Karolina Court apartment building

karolina2.jpg
Originally uploaded by Kool.

Friends, as our wedding is coming closer (April 1st - no joke!) we have been extremely busy. Not only with work, school and organizing the wedding, but also selling an apartment in another town (belongs to my fiancé) about 3-4 hours from Budapest and buying another one in Budapest. After looking for several weeks and praying for much longer, we have been turned down. We almost got one, was it not for someone else who got in right before us. Time was pressing us, but we kept praying and in a matter of 2 days God provided us an apartment much better we could have asked for. Way better location (on the Buda side - that is the hilly side of Budapest), brand new and there was a special deal only THIS WEEK so they are selling it for about 5000 USD less than its normal price. It is gonna be a lot better investment of the money the Lord provided for...HIS apartment. Yes, we consider this His apartment. He got is, he provided for it, and we find ourselves praying: Lord, please help us to get you an apartment you will like. Only one little hiccup: Its cost - even with the special deal - is still about 5000 USD more than we can afford at the moment. Still, we believed this opportunity comes from the Lord thus we signed the contract yesterday (Friday, the 24th of Feb.). We will likely not be able to move in before December, and still need to figure out where we are going to live until then, but at least will have time to save money and pray that the Lord would provide for the remaining 5000 USD before December. Please pray with us, so that
- In the middle of all of this, we would have time for Him and each other
- God would give us a place to stay until we can move in to this new apartment
- God would give us the remaining 5000 USD or more. (more would allow us not to have to take a large loan from a local bank).

If our God is moving your heart to help us with this new apartment, please let us know at kalman.kovacs@ccci.org or call us at +36-30-251-2031.

May the Lord bless you!

Story of the S…uccess

Story of the Soul Training CD label
Originally uploaded by Kool.

This is the 3rd update I write about Story of the Soul (SOTS, or nowadays SOS). When I last worte, I explained how it is becoming an outreach that is becoming very effective and many ministries in many nations are begginning to have an interest in it.

Ever since the debut of the first SOS Training CD I helped put together, it has gone around the world. From India to the city of Cambridge, England, ministries in over 15 countries are starting to use it. It seems to be extremely effective, and its use of the many forms of arts through media to address spiritual issues, and to present the Gospel, makes it farily easy even for university students to plan and use. It is also highly customizable for each culture.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Campus team of Romania with some of the volunteer students were trained to hold a SOS evening. They got so excited, that 2 days later they held one and over 40 students came!

Dave Robinson has just recently been in Cambridge, training a group of believers in SOS.

The amazing success of this outreach called for an update of the training CD. Now, it has more materials, more training and a nicer look. ☺ Check out the disc cover image.
We just finished printing over 60 CDs and they were handed out at the National Directors Conference.

Please continue to pray for SOS!

New Look

Dear Friends,
YES, you are at the right place, this is still The Forge. The blog of Kalman
Kovacs. I decided, that I will change it a bit. I hope you like the new
look.
Kalman

Our Future

My fiancé, Julcsi and I have been thinking about our future in the ministry ever since we started talking about marriage. When she and I first talked about this, it did not come as a big surprise - since we both have had a relationship and involvement with Crusade and a growing love and interest for what they do on the campuses - that the first and most natural thing for us to ask was: Would God want to see both of us full time with Campus Crusade or not?

After having been given an offer by Campus Crusade Eastern European Director of Affairs, Larry Thompson to join CCC through their Hungarian ministry, we decided to have several conversations with other leaders and staff. Also, about half of my support still came from the JESUS Film Project, and as of the end of the summer, they decided to stop supporting me, because they thought they did not need me part-time anymore. We decided to take steps to learning more about going on staff with CCC Hungary.

For me to be able to continue to serve with the Multimedia team of CCC long term, we have to go through "basic training", just like in the military. That is, spend a year or two with the Campus ministry of CCC Hungary, meeting students, evangelizing and discipling them. Thus, as of the fall of 2006, Julcsi and I will join CCC Hungary. I will be there for one year, for the basic training and then be transferred back to the Area office. Julcsi will stay with the Campus ministry after our training. Of course this is a plan, and Lord willing will be fulfilled, but we want nothing more than we want the will of God for our lives. Please pray with us on this journey. It is likely that we will be going to the US next summer to raise support and will most likely be in the Indiana State area. We will continue to update you on these things.

We appreciate your all your prayers on our behalf!

Kalman

Engagement

Engagement
Originally uploaded by Kool.

