Missions Blog

Post one! Hallelujah!

On Saturday, March 14th, five congregants (& one pastor) from The Bible Chapel’s Washington Campus woke up, hopped in the car, drove to the airport, and braved flying over the Atlantic Ocean from Pittsburgh to New York City, then an overnight to Amsterdam, and finally HUNGARY! Praise the Lord for smooth sailing (or flying rather), and no cancellations or serious delays! 

Sunday, March 15th,  

After settling into our hotel, we enjoyed a scrumptious welcome dinner. There, we had the opportunity to meet 24 other believers from across the country who would come together to form the largest group of American volunteers to serve with CRU Hungary’s Missions Team ever! 

What are we doing in Hungary?

This week is set aside each year for mission-minded folks and is promptly called “Bringing in the Hungarian Harvest Project’ or “BHHP” for short. This week, we get the opportunity to serve alongside full-time American and Hungarian CRU Missionaries (including Washington’s own John and Meagan Lingenhoel), going into classrooms of elementary-high school students, giving short presentations. Our prayer is that we will form relationships that lead to conversations, plant seeds of curiosity and truth, and pave the way for the full-time missionaries to develop these students for Christ. We will also participate in “random evangelism” (or “divine opportunities,” as one of our colleagues put it), where we will survey college students about their opinions on faith, hopefully opening the door to fruitful conversation. On Friday, there will be an event that all the students we interacted with that week will be invited to, where they will hear the Gospel and build stronger relationships with the CRU Hungary staff 

Our first full day in Hungary, Monday, March 16th, 2026: 

Today was spent training at the newly renovated CRU student center in the heart of Budapest, called Fek ( more *exciting* details about the center to come this week). We started our morning with a message from a Hungarian staff member on idols and what we should put first in our lives. Next, we went on a prayer walk -  walking around the city, praying for the lives we (through Christ) hope to touch this week, the citizens of Budapest, and unity within our team. This was followed by a cultural training (did you know that sniffling and pointing are taboo here, but blowing your nose loudly is not?), and worshiped through song led by the North Carolina team. Tomorrow we dive right into visiting local schools and giving talks.  

Personal testimonies that encouraged us that you might enjoy:

-Why are Americans effective in Hungary? Well, thanks for asking!!! Being a native English speaker is the ticket for us and, therefore CRU Staff to get into local schools to build Christ-centered relationships! Schools allow us to come in so students can practice their English with us and learn about our culture. 

-One missionary, Liz from the US, when giving us tips for evangelizing, described Americans like peaches and Hungarians like coconuts. Peaches are soft and easily bitten into, but have a hard pit inside.  This means she and the team see Americans as easy to talk to on the surface, but have a harder time being deeply vulnerable with people they do not know well. However, Hungarians are like coconuts, on the outside a hard shell, difficult to break into, but soft and vulnerable on the inside once that shell is opened. 

-One of the Hungarian CRU staff members we heard from found a deep faith in Christ in high school when a group of Americans serving with CRU during BHHP came to her high school and presented (exactly what we are doing this week, how amazing!).  

-The leader of our message on idolatry this morning came to faith in Christ and transformed his life at age 18. How did this happen? He was approached on a Hungarian beach by CRU missionaries during a “random evangelizing” session. He shared that he was living a life far from Christ, which actually got him expelled from school. Look at what the Lord has done in his life, so that now he is blessing us and so many others in Hungary!

Ways to pray for our team today: 

-Please pray that the Lord makes our paths clear and opens the door for us to reach students with Christ, like the above examples. 

-Pray that the seeds planted lead to transformation and acceptance of Christ by the students we interact with. 

-Pray the Lord would grow us in our walk with Him and show us ways in which we need to “die to self” this week.

-Pray for endurance and stamina so that we may be effective in our pursuit of reaching students with the Gospel.

Thank you to all the generous donors who made this trip possible, and those who took the time to read this post, and pray for us/ what God is doing in Hungary! What a blessing you are!