartment building as the Kiss family, who are members of our church.   Zoli Kiss invited him to our special meetings and he was able to attend on the final night.

After the service, Valerie Knies asked him if he would like to speak to someone about salvation.  His friend Zoli probably would have done so, but he was busy helping Bob McKinney counsel someone else who wanted to be saved.  Instead, young Bela Gado went through the plan of salvation with him.  After Zoli’s first counselee had prayed to receive Christ as Savoir, Zoli joined Bela and the two of them led Peter to Christ.  Pray for Peter.  He is one of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

Thank you for praying for our special meetings.  They were well attended every night.  God used Bob and Tina McKinney to encourage us all.  Bob did a wonderful job of explaining how the biblical concept of love applies to the problems of contemporary life.  Besides the two who professed Christ on the final night, we had a number of visitors who expressed a spiritual interest.  Pray that God will use us to guide them to Christ and that the new converts will follow Christ in baptism and church membership.

Thanks for praying about the Greek classes in Romania.  The students are doing well.  Our final classes will be May 3 and 4, with the final exam to follow.  We ask you to pray with us for God’s guidance about what contribution He wants me to make toward the further training of these men.

Please pray for our new Sunday School class for English speaking university student, which begins tomorrow, May 2.  I have long had a burden to help these students, but the opening to do something like this never presented itself before.  The present opportunity has come unsought.  Pray that the classes would result in spiritual growth for these students and for salvation of others as the ones who are interested invite friends to come.

On May 15, Jean and I will be featured speakers for Hungary’s first ever Christian home school conference, which will be held near Budapest.  Pray that God will use us to be a blessing to these new home educators.

On May 20-22 and 27-29 I will be teaching a series of lessons on the Baptist Distinctives in Nagykanizsa.  The Lighthouse Baptist church has many new converts who know nothing of the Baptist heritage and practice.  Pray that the lectures will be both interesting and effective in teaching these new believers about this important subject.  We continue to watch the progress of the Olahs and the Hughes.  In special meetings which ended last Sunday, the Lighthouse Baptist Church saw three new professions of faith.

We would also appreciate your prayers concerning our daughter Hannah’s upcoming wedding, July 6.  We plan to leave right after Ami’s audition at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.  Ami would appreciate your prayers as she prepares.

We appreciate your prayers and notes of encouragement.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

PS—Check out our web site, www.hungaryhearts.com, for several new posts, including a musical selection from our recent Easter program.

Dear Praying Friends,

Barbara’s smile is enough to light up a room.  Her light complexion and blond hair mark her as Scandinavian.  Lots of Norwegians speak English well enough that they can study abroad in our language.  Getting into medical school in Norway is no easier than in the US.  For that reason, Norwegians occupy some of the 120 new places reserved annually for English speaking students in the University of Pecs medical school.  This is a win-win situation, since the foreign students can study medicine more easily and cheaply than in their home country, and the university ends up with cold hard cash.

Some of the Norwegian students found our church on the web.  They decided to check us out because we sometimes have preaching in English, and we have interpreters who can interpret the messages simultaneously with the preaching.  Barbara told me that although she is Lutheran, she is more comfortable around Norwegian Baptists than she is around liberal Norwegian Lutherans.  Barbara and two of her friends have attended our services twice now.  We are wondering if we should start a special Sunday School class for them so that they can learn in English.  Please pray with us about this matter.  And pray for Barbara.  She is one of about ten million reasons  God sent us to Hungary.

Thank you for your prayers for my itinerant ministry.  I was able to preach in Nagykanizsa last month and teach in Romania three times.  The Greek students in Romania would appreciate your prayers for the remaining sessions of class that will culminate in a final exam the first week in May.

Thank you for praying for Nikolett.  She continues to attend services and is growing in the Lord.  Pray for her husband, who is not interested in the Gospel at this time.

Please continue to pray for Bori Horvath, the mother of our pastor.  The pathology report from her surgery showed that the cancer she had previously has returned.  Bori is one of Jean’s best Hungarian friends.

Easter Sunday evening we had a musical concert at the church.  We had ten visitors, including the Lajos Horvath family (no relation to our pastor) with their three teenage daughters.  Pray that the Gospel will penetrate the hearts of the unsaved who were present.

Attila, Miklos and Anna continue to need your prayers that God would bring them into the fellowship of the church.

