We were honored to join Hungarian Baptist Aid for their 25th Anniversary Jubilee in Budapest on December 2nd, and Larry and I were especially honored to be recipients of their presidential service award!
HBA President Béla Szilágyi and Hungarian Baptist Union President János Papp presented us with the awards—we are the first internationals to be given these awards since they started giving them 10 years ago!
Larry’s is the Cserepka János Award, in memory of a Hungarian Baptist missionary to Bolivia in the last century. Mine is the Presidential Recognition Award. We both received the beautiful glass award, and one will come home with us at Christmas to be placed in my aunt Aldine’s curio cabinet that now lives at Pate Chapel Church. Wouldn’t she be proud? And Larry’s grandma Ruth who supported missionaries her whole life? What an honor to get to do these things!
Our dear partners in ministry celebrated with a beautiful event at one of the large arenas, and it was three concerts, a mission report, and a renewal service all in one! Staff and students from their 50 schools came together to celebrate. Every school was given a banner to hold up during shout-out roll call.
The teachers from our school in Téglás are on the left (somehow Elizabeth scored front row seats!) and on the right you can see my colleagues from the high school in Debrecen where I teach once a week.
With our awards we were given beautiful coffee table books commemorating HBA’s 25 years of service. Truly mission-minded, HBA has sent relief and teams around the world in addition to the educational and healthcare services they provide in Hungary. A beautiful part of the evening was the touching tribute to former president Sándor Szenczy who passed away this year. He and Elizabeth and I all share the same birthday, and he was the catalyst of her decision to have HBA take over the management of the Téglás school AND to pursue her Master of Diviniy.
We are grateful for his life’s work, and for the opportunity to be part of the work that continues. Thank you for your prayer and financial support that keeps us here!
