Calvin Synod Herald, 2005 (106. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-07-01 / 7-8. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 7 TRAC Update Our last update had to do with the half-finished school in the village of Felor on the north edge of the Mezöség. Since then, a kind supporter of our work in Transylvania has donated the $7,000 needed for the next stage in Felor’s building project, the installation of electricity. In turn, a core group of supporters at the Georgetown PRC have organized themselves into a subcommittee under TRAC with the primary goal of raising funds for the Felor School. As time goes on, it will require about: $20,000 for plumbing for water and gas; $30,000 for plastering and floor tile; $30,000 for windows and doors; and $40,000 for a heating system. These are sizeable sums for us. May we all remember this cause in our prayers and do what we can to help along as the various phases of this worthy project come up for enactment. Meanwhile, a number of people have expressed interest in going to Felor in the summer of 2006 to help work on this building. If there are any who might like to join them, you are welcome to contact us concerning it. This summer, Mr. Dale Miedema, a building contractor in the Grand Rapids area, is spearheading a building project in the village of Komlód. The doctor has been visiting this village for several years now with no place to meet her patients other than the empty and quite rundown parsonage, which has neither electricity nor water. They, therefore, are planning to fix up this building as much as possible to make it more suitable for these visits. The group is also planning to stay for several days at the Emmaus Orphanage at Bogata. The orphanage has been given a complete set of equipment to start a bakery. This would make it possible to teach the children to work, while raising funds to maintain their institution. A building is needed to house this equipment, however; and the group hopes to work on this. In order to raise funds for both of these projects, the young people involved are conducting numerous fundraising projects. They are holding garage sales, selling flowers, distributing vials for people to fill with pocket change, sponsoring a pancake breakfast and a pig roast, and anything else they can think of to pay their way and provide materials with which to work when they are there. No sooner will this group have returned, then another group will be traveling to take part in the students’ annual Summer Mission program. We have observed it for several years now, and this summer, we will be more directly involved. Last December, we spent several days talking with the students engaged in the TRAC work about the need to make it more precisely evangelical in its approach, in a soundly Reformed way. This summer five of us, some of whom have had evangelical experience, will be living from day to day with the students in the villages, as together we seek to find a way in which the gospel can be brought into the entire communities in which they preach and work throughout the school year. TRAC’s website is being updated to make and keep it more current in its content. We hope to place on it the reports that come in from the students and provide information about those programs in which they are engaged at the time. If you would like to visit the website, you can do so at www.tracmission.org. The farm program in Válaszút has been going well, to the point that the extended family - two grandparents with a married son and his children - is now able to maintain a viable level of living on its own. They are very grateful to TRAC and particularly to those who have worked directly with them in this venture. The next project in the area of farming, which is being studied as to its viability, is longer-term and much more ambitious. The goal we are seeking to fulfill is two-sided. On the one hand, we would like to find work for some of the homeless who now scavenge for a living in the city and have no place to live. In turn, in the villages where most of the people are elderly, there are empty houses and good farmland which can be purchased very inexpensively. If these could be brought together by moving the homeless out into the villages and providing them with sufficient means to make a decent living, it would serve a very worthwhile purpose. At the same time, there would be another side to this. In the city, these homeless people have been showing a great deal of interest in the worship services that are being held for them. In the villages though, where gradually the elderly residents are dying off, the membership in the congregations have become less and less. If, therefore, these people from the city could be properly instructed and prepared, they could serve to rebuild the church life or at least some of these congregations. This is not an easy goal to bring about and will require a great deal of grace if it is to be realized. Nevertheless, it has been the primary goal of TRAC from its beginning to help restore the life of the Hungarian Reformed Churches in Transylvania to their historical strength, if not numerically, at least spiritually. Only the grace of God can accomplish this purpose; but if He should see well to use our little efforts to that end, it certainly would be a blessing. Someone has set what is being called the “Mighty Mo TRACKer” (a little plastic doll) on his way to shed light on TRAC’s work with the promise that he will donate several dollars to TRAC for every mile he is able to travel during the next few months. If he should show up at your door or even sneak into your house, treat him well, let him enlighten you, take his picture with you in some exotic place and bring him to another place. He’s a fine little fellow and seeks to serve the cause. Finally, the coming months will bring about a change in TRAC’s functions on the field. For the last few years the work of the seminary students in the villages has been led by Krisztián Bataline, and with the homeless by Zolt Farkas. Both, however, are to graduate this spring and will take up their places as interns in the churches. They have been of great help and we have especially appreciated their spiritual dedication. Two others students who have been helping them for some time, however, will take their place. Lorand Szász will lead the mission to the villages, and Hunor Nyiri will take care of the homeless. We welcome both of them and wish them the Lord’s blessings as they take leadership in this work. Rev. Bernard J. Woiidenberg Transylvania Reformed Assistance Committee www. tracmission. org
