Special News From The Nations of Eastern Europe
August 1, 2010
Dear Special Friends Around the World:
People often ask us what a typical missionary week is like here in Budapest. They are curious as to what we do everyday as missionaries. We love when people ask us these type of questions as it gives us a chance to open up about what life is like as a missionary.
Please go to the bottom part of this page for special questions we answer about us and our work here in Budapest.
First of all no week is typical. Some weeks I (Jim) travel to as many as five countries visiting leaders and pastors of churches that we have helped to start. At the same time I am talking to them about future churches and cities and towns that need churches.
We love doing this and rarely does it ever feel like work to us. The neat thing is Brenda often gets to travel and minister too. She is an excellent minister and can quite often minister to people I (Jim) can't. She often speaks to women's groups in the churches and is always a hit with the people. She has a heart for and loves to minister to women.
Other weeks we don't leave Budapest at all. This is nice sometimes as I get to spend more time with our girls at home. During the day I take care of the normal ministry details through the computer, emails and phone calls. Like most families at night we may watch TV, go to dinner, and do all the normal stuff families do.
Daily life as a missionary also involves things that seem to take a lot longer than in America. Like paying bills, going to the Post Office, and grocery shopping. There are no Walmarts and Targets in Hungary. We have stores called TESCO and AUCHAN. They are from England and France and although they seem like great stores they are not what we are used too.
When we travel to other countries to visit pastors and minister at their churches, sometimes we stay with local Christians and sometimes at hotels. Staying at Eastern European hotels usually means the room is very small and maybe has a TV in it and hopefully the heat works. We usually just spend one or two days away from home when we travel as most of the places we minister in we can drive to.
We love doing what we do here in Budapest and this part of the world. Thank you for helping to make it happen. You are never far from our minds as we are well aware that we couldn't do what we do without you.
In Awe of His Faithfulness,,
Jim and Brenda,
P.S. We would also ask you to prayerfully consider giving a special Christmas offering this year. It would be a tremendous blessing to us at the end of this wonderful year. Anything you do will be so appreciated during this special season.
PSS. If you would like to receive this letter through the mail please send us an email at JimPuhr@cmiworld.org and we will be glad to send it to you. If you would like to receive our special letter by email each month please go to the "Welcome Page" on this site and type your email address in the "Join List" area.
In this months special letter to you we want to do something just a little different. This is a FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS letter. Often we are asked these questions or questions similar to them regarding living and serving here as missionaries in Budapest, Hungary.
1. How much longer do you see yourselves living in Budapest? When we first came to Budapest back in 1997, we thought we would live here probably about one to three years. Now its thirteen years later and we still have no plans of leaving here anytime soon.
2. What are some of the biggest differences of living in Hungary compared to America? Everything over here seems to take longer. From grocery shopping to paying bills to even getting a plumber to come to the house. Whenever we are back in America, we are always amazed how easy it is to do daily things.
3. Do you miss living in America? Sometimes we do. But we know this is where God has us. Most of the time we love living here and consider it special that we get to serve here.
4. How do your children like living in Budapest? Our youngest daughter, Audrianna, said something not too long ago that showed us how she likes it. She said "she felt so blessed that she is from America and gets to go there sometimes but also gets to live in Hungary." There have been times they would like to live in America, but for the most part they love living here.
5. You sound like you really like being missionaries, is this really true? It is really true. There have been times over the years where we thought of doing something else but deep down we knew this is what we are called to do. We absolutely love serving the Lord in this part of the world.
6. How do you get the pastors for the new churches that you help to start in Eastern Europe? We work with key national leaders in all the countries over here. The new pastors come out of some of these key churches. The new churches and new pastors are then overseen by this key national pastor.
7. You work in so many countries in Eastern Europe, do you speak the languages or does everyone know English? We speak quite good Spanish, Ok Russian and OK Hungarian, but there are ELEVEN different languages in the countries we work in. Polish in Poland, Slovak in Slovakia, Albanian in Albania, Romanian in Romania, etc, etc, etc. Most of the key leaders we work with speak some English so we are able to talk to them. But when we minister in the churches, we always have interpreters. This works very well and the people are quite used to this.
8. You say you need $4,000.00 to help start a new church in Eastern Europe. What is this money used for? We know that $4,000 won't make a church become successful. We see this as seed money to help get it off the ground. Usually this money will last from nine to eighteen months. It is usually used to rent a building on Sunday morning, help pay for outreaches the first year, and partial payment for the pastors' salary. In small towns and villages this money will go a long way as things tend to be very inexpensive in these towns.
9. How are you able to see FIFTEEN new churches started in one year? The way that we can do this is by our key relationships with national pastors in all of Eastern Europe. By working along side them and their vision we are able to accelerate what they are doing. They are the ones that are actually starting the churches and we work along side them. These churches are not dependant on our being there week after week. They have to make it happen, but we are there to encourage, counsel, and minister with them as the church gets off the ground.
