May 1, 2004

Dear Friends,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is with excitement that we are writing to let you know that we will be in the United States this summer and fall to do mission interpretation. We are hoping that we will be able to meet with you and your church to tell you about what we have witnessed of God’s activity here in Hungary and in disaster areas of the world.

If you are interested in allowing us to share with you, please let us know right away! Scheduling is likely to be complicated but we will do our best to make ourselves available.

The best way to contact us is by email at kathyangi@cs.com or Joeangi53@cs.com. We have a written copy of your request to help ensure that we have all of the important information. If you need to talk to us by phone to clarify some details, you can usually reach us in the evenings (noon in New York City is 6:00 p.m. in Budapest). Our home phone number in Hungary is 011-36-1-222-4193. Please leave a message if you miss us and we will get back with you. Please speak slowly and leave your number.

After July 4, 2004, we will be in the United States. We will be traveling most of the time, but will check our email every day. We also talk to our daughter most days, and you can leave a message with her, Canee Welsh, 978 Hine Rd., Hamilton, OH 45013 (513) 868-1680. We also have a mobile phone: (513) 807-8866.

The rough outline of our schedule is below. Though it looks very hectic, there are many unscheduled days. We have clustered areas together hoping to see as many people in an area as possible, possibly even through presbytery events or by several churches networking together.

July 5-14: Michigan – Detroit Presbytery
July 15-23: Cincinnati / Ohio
July 24-30: New Wilmington, PA, East Ohio, West Pennsylvania, Northern WV
July 31-Aug 7: Vacation with grandchildren
Aug 8-14: Missionary Sharing Conference – Louisville, KY
Aug 15-21: Fairbanks, Alaska to visit son in U.S. Army
Aug 22-Sep 1: West Coast – Seattle, Portland, California
Sept 6-19: Carolinas and New Jersey
Sept 20-Oct 4: Ohio / Kentucky

This schedule is tentative and there is the option to extend our time into June or October. We are hoping to be creative with schedules and include barbecues as well as Sunday worship and Bible schools as well as presbytery gatherings!

About expenses

During the months we are speaking about missions, our regular mission salary will be paid. Therefore we do not need or expect an honorarium. We do need help with our travel expenses. We have planned our schedule so that we can have these expenses shared by several congregations to lessen the burden on everyone.

To keep things simple, we will give you an estimate of travel expenses ahead of time, and give you a written report of the expenses when we visit you. If driving is possible, we will give you the mileage for reimbursement. If the distance is too great, we will usually fly the cheapest way possible! At times we will travel separately to increase the number of locations we can visit and to reduce costs.

If we fly or drive a rental car we’ll divide the cost among the churches we’re visiting in the area. If we’ve made a special arrangement with you, we’ll remind you of it in our letter. If you would like to invite us but can’t afford to pay for our travel, that’s okay too, but please let us know ahead of time. Some churches give us more than our travel expenses and we save that for such occasions. Please note that we can’t accept cash. We hope this is all acceptable.

Finally, we would like to say emphatically that God is busy at work in this world. It has been our privilege to observe the movement of the Holy Spirit in the most unexpected places, and to see lives changed by love. We would like to bring back to you these fruits of the gifts that you have sent to people in Hungary, Malawi, and Liberia. As the people in Liberia say, “God is good—always!”

Thank you again for your prayers and support. You have made all of this possible!

Your sister and brother in Christ,

Kathy and Joe Angi
Presbyterian Co-workers in Hungary

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 332

What We Can Do

The full 1-2 hour family mission program

We have prepared a presentation including media and music about our work in Hungary and /or our disaster assistance work in Africa. This presentation is fun because it gives us the opportunity to really interact with the audience, answering questions and telling stories appropriate to the age grouping (children or adults). This presentation can be done including a potluck, barbeque, a bible school program or at some other event.

Preaching

Kathy is a minister of the Word and Sacrament and is able to preach when asked. The sermon can have a clear mission focus or follow the normal order of preaching. It is usually helpful to combine preaching and worship with a coffee hour, adult class, or other gathering where people are free to talk and ask questions about missions and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

Minute for mission

A minute for mission is always an opportunity to get people interested or curious about a mission opportunity. Though it is hard to really stick to just one minute, we love to stimulate people to come and find out more. We find that it is most helpful to have additional time to share stories, pictures, music, and sometimes even food! It always seems that people have questions and often know someone who has had similar experiences. Using a minute for mission as an advertisement for a luncheon, class, or other event is often a good combination.

A Sunday school hour

This setting usually allows about 50 minutes for actual program. This is relatively short, but is possible. We can combine multimedia and discussion time. The class can be focused for the age group being addressed, but please let us know ahead of time!

Workshop or presbytery presentation

The opportunity to speak to members of several congregations at a time is often very helpful. Sometimes neighboring congregations even find new partners to work on projects together. Because we work in several different locations, we can vary our presentations to be specific to Hungary and refugee work or disaster assistance, or we can combine them. We can also focus on the activity of the church in a variety of countries on different continents! We are open to dialogue about this with the presbytery or conference.

Mission committees

We treasure time with mission committees since these are the folks in a congregation whose commitment to mission is already apparent. We really appreciate the work of the mission committees and are delighted to share and talk and strategize with fellow mission workers!

Church camps, Bible schools, session meetings, confirmation classes, women’s meetings, informal gatherings, and everything else!

All of these places are great places to talk about mission. Mission trips and church camp are often the places that people remember encounters with God that have changed their lives. We are delighted to meet with people at any time possible and share. Contact us and see if there is a way to for us to adapt to the situation you have. We are delighted to try!