FCA Baseball goes to Hungary

A year ago I would have thought you might be crazy if you asked if we would go to Hungary in February.  I've found that God has a pretty good sense of humor as well.  I was contacted in December by a missionary in Hungary about coming over to teach baseball and share Jesus with about 200-400  kids and coaches during the month of February.  After a couple days of thought and prayer God showed 4 of us that it was time to head to Europe.
We left on Thursday, Feb. 16th with myself, Brent Slade, Mike Holman, and Bill Emerich.  We were greeted by about 4 inches of snow on the day we arrived and temps ranging in the high teens to low twenty's......yes I know, great baseball weather.  Fortuanently for us the baseball training would be indoors for the entire week.

Saturday and Sunday (18-19th) we had two 8 hour days of baseball training with kids ranging from no baseball experience to some that had played for 4-5 years.  Either way the kids were eager to learn the game and our team loved every minute of it.  The remaining rest of the week we held 4 hour sessions at night and during the day we went to a few villages to see existing teams.  While visiting these small villages I think we all became aware of the fact that we have so much to be thankful for here in the USA.  Most villages were lucky to have a field and for some it was an open grass lot without any lines or bases.
Following each session we were able to share the Gospel and even share a few devotionals.  It was awesome to see many of these kids that were very stand off or shy at the beginning of the week come to opening up and sharing with each of us.  As we shared the Gospel we were asked by the missionary if he could do the followup since most of the kids did not speak english.  The missionary (Terry) has already followed up with many of the kids and is starting a Friday night Bible study club back in Hungary.
As we closed the end of the week it was very evident to me that God is a lot larger than we give Him credit for.  The fact that Hungary dates back to the 1st century reminds me that we are still a very young nation and God has been working there for a LONG time.  The idea that we simply went over to share our love for baseball and our passion for Jesus still amazes me.
I think one gentleman that we met said it best.  He was very upfront and clear with us that he DOES NOT believe in God.  But here was his statement, "I don't believe what you believe......but I would like for you to send more guys like yourself over here because I see something different in you guys."

My last thought.....we MUST let His light shine!

If God allows we plan to head back over......God could always use YOU!