Roger & Heidi Woo
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| PETőFIBáNYA, HUNGARY
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July 2020
During the past few weeks after a wonderful baseball camp, we have been involved with various support ministries. Some of our team mates and church members put on a vbs in a town called Jászfényszarú about a 30 minute drive away. We helped with set up beforehand and pack up afterwards, and also enjoyed visiting the camp and helping with childcare needs. Other opportunities to show Christ's love came as our dear adopted Hungarian Grandma here has been going through health problems. We were able to help take her for blood tests and provide practical and emotional support as she went through a major transition from living on her own to moving into a home for the elderly. Her joy continues to be anchored in Jesus, though her circumstances have changed greatly. Please pray for her husband, Misi (pronounced Me-she) as he has not yet trusted Christ Jesus as Lord. This week we will be preparing for English Camp, leaving on Friday. Roger will be teaching English classes, and Heidi will lead a Bible reading class, and also an optional art activity one of the afternoons. Some of our dearest missionary friends are currently back in the States and our whole family will miss them particularly at camp. The kids always loved catching lizards and swimming together. We are trusting God to help them enjoy the camp this year in different ways, even without some of their closest buddies. Parenthood continues to be a daily concern in our world here, as we have little outside input in the same way that we would if our kids could be with grandparents and cousins regularly. We second guess how the progress of our children's emotional, spiritual, and social development is going. Please pray for them and for us. Thank you for continuing to pray for us and support us. We are eternally grateful.
During the past few weeks after a wonderful baseball camp, we have been involved with various support ministries. Some of our team mates and church members put on a vbs in a town called Jászfényszarú about a 30 minute drive away. We helped with set up beforehand and pack up afterwards, and also enjoyed visiting the camp and helping with childcare needs. Other opportunities to show Christ's love came as our dear adopted Hungarian Grandma here has been going through health problems. We were able to help take her for blood tests and provide practical and emotional support as she went through a major transition from living on her own to moving into a home for the elderly. Her joy continues to be anchored in Jesus, though her circumstances have changed greatly. Please pray for her husband, Misi (pronounced Me-she) as he has not yet trusted Christ Jesus as Lord. This week we will be preparing for English Camp, leaving on Friday. Roger will be teaching English classes, and Heidi will lead a Bible reading class, and also an optional art activity one of the afternoons. Some of our dearest missionary friends are currently back in the States and our whole family will miss them particularly at camp. The kids always loved catching lizards and swimming together. We are trusting God to help them enjoy the camp this year in different ways, even without some of their closest buddies. Parenthood continues to be a daily concern in our world here, as we have little outside input in the same way that we would if our kids could be with grandparents and cousins regularly. We second guess how the progress of our children's emotional, spiritual, and social development is going. Please pray for them and for us. Thank you for continuing to pray for us and support us. We are eternally grateful.
A New Year… What Will it Bring?
by woofamilyblog
Greetings from Hungary! Much has happened since our visit to the States this last Summer, and we have much to share from this past Autumn.
Our visit to the U.S. this Summer was our best visit ever, for many reasons. Our travel and flights just seemed a bit easier – the kids are bigger and more used to travel, and Anthony our smallest, though only 5 months old, was a happy traveler. Well considering he got to sit with Mom for hours at a time and could nurse just about whenever he wanted, it’s no wonder he had a great flight. The bigger kids did great as well, enjoying the in-flight movies and even getting some much needed rest on the long flight.
Another reason I found this to be a great visit was the connections we made with our churches this time around. I felt that we were able to meet and talk to more people and our supporting churches did a wonderful job of making us feel loved and welcome. I was amazed at how readily our kids participated in Sunday School groups that were foreign to them, and how they managed to enjoy themselves in every new location we visited.
Because the kids were a bit older and more self sufficient we were also able to travel more freely than in the past. Thanks to vehicles we were able to borrow from my parents and Heidi’s as well, we did some road trips to visit friends and families that were not close to where our supporting churches are located. Some of our sweetest memories of the summer were from these road trips, and we are thankful God provided us the means and the opportunities to spend some quality time with people who are dear to us.
Upon arriving home from Michigan at the end of August, we had less than a week to prepare for kids returning to school. Emily would be in second grade, and Samuel would be in kindergarten. Although the school routine requires a pre-6am wake-up for dad, and a commute into town to drop off Emily, I was actually looking forward to some structure and routine after the more random and less predictable Summer travels.
