Hitchman News - July 2023

July 2023 ... Financial Challenge, Ministry Centre and Life! for Singles

Ministry Update

We are facing a Financial Support Challenge.

Please forgive us for putting this at the top of our newsletter but our biggest and most urgent prayer need is in the area of personal financial support. This is our least favourite thing to write about, but over a period of time several forces have combined to put this need into the urgent category. Like many of you, we have really felt the impact of the cost of living crisis, Hungary's inflation is the worst in the EU at 41%. This means our utility and food bills have shot up.

Unfortunately, on the other side of this is the fact that giving has reduced because of very natural and understandable factors, a mix of post Covid and the cost of living crisis. Contrastingly, we are seeing ministry opportunities expand and the depth of the discipleship we are providing increase. Please will you consider partnering with us to enable us to continue the work here in Hungary. For those who already support us, we are thankful for your sacrifice and we don't take it for-granted. We are now receiving emergency support from Elim Missions, a top up fund that is designed to fill a short term slump in funding.

If you are able to help improve our financial situation please contact us and use this link to set up monthly giving or a one-off donation.

A while back we produced a video explaining a little about what it is like to minister cross-culturally. It gives some insight into what we do but it doesn't cover everything, so things like the student discipleship program do not feature within it. You can watch the video by following this link.

International Student Ministry.

As we reach the end of term time, we look back with great appreciation for what God has been doing. Here are a few photos from our celebratory outing at the end of the discipleship class, visiting the city before their exams started.

Some students have returned to their home countries over the summer; others have moved to Budapest to take up summer internships. Please pray for the young adults and students' work and that those who don’t know Christ will put their trust in Him, and those who do will deepen their faith. We saw amazing results this year with the university allowing us to use a meeting room. Please pray for this to continue and also for us to be able to make good connections with the new intake in September.

Life! for Singles

The discipleship group with the International Students focused around the “Life! For Singles” discipleship course. This has now been translated into German and will be available very soon. Also, translation into Hungarian just has started.

Church Life

Of course, there are lots of other areas of church life which we are involved in. The transformation group, led by Melinda and taught in Hungarian, has renewed for the summer.

A new initiative is the Dorcas project, led by Riani, which will outreach into the local community by making baby blankets for families and children’s homes in need. For Lainey, that has meant learning a new skill - crocheting!

Paraszt Haz Ministry Centre

In the last newsletter, we gave an update on the progress with the Paraszt Ház project which will be used for ministry not only for the students but for couples in crisis, debriefing missionaries and helping leaders who have experienced burnout. We feel like we’ve been able to make another leap ahead. We now feel like we are walking into a house rather than a building project.

There is still quite a list of things to do, but we have really turned a corner. The next thing on the list is getting the bathroom fitted. As you can see, Roy has had a bit of a play with putting the furniture in the right place.

Hopefully, that will be done quickly, and we can turn our attention to the kitchen. Please pray that we have both the finances and the skilled labour to complete it soon.

As well as providing intensive help to couples in crisis, we have the privilege of being able to offer debriefing to missionaries coming home from the field, so would love to see it being used for those purposes.

We are very grateful to all who have been sowing into this project financially. We treat these donations as designated funds, that is, funds that are designated to this project and this project alone. This is helpful in that the funds are there to enable us to continue the development even though we have financial challenges in our level of personal support.

Marriage Ministry

Please pray for the continued work we do with couples, that they would see breakthroughs in the situations that they face, and that God would give us the skill and wisdom to give wise and Godly counsel. We are always amazed by how God works in couple’s lives and praise Him for the marriages which have been restored this year.

Praise and Prayer

The students have completed their exams and are now on summer break. We are thankful for the opportunities God has given us to walk beside these young people. Please also continue to pray for them, however, as a number of them are still facing significant challenges and are needing support even through the summer period.

We are extremely thankful for all that you do to keep us on the mission field. Without your love and support we would not be able to invest in the lives of those who God brings to us. Please pray that God provides for our monthly living support and ministry costs. We want to reassure all who are giving to the Paraszt Haz project that these funds remain committed to the project and are in no way being diluted by any of our personal funding needs.

We deeply appreciate all the love and support that you have given us in this last year. We know that we would not be able to do what we have been called to do without your partnership.