Dear brothers and sisters,
I am delighted to announce that my swetheart Julcsi and I got engaged this past saturday! We are praising the Lord for His grace! He made it all happen! :) Please praise the Lord with us and pray for the months that lie ahead of us...our current plans for the wedding date is April 1st (we laughed hard when we looked at our schedule and figured that the best date would be April's fools day:))!
Kalman & Julcsi

2 sick

Julcsi got sick over a week ago. She got a tonsil infection and they're now swallen up in her throat. It does not look good, but she is happy as ever. She's been taking some antibiotics, but it seems to heal slowly. She goes to see an ENT tomorrow.
I also got sick last Wednesday, still not over it. Saw my ENT on Friday. I went back to her today. After looking at me, she had me go to have a lung x-ray done. It was negative. The problem is somewhere else, but my lungs hurt nevertheless. I am still coughing and it gives me a headache. Feeling very tired and lacking energy. I am now taking antibiotics and have to go back to her Wednesday. Please pray for us, so we could get well as soon as possible.
Kalman

"My Family"

My Family logo
Originally uploaded by Kool.

I was approached by the Country Director of CCC Bulgaria, Scott Gill and one of the Regional Directors of Eastern Europe, Dave Ginn about 6 weeks ago. They took me out and shared with me about a project they are planning for the spring of 2006. It is called “My Family” and it is an initiative of CCC Bulgaria. It is a Nationwide JESUS Film Campaign – targeting 10-15 cities at one time! There will be a focus on families in the advertising and overall effort. CCC Bulgaria extended the project to be much wider than only JESUS Film. They brought on board foundations like the Red Cross, even the Bulgarian Government to support the initiative by providing events for the growth and health of Bulgarian families. They are even trying to have the Bulgarian Government pass some laws for the benefit of families! They believe that by these partnerships the JESUS film will be viewed by more and accepted much easier as part of something bigger. Thus they will be able to make JESUS known to more people. As in other Campus Crusade for Christ ministries we desire to reach leaders. Fathers are the broadest common denominator leaders in the world. And leaders are what the church needs.
How did I come into the picture? I was asked to design the logo for the “My Family” project. The logo you see here is the close-to-final design. The colors are going to be different. I am also working on a fund raising piece for this project. It is a great privilege for me to be able to help Bulgaria come to know Christ this way! Please pray for the citizens of Bulgaria!

AMI website

AMI website
Originally uploaded by Kool.

I want to tell you a bit about what I’ve been up to over the summer. Many of you know Grant Olson and hi family and the ministry he has been directing in the US called Audio Mission International (AMI). It has really been great having him over here in Hungary for the past year as he is heading up our Multimedia department.
This summer, many people from our office were gone to the US raising or maintaining support and so we had fewer projects to focus on. I also planned to go, but for this summer the door was closed. Who knows, maybe next year I can go and maybe not alone…;)
Since Grant was leaving to the US as well, he asked me to help him with creating a website for AMI. You can visit it at http://www.audiomission.com.

God’s love…through a Wok

I shared this story with my Church one Sunday a couple of weeks ago, as I was leading worship. It totally demonstrated to us the kind of love God has for us.
It was my 28th birthday on July 7th and Julcsi asked me a few days before what I want for my birthday. Now, I’ve wanted a Wok for some time. I like to cook, but I neither wanted an expensive, nor a cheap one that would not last for a long time. So we agreed to wait and keep looking for one. As time went on, we looked in a few places, but did not quite find a good one for the budget we set. We went to visit Julcsi’s mother one weekend and as we talked one day, we mentioned that we are looking for a wok. She walked over to a kitchen cabinet and pulled out a brand new wok! Then she said to Julcsi “it’s yours”. We had no idea she even had one and kept looking at each other. I said, “no we don’t want to take your wok, you need it too.” Then she said something that surprised us, “I mean, I don’t need it and it is yours Julcsi, because you WON this about 6 months ago and it’s been sitting in my cabinet all this time!” After seeing the look on our faces, she explained that about 6 months ago she got something in the mail for Julcsi, and she could win some recipes and a wok if she mailed back. She mailed back in Julcsi’s name and a few weeks later a wok and a box of recipes was delivered. So, she’s had the wok for a long time, but she never mentioned it to. As we realized what just happened, also was reminded about the beautiful parallel between this and God’s love! In Romans 5:8 we read, “…God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That is what the wok story is all about for us. God preparing a wonderful gift for us in Jesus, long before we even knew we wanted it or needed it!

