Year end update 2025
- Norbert B
- 15 hours ago
- 5 min read
Greetings friends and supporters. I wanted to send these updates out before the new year starts. We still have a couple of days. Warning, I'll have a lot of pictures!
Our 2 kids ( Selah and Izaac) couldn't come home for Christmas. They are in the United States. This is the first time ever the family didn't celebrate Christmas together. But we were still able to open presents through video chat.
Unfortunatelly I got sick right before Christmas, had fever for a couple of days and still in bed, no energy and coughing bad.
In Ukraine
My son Izrael and I went to Ukraine right before Christmas to bring food for families and try to setup a somewhat longer term solution to try to help kids in need. Thanks to Bethany International, starting in January in 2 villages we setup meals, 3 times a week for children in need. Hopefully we can run it for 5 months. Have enough recources to do it until May 2026. If you feel like contributing to it, please send funds to Bethany International under Ukraine Mission.
We were able to deliver some of the food, but still some left for our friends to finish delivering.
We also shared at a leadership meeting where they had about 40-50 leaders from the region.
These families are in extreme poverty in Ukraine. See pictures below
Hanukkah celebration
Right before Christmas, on Dec 14th, we had a Hanukkah celebration in one of the prettiest synagogue in Budapest, the Rumbach Synagogue. Together Christians and Jews were welcoming this holiday with special guests from abroad and guests from Hungary. We were one of the worship team that was invited. What a privilege to be part of something like this!
This was a historical event since I have never heard anywhere in the world where Christian and Jews can come together and celebrate the Creator. At one instance I wish I could have yelled in that the Saviour is already here when one of the Jewish presenter mentioned that they are waiting for the Messiah!
I'm uploading a Shofar play. Worth listening to it as I have never known shofar can sound like a real musical instrument. I have never heard anything like this.
Jesus himself celebrated Hanukkah:
John 10:22-23
At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area, in the portico of Solomon.
I want to attach a link here of the morning rememberence at the shoes memorial by the bank of the Danube river. It's in Hungarian and German, but youtube might able to subtitle it for you.
My trip to South Africa
I had the privilage to travel to South Africa with 2 other pastors, one from the Baptist Church and the other one from the Hungarian Apostolic Church (than the Mission director, now he is the Vice President of this denomination).
We were hosted by a group of churches who were visiting us in September and holding a big conference here in Budapest for pastors. You probably remember my story I shared earlier on this. We were doing the worship for that 3 day Conference.
Our time there was really busy. Some days, we went to church 3 times. We visited several churches, went to a Gala event and they even took us into the nature to see some wild animals.
I learned a lot there and maybe sometimes I can share about my experience in South Africa. It is a very interesting country.
I share some pictures here. See captions under the pictures
Baptism in Sopron
2 days before our departure, I travelled to Sopron to hold a baptism service. I shared a message and baptised an old friend of mine who came to the Lord just recently. I have known him for almost 30 years. Our story started at a famous music festival in Budapest. Our group was there to share to good news about Jesus. We had a bus and we set it up as a little place to talk to young people. We served them tea and sandwich.
One day this punk guy shows up drunk and wondering why we are there. I invite him to the bus, started to talk to him and in a moment he was sober. He was kind of angry at me. He told me he invested so much money into being drunk. His favorite band is going to play and now he is sober. Wondering how he can go to the concert like that. We sat down and talked. He missed his concert. Instead, we became very good friends. Later on, he visited me when I lived in England and also visited us when we lived in the US.
He was in a really bad spot about a year ago when was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. a couple of months ago he went to an worship event in Sopron at the synagogue and met my Mom who told him again about Jesus. He received Jesus into his heart there. Since than, he has no pain. He just went under a surgery to have the cancer removed. Now he is in the hospital recovering. Please pray for his quick recovery.
Women's conference at Riverside Church Budapest
In the middle of November, we were part of a women's conference called Inspire at our church. Both of us were helping there. I was on the worship team, Leslie was helping with registration and other stuff.
We are so thankful to be part of a church that is mission orientated and has plenty of opportunity to serve there.
Bethany Retreat in Spain
In the beggining of November, we had a retreat in Spain, organized and paid by Bethany and their sponsors.
Thank you Bethany! It was an amazing time to spend with everyone there. It was good to talk to other missionaries from our organization. Grayling and Sandra, you are the best!
It was very encouraging for all of us.
As you can see, we had an eventful November- December. Sorry that this report got a little too long. Hope you were able to get to the end of it.
We are wishing you a blessed new year!
Thank you for supporting us! Without you, we weren't able to do it at all.
God is doing something new! Stay tuned!
Isaiah 43:19
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Praise God! More Lord. You are always more so keep pouring it out. We pray divine health and effectiveness in 2026 for the Bans and their ministry.