Bethlen Almanac 2000 (Ligonier)
Tóparti Egyházmegye - Lakeside Classis
There is the true story of the ring-tailed monkey, a native of South Africa. This animal is extremely hard to catch. Yet the Zulus observe this monkey’s love of the seeds of a melon which grows on vines. The Zulus cut a small hole on these melons, just small enough for the monkey to reach in. Then they wait. The ring-tailed monkey comes, reaches into the melon, grabbing a handful of the delicious seeds. Then he tries to remove his fistful of treasure, screams, struggles, but he is unwilling to let the treasure go. Thus, he is captured, because he is held by his prized possessions. I do wonder how do we compare? What are those precious, hoarded possessions, that we won’t let go, that make us captives and even endanger us to forfeit our eternal life? Our past great accomplishments, service and good deeds cannot be stored up in a bank. We have to fight the good fight daily! It is like alcoholism. Not drinking last year or last week makes no difference whatsoever, if this morning we pick up the bottle and drink. The Gospel was preached in our Church 224 times during the past 12 months, in 86 English, 68 Hungarian and in 4 bilingual worship services. We also proclaimed the power of divine and human love in 5 marriage services. We uplifted the blessed assurance of the Resurrection in the funeral services of 8 of our members and 3 relatives or friends of our members. The Gospel was also preached in two commemorative services, at 24 meetings of our Church, at 4 Christmas celebrations of our organizations, twice at Youth Fellowship gatherings and 10 times in the Hungarian Reformed Church of Columbus, Ohio, at meetings, by our Pastor as Administrator of the Congregation. Our Pastor also preached twice on the Hungarian Religious Radio Program in Cleveland, 5 times at the meetings of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, and he was also honored to be the preacher in Toledo at the opening worship service of the Quadrennial Convention of the HRFA. Fulfilling our mandate to baptize, we dedicated and engaged 10 of our little ones and one adult to the Lord, in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. We gathered around the table of love of our Lord, proclaiming His death till He comes, in 9 English, 5 Hungarian and in 3 bilingual and in 221 take-out or home communions to sick or convalescing members of our church, in hospitals, in nursing homes or to shut-ins. Our Pastor dedicatedly performed his pastoral ministry in visiting the sick and shutins, in pastoral counseling, in pre-marital counseling of 1563 individuals. During the past twelve months our community of the faith committed 80