In September we began to regroup for the kickoff of our youth group which had been on break for the summer. We decided to move the weekly event from Saturday to Friday night, and assembled a more diverse group of dedicated folks to help with the teaching and small groups. This was a new way of teaching our kids, using small groups and multiple leaders, but it has proven to be more effective in getting kids to open up and participate in discussion. We also have a godly Hungarian woman from our church who has a heart for teens who now faithfully serves with us. So the girls finally have someone to lead them in a separate small group, where I am sure they feel much more comfortable sharing from their hearts and being vulnerable.
In November I was invited to participate in a two year leadership training program sponsored by our Pioneers organization. In the span of the two year program there are three one-week conferences where all participants gather together. I found the time spent with these fellow missionaries to be a great encouragement and wonderful learning experience. Coupled with meaningful worship in my mother tongue and time spent in the Word and in prayer about things relevant to where we are in ministry, this proved to be the best event I have attended in my eleven years with Pioneers.
God’s timing is perfect, we all know this, but it is not always particularly evident to our human eyes. But in retrospect I can see clearly how God placed this leadership conference in my life at just the right time. As our Petőfibánya Church matures it is now entering a more adolescent stage. It is more independent and self sufficient. As a result we have found ourselves wrestling with areas of Scripture that can be put into practice differently depending on how you choose to read it. For those of us who have long established positions on these topics that have long divided churches along denominational lines, it has been challenging for us to stand back and let God’s Spirit guide our church through them. The younger believers in our church have the advantage of reading Scripture with eyes that are unbiased by tradition and denomination. But as missionaries we have the advantage of understanding more about how to read and apply Scripture as a whole, as well as experience with the potentially harmful and divisive nature of improper application. Coupled with the fact that within our own team of missionaries we don’t always agree on everything, these have not been easy times for any of us.
But spending time with fellow missionaries at the conference helped me realize that some of this is a very normal part of the maturing process for a young church. Though like adolescence, it can be a particularly difficult season, it is necessary for a church to establish its identity and to grow into the next effective season of life. So I am particularly thankful for the connections I made during my week at the conference, and am thankful for my dear wife Heidi who held down the fort in my absence that week!
We would ask for your faithful prayers for our church, our team and for us in these difficult times. In addition, a recent development has our team leader and his family returning to the U.S. on their first extended furlough in over 6 years. They will be leaving at the end of January, and not returning until the end of July. This is the first time in many years we will be planning virtually all of the spring and summer ministries without them. During our team leader’s absence I have been asked to serve as interim team leader, responsible for the needs of the other Pioneers missionaries who serve alongside us.
While I am sure that the next six months will fly by in the blink of an eye, I am equally sure that there will be many moments when my dependence on God will be tested. Not only will we be navigating through this tough season in our church, we will be filling in the big gaps left by our team leader and his wife. We have probably our busiest summer ever coming up, with Children’s VBS, English Camp, Baseball Camp, and Teen Camp planned for June, July and August. We have various folks joining us for different camps, and there is a lot of coordinating and planning involved. But these are tremendous opportunities for outreach and sharing God’s love, so please pray that we are able to accomplish all things according to His plan and for His glory.
by woofamilyblog
Greetings from Hungary! Much has happened since our visit to the States this last Summer, and we have much to share from this past Autumn.
Our visit to the U.S. this Summer was our best visit ever, for many reasons. Our travel and flights just seemed a bit easier – the kids are bigger and more used to travel, and Anthony our smallest, though only 5 months old, was a happy traveler. Well considering he got to sit with Mom for hours at a time and could nurse just about whenever he wanted, it’s no wonder he had a great flight. The bigger kids did great as well, enjoying the in-flight movies and even getting some much needed rest on the long flight.
Another reason I found this to be a great visit was the connections we made with our churches this time around. I felt that we were able to meet and talk to more people and our supporting churches did a wonderful job of making us feel loved and welcome. I was amazed at how readily our kids participated in Sunday School groups that were foreign to them, and how they managed to enjoy themselves in every new location we visited.
Because the kids were a bit older and more self sufficient we were also able to travel more freely than in the past. Thanks to vehicles we were able to borrow from my parents and Heidi’s as well, we did some road trips to visit friends and families that were not close to where our supporting churches are located. Some of our sweetest memories of the summer were from these road trips, and we are thankful God provided us the means and the opportunities to spend some quality time with people who are dear to us.
Upon arriving home from Michigan at the end of August, we had less than a week to prepare for kids returning to school. Emily would be in second grade, and Samuel would be in kindergarten. Although the school routine requires a pre-6am wake-up for dad, and a commute into town to drop off Emily, I was actually looking forward to some structure and routine after the more random and less predictable Summer travels.
