META Centre (Click on the British flag for the English-language pages.)
Budapest, Hungary
By Nancy Collins, Kristen Campbell and Marirosa Nazario de Arce
The Association for Opportunities of Young Migrants (META) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization in Prague. It is a counseling and informational center for immigrants. Over the last two years, the Centre and staff have helped more than 300 young migrants
- prepare for school exams,
- learn how the country’s systems work,
- learn the Czech language,
- choose the appropriate school,
- manage day care needs and
- apply for jobs.
A Wonderful Day
Budapest, Hungary
By Anna McIlwain
Kristen Campbell and I rushed to sign up for the home visit with the pastor of St. Columba’s Church of Scotland, Budapest and his family. We were interested because of our close connection to Scotland (check out our names, if you haven’t already). Ironically, Aaron Stevens, the pastor of St. Columba’s, was born in my native state of South Carolina and his mother now lives in Kristen’s state of North Carolina.
Aaron went to Hungary on a mission trip when he was in college; upon graduation, he returned to work for the church. Aaron is now the minister of St. Columba’s Church of Scotland, in the Presbytery of Europe. Each quarter, the presbytery meets in a different country for two or three days.
Sunday morning, Kristen and I observed a wonderful church school class led by Aaron, and held at the Synod (like our General Assembly) headquarters of the Hungarian Reformed Church. The church is a wonderful example of how people of diverse backgrounds can be in community with one another.
Homeless Shelter for Recovering Alcoholics
Budapest, Hungary
By Mary Beth Lysobey
Màrkusné Làng Ilona, pastor, quoted this scripture:
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
— James 2:15–16
Màrkus and other recovering alcoholics began the Homeless Shelter for Recovering Alcoholics on the outskirts of Budapest in 1992. The leaders see themselves as anonymous evangelical workers; they say the shelter has succeeded because God’s word heals.
Volunteer workers at the shelter include recovered alcoholics and the families of participants. This protected haven encourages participants to get jobs and save money and assists them in getting apartments and furnishings. The staff weans participants off the system but reassures them that the shelter is always there.
The shelter is small — 25 beds, plus 17 more during the winter. After a former addict returns to independent living, he often returns weekly for emotional and spiritual support.
The staff is pleased that 80 percent of recovered patients keep their jobs and their faith. I find it amazing that these homeless men come to this place knowing beforehand that they are going to be evangelized, and they come, grabbing for this lifeline.
Reformed Church Marriage and Counseling Center
Budapest, Hungary
By Judith Lovejoy
The Reformed Church in Hungary supports a marriage and family counseling center on the grounds of Bethesda Children’s Hospital, Budapest. The staff members are highly trained, friendly individuals who are dedicated to their work.
Hungary requires women to attend two counseling sessions prior to having an abortion. The first session must be in a state-run center, but the second can be at a church center. In fact, the state sends many women who seem uncertain about what to do to this center because they spend more time counseling each woman. Abortion is common and accepted in Hungary, but still is a difficult decision for a woman to make.
Couples and family counseling comprise most of the rest of the caseload of the center. The center recently added a child psychologist to the staff.
Refugee Integration in Hungary
Budapest, Hungary
Beverly Roselieb
We met Kathy Angi, a PC(USA) mission coworker, who helped guide the refugee integration program in Budapest in its early years. Some of the current refugees from various countries shared their stories of what it is like to be a refugee in Hungary and how the resettlement program has assisted them. Through Dóra Kanizsai Nagy, program coordinator, we learned about the Nanny Programme, which seeks to provide job and study opportunities for women refugees.
Andrea Kovács Szommer, lead teacher for the school portion of the program, shared stories and pictures. In addition to working with schools to find those schools appropriate to the needs of individual students, Andrea takes the students on several “learning” expeditions throughout the city.
Eniko Ferency addressed the housing portion of the program. He told us that finding housing is challenging, as resistance to refugees as neighbors and tenants is the norm.
Elder Education at the Elder Association
Budapest, Hungary
By Judith Lovejoy
We were scheduled to visit the Elder Association in Budapest. “What is that?” we wondered. An advocacy group? A senior center? Our escorts were two men — one retired, the other nearing retirement. “How old are the members of the Elder Association?” we asked. “Some of us are old, some not so old. We would like to have more young presbyters,” they replied.
Presbyters, elders, session members! How did we miss that? The Elder Association seeks to help elders deepen their faith and improve their knowledge of the tasks facing them as leaders of the church. The members see the education of elders as their primary task.
They organize workshops and conferences at the local, regional, national and even international levels. Currently, they are putting together a conference especially for women elders. The number of women in leadership roles in Hungary is still small, but is growing.
The Elder Association publishes a newsletter, The Presbiter, six times a year. It also publishes books useful to elders. Especially in the smaller villages, these publications help elders gain basic knowledge.
Remembering What the Lord Has Done: A Visit with Daniel Szabo
Budapest, Hungary
By Judith Lovejoy
Along with several other participants in the Global Exchange, I was privileged to spend a morning with Daniel Szabo, retired professor at the theological academy in Budapest. He shared with us his understanding of the meaning of the persecution the Reformed Church in Hungary has endured through the centuries.
