Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the last five months our ministry produced a wealth of fruit, to which we praise the Lord. Ivan is continuing to teach the Book of Revelation based on Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s Footsteps of the Messiah. We continue to have a good attendance of about 20-25 people. Our outreach is increasing on the international level having received questions from as far away as Norway. We are now able to do good quality recordings of our teaching sessions and have followers via the internet. These recordings can be found on our website. This is in addition to Ivan’s blog page on Facebook and on our website.
Our small Messianic fellowship continues its biweekly meetings. After the teaching we also have group discussions about relevant questions related to Bible prophecy. We enjoy our freedom to emphasize the things we hold important, primarily the teaching of scripture from a Jewish perspective. We make a special emphasis on Jewish feasts as well. There are several Jewish believers who are interested in our fellowship. One of them recently joined our fellowship. Her daughter (who is also a believer) is the wife of a rabbi in Hong Kong. Another Jewish believer who first attended our Bible study then joined our fellowship said that he enjoys the teaching and finds the group very friendly. He had not attended, for quite a while, any other place of worship although his father is a pastor in a charismatic church. He thinks our fellowship is more authentic than what he saw before. The place where we gather is the same as the Jewish quarter where our Bible school is. This flat is owned by our (non believer) Jewish friend with whom we have been reading the Bible for three years. We do not have to pay rent, so it is a real blessing from this Jewish man.
A female Holocaust survivor (Jewish), who is coming to our Bible study regularly, still has doubts about her faith in the Messiah, but invited Rita to be part of her very important life event. She, with Rita and another believer visited the Catholic sisterhood, call Good Shepherd, which saved her life and the lives of many other Jewish girls during the Holocaust. They heard the story of how the sisters who saved these Jewish girls put their own life into risk, and how they never asked any recognition for of it. Mariann wanted to get to know them (actually the rescuers did not live) and give them honour for their brave achievement. Another time we had a two hour discussion about salvation faith in Yeshua with this dear friend Mariann and her friend. We explained, very clearly, the uniqueness of salvation in Yeshua.
This year we had two Passover demonstrations. One of them was in our fellowship with some invited guests. One of our sisters invited a Jewish Holocaust survivor, who said after the event that she never felt the peace she experienced here. She also said it was beautiful to see the Jewish roots and Christian faith in a paralleled harmony. We were able to share with her the salvation in Yeshua. A Messianic believer attended this Passover and she lit the candles and prayed. The other demonstration was in the countryside at a Baptist church with 40 people. We were invited there by a couple who have been attending every Bible study for three years now. Ivan played a Jewish song on the piano before the message, then he taught about the Passover. When he finished many came (among them the pastor of the church) and expressed their thankfulness because they had never before seen this perspective presented. It also added to their understanding of communion. We, along with the organizers, cooked some foods for the Seder demonstration.
We received very positive feedback that some Bible study groups and local congregations are using Ariel materials published on our homepage. They are very thankful for the clear teaching of these Bible study materials.
Attila, who remade our homepage, is continuously maintaining it as a volunteer. It is a huge help for us and makes our modern communication more effective.
Rita wrote an article for the Ariel Magazine on her topic of Theology and Antisemitism. She is teaching the Come and See program for women who are attending our fellowship.
Ivan continues teaching diverse biblical themes on our homepage and on Facebook. Topics include the security of the believer, biblical and unbiblical motivations for following God, as well as understanding Bible verses in their proper context, etc.
One of the best fruits of Ivan's ministry is a Rom believer who was one of the leaders of a charismatic gipsy church. Ivan has been continuously teaching him for the last three years. He changed his mind on many doctrinal issues and has become a mature disciple. A couple of weeks ago the leadership asked his position concerning some theological questions and he was able to prepare himself and defend the truth in a worthy manner. Recently he started his own fellowship and bible study. Ivan will help him in the future too when he needs it.
We continue to read the Tanakh and also the Talmud with our Jewish friends. There are many possibilities to share our faith with others. Our Jewish friend who offers his apartment freely for us to use for the Bible study and for the fellowship has begun to read the Tanakh with his Jewish friends. We think it is very important for Jews to begin to read the Bible and we think that our Bible reading influenced his opinion concerning the scriptures.
The work of the “tentmaker” goes on. Ivan has been teaching music for 600 children at a high school and not everything is the same as in the movie “High School Musical”. But we are thankful to God that He provides a working opportunity to support ourselves. Ivan hopes he can use this period of holiday time to prepare himself for a new teaching series. Our continuous prayer is more free time in the future for the ministry.
We are thankful that we can share our ministry with you and your prayers mean a lot to us. We thank you for your support. May our Eternal Messiah blesses you.
Shalom,
Ivan, Rita, Noemi
If you would like to pray with us:
- for our regular Bible study – Footsteps of the Messiah which we will continue in September
- for a possible future conference in Budapest with Dr Fruchtenbaum
- for the salvation of the Jewish woman Suzanne
- for the salvation of the Jewish attendant (Mariann) of the Bible study, we became good friend with her
- to have committed disciples of the Word at the Bible studies and the fellowship
- for our Messianic fellowship that is now openly publicized and taking place in central location in a Jewish neighbourhood. Please pray for the two Messianic believers who attend (Emilia, Marton),
- financial support to continue the work in Hungary
- Jewish evangelism in Budapest, especially to reach Jews in the neighbourhood of our Bible school
- for translation of Rita’s book: Theology and Antisemitism into English (Rita translates and Nanette corrects and proofreads)
- for the salvation of our Jewish friends, Gabor and Zsofi and Edit with whom we are reading the Hebrew Bible
- for the salvation of our friend Csaba,
- for the salvation of our Jewish friend Gyuri
- for the salvation of our family members
- against rising antisemitism in Hungary
- for Ivan as he works full time (which takes more than 8 hours daily) and has also to prepare on weekends as a music teacher. Please pray that he has time and energy for preparing the Bible teachings and that this full time job will not need to last too much long
- Ivan’s health results
- Rita’s full recovery from the autoimmune disease
- Rita’s mom healing of the autoimmune disease
- for our daughter, Noemi who is in a Hungarian high school; for protection and good results in her study. Please pray for her health and for her to find more believing friends.
If you would like to support us through the Ariel website or click here, please specify Ariel Hungary. Or you can visit our homepage or write us: bibliatanitasok(et)gmail.com
(Pictures: Bible study, Passover demonstration, our Jewish friend Mariann (right) and a Catholic nun)