Julcsi

If you’ve been eager to find out what the other “reason why I am also extremely thankful for...” the Story of the Soul outreach, you need not wait longer. Just keep reading...

„Julcsi”...I find myself saying that word quite often nowadays. It is short for Julianna in Hungarian. I met Julcsi at the Student Survival Kit (SSK) distribution at the Law School in Budapest beginning of September, 2004. She was helping Campus Staff in SSK distribution and organization. Given that she is in her 4^th year of law school, she knew her way around the campus, which is why she volunteered to come with me when I needed to get permission from the school to take pictures (See: “Survival Kits” Nov. 2004).

That was the first time I saw her, and that moment a thought hit me unexpectedly: I absolutely had to try to get to know her. I had never seen her before in my life, but afterwards I could not get her out of my head.

I asked her out in October after - much prayer on my part and - getting to know one another a bit at Story of the Soul. We grew fond of each other quickly and realized that we are quite different, and yet have so many things in common. In December, her exam time started and we decided to take a break so she could focus on studying and that we could both have a time of prayer to see where God would lead us with our relationship. We also agreed that we would have minimal communication: only one phone call per week. We believed that it would be a huge blessing to both of us if we faithfully persevered.

It was a difficult time, but was worth all the waiting. I first saw her this year on the 4^th of February, the last day of exams. Ever since then, we’ve spent as much time together as our schedules permitted. There was much to catch up with, to talk about. We both feel at peace about our relationship and are very confident about God and one another. We are natural around each other and enjoy one another’s company very much.

I’ve found in her a leader with lots of love, respect and desire for serving God, a living and growing faith, passion for evangelism and to my joy, an honest heart and a wonderful friend I can trust.

You may wonder why I’ve waited so long to tell you about her. Because it wasn’t time yet. I needed to find peace about us. I did.

I am thankful to God, that I can have a friend like Julcsi. Please pray for us that He would guide us as we seek His face for our future.

Area Staff Conference 2005

Campus Crusade for Christ is represented by about 1,200 full time staff (plus about 300+ children) in 18 countries of Eastern Europe and Russia. Campus Crusade Eastern European Headquarters has been putting on an Area wide staff conference every 2-3 years for the past 20 or so years so that staff could come away to get refreshed in the Word and to have fellowship with other staff from 18 nations. Middle of this January, 2005, we gathered together again after 3 years in Tihany by lake Balaton in Hungary to reconnect and Focus. Focus, because that was the theme of the conference.

We invited Dr. Joe Stowell, President of Moody Bible Institute and Dr. Bill Lawrence, Professor of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary to be the guest speakers. Their messages have been truly transforming. It was also wonderful to see what our great God is doing in other countries through the different Country Spotlight videos.

As a member of a conference team of about 15 people, I was responsible for the program computers and all the media elements of the conference. I also had a team of 3 people I coordinated. I had the privilage of serving God by making sure multimedia serves us and does not become a distraction. Just like I do at the Story of the Soul meetings. We had many hours of preparation months before the conference started and had a lot more at the staff conference. It was exhausting, but very satisfying.

Afterwards, we heard many positive comments about how the conference went. Praise God! I am only privilaged to have been able to be close enough to participate. After all, that's what my life is all about...doing my best to be close enough to witness Him work.

Time to Meet

Hungarian Campus Director, Mark Sanders received this email from law school student, Attila after making phone contact with him as part of the Student Survival Kit project.

Hi Mr. Sanders!

I'm also glad to meet you soon. I'll surely have time to discuss the

themes mentioned by you next week on tuesday in the afternoon, anytime.

I must confess that I'd like to talk about Christianity because I did

not have a "close relationship" with Jesus before, and I'm afraid, I

neither have now. But I want Him to be closer to me. I want to believe

in all what He said and did. I hope all this did not deter you from meeting me.

As to leadership, I think I can tell more about it than Christianity,

provided it is about "leadership" in political or/and legal sense. I'm

also interested in how a leader is expected to be not only a "yes-man"

but only a strong personality being able to realize what he promised.

I wish you the best,

Attila Béla Rugán

What Attila did not realize, was that Jesus was so much more eager to meet him and to change his life forever...meeting with Mark, Attila did give his life to Christ.

Story of the Soul

What is the Story of the Soul? What does the Soul of Man truly long even cry out for?

These were the questions behind Hungarian Campus Ministry's weekly outreach that began the previous semester as a result of the Student Survival Kit distribution I wrote to you about earlier! It has been going on for about 6 months every week with a special monthly meeting. Story of the Soul (SotS) takes a topical and artistic approach in helping people to start thinking about God and the meaning of life using poems, paintings, popular songs, movie clips, stories and of course Bible stories and messages as the highlight of the meetings. Attendance is about 25 students average. At the SotS, 5-10 people have given their lives to Christ and are being discipled as a result since September 2004.

I personally have been involved in SotS ever since the beginning and continue to get involved more and more. Given my area of expertise in multimedia I provide technical assistance in running the sound, video and presentations so the program is as seamless as possible. In other words, my job is to make sure all the technical stuff remains a blessing and does not become a distraction to the real focus of the SotS. Of course it also involves a lot of research and preparation I also help with, like finding and preparing film clips, images and songs as well as getting slide presentations ready. I really enjoy doing this kind of ministry and I also get the occasional chance of talking to students about Jesus. I have made some friends and overall it has been wonderful seeing God work amazingly!

OH, Yes, before I forget...there is one more VERY important thing about Story of the Soul...a reason why I am also extremely thankful for this outreach...well, I am sorry, but you are just going to have to read on to find that one out...;)