At the Bible Museum located in the seminary building, he showed us a copy of the first translation of the Bible into Hungarian (translated around 1440), and told us that when the Turks overran Hungary in the mid-1500s, the people were able to stay Reformed because they had that Bible. Eighteen of the twenty presses in the country at that time were Reformed, and the church had many schools. The Turks took young boys and turned them into Turkish soldiers who came back to fight their own people. But the Turks were a blessing because they protected the church from the Hapsburgs (the Austro-Hungarian Empire) as they gave the Reformation time to take root in people’s minds and hearts. By the time of the Counter-Reformation in 1640, Hungary was firmly Reformed. God had used the Turks to prepare the people for what was to come. The Hapsburgs took away the pastors. Approximately 100 of them were taken to be galley slaves. Twenty years later, when Dutch mission workers heard the captive men singing the same melodies the Dutch sang for psalms, they recognized that the men were Reformed Christians. They were able to rescue 40 pastors and return them to Hungary. Because of this contact with the Dutch Reformed Church, the Hungarian church was exposed to the practical Puritanism of the English Reformation and the pietism of the German Reformation. Together in the Hungarian Reformed Church, they proved to be a good combination. The church became the caring hand of God for the nation. Between the two World Wars, the Great American Revival also influenced them. God was preparing them for what would come next.
During the Stalinist era, many pastors in the Transylvania and Carpathian areas were sent to Siberia, exiled for life. When Stalin died in 1953, they were allowed to return. In the Communist era, 1,200 Reformed schools were closed in one week. For 40 years, only one school was allowed to remain open — the high school in Debrecen, with 200 students. Now there are 3,600 students in 150 Protestant-run schools and four theological schools. The Hungarian Reformed Church believes churches and schools belong together, that children need both secular and religious instruction.
Daniel said that in his lifetime, he has heard the voice of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and others filled with demonic powers, but, he said, they are like the statue in Daniel whose feet were made of clay. He explained that today there is a belief in Europe that “we don’t need God anymore. We know everything.” But, he said, nations are absent-minded. “We forget everything. We need to learn from the Jewish people who remember what the Lord has done.”
How has God prepared the Hungarian church to deal with the secularism of the twenty-first century? It seems that many of those who lived through the repression of the Communist era are still fighting that battle. What have they learned from that atheist culture that will help them reach their young people, who see no need for God?
Another issue the Hungarian church must address is the place of women in church leadership. Even today, very few women are elected as elders. Female ministers exist and are permitted to preach and perform most pastoral duties, but are prevented from celebrating the sacraments. Women enrolled in the theological schools are encouraged to become teachers of religion rather than pastors. A conference for women elders is being planned for 2009.
Saver Mission
Ráckeresztúr, Hungary
By Sarah Juntune
Four of us were fortunate enough to visit the Reformed Church in Hungary’s Saver Mission for Perishing Youth Drug-Therapeutic Home for Men, run by Reformed pastor Eszter Victorné Erdös, an amazing woman. Many of the employees are former residents of the center.
As a church-sponsored facility, the home provides a residency program for approximately 14 months. The first month is a probationary period, to see if the men (some of whom are there as an alternative to prison) can function well in a community environment that has no fences. There are three more stages of rehabilitation, the last of which is focused on preparing residents to live productive lives.
There is one basic rule at the home: you curse or fight and you’re out! The counseling sessions focus on problem-solving. The emphasis is on community; the positive aspects of peer pressure ensure cooperation. Each resident works three hours a day at one of the many tasks necessary to keep the center running. One of the tasks of final-stage residents is to plan the work assignments. There also is opportunity for art therapy; each man starts out designing a personal coat-of-arms that depicts his skills, weaknesses and dreams.
Although not all residents are (or become) Christians, the opportunity is there. Chapel services are provided daily, prayers are said before and after every meal. The chapel has a tapestry expressive of Christ’s releasing us from bondage. Those who commit to Christ paint a small rock with a symbol important to them and these rocks remain in the chapel as a reminder of the lives Christ has healed.
The Salt of the Earth: The Women’s Organization of the Reformed Church
Beregszász, Carpath-Ukraine
By Mary Beth Lysobey
The Women’s Organization of the Reformed Church in Carpath-Ukraine became an official organization in 2002. The organization holds several meetings a year; as many as 500 women attend each time.
The purpose of the WO in Ukraine is similar to PW in the United States. The women hold regular Bible studies, they pray, they reach out to those in need in their communities, and they belong to this organization in order to become better witnesses to God in the home, church, community and country. Women formerly were not allowed to talk about God and to teach, but now they can be pastors. The WO hopes that women will become as accepted as men in leadership roles in the church.
Part of the WO’s mission is to be with people in need every day, not just work from a distance. This is very evident in their outreach to the Roma communities. They feed, clothe and teach Roma families. They visit people who are ill and cook for the soup kitchens. In one village, since 1994, they have raised money by weaving scarves, selling them and teaching children the art of weaving. Many women feel a sense of prestige if they have a handwoven scarf by one of the village women, Olga Bakó. In the same village, our group visited a cafeteria that the local WO created, where the women prepare and serve warm food to the needy.