I hope to post a film clip later this week at our web site, www.hungaryhearts.com.  The site already has several new pictures.  I had to shut down the comments due to the large volume of spam the site attracted.  Our web master has now installed a spam filter, so I will be allowing comments in the future.  Please feel free to browse and comment.

The next big event on our church calendar is the spring evangelistic meetings, April 25-28.  Bob McKinney, Baptist World Mission missionary to Poland, will be our speaker.  Pray that God will send us many visitors and that people will be saved through these meetings.

We appreciate your intercession on our behalf before the throne of grace.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

Dear Praying Friends,

Priscilla, Abie and Ruth came to Hungary from their native Nigeria in order to study medicine.  Here in Pecs, a student can get a first-class medical education without the prohibitive cost of many other places.  Once you have a medical degree here, you can use it all over Europe, not to mention Africa and other places.  Students can study medicine here in English or in German while picking up enough Hungarian along the way to do clinical work.

We are happy to see these young women come on a regular basis.  Their backgrounds vary from Evangelical to Roman Catholic.  When the preaching is in Hungarian, one of our young men sits behind them and quietly interprets for them.  We trust that these girls come because they sense a spiritual need that God can meet through our church.  Pray for them.  They are three of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

Thank you for praying for Nikolett.  After a Wednesday evening service during February two of the church ladies led her to Christ.  They are now doing a follow-up Bible study with her.  Pray that she will begin to attend church regularly and that her husband would be willing to come.

Thank you for praying for our trip to Szolnok to speak for missionary Dan Peters who is planting a church there.  We had a wonderful time of fellowship while challenging the people in the area of outreach and giving.  You can find pictures of the conference on our web site: www.hungaryhearts.com.

Thank you for praying for our residence permits.  We received them on February 12.  They are good for five years and renewal is very simple.  Dealing with certain other matters involving day to day living will be easier now.

Andras (Andrew) Horvath, new son of Bela and Emilia Horvath, our national pastor and his wife, arrived this past Sunday.  Mother and baby are home now and both doing well.

Jim, Valerie and Mary Knies have returned from their furlough in the US.  They would appreciate your prayers for God’s guidance in regard to planting a new church in Budapest, a city of two million that has only one small independent Baptist church at present.

Please pray for safety and strength for me as I continue my itinerant ministry in Beius, Romania and Nagykanzsa in Hungary.  We are grateful to God for opening these opportunities to make and impact on Romanian preachers and on a new Hungarian church.

Please pray for Bori Horvath, our national pastor’s mother.  She was diagnosed with cancer in her lung.  Surgery is scheduled for the week of March 5th.  She had colon cancer a few years ago and the doctors are not sure if this is a recurrence of that cancer or a new cancer.   She seems to be in good spirits.  Please pray for the Horvath family during this difficult time.

Jean would like to thank you for praying for her health.  She will soon return to the doctor who operated on her just over a year ago, in order to check on how she is doing.  She has greater stamina now than she has had in several years, in answer to your prayers.

We are also excited to announce the engagement of our daughter Hannah to US Army Lieutenant Kenneth Earnshaw, Jr.  Look for details and a picture on our web site.

Thank you again for your faithful prayers.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

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

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

Dear Praying Friends,

Nikolett* was a total stranger to me.  I did  not remember meeting her in church before for a good reason: I was in Nagykanizsa the previous Sunday, which was when she first visited our church in Pecs.  This Sunday she was there again, this time with two daughters, Melody and Claudia.  She listened attentively to the preaching and occasionally took notes.

Nikolett moved to Hungary from Transylvania, an area of Romania where many ethnic Hungarians live.  Though she is not Hungarian herself, she speaks fluent Hungarian.  Her mother had a Baptist background, so when she and her husband moved into an apartment near our church, she saw the church sign and decided to come in search of spiritual help.  She found a friendly face in Gabi, a member of our church who is also from Transylvania and who speaks Romanian.  Pray for Nikolett and her family.  They are four out of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

Thanks for your prayers for our activities this month.  The preaching and the testimonies at the Pecs missions conference were an encouragement to the folks in the church.  Also, the time we have spent in Nagykanizsa was been profitable.  Attendance for the Thursday midweek services there was between 30 and 35 each time.  On Sunday morning, November 22, when I asked for those to whom the Lord had spoken to raise their hands, nearly everyone responded.  The Olahs and the Hughes are doing a splendid work.

