Magyar News, 1993. szeptember-1994. augusztus (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1994-04-01 / 8. szám

Sunday School children at Calvin United Church of Christ in 1926. Acts 11:19-21 tells of the establishment of the Christian church in Antioch. The church at Antioch was the first great mis­sionary church. Prior to this time, the early Christians witnessed as they were driven here and there by persecution. But now, for the first time, a church deliberately fol­lowed the leadership of God’s Spirit in selecting, setting aside, and sending mis­sionaries for the distinct purpose of reach­ing the world for Jesus Christ. The Book of Acts tells us that in the church at Antioch there were “prophets and teachers” who proclaimed the missionary message of the Bible. They firmly believed that God is a missionary God who uses people to carry away his Word; that Christ is a missionary Christ who sends out his disciples to make disciples by teaching and baptizing them; that every Christian person is called upon to further the church’s mis­sion. We also read in the book of Acts that these Christians at Antioch were minister­ing to the Lord and they were fasting. Fasting did not mean refraining from cer­tain foods but rather an action and an atti­tude. They had a spirit of humility, an attitude of complete dependence upon God. That is what fasting was all about. As they fasted, they forgot their own needs. They forgot their own desires. They forgot their own prejudices. They forgot themselves and were completely open to God’s direc­tion and God’s design and God’s dictates. This was the way they prepared themselves to become serious about missions. The early Hungarian immigrants who built our First Reformed Church in Bridge­port were imbued with the same missionary spirit. Just think particularly of the women of the early congregation. They were only 15, 16 and 17 year old girls when they arrived at these shores. We wonder, how on earth were they allowed to come so far from their homeland! Yet they were able to stand and face a strange new world courageously and bravely. They brought with them the faith of their white washed little village churches, the morality of their home com­munity, the work ethic of their country and the love of their ancestral home. They mar­ried young, raised their children in the fear of the Lord, controlled their sometimes hard-drinking husbands, looked after the boarders, worked in the sweatshops and above all built up their church, established sick-benefit societies, fraternal insurance companies, and educated their children and lifted them up into the American middle class within one single generation. How were they able to do all these things? By service and prayer, just like the Christians in Antioch. The Book of Acts tells us that the church which becomes serious about service and prayer becomes serious about missions. The divine method of fostering the mis­sionary spirit did not lie in elaborate ap­peals for help or in strong-arm coercion. Rather, God’s plan was for earnest prayer to be given to God to call forth his laborers so that the spiritual life of the church could be deepened. When that happens the people are unable to stay home. That’s what hap­pened at Antioch when Barnabas and Saul volunteered to establish new churches in the Roman empire, and that’s what was happening also in the First Reformed Church in Bridgeport. The farsighted minister of the church, the Reverend Alexander Ludman, entered the ministry after a military career. In spite of his military bearing, he was filled with the missionary zeal of the early Christians in Antioch. When he saw that many of the children in Fairfield had to walk to the Pine S treet Church in Bridgeport over the frozen swamps between the two towns in the cold winter, he decided that a Sunday School must be opened for them. The fairy god­mother of this dream appeared in the person of Mrs. Annette Fiske Mereness, a Fairfield attorney, who donated a lot on Kings High­way for religious work in Fairfield, in There is a new law regulating contribu­tions to charitable organizations. It is about the amount one may use as tax deduction. Many times the contribution is for a dinner, or a service. The value of goods or other matters should be deducted and the over­payment should be declared as contribu­tion. The Magyar News is free. So if you make a contribution it could be deducted on your tax. If you are a “subscriber,” that is you want it sent to your home, then the $6.00 memory of her father Asa Fiske. Classes began immediately, again through the kindness of Mrs. Mereness, who allowed the use of the entire first floor of a vacant home she owned in back of the donated lot Within a few months, with the large attendance of youngsters, the house outgrew its usefulness and larger facilities had to be found. Out of this small beginning the Reformed Church in Fairfield came into being. Rev. Ludman’s prayers encour­aged many of his church members to help build up this fledgling congregation. They came joyously, for the Spirit of the Lord inspired them. Churches and communities remain alive as long as the missionary spirit fires them. This spirit must be actualized by participa­tion. As we are thinking about a lost world, a lost city, a lost community, we must ask these questions: If not me, then who? If not now, then when? To revitalize churches and cities, God needs us to learn once again to serve and to pray, to pray and to serve. postage fee is a service that you receive and is not deductible. Probably it would make it simpler by sending a check for postage and another one for contribution. A donation to the American Hungarian Heritage Asso­ciation (A.H.H.A.), or to it’s Mary Katona Scholarship Fund is deductible. If the amount is $250.00 or more, then you need a written substantiation from the organiza­tion. The cancelled check is not enough. We hope to keep busy writing many of these substantiations. CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS pageS

Next

/
  • Layout
  • Zoom
  • Rotation
Thumbnails
Contents