Summer/Fall Update

Thursday, we gathered inside the Hungarian Parliament with other pastors and leaders to pray for our country and for the peace of Europe. It was an amazing time spent together before the Lord. All different denominations were present with such unity. Some representatives from the parliament were present, they emphasized that this event is abnormal. In the past thousand years of History, it has only happened twice. The first meeting was last summer; we also attended that event.

Crowds were gathering outside of the building for the Peace March while we were inside

No pictures were allowed inside, so we took a selfie outside

After being at the Hungarian Parliament for four hours praying and worshipping. We went over to an arena where we continued to pray for our country. There were between two and three thousand believers. It was a powerful time of worship and prayer lasting another six hours. It was a powerful, amazing experience.

2-3 thousand people gathered to pray for Hungary

A couple of weeks ago I was part of a team called Europeans United in Prayer (EUiP), we travelled to Warsaw, Poland to pray for the nation. This team has travelled twice a year to a European capital city for the past 18 years. This year we were in Chisinau, Moldova in the spring and Poland.

Holocaust Memorial in Warsaw

The event started off with a beautiful, well-prepared presentation of the history of Poland. I instantly fell in love with the country and the people. Polish people are resilient and never wanting to stand behind anyone unrighteous. My prayer was that they come to know the King and stand behind Him who is righteous and loving.

We had an older gentlemen share how he found out on his grandmother’s death bed that his family is Jewish. He was a pastor in an evangelical church, but from then on, he started celebrating Shabbat. Since he only knew one Jewish lady, he and his wife invited her for the first Shabbat. The lady was very touched and told them, she hasn’t been celebrating Shabbat since the Second World War. She asked if she could invite someone for next week’s celebration. Next week she showed up with a Jewish person who oversaw thousands of Polish/Jewish WW2 veterans. He handed this pastor a list with names and phone numbers to connect with them and invite them for Shabbat. From this, it developed into a huge ministry towards the Jews. Today, they organize Christian camps for Jewish kids from Israel and Ukraine where they teach them about their Messiah.

Amongst us were two Ukrainians. We spent time praying for Ukraine and Russia. They shared their hearts, and let me tell you, it changed the atmosphere in the room. Before when we prayed for the war, people always prayed against Russia, and prayers like that don’t produce blessing, but rather curses. These two Ukrainian men shared that Russia is not the just the aggressor. They recognized the part their country plays in this war. They were able to declare their love for the Russian people and wholeheartedly prayed for their enemies. It was an experience I will never forget.

Ukrainians sharing their heart

While praying for Poland a lady and I got a strong picture to wash the Polish participants feet. I must tell you, I have never seen anything like that. I have heard of it but never participated in such event. I knew it wasn’t from me. I would try to avoid situations like this naturally, but when the Lord speaks to you, it is different. An older Polish prayer warrior was telling us how hard praying for her nation is. She has been doing it for 20 years. I just felt like as nations gathering from different European countries, we must support Poland and symbolically express it by washing their feet. When the two of us got the same picture, we knew we had to act on it. This was a powerful event where we blessed Poland, refreshed their tired feet and promised to stand behind them.

Washing the feet of Poland

At the end of September, our team (the Spiritual Parliament or called Zsaner/Hinge) was asked to lead the worship at Global Apostolic Prayer Conference in Budapest on Margit Island. Pastors from all over the world were invited, about 80 pastors from overseas and 80 from Hungary.

In August I had the privilege of dropping my daughter, Selah, off at college as she is starting her first year. I also attended this College where I got my MBA, so this was a special time to go back there for a different reason.

We are helping Selah move into her dorm room

With my kids in the US

This summer Leslie and I were invited into parliament to meet with some leaders. First, I was hesitant to accept this invitation as they were from the opposition party and my views are very different from theirs, but the Lord nudged us to go. We spent two hours with the party’s top two leaders, talking to them and praying for them. They expressed their desire to have unity in the parliament and asked us to pray for this. It was such a blessed time there.

Inside the Hungarian Parliament with one of the parlamentarian who invited us to talk and pray.

A week before that, another politician invited us into his office. He ran for mayor of Budapest but lost to a liberal candidate. We had a special time there also talking and praying with him.

We are also serving at our local church. I’m translating Sunday services every other month, playing bass on the worship team also serving on the prayer team at the end of the services. At the beginning of September, I was asked to lead the prayer group which meets every Monday night.  In January, we are starting a Hungarian speaking church planting project with Riverside Church Budapest.

Thank you for praying and your support,

Blessings,

Norbert and Leslie