Calvin Synod Herald, 2007 (108. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2007-05-01 / 5-6. szám
10 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 7 February 2007 Whoever promised to come to the service really kept their promise. They were all there on Wednesday evening. There were around 23 all together with three children, and this time they stayed. Attila’s fiancée, Melinda, couldn’t come. She is taking care of the homeless children. She’s a social worker, and from now on she will write separately about this activity. At the service we sang a lot and talked. Előd Marton, from the 5th year, preached about Philemon. After the service, we tried to find answers to some questions related to the service. At the end, everybody had to say what was its personal message for them. We provided sandwiches and drinks. Everybody was happy to, once again, be in “God’s house.” For them, that little room is like a real church. I have to write down what one of the homeless people, Peter, said to me: “There are many problems, difficulties, but God helps us. I’m a Hungarian without a home, but not a thief. I don’t speak bad with people. I’m not walking in dirty clothes. It might be that I’m poor, I’m living in miserable circumstances, but I’m still God’s child. And I try to live like one of God’s children.” This occasion passed. Now we wait for the next time when we can give help to these people - if not big things, at least a smile and a nice word, which means so much to them. 14 February 2007 On the another occasion we ran into a little problem with the song books we gave. People couldn’t read them because the letters were too small. So this time a student wrote down the songs with big letters on paper. Meanwhile a few of us made the sandwiches and discussed the “program” for the evening. That evening, there were 18 homeless, some new members invited by Sándor, who said they are nice men and they need the word of God. They love to sing so we tried to reach them with as many songs as we could, with the help of instruments. Then we gave them sandwiches and instead of tea we had soft drinks. While they were eating, we could speak with some of them. After this we repeated the songs we learnt. We tried to summarize that week’s message for them. We talked about their problems. I noticed that they feel good when they can speak about their problems in front of more people. Everybody has almost the same problem, so they can listen to each other and they can understand perfectly all these sad things. Everybody left after the service - who knows where? After an hour of silence, peace and joy, they have to again face their usual problems. But hopefully after the occasions on Wednesday evening, they will go out with more strength and hope, so that they can face these problems easier. They go with God into the “battle of life.” The next day, we brought packages of food to those who were at the service the other day. We gave them clothes too which were gathered by the Unitarian theological students. We are doing all these with hope that we can offer them what they need, a small light in their life of shadows. 21-22 February 2007 Again, new people came to the homeless-mission; and of course we are glad about this. We always tell others that we gladly accept other homeless too. The service was led by Attila Erdei, a 4th year student. Again we sang, talked a lot, and shared sandwiches. Now I would like to write a little about a new member. His name is István (Steven), around 30-40 years old. His life can be summarized in two words: from richness to poorness. He had a wife and two children. They lived together 10 years in a fourroom house. One day his wife told him that she didn’t love him anymore, and it would be best if he would go away. She had a new lover and he wanted to move in with her. Of course István said that the house was his property; but the wife was a lawyer and had arranged to have everything in her name. Steven was put out by force onto the streets. Since then he has been homeless. The children go to school and don’t like their father, only their mother and new stepfather. István had a beautiful wife, two children, a house, and an Opel Vectra; but now he’s got nothing. He confessed that he still loves his wife. He’s angry too, but he can’t but love her. Against all odds, he still has the hope that everything will be all right. He’s got something nobody can take away from him and that is faith. He was always a religious man. He always felt the presence and love of God. “Maybe God took from me everything, but with this, He wants to try me and strengthen me. I believe that one day I will again have everything I lost.” I believe too that God takes care of him; and maybe God’s will for him was to meet Sándor, who called István to the mission. Jenő Lako, 3rd year student Melinda’s Bible class with the homeless children It was February 20. The children and we had been waiting so long for this occasion because we hadn’t gotten together since before Christmas. A long time has passed, so we were curious and wanted the children to tell us what happened with them since. When we arrived to the Two-tower Church, they were waiting for us. They ran to us and gave us a hug. This was so nice. We could feel how important this occasion was for them, that they really missed us and waited to meet again, to hear again from God. They told us that they sang Christmas carols and they saluted the New Year. We repeated what they learned before; and it was a great surprise when they told us everything we had taught them without any help. They even sang for us those Christmas carols we taught them. This time, we told them about Noah and the flood. The children enumerated what kinds of animals were brought into the boat. We explained how Noah built the boat, and then they colored beautifully the pictures about Noah’s story. Finally we tried to make conclusions from the story of the flood. We said: “God punishes the sinners as He did with those who drown in the water. And God saves his good and honest people.” We went
