I am looking forward with great anticipation to visiting Budapest, Hungary next month. I will be gone most of the month of June, and a few days in July. Last year I visited during spring break, which was way too short because it was only a week. So, I’m going to enjoy relaxing with many dear friends including some American missionaries.
I was blessed to have taught in a Hungarian high school in the early 1990s. I taught English and I loved it. I was endorsed by the Pentecostal Holiness Church as what was then known as a tentmaker missionary. I believe the term is now bi-vocational. I taught during the week, and on weekends I helped with a little growing church. We sang on the street on Friday nights and witnessed to passers-by, and then on Sundays we had a church service in a house. We were doing a pioneering work.
When I went back to visit my colleagues last year, who are also dear friends, I didn’t realize how deep our bond of friendship was. Though my visit was short, we reconnected well both when I visited the school, and when we went out to eat, or visited in a friend’s apartment. It was great to reconnect.
As a teacher I had fun visiting a few classes with the new students who weren’t even born when I lived there before. The students still stand up at the beginning of each class and wait to be seated when the teacher tells them to take their seats. When the bell rings at the end of class they wait to be dismissed by the teacher too. The level of respect is quite high and I must say I was spoiled. I was really able to teach back in the day without any distraction.
This journey is not really a missions trip per se, and yet it is a missions trip. Most of my fellow Hungarian associates are nominal Christians, except for one who is born again. I hope to be a witness to them and to have opportunities to share what I believe, which I have done on occasion.
I look forward to visiting my missionary friends at the International Church in town. One of my missionary friends now works in an orphanage. I’m looking forward to seeing the sweet children there.
Please keep me in your prayers. So many Europeans are unsaved. The Hungarian Christian community is in the single digits. Hungary is truly a mission field and I am mindful of that.
God bless you,
Greg
[Editor's Comment: Greg is a missionary at heart. It is in his spiritual DNA. Melvine gave Greg to be a missionary when we conducted the first Missionary Convention in the Alabama Conference and possibly in the IPHC when we pastored the Brownville Pentecostal Holiness Church near Evergreen, Alabama, 1963-1965. One night during the Missionary Convention the Lord spoke to Melvine and asked her if she would be willing for her son to be a missionary. She did not hesitate but willingly said "Yes" to God.
Greg was recently given a full-time teaching position in Moore Middle School in Gwinnett County, GA to teach Special Needs children. He had worked for three years as a para pro, and learned how to relate to these children and how to teach them. He went further and met all the educational qualifications to be certified as a Special Needs teacher. Greg is a musician and has a keyboard to teach the children music. It remains to be seen what God will do in the lives of children who are autistic when they are introduced to good music and learn to sing fun songs. Greg is a fun guy to be around. He enjoys life and laughter.
I know that Greg believes in prayer, and I am sure he would greatly appreciate you praying for him while he is in Budapest, Hungary. He will be flying out of Atlanta on Friday, June 9, on Turkish Airlines. He will be gone 3 1/2 weeks, returning in early July.
Greg will return home to drive Melvine and me to General Conference and the Chaplains and Spouses Retreat and dinner banquet prior to General Conference in Orlando, Florida in our 2010 Lincoln Towncar, Continental Series in mint condition which had only 60,386 miles when I traded cars. Casey Jackson, owner of the Ford dealership in Royston, GA found it for me. I was able to trade our 2007 Black Honda CRV for this nice vehicle. We are grateful to God for His provision and granting us a season of plenty.
It is my prayer that you will be able through the eyes of faith to make room for a season of plenty in your life so you may be able to bless others. Remember that God is your Source, and He can give you a season of plenty.
If you would like to correspond with Greg, you may send him an e-mail: gmmusicman1@gmail.com
Please join Melvine and me in praying for this trip to Budapest for Greg's vacation that no doubt will be a missions trip after all. Wherever we go, we are missionaries and ambassadors for Christ with the message of reconciliation.]
I was blessed to have taught in a Hungarian high school in the early 1990s. I taught English and I loved it. I was endorsed by the Pentecostal Holiness Church as what was then known as a tentmaker missionary. I believe the term is now bi-vocational. I taught during the week, and on weekends I helped with a little growing church. We sang on the street on Friday nights and witnessed to passers-by, and then on Sundays we had a church service in a house. We were doing a pioneering work.
When I went back to visit my colleagues last year, who are also dear friends, I didn’t realize how deep our bond of friendship was. Though my visit was short, we reconnected well both when I visited the school, and when we went out to eat, or visited in a friend’s apartment. It was great to reconnect.
As a teacher I had fun visiting a few classes with the new students who weren’t even born when I lived there before. The students still stand up at the beginning of each class and wait to be seated when the teacher tells them to take their seats. When the bell rings at the end of class they wait to be dismissed by the teacher too. The level of respect is quite high and I must say I was spoiled. I was really able to teach back in the day without any distraction.
This journey is not really a missions trip per se, and yet it is a missions trip. Most of my fellow Hungarian associates are nominal Christians, except for one who is born again. I hope to be a witness to them and to have opportunities to share what I believe, which I have done on occasion.
I look forward to visiting my missionary friends at the International Church in town. One of my missionary friends now works in an orphanage. I’m looking forward to seeing the sweet children there.
Please keep me in your prayers. So many Europeans are unsaved. The Hungarian Christian community is in the single digits. Hungary is truly a mission field and I am mindful of that.
God bless you,
Greg
[Editor's Comment: Greg is a missionary at heart. It is in his spiritual DNA. Melvine gave Greg to be a missionary when we conducted the first Missionary Convention in the Alabama Conference and possibly in the IPHC when we pastored the Brownville Pentecostal Holiness Church near Evergreen, Alabama, 1963-1965. One night during the Missionary Convention the Lord spoke to Melvine and asked her if she would be willing for her son to be a missionary. She did not hesitate but willingly said "Yes" to God.
Greg was recently given a full-time teaching position in Moore Middle School in Gwinnett County, GA to teach Special Needs children. He had worked for three years as a para pro, and learned how to relate to these children and how to teach them. He went further and met all the educational qualifications to be certified as a Special Needs teacher. Greg is a musician and has a keyboard to teach the children music. It remains to be seen what God will do in the lives of children who are autistic when they are introduced to good music and learn to sing fun songs. Greg is a fun guy to be around. He enjoys life and laughter.
I know that Greg believes in prayer, and I am sure he would greatly appreciate you praying for him while he is in Budapest, Hungary. He will be flying out of Atlanta on Friday, June 9, on Turkish Airlines. He will be gone 3 1/2 weeks, returning in early July.
Greg will return home to drive Melvine and me to General Conference and the Chaplains and Spouses Retreat and dinner banquet prior to General Conference in Orlando, Florida in our 2010 Lincoln Towncar, Continental Series in mint condition which had only 60,386 miles when I traded cars. Casey Jackson, owner of the Ford dealership in Royston, GA found it for me. I was able to trade our 2007 Black Honda CRV for this nice vehicle. We are grateful to God for His provision and granting us a season of plenty.
It is my prayer that you will be able through the eyes of faith to make room for a season of plenty in your life so you may be able to bless others. Remember that God is your Source, and He can give you a season of plenty.
If you would like to correspond with Greg, you may send him an e-mail: gmmusicman1@gmail.com
Please join Melvine and me in praying for this trip to Budapest for Greg's vacation that no doubt will be a missions trip after all. Wherever we go, we are missionaries and ambassadors for Christ with the message of reconciliation.]