Croatia, the beautiful

We took a 5-day trip with a couple of friends to Croatia in the middle of July. We’ve been longing for a time of rest. We practically drove around the northern part of the country and on the way back, through Italy and Slovenian part of the Alps. We had loads of fun. We spent 2 nights on the island of Cres, in the little village of Crest. I loved it with its friendly bay, narrow streets and fresh fish smell coming from the market early in the morning. The sea was beautiful and we spent lots of time on its rocky beaches. And then it dawned on us: all of this used to be Hungary not so long ago! We just hope to be able to go back again someday.

Hope worth having

Julcsi’s grandmother was 92 years old. She was amazingly alert despite her age and the fact that she’s been sick for a few years, loosing her memory. The first time I saw her I introduced myself to her six times, because she would forget me completely. After a few months she remembered me even when I was gone. The doctors said this is unusual, but she remembered me. They also said it is possible that she would remember old memories, but could not remember new ones. What amazed me was that every time we sang some old hymns, she would remember the words of all of them! Every time we prayed her speech was very clear and understandable. She has been a believer since she was a child. She’s been living with Julcsi and her mother since last summer. They have been taking care of her. She went to be with the Lord the 25th of July, and I had the privilege of attending the funeral. It sounds a bit strange to say this, but the days with Julcsi’s family around the funeral was a great time. We had lots of laughter and remembrance of her life. I only knew her for about 7 months, but still had wonderful memories with her. The time with her family brought to my mind 1 Corinthians 15:54-55. She was a believer and served the Lord all her life. We have such hope that assures us that she is indeed with our Father and such hope is worth having.

We’re back! :)

Dear Friends,

Lots have happened since the last time I wrote…wow, it has been over 2 months. I have a lot to tell you about. So, first things first, Julcsi and I are doing very well. We had a wonderful summer over all. I’ll tell you more later. Thank you for praying for Julcsi’s exams. University exams are extremely difficult here, thus it is pretty common for someone to fail and have to retake any particular exam. She had 3 exhaustive exams and did fail a couple of times. She should finish the school next summer, but it seems she might be delayed by a semester. Please keep praying for her and her schooling. Thank you!

Kalman

Julcsi's exams

Dear Friends,

I'd ask you to join us in prayer.
My sweetheart, Julcsi is having her end of the year exams (fourth year in law school) and they are extremely difficult. As of now, she is studying a minimal of 12-14 hours a day. It is very exhausting. Please pray the she would have the energy, focus and understanding to study and remember what she learns. She will have an exam on the 6th, 9th, 21st and 27th of June.

Thank you friends!

Kalman & Julcsi

Taking Story of the Soul to a new level

Ever since Story of the Soul (SOTS) was designed by Area Campus Coordinator, Dave Robinson and piloted in Hungary, it has been introduced to the Campus ministry of Russia and Ukraine extremely effectively. Recently, Campus ministries of other Eastern, even Western European countries started to show interest as well.

Dave approached my team about a month ago and asked us to design an interactive training tool for SOTS. This would serve to fulfill the great demand for training the what, why and how of SOTS in Eastern and Western Europe. Dave believes that the future of SOTS lies in student leadership. Thus, this tool will need to be translated easily into other languages as well as be user-friendly enough to have a student walk himself through it.

After much discussion and thinking we decided to create a CD with lots of video training material. We shot much footage of SOTS events, interviewed staff and students, took many pictures and gathered several used SOTS materials from Hungary and Russia. We compiled these into a step-by-step training. The result is a CD that walks you through the creative process from the vision to the making of SOTS, using videos, pictures, documents, tables and much more, from the original SOTS logos through elements for printing posters to slide presentations. Really, it is more than training.

The most wonderful part: last Friday, we were able to hand out about 50 copies of this CD to Campus Ministry workers from about 12 Eastern European countries!

It is only a beta version and we’ll have much refining to do, still, it is good to get it out there. Not to mention how exciting it is to be part of taking this wonderful outreach to a new level!

Please pray
- that we would be able to refine this tool to easily train many for the glory of God!
- that God would continue to use SOTS mightily
- that God would take this tool all over the world

I was made for this...

"The power and use of short films in the ministry of Campus Crusade in Eastern Europe and Russia…even the whole World."

