We had a nice day on Thursday for Robi’s funeral.  It had been below freezing for a number of weeks but it was 6 C on Thursday afternoon and sunny.

We certainly felt your prayers for us and the Szobonya family and we sensed the Lord’s presence with us.  The memorial service was held in the Hegyesd Hall which filled right up. We took some time to look back on Robi’s life.  He was 63 when he passed away. After the time in the hall, everyone walked over to the Hegyesd cemetery for the burial. We had the opportunity to share the gospel through word and music.  Our desire was for the funeral to be different than a familiar Catholic funeral and for the gospel to be shared clearly.

From feedback we received, a number of people commented on how the funeral was different.  Barni’s handball coach from Tapolca came for the funeral.  He chatted for a while afterwards with Dezso.  The coach told Dezso that he hates going to funerals as they are so depressing.  But he saw that at this funeral the message was one of hope.  He said he’d never been to a funeral like this before.

Sondi sang a number of songs with really good words.  A couple of ladies talked with her right after the funeral and said how beautiful the songs were.  Right after the message from Dezso, the last song Sondi sang in the Hegyesd Hall was “Come to Jesus.”  Peter and Carla Himpelmann were standing at the back and said they noticed the words of the song touched a lot of people as Sondi sang.

Barni thanked Dezso for sharing and officiating at the funeral.  Barni’s comment was that he hopes that all the “religious” people who came for the funeral were listening to the scripture passages and the words shared.

We were able to spend time with the Szobonya’s on Wednesday evening for a time of visiting, Scripture reading and prayer.  Dezso spend the evening with them after the funeral. Again last night the Szobonya came over to our place and we looked at a lot of different scripture passages with them.

Please continue to pray for salvation for the family and for transitions they’ll be working through.  Please also pray for God to be working in hearts in Tapolca and surrounding area.

Thanks so much for praying!

Shaun and Sondi