In September we began to regroup for the kickoff of our youth group which had been on break for the summer. We decided to move the weekly event from Saturday to Friday night, and assembled a more diverse group of dedicated folks to help with the teaching and small groups. This was a new way of teaching our kids, using small groups and multiple leaders, but it has proven to be more effective in getting kids to open up and participate in discussion. We also have a godly Hungarian woman from our church who has a heart for teens who now faithfully serves with us. So the girls finally have someone to lead them in a separate small group, where I am sure they feel much more comfortable sharing from their hearts and being vulnerable.
In November I was invited to participate in a two year leadership training program sponsored by our Pioneers organization. In the span of the two year program there are three one-week conferences where all participants gather together. I found the time spent with these fellow missionaries to be a great encouragement and wonderful learning experience. Coupled with meaningful worship in my mother tongue and time spent in the Word and in prayer about things relevant to where we are in ministry, this proved to be the best event I have attended in my eleven years with Pioneers.
God’s timing is perfect, we all know this, but it is not always particularly evident to our human eyes. But in retrospect I can see clearly how God placed this leadership conference in my life at just the right time. As our Petőfibánya Church matures it is now entering a more adolescent stage. It is more independent and self sufficient. As a result we have found ourselves wrestling with areas of Scripture that can be put into practice differently depending on how you choose to read it. For those of us who have long established positions on these topics that have long divided churches along denominational lines, it has been challenging for us to stand back and let God’s Spirit guide our church through them. The younger believers in our church have the advantage of reading Scripture with eyes that are unbiased by tradition and denomination. But as missionaries we have the advantage of understanding more about how to read and apply Scripture as a whole, as well as experience with the potentially harmful and divisive nature of improper application. Coupled with the fact that within our own team of missionaries we don’t always agree on everything, these have not been easy times for any of us.
But spending time with fellow missionaries at the conference helped me realize that some of this is a very normal part of the maturing process for a young church. Though like adolescence, it can be a particularly difficult season, it is necessary for a church to establish its identity and to grow into the next effective season of life. So I am particularly thankful for the connections I made during my week at the conference, and am thankful for my dear wife Heidi who held down the fort in my absence that week!
We would ask for your faithful prayers for our church, our team and for us in these difficult times. In addition, a recent development has our team leader and his family returning to the U.S. on their first extended furlough in over 6 years. They will be leaving at the end of January, and not returning until the end of July. This is the first time in many years we will be planning virtually all of the spring and summer ministries without them. During our team leader’s absence I have been asked to serve as interim team leader, responsible for the needs of the other Pioneers missionaries who serve alongside us.
While I am sure that the next six months will fly by in the blink of an eye, I am equally sure that there will be many moments when my dependence on God will be tested. Not only will we be navigating through this tough season in our church, we will be filling in the big gaps left by our team leader and his wife. We have probably our busiest summer ever coming up, with Children’s VBS, English Camp, Baseball Camp, and Teen Camp planned for June, July and August. We have various folks joining us for different camps, and there is a lot of coordinating and planning involved. But these are tremendous opportunities for outreach and sharing God’s love, so please pray that we are able to accomplish all things according to His plan and for His glory.
When life’s a blur, look beyond…
by woofamilyblog
JUNE 9, 2016
I spend a lot of time with my daughter in the car, driving her to school and back home. Along the way she has time for all of life’s puzzling questions. One of these the other day was why the Sun doesn’t seem to move as we drive. The houses pass by, the trees, even the mountains seem to move a bit. But the Sun seems to stay in its place, no matter how fast or far we drive. I explained that it was a matter of distance, and that the closer things are the faster they go by, and so the Sun, being very, very far away, doesn’t move fast enough for our eyes to see. The last update I wrote was almost three months ago, in the hospital room awaiting our new son Anthony. Since then, life seems to have gone into hyperdrive and the days and weeks seem to blur past.
And I thought again about my conversation with my daughter and the perceived pace of life in this stage. It really is quite the same. When I get caught up in what’s close at hand – meetings, baseball practices, rainy days when the grass needs cutting, kid’s birthdays, meals, dishes, gagging laundry bins and all the other necessary tasks of life – then of course time will seem to be in short supply and life becomes the blur between the times my head hits the pillow each night. But if I just take a step back and let all the essential tasks of each day just fade into the foreground, and I think about the greater plan of this life and beyond, then I can actually breathe, and rest in such amazing promises like Philippians 1:6. Paul tells me “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The thought of actually being able to see something brought to completion someday (me!) gives me hope and peace these days as I am surrounded by the unfinished and incomplete.