There is an initiative I’ve been involved in with my team for a few months now. The reason I have not yet mentioned this to you is simple: It was more an idea than anything. Well, sort of. Let me explain. (Still, I wish I’d told you about this back then…)

About seven or eight months ago, leaders of the Area Campus Ministry approached us with an idea and asked for our help. They have purchased licenses to several short films from private filmmakers. These short films were made for the DAMAH Film Festival – www.damah.com. These films have spiritual messages and they relate to today’s post modern culture. They ask spiritual question, most College student do not even think about.

The campus ministry believed that these films could be used as discussion starters and guiders to the Gospel. So after being tested in few countries like Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the effect seemed to be huge! Most people love films, especially films that will make them think. It seemed that God uses these short films to get students – who were not thinking on a spiritual level before – to start thinking and talking about spiritual things, ultimately making it fairly easy to lead them to a Gospel presentation.

So the Area Campus Ministry asked us to help them in creating a tool, packaging these films onto a DVD that will not only contain films, but the interactive material that will prompt and guide discussion. We hope to make this to be working in large or small group settings as well as a student watching it one-on-one with another student or staff.

Quoting a colleague, Jim Southard: “The discussion of these films' spiritual content will open new avenues and relationships and will make sharing Christ a greater possibility in this very post modern culture.”

About six months ago we started praying, writing scripts for intros and endings for three short films as well as shooting demo footage based on the first scripts. We all knew they need much refining.

Three weeks ago the project took a turn, resulting in what we called the Pan European Short Film Workshop.

Our team invited about 20 missionaries who have either created short films or have an interest in their use to Budapest. We spent the week together, considering the demo material we made; discussing what changes would be needed.

After the first day of the workshop we divided into three teams. The team I was on was working on writing scripts; another was scouting for locations and shooting and the third was filming and interviewing all of us as we worked for a “making of” material.

A big question was how the discussion material--the questions and the way they are presented--would be received by the average college-aged adult. Since the filmmaker himself represents someone who already has credibility without having to establish it, we decided that the original idea of an “MC” would not be the best way to go. Even if the viewer does not like the filmmaker's work, at least it is his honest and personal expression.

Fortunately, we had the honor of having Daniel Roemer--director of one of the short films planned to be on the DVD called, "The Select Fit"--at our workshop. "The Select Fit" is the story of a drug user who is confronted by two very impatient angels who force him into making a decision about his life's meaning. Dan not only directed the short film--he played the lead role.

The team scheduled for finding locations and filming an interview with Dan about his film, spent the last two days doing that. The filming was exhausting, but went well as I heard. Our team helped them out during their last day of shooting.

My team had a wonderful time brainstorming over many great ideas and discussion prompting questions. Our main task was to come up with an idea for a much more direct evangelistic short film that will create discussion like the others, doesn’t contain the whole of, but unquestionably points to the Gospel message.

The second day, as I was talking to another staff from Slovakia an idea came to my mind that we started chiseling. It seemed like a good idea. I presented the idea to my team that day and everybody seemed to like it and got excited about it. We got to work and continued to hammer out the idea.

It was SO MUCH FUN! I always loved teamwork and thought that I would work most effectively when I constantly get feedback from other creative people. Their ideas bring me more ideas and vice-versa. Still, I could not have imagined how much I would like working with other creative people as we did. Someone asked me during the workshop whether I like it or not. My answer was: “I was made for this!”

We were very productive. Couple of days later I found myself writing the script for a short film on a borrowed laptop – I don’t yet have one of my own. As of now, few of us are working on refining the script more and more via email.

We have a lot of work to do, but seeing this tool evolve is remarkable and is extremely motivating.

Please pray
- that we would see the guiding hand of God as we progress this project
- that we would have suffucient creativity, time and funding
- that we could be done in time
- that it would be even more effective than we could imagine

Fulfilling a need

Remember how my blog address is at the end of my email signature?

No? It's Ok. I got this reply from a missionary friend. This is a good example of how even the littlest things in the ministry I am entrusted to do fulfils needs on the field, unbeknownst to me!

"Well Kalman, you officially changed my life today without knowing it. I was curious what the link was after your signature and found your blog page. I loved it! I hadn’t seen one before that had pictures included with the text. I set one up for myself and think I may use this instead of email updates. Yea! I’ve been looking for a better solution to stay in touch with supporters. Thanks so much!"

First ones together

Dear Friends, here are a couple of nice pictures taken at Julcsi's 23rd (surprise) birthday party. The first picture of the two of us together. I wanted to share them with you. What do you think? ;)

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.