Pray for Hungary on Sunday, August 19, 2012

Pray for Hungary on Sunday, August 19, 2012

Prayers for Hungary: John 6:51-58

Dear Lord! We, your rambunctious and, from time to time, even obedient children, came together here today to make a feeble attempt to praise and glorify your Holy name.  We are humbly grateful for your endless grace, mercy, care, redemption, and above all, your unending patience with us.  We thank you for trusting and honoring us so tremendously, that you chose, called, and endowed us to be your agents of peace, good will, and enabling on this earth.  Forgive, and bear with us, because we seem to have clay feet and faces muddied by our quickness to judge, condemn, reject or refuse. At times we are slow to reconcile, encourage, enable, uplift and unconditionally love and accept. 

We implore you, and depend upon your promise to us, that Oh Bread of Life, you will descend among us from heaven and nourish us for life eternal, so we may not hunger any more. Oh Spring of Life, break forth into our midst, for your thirsty children are anxiously searching for this fountain.  Please grant us generously this life-giving water that our thirsts may be quenched and we may be able to abide in you forever. 

Please Lord, hear us, and keep us in your employment in spite of our inadequacies both in our communities of faith of the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ.  We pray for your safekeeping; you, who graciously sent us out to work in your name, and also in the faith communities of Hungary and Slovakia, whose people so lovingly received and embraced us.  

In the name of Our Lord Jesus the Christ we pray.  Amen.

Mission Stewardship Moment from Hungary:

Eszter Dani, a pastor in the Reformed Church in Hungary, has been named one of the recipients of the Raoul Wallenberg Award for 2012. A most defining point of service, earning the award for Reverend Eszter Dani, was her work with the Munkács-community of the Subcarpathian Roma (Gypsy) Mission of the Reformed Church, between 1996 and 2008. Besides her pastoral work, Rev. Dani took part in planting and launching Roma congregations. Since 2009, Rev. Dani has been involved in Roma missionary service in the capital as an official delegate of the Danube District of the Reformed Church.

Her outreach includes organizing summer children’s camps and unique Bible-study classes, which now not only attract children, but parents and families as well. The aim of her mission to the Roma people is to provide assistance in life management skills, healthy living, crime prevention and learning. She actively participates in working to overcome anti-Roma prejudice as a delegate of the Hungarian Reformed Church to the Roma Coordination Council of the State Secretariat of the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice for Social Inclusion of the Hungarian government.

Rev. Dani’s pastoral service and her life achievements make her a role model for her peers. Her sacrificial efforts promote the cause of the disadvantaged and marginalized, and those suffering from discrimination.

Video Resources on Hungary:

Interview with Zoltan Szucs: http://globalministries.org/resources/multimedia-resources/videos/video-mission-moments/zoltan-szucs.html

Global Ministries International Partner in Hungary:

  • The Reformed Church in Hungary is, in terms of numbers, the largest denomination in Hungary, after the Roman Catholic Church. The existence of the Reformed Church in Hungary dates from the Debrecen Synod of 1567. At present the registered number of Reformed Hungarians world-wide is about three and a half million. Of these, some two million live in Hungary. In consequence of the dismemberment of Hungary after World War I, many congregations—even whole church districts in Transylvania—were separated from the church and placed beyond the borders of this country. These believers continue to live in their old homes, but in alien linguistic and religious surroundings. In the United States there are some 70 Hungarian Reformed congregations in two separate church bodies. The Reformed Church in Hungary maintains close fraternal relations with Hungarian coreligionists living abroad, whether in neighboring countries or dispersed throughout the world, partly through the World Federation of Hungarian Reformed Believers, and partly within the framework of the Consultative Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church. Reformed believers amount to about 21% of the Hungarian population of ten million. 1200 congregations reside in four Church Districts and 27 seniorates. http://www.reformatus.hu/

For more info on Hungary: http://globalministries.org/mee/countries/hungary/

Global Ministries Missionaries in Hungary:

Barbara and Zoltan Szucs are Global Ministries missionaries with the Reformed Church in Hungary. Barbara works with the Roma (Gypsy) mission as an enabler, and Zoltan serves as a Professor of Practical Theology at Karoli Gaspar University in Budapest.