Calvin Synod Herald, 2007 (108. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2007-09-01 / 9-10. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Dear friends: This fall we will be celebrating several anniversaries in our congregations. On November 4th the Buffalo congregation will celebrate its 80th Anniversary, on November 10th Lorain will celebrate its 105th Anniversary, and on November 11th Davison will celebrate its 90th Anniversary. On each occasion we will give thanks to God for His hand in our lives, for leading our ancestors to this land, and for enabling them to leave us a legacy of which we can be proud. We will remember the dedication and sacrifices of our ancestors, and we will ask God’s guidance for the future of our congregations. These are wonderful times of celebration. This calls to mind Psalm 90: 14 - 17: “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad CONGRESSIONAL NEWS Continued from page 3 • During the entire month of June, Ms. Alexandra Dery, a junior, was honored to attend a month-long Governor’s school for the academically gifted in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This is the second year her academic skills have been honored in this way. • As with any small church we had our share of sicknesses, surgeries, and other calamities. Please pray that we will be focused on Jesus Christ through these and that we will continue to seek ways to renew our church and reach our community. Please notify the Business Manager: Wilburn A. Roby Jr. if you changed or are about to change your address. Change of Address form is on page 9. Rev. Zoltán and Gabriella Kelemen and their son. Kászon Kelemen, at 12 weeks old all our days. Make us glad as many days as thou hast afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. Let thy work be manifest to thy servants, and thy glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” We will reflect and thank God, and ask his blessings on our congregations. I think, however, we sometimes do not truly appreciate the sacrifices that were made by our ancestors, the true difficulties they faced. Our congregations were established by immigrants who came to this country with virtually nothing, and accepted the worst types of employment available at that time. On September 29, 2007, there will be a commemoration of a day, December 19, 1907, when 239 miners lost their lives in a disastrous mine explosion at the Darr Mine in Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania. It is believed that more than half of these miners were Hungarians. This is the type of sacrifice that our ancestors made when they came to the “new world,” these are the types of difficulties they faced as they attempted to provide a better life for their families. It is a tribute to them that in the face of these terrible conditions, their faith was still strong, and they held their God to be a loving and caring God. Their faith was founded on the Scriptures, and they took seriously the promises of God that they were still in His care, even in the midst of difficulties and disasters. The 90th Psalm ends with the words: “.. .establish thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” In addition to our congregations, the countless mine disasters in Pennsylvania left us a legacy still with us today: The Bethlen Communities. The original Bethlen Home was established by the combined efforts of the Hungarian Reformed Federation and our Hungarian Reformed congregations. This “work of our hands,” enabled by faith and the power of God, was originally an orphanage, established to care for the many children who were orphaned by such mine disasters. Eventually it evolved to care for the elderly Hungarians who were without means as they grew older. As times changed, the nature of this “work of our hands” also changed: the original Bethlen Home evolved to become a community of cottages for retirees, an independent living center, an assisted living center, and a multiple-care nursing facility. During its life the Bethlen Home cared for orphans, held summer classes for Hungarian youth, and became the first home for countless refugees and other immigrants. The “work of our hands” changes from time to time. To this day we are responsible for the legacy we received, made possible by the tremendous sacrifices of those immigrants. As we celebrate the “anniversaries” in our congregations, it is well to remember that what we have in our possession is the result of others’ sacrifices. The example of the Bethlen Home reminds us that each era in history requires different forms of “bringing to life” our mission. Our congregations must address today’s needs, making adjustments in the way we fulfill our mission mandated by God, always remembering that our churches are not “ours” but belong to God, and were paid for by our ancestors with their lives. Rt. Rev. Koloman Karl Ludwig, Bishop
