Ethan Hand, a January 2017 high school graduate, left this week to spend 90 days serving the Lord in Hungary. Ethan has been actively serving at the Barrington Campus Grove Café and in Student Ministries.

I’m writing from Budapest to inform you that I’ve made it safely and have been busy these last few days. My flight landed in Budapest at around 2 pm Tuesday (Hungary is 7 hours ahead, so that’s about 7 am Chicago time – making my flight experience just about 12 hours in total). In order to reduce jet lag, I stayed awake with the Goldens (the missionary family I’m staying with for my first two weeks) helping teach English to an adult class.

Wednesday was a very full day. I went to a small church in the area to help prepare breakfast for refugees. For about two hours, we ate and played games with children and mothers who had left their home countries, stuck in frustrating circumstances because of paperwork they lost while fleeing persecution.

After that, I joined some of the ReachGlobal Budapest city team to pray in a train station. This is part of an initiative called “Pray for Budapest” where Christians all over the world are encouraged to pray for the city of Budapest in different ways each week, while our team visits different train stations in the city to pray over them and the people of the city. This week, we prayed for people “on the border” of society, such as the refugees that we visited that morning. (I’m pictured here with Harold Golden and some of the team.)

Wednesday afternoon was spent sightseeing in Budapest. That night, I participated in an English Bible study with adults – about half of whom are Christians – but who were all clearly spiritually hungry and who wanted to know more about the Bible. We talked about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means for us. A student in the class took home a Hungarian copy of Heaven, How I Got Here by Colin Smith.

Budapest is a beautiful city with lots of exceptional music, art, and architecture. I’ve been encouraged already to see what God is doing here through ReachGlobal, as well as through other ministries whose missionaries I’ve met. If you would like more information about the Budapest City Team, here’s the link – http://www.reachbudapest.org/index.html

I would really love prayer for the city of Budapest: for the citizens, the refugees, and the believers here. I’m not sure yet exactly how God is using me here, and maybe I won’t ever know, but I would appreciate prayer that I will be a willing and humble servant while I am here.

If you would like to contribute financially to my mission here in Hungary, the best way to do that would be to support the High School Hungary English Camp trip through The Orchard. Much of my work here is to advertise and help run our church’s English camps here in the summer, where Hungarian students get a chance to learn English and hear the gospel from The Orchard’s high school students.

Thank you for your prayers and interest in the mission in Hungary.

Blessings,

Ethan Hand