Years of prayer in eastern Hungary yield results

International Mission Board missionaries Gary and Carolyn Miller have spent many hours prayerwalking in the town of Puspukladany, Hungary, asking God to stir the hearts of local people. When they began in 2003 they did not know anyone in the town that was void of evangelical fellowship.They prayed God would establish a core group of believers that would grow into a strong, reproducing church.

During the summer 2005 volunteers came to work with them, providing a free blood pressure booth and prayerwalking in the town. In December of 2005 the Millers distributed Bibles in the open market to meet people and share God’s Word with them. In 2006, volunteers helping with projects discovered a small independent church of about seven believers and found that other large churches had begun praying and holding outreach projects in Puspukladany. By partnering with believers in the area the Millers have been able to help the existing church as well as plant seeds for future work.

Today, Gary and Caroline are seeing God answer the prayers of believers by stirring the hearts of the people. This was apparent during a recent Scripture distribution project.

Volunteers from the local church and other towns set up a booth at the Friday morning market to give away Scripture, engage people in spiritual discussion and offer free blood pressure checks. Unfotunately, rain cut the ministry time down to just a few hours. Saturday morning the Millers moved the booth and set it beside the tent the church was using for their special meetings. The tent stood in the center of several apartment buildings and beside one of the main sidewalks. This proved a great location for engaging people in discussion.

Over the course of two and half days they were able to distribute 244 whole Bibles and 68 New Testaments.

“Three hundred and twelve pieces may not sound like a lot in a town of 17,000, but we didn’t just hand them out–people had to sign a commitment card promising to read the Bible,” Gary said. “We could have given out more Bibles, but we ran out.“

More than half of the Bibles were distributed during the few hours at the open market, in contrast to a Bible distribution project in 2005 in the same market where the team reported that they “gave away many copies of God’s Word.“ That was a total of 38 copies over five days.

“That many copies seemed like a miracle to us,” Gary said. “Now just 2 1/2 years later, we gave out eight times that many.”

On both occasions the Millers’ friend “Annie” was the key person who opened the door for success. Both times she shared her rented space and encouraged people to take a Bible or New Testament. She strongly believes in God but has not yet put her trust fully in Jesus Christ.

The Eastern Hungary Team asks that you please continue to pray for the people of Puspokladany—that they will read the Bibles they have received, repent, follow Christ and share their faith with those around them. Pray especially for Annie. For more information about what God is doing through the Eastern Hungary Team, visit their Web site at hope4ehu.com.

Posted by Gary Miller on Sep 9, 2008

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