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!

On Thursday and Friday, we again taught at high school English classes at two different schools and invited the students to FEK (which is the name for Cru in Hungary) events in Budapest and also to FEK’s summer English camps in Hungary in July this summer.  Also, on Thursday, several of us conducted “random” evangelism discussions alongside FEK interpreters with individuals at nearby college campuses, in an effort to build relationships between seekers and local Christian missionaries who can continue evangelism and discipleship.

  

Happy birthday to Tony today!!

Well, this incredible, crazy, whirl-wind trip is coming to an end! Although they said it was illegal to hide the missionaries in our checked bags…the memories we made with them will last us a long time. As we said goodbye to the friends we made, we know that the high school and college students are still in good hands. As we end this blog, I wanted everyone to share a little about the trip. Sooo enjoy! :)

Tony Carrola - “Meeting with and getting to know the missionaries in Budapest was one of the highlights of the trip for me. They were truly kinda and hospitable, and I enjoyed encouraging and working alongside them. It was also a wonderful experience travelling with so many great friends from our church and getting to know them better.”

John Palmer - “The best part of the trip was the growth. I grew in my faith, maturity, and relations with people. I really enjoyed the people that I served with: Matthew, Emmy, Tony, Ricky, Jennifer, and Jonathan, to name a few. I also really enjoyed talking to the other students that were my age and experiencing the world in a really different culture.”

Jonathan Lingenhoel - “This week I was reminded of God's call to serve Him in whatever capacity He asks of us. I watched our team do just that, whether it was chatting with teens and college students, witnessing to strangers, washing dishes, or patiently sitting and waiting as our accompanying missionaries figured out what our next class our task was, they did so with joy as unto the Lord. I saw true Christian fellowship and humble service in action, and it was a joy to behold. :) I pray that we are able to continue with that attitude, being willing to do whatever task God places in front of us, no matter how menial or (seemingly) meaningless.”

Meagan Lingenhoel - “What an amazing week! I'm so thankful to have been able to share Budapest with the team this year! Talking with Hungarian high schoolers and college students was so very sweet.  Deepening relationships with the Hungarian Cru missionaries is always such a blessing! Praise God for using us and keeping us safe!”

Matthew Nuzzo - “I got to know a few of the missionaries from FÉK much better this trip. Góki and I were able to talk a lot after FÉK PÉNTEK, the event they held for the highschool and college students we spoke to during the week. We spent time talking a lot about our hobbies, but also about the great work happening in Budapest. He explained that he thinks the BHHP has been an amazing success - they’ve been seeing an increase in numbers coming to their events these past two years. He also explained that he loved getting to meet a few of us again and that he was encouraged through us stepping out of our comfort zones throughout the entire week.”

Ricky Andrews - “It’s hard to summarize an entire week of fun and exhaustion and blessings from God in a few sentences. This week, God brought us to Budapest and did some very amazing things to us and through us. We met so many amazing people, formed bonds and connections that will last a lifetime, and saw Jesus working in incredible ways, as well as facing our fair share of challenges along the way. We ate delicious (and sometimes strange) food, saw the beautiful city of Budapest from the inside and from a bird's eye view, plus many other experiences that would take me days to list. So to sum it up, Isten áldja Budapestet és Isten áldja a Magyarokat (God bless Budapest and the Hungarian people)!”

Corbin Rutan - “This trip was a great opportunity. It allowed us to grow closer to those of the faith from both America and Hungary, and we planted seeds of the gospel in the minds of nonbelievers.”

Jennifer Cook - “I’m finishing our last day with traveling back to the US.  To those of you who have considered doing a missions trip with the church, but think 'I just don’t think I could put myself out there and share my faith.', I encourage you to to go. It was the easiest and most joyful experience. The missionaries you work with have such an enthusiasm to teach us, and an earnest desire to share Jesus. I have been changed by meeting them and have grown in my faith. I am sad to be leaving and looking forward to returning to see them and Budapest again. I feel as though the others on the team are close friends now and will miss not spending the day with them. It also is a great reminder that we are so blessed to be from the US and have such a wonderful church led by God fearing men and women that want to help us spread the gospel around the world.”

Emmy Nuzzo - “I wrote the blog so I have said a lot for the week already ;)”

Thank you to everyone following along and praying for us on our journey!