There have been times I’ve felt a bit like someone running on a treadmill that has slowly increased in pace and I can’t turn it off or get down without injuring myself. Just got to keep running. The consolation in the midst of all of this is knowing that this is only temporary. We have been through the first four months of baby twice before. Emily was not an easy infant, and being colicky and our first, we were on a very steep learning curve and our introduction to parenthood was a rude awakening. With Sam we were a little bit wiser and though he was colicky too, we had learned various techniques to keep him calm and help him get to sleep. And as Emi was only 2 at the time, it was fairly easy to keep things simple.
Well Anthony is just about as sweet a little boy as you can imagine. Almost 3 months old, and from week 2 he has never failed to greet me with a big sparkly eyed smile… unless he’s hungry… which he is quite often. In fact he is the first in this Woo family to be at the average weight for his age. Sam and Emi were both in the lower 25%. So we have a happy (when belly’s full) healthy and hungry little boy. But this also means that Anthony is frequently stationed in Heidi’s arms at what Sammy calls her “feeders”. And while she has gotten quite adept at one arming him and doing many things with her free hand, well there are just some limits to multitasking when nursing.
So here we are in May. Emi and Sammy’s birthdays are past, and we are looking at one more month of school before Summer and the kids are home all day. A month into Summer we head back to the U.S. for home assignment. Two months and I will be on a plane with my family flying 9 time zones across the sea. May as well be two blinks of my eyes these days, and so you can see why at times life seems to be spinning a bit out of control. Well it’s a good thing I was never in control in the first place, and I can take a deep breath, and as Heidi and I often chant in times like this “just keep swimming, just keep swimming” (Nemo’s friend Dori) knowing our God IS in control and His grace is sufficient.
So what has God been doing in our lives and in our church the past three months? At the end of April we completed another season of English ministry in the town of Jászfényszarú, a community of 5600 people. This is the place where we have been focusing the greatest amount of our church planting efforts for the past two years. It is about 35 minutes from our town, and this year we began holding worship services there twice a month.
Our baseball team has been practicing since October, and the season began in April, with games every week through May. This has proved challenging for our family as games often take me away for most of the day, and since there are only five teams nationwide in our category – little league majors – we often have to travel across the country for our games. We have also had to come up with a location for our home games, which has meant taking a basic plot of grass and making a baseball field out of it. Saturday mornings have been spent measuring baselines, chalking out the foul lines, and mowing down the infield grass. But we are thankful for this little field in the neighboring town of Lőrinci because it is close by, has good parking, and best of all is free for us to use. Our rookie team is 3-2 for the season, and while our losses have been disappointing, we have only lost by one or two runs. It has been a great chance for families to get out and root for our kids, and it’s nice to see how parents have been supportive of their kids in this new sport
I have also had a chance to get to know our newest teammate Tom Ledoux a lot better as he has been helping with the coaching of the team since March when he arrived. Tom has over 5ö years of experience playing and coaching baseball, and his arrival to the field was timely. It was a win-win situation for all involved since he has been mainly doing language study, and practices and games gave him the chance to try out his new Hungarian skills doing something he loves with kids who don’t care if he says things wrong. I am personally very thankful for God’s provision of Tom to our town and look forward to serving with him for many years to come.
But because our games are most often on Saturdays, there have been many weeks the past couple months when there were time conflicts with youth ministry. Unfortunately I have not been able to work with the church youth group as much as in the past, leaving our ministry partner Miki to handling things on his own. Fortunately for both of us, our schedules have changed enough for us to switch youth group to Friday night, which means I can once again be involved regularly with the teen ministry here in our town.
This Summer we will once again hold our Children’s Bible Camp, where last year over 100 kids from kindergarten to 8th grade heard the Gospel over the course of the 6 day camp. We are currently busy planning the various games, lessons and activities for the camp that will be held at the end of June. I will once again be teaching the 5th and 6th graders, with the help of one of our church members who also loves working with the young teens.
Shortly after our Children’s camp we will be having our teen camp, which is just a long weekend with the teens, camping out in tents. But it’s an intense weekend filled with solid teaching, powerful testimonies, worship and of course great games and lots of fun. Some of our older teens who are now in a solid walk with Jesus, made decisions at this. Soon after this teen camp we will be packing up to head out to the West Coast for three weeks, followed by 3 weeks in the Midwest. Upon returning we will have about a week before school starts up again and we begin a new season of more regular routine and ministry. I am hoping to be involved a bit more in Emily’s school as there is the potential for English and baseball ministry there too. This year with the pregnancy and birth of Anthony, it was enough for us that Emily was happily attending school. But we believe that God can use the unique things we bring to the field here in Hungary in her school as well, to reach the unreached and seeking students and parents in this nearby city.