We would appreciate your prayers for a major challenge facing the Pecs church.  Some time ago the church’s flat roof needed fixing.  The roofer said that he could either fix the roof right or do the minimum to get by for another five years or so.  The five years are up, and we must do something major.  The estimated cost is more than the church’s annual budget.  The church has a healthy balance in the bank, which will give us a good start.  Please DO NOT SEND MONEY.  Rather, send up your prayers that God will supply this need through His people here in Hungary.

Please pray for the following activities this month: two special Christmas programs on December 13 and 20, a special Christmas morning service on the 25^th, and a New Years Eve service on the 31^st.  An all-night youth activity will follow the New Years Eve service.  The students in Romania who are studying Greek will take their final exam this month.  Pray not only that they will pass the test, but that using Greek will become practical to them in their ministry.

Our quest for a permanent visa goes on.  Thank you for praying.  We now have until December 31 to get in all the paperwork.  Dealing with bureaucracy always seems to require more work, time and expense than you think it will.  The immigration department has always been good to us.  Pray that God’s will would be done in this matter.

Please pray for the following people who have spiritual needs: Anna, Attila, Janos, Miklos and Vivien.

Thank you again for standing behind us in prayer.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

PS—If you have not done so lately, visit our web site: www.hungaryhearts.com.

*Not to be confused with Jean’s language helper, who is a different person.

Dear Praying Friends,

We were surprised to see Hajni (”Dawn” in English) sweeping the leaves from the area in front of the church entrance this morning.  You do not expect something like this from someone who has attended church for only a few weeks.  She got to church early this morning because Erika would be late and making sure that the front entrance is clean and neat on Sunday morning is Erika’s job.  Erika was the one who invited originally invited Hajni to come to church with her.  Since then she has attended most every Sunday evening and Wednesday service.

Often I am asked to preach for our midweek service on Wednesday, but on October 14, I was in Romania, so Bela asked Lajos Makura to preach instead.  A number of ladies attend our Ladies’ Creative Circle but do not normally attend church came that evening, perhaps because they were friends with Rita Makura and wanted to know what her husband sounded like as a preacher.  Lajos preached a powerful Gospel message and Hajni prayed to receive Christ after the service.  What a delight to see her at church drinking in the Word and enjoying the fellowship.  Pray for her.  She is one of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

Thank you for praying for the students in Romania who are studying New Testament Greek.  All of them passed a very difficult midterm test last week.  Thank you also for praying for the Bible Institute students here in Pecs.  Eight of them successfully completed the Baptist history class.  One student has been out of town for the past week and expects to take the final exam soon.  This is the second time we have offered this class, meaning that a total of 19 students will have completed the class.

We much enjoyed having John and Jean Waggoner with us for ten days.  John gave his testimony in Sunday School and the two of them provided special music for two evening services.  They also accompanied Jean and me to Romania where John gave his testimony in the Bible college chapel service.  They were a blessing to us in helping with weather-proofing and sewing jobs that we have needed to get done both at our home and at the church building.

Last week we filed papers with the Interior Ministry for permanent visas.  The process is long and complicated.  Please pray that we will be able to get all the remaining paperwork together and that God will give us favor in the eyes of the officials at the local office.

Our annual missions conference begins next Sunday.   Rather than having a speaker from the United States, this year Bela has arranged invited speakers from Hungary: Gedeon Olah who is planting a church in Nagykanizsa, Erwin Andrasik, who is planting a church in Dunakeszi, north of Budapest, as well as Jim Knies and myself.  (After all, Jim and I are missionaries!)  The theme this year is “Every Baptist a Missionary.”  That phrase was the motto Johan Oncken, a German preacher who was behind the church planting movement that started the Baptist work in Hungary a century and a half ago.

The Lord willing, this month I will be preaching all four Thursdays plus Sunday the 22^nd in Nagykanizsa.  We are thrilled with the work God is doing there through Gedeon and Yoli Olah.  They have gathered a group of young families who are growing in the Lord.  Pray for God’s continued blessing on this ministry.

We ask you to intercede for the following who have spiritual needs: Niki, Attila, Anna, Lajos, Ildiko and Gyula.  Pray for the salvation of Agi, Miklos and Erzsi.

We are seeing some very specific answers to prayer on a day-to-day basis.  These answers encourage us to return to the throne of grace daily.   Please join us there to receive mercy and grace.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

PS—Please visit our web site at www.hungaryhearts.com to see pictures and other news of the ministry here.