Calvin Synod Herald, 2008 (109. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
2008-01-01 / 1-2. szám
8 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD TRAC Update Report A Letter from Zsolt Farkas For five years, pastors from Rogerius congregations are serving in the Diaspora, which from February is a separate Reformed mission congregation with a Reformed Mission Church, named Toldinagyfalu. We have ten villages and about 200 members in all. I wrote in my last letters that the difference between these congregations and the Mezöség is that these members are the number of young people. We have a lot of children and youth, if it is God’s will, we will have a future here. The youth from these villages are in school. When we began repairing the building at Olahszentmiklos, which will be a prayer house, they came and they worked hard. It looks like in the building of the congregation and the building of the prayer house we can trust them. I wrote in my last letter that these people are poor. A few years ago, when they became unable to pay the taxes in the city, they sold their flats and moved into one of these villages. It is very difficult to live there. They work in the summer to buy clothes and necessary things for the upcoming school year. For the parents, it is a big expense to pay the bus tickets for the children to go to school. The high schools are only in the cities, so their children must travel. We would like to ask your help to create a kind of scholarship which could help these families buy bus tickets for their children. The following are the children who would need this help. The first s Mircea. He is 15 years old and he and his family have been living in Olahszentmiklos for eight years. He is in the high school and he likes informatics and mathematics. He would like to become a computer programmer. He has a brother who is 18 years old, and he is at the university studying informatics. Their father is a plumber, and their mother is a clothes maker. The second boy is Levente. He is 15 years old too. He is a very quiet, serious boy. He lives with his mother. Their father left them. It is harder for them to live from one day to the next because only his mother works. He would like to be a builder. The third boy is Adi. He likes to work with his hands and build. He has two sisters and two brothers. His brothers are twins and they are two years old. His father is a builder and his mother works at home. He would like to be a car mechanic. They have a beautiful garden and the children from this family are very good. It looks like their parents take good care of them. The fourth boy is Mario. He and his family live in the next village in Rojt. He has two sisters. They are very poor because his father is sick and on a pension. His mother was in the hospital for a long time because she has a lot of medical problems. He is a handy boy. He can repair anything. He likes to work as a builder. It would be wonderful to be able to help these boys with transportation because they are the future of the congregation. Education is their only chance to make something of themselves. In the Diaspora area, we have 10 villages. From these, we have regular worship services for five villages now, but from the end of the year, we must go to two more villages to take care of God’s people. We have this mission territory in a 75 km circle, which means about 5.5 liters of fuel each time we make the trip. I try to travel more often to these villages to bring food and clothes for these people, and that means 75 km each trip. We had been receiving $250 from the Romanian government, but after November, we no longer receive any financial support to buy fuel. For this, we would like to ask your help. Every week, I must make this circle twice, which means 150 km (and that is if I do nothing else, such as taking someone to the hospital or the doctor, etc.). In one month, this is about 600 km, which is 42 liters of fuel. The cost for fuel is $56 a month. I know that is a lot, but if you can help, that would mean that we can continue the mission without these difficulties. Thank you for your care. God bless you. Zsolt What Will Help or Force Us to Turn to God Scripture reading: Isaiah 55:6-11. Text: “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” Amos 8:11. Last year, we dealt with the meetings of the denominations highest judicatories that were held recently. As usual, many issues were discussed and voted upon, some were sensitive, or spiritual, or administrative, or social, or financial. It is obvious; in freedom - for what we are willing even to die - it is almost impossible to reach a unanimous consent. The trouble was not with the different opinions that were expressed, but will the minority be willing to accept the decision of the majority, using the excuse that in spiritual matters not the democratic principles should rule but the teachings of the Bible. At this point comes one of the touchiest questions; who interprets the Bible better and purer? One of the Presbyterian Theologians Expressed His Views: “No Revival No Survival?” The major denominations are concerned about their declining membership and this painfully touches the hearts of many. Books have been written on this topic, group discussion, seminars, conferences, and lectures have dealt with this problem. Ideas are plenty and the positive result - unfortunately - did not follow the theory. We tried to evangelize, reach people in special ways, distribute religious materials, invite the unchurched, please the uncommitted, convince the skeptic, and the success remained to be seen. Yes, there are growing congregations, popular pastors, and well known preachers; however, they do not offset the