In Beregszász, our group visited a Roma school. Teachers buy everything for their school; even so, there are insufficient books and materials. The day we were there, only half the children came to school; this is normal. The school is overcrowded when all attend. Children had on rubber boots, flip-flops or flimsy shoes, and it was a cold, rainy day. One little boy had impetigo.
The playground is very small and there is no playground equipment. When it rains, the playground is four inches deep in water. Water from the toilets seeps into it.
Most of the parents are illiterate. Children try to teach their parents to read and write. Too often, girls have children at a young age; boys of 16 quit school and become gardeners, field workers and laborers. The WO is working to get Roma children into the regular school, but it is difficult because the children don’t have the needed support from home.
Ibolyá Pocsai is the moderator of the WO in the KRE. She stays in contact with women’s organizations in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia. The Ukrainian WO has a close partnership with the Hungarian synod, realizing how important it is to meet as women of one accord.
Ibolyá teaches at the Roma school and is trying to begin a WO within the Roma community. She teaches religious studies in the six churches that her husband, Vince, serves. We went to a Roma church, built in 1997, where we were introduced to the Roma elders, one of whom played the guitar and led the singing.
Bible Study Mission and the Ministry of Church Schools
Beregszász, Carpath-Ukraine
By Christine Fuller, Judia Foreman and Marirosa Nazario de Arce
While traveling in Carpath-Ukraine, we visited several church schools with noteworthy histories and hallmarks. Everywhere in the church schools, we sensed that these people are called to serve God through their work. They freely say that it is not their own effort but God’s that allows them to accomplish what they do.
Many spoke of the importance of the role of the schools in the spiritual formation of the students. It was a privilege to learn about these people and their work. These are some of the most remarkable schools we visited.
Nagybereg Reformed Lyceum
In 1993 the church school was restarted after changes in the government. Formerly, the buildings were used as a Communist ideological center for adults. There were difficulties in the beginning — no one had experience with church schools, the state argued many of their decisions, and they had no money to refurbish the facility.
All 87 students now live at the school; students come at ages 15 or 16 and stay three years. The belief here is that “community forms personality.” The local church pastor serves on the board of directors. There are two headmasters — the local pastor (László Tóth) for spiritual concerns, and a teacher to oversee pedagogy. There have been more than 300 students since 1993, from 30 villages.
Classes are conducted in Hungarian, but students study both English and Ukrainian. Most pass state exams and 80 percent go on to higher education. State schools provide 11 years of education; church schools provide 12. State schools provide 39 lessons each week; the church school provides 45, including Bible study and church history. The curriculum is fairly comprehensive.
In two years, an agreement with the government expires and the school building will be reclaimed for a hospital. In the meantime, the school, which needs to expand, is in need of maintenance, a heating system and food. In the fall, many bring harvested food to the school. Particular needs are a new girl’s dormitory, a refectory and a kitchen.
Parents pay about $60 per month — the actual cost per student is about $450 per month. Churches receive two offerings per year to help with expenses. Other funding comes from foundations and supporters abroad, especially from Holland. Because of limited resources, the school survives month to month.
Nagybereg State School
This school has been in the same building for 11 years. There are 435 students, 44 teachers and two languages spoken. The headmaster, Géczo Tchamen, led us on a tour of the classrooms, lunchroom, gym, playing field and the stitching and weaving room. The school created this room in an effort to preserve the old techniques of embroidery and weaving.
Peterfalva Church School
There are 84 students — 30 boys and 54 girls. In 2008, 26 graduated and 25 went on to higher education. Volunteers from the United States helped build a dormitory that has wide halls and large windows where girls live, five to seven in a room. The school is open to all students, but parents must agree to religious instruction. Parents like the school because it is safe and protects children from drugs and other bad influences. Five former students are on staff.
The school provides spiritual development for the students — there is prayer before and after meals; students sometimes lead Sunday morning and Wednesday evening worship services in a local church. Scripture is posted throughout the facility in embroideries, weavings and posters. A student choir of 30 tours local villages. Bible study and church history classes are offered.
The school needs money for scholarships for children with few resources and/or only one parent. Parents help support the school by providing food during harvests.
Students do diaconal work — they provide meals to the elderly, visit children in the hospital and help families with foster children. Leisure activities include bicycle tours of nearby villages (22 bikes were given by the foundation) and supporter-sponsored holiday excursions. One class won second prize in a Ukrainian classroom decoration contest — shelves of Ukrainian books.
Nagydobrony Church School
Nagydobrony Church School was established in 1995. Since then, there have been 337 graduates. The school started with 28 students. Now there are 106 — 53 boys and 53 girls. In 2008, 36 graduated and 24 went on to further education.
There are difficulties with money for upkeep and for textbooks, particularly books in Ukrainian. Five of the students are from a children’s home, 19 are from a local congregation. On weekends, students do volunteer service. Twice a month they go home.
The school specializes in chemistry, biology, math and physics. Students have had trouble with the national exam because of the specialized program, so extra preparation now is being provided. There is not as much focus on teaching Ukrainian as in other schools. |
