April 26 was a great Sunday.

Here in the US, we reported to two churches.  One of them started in 1824 in a  barn belonging to my 4-great grandparents.  How encouraging that this church still preaches the same gospel as it did more than 180 years ago!

Eight first-time visitors attended services in Pecs yesterday.  Pray for follow-up on these visitors.  Anett, for whom we have asked prayer before, attended both morning and evening for the third week in a row.  Pray that she will be saved soon.

The Lighthouse Baptist Church of Nagykanizsa moved to new facilities yesterday that are double the size of the old.  Here are a couple of pictures that the Olahs took.  Click to enlarge.

Entrance to Lighthouse Baptist Church

Gedeon Olah leading singing

Yesterday Bible Baptist Church of Pecs, Hungary, ordained Bela Horvath to the Gospel ministry and installed him as the first national pastor of the church.  On Saturday, seven messengers from five churches questioned the candidate as to his testimony of salvation, his call to the ministry and his doctrinal beliefs.  They unanimously recommended to the church to proceed with the ordination.

Besides local people from Pecs, others came from Beius, Romania, from Esztergom and Nagykanizsa in Hungary, from Germany and from the US.

In addition, Pastor Rhon Roberts of Mukwonago Baptist Church of Mukwonago, WI, is preaching a series of meetings for the church going through Wednesday.

Below are some picture highlights of the day.  Click to enlarge.

I had the priviledge of teaching Elementary Greek to five young men in Beius, Romania during the past seven months.  Here is a picture of the group taken this week.  Click to enlarge.

Dear Praying Friends,

Denes (Dennis) has been practicing medicine for thirty years.  Besides teaching family practice at the university, he has a private practice as well.  He is finally at the stage of life where he can begin to slow down.  His son, a newly minted doctor himself, began subbing for his dad at the private practice once in a while not long after his graduation.

Denes has treated several of my illnesses, beginning not long after we arrived on the field almost ten years ago.  We have found that when you want to start a conversation about spiritual things, he becomes a bit defensive.  He considers himself a devout Roman Catholic.  For this reason, we were delighted to accept the Knies’ invitation to dinner at their house along with Denes and his two nurse assistants, Melinda and Ildi.  (He is the Knies family doctor, too.)  Jim was looking for an opening to steer the conversation to spiritual things, but he needn’t have worried.  Denes brought it up himself.  He had some questions about evolution.  He wanted to know exactly what we teach.  Jim went through the plan of salvation with him and his two assistants.  They seemed to be interested and they accepted some gospel tracts and invitations to our special meetings next week.  Pray for them.   They are three of about ten million reasons God sent us to Hungary.

March has been an exciting month and April promises to be as well.  Thirteen students successfully completed the course in Pauline Epistles early in March here in Hungary.  Greek classes in Romania ended yesterday, with the final exam being given next week.  On March 15, Bible Baptist Church of Pecs voted to call Bela Horvath as pastor.  This past Sunday, March 29, Jim Knies read his resignation to the congregation after the morning service.

Bela’s ordination council will be Saturday, April 4, with the ordination the next day, the Lord willing.  April 5 also marks the beginning of special meetings with Pastor Rhon Roberts of Mukwonago Baptist Church, Mukwonago, Wisconsin.  The meetings run through Wednesday.  Please pray for these upcoming events.  I plan to post pictures on our web site, so please visit it next week at http://www.missioncentral.net/miss/potter/index.htm and click on Our Journal.

We have plane tickets to fly to the United States on Friday, April 10, for a short furlough.  During that time we plan to visit family and report to some of our supporting churches.  In addition, our son Micah is graduating from Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale, PA, on May 16.  I will not be writing a prayer letter in May, but you can keep up with us by visiting our web site, which is moving on May 1 to www.hungaryhearts.com.

Please pray for the following requests:

·         Pray for Bela and the church during this time of transition.  The Knies family will be leaving for the US shortly after we do.  The Devil would like nothing better than to cause trouble for the church while Bela carries the responsibilities of the work by himself.

·         Pray for several people who need to be saved, especially Miklos, husband of one of our members, and Anett, wife of another of our members.

·         God has been doing good things with our youth group.  Pray that Satan will not be able to disrupt the youth work, but that it will go forward in our absence.

The next week will be an extremely busy one for us.  We ask that you remember us in prayer for strength and guidance.  May God bless you for your continuing help.

Yours for Hungary hearts,

David Potter

PS—Do not forget to bookmark our new web address, www.hungaryhearts.com, which will be effective May 1.