Prayer needs:
> Endurance. We are going into the summer season with our batteries running low. Pray for God’s Spirit to energize us and lift us up when we are tired.
> Patience. We are in the midst of sleep training for Anthony. Pray that God blesses our efforts and gives us wisdom to know what is best for our baby. Books are helpful, but they don’t know our kid the way we do.
> Wisdom. As we juggle different roles as parent, spouse, counselor, discipler, teacher, coach, teammate, that we would be filled with God’s wisdom as we seek to fulfill these roles to His glory.
> Discipline. To stay in the Word and make the time to meet with our Father. To let go of the urgent and make way for the important.
> Finances. With our travel home this Summer coinciding with Anthony’s birth this year, we are facing some hefty expenditures. We are seeking new supporters and are in need of increased monthly funds to meet the needs of our growing family.
> Peace. As we travel this summer, that we will be covered by God’s protection and find safety and peace in the knowledge of His sovereignty.
As I close this ministry update we want to again express our thankfulness for all of those who have sacrificed so we can stay here in the field where God has placed us. We are humbled by the generosity of the churches and folks who have given month after month for years so that we can be church planters here in Hungary. We hope to see many of you in just a few short weeks.
Grace and peace in Christ Jesus,
Roger, Heidi, Emily, Sam and Anthony
April 2016
Getting back in line for the roller coaster
by woofamilyblog
There is a funny thing about roller coasters - at some point in your life they stop being so fun. I remember as a kid running back into line over and over to ride The Revolution at Magic Mountain. Those were pre-Colossus days. Somewhere along the way being really excitedly scared stopped being so fun. Probably going down into the ground at Whiskey Pete's in Prim was the last time I really enjoyed a roller coaster. But I was with childhood friends I had grown up with at church, and one was getting married, and we had a blast just spending time together. That was long ago. Since then I have gotten married and have three kids and live as a missionary in a foreign country. So now things like safety take priority over thrill seeking.
But if any of you remember the wise advice of Gil's grandmother in the 1989 film Parenthood, it goes like this: "You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it."
Well despite the fact that I have outgrown the rollercoasters at the amusement parks, I wouldn't trade the ride of this life that God has given me for anyone else's in this world. With all its ups and downs, I know it is the ride God has chosen for me. And as I sit in a hospital bed beside my sleeping wife and newborn son (also sleeping for the brief moment) I know a bit of what lies ahead: Things that will frighten me, make me sick, excited and thrilled all together. And I know that through all of these things God will guide me through each season and give me opportunities to trust Him more deeply and bring Him more glory.
For those who are not on Facebook, our third child Anthony Jacob was born on Valentine's Day by c-section. For the first time since we were married, Heidi and I got away for Valentines Day... we spent the day at the hospital in Budapest while Heidi's parents stayed with our kids at home. No special gifts or flowers from each other this year, just a very special gift from God. Little Anthony is a healthy little boy similar in size and features to his siblings Emily and Sam. His long awaited arrival is now here, and we are excited to have our new family member join us.
Of course the season leading up to his arrival was not without its challenges. Combining fatigue and morning sickness with a 4 and 6 year old home for the summer was not always easy. But God was gracious and Heidi had more fatigue than nausea, and by second trimester things were a bit better. But at that point Heidi and I began shuttling the kids back and forth to preschool and elementary school, a new demand on our time for this season, one more thing to work in, between ministry and meetings. But having them away at school also gave us time with just the two of us, and time to prepare for the big changes in life that accompany a newborn.
One of the things that God helped me address during this time was our heating system. Every year as things cool down for the Fall, I do battle with the furnace, trying to keep it lit and consistently warming up our house during the long cold winter. With the added expenses of a new baby coming, replacing the furnace was not an option for us right now. Yet this year it grew worse and worse, with the pilot light refusing to stay lit, and needing multiple trips down to our basement each day to re-ignite it. One Monday afternoon I heard a peculiar hissing sound that I thought was a small gas leak, and in the process of investigating I snapped off the thin aluminum conduit that feeds gas to the pilot. Without it, the heater would not work at all, and mid-winter on a Monday afternoon, letting the house get down to freezing temperatures was not an option.
I knew it was the thermocouple that had gone bad that was preventing the pilot light from staying lit. I had watched my father-in-law replace one a few years ago on a visit back home to Michigan. Thanks to him I knew what one was, and what it looked like and what its function was. But I myself had no experience with such things, much less in the Hungarian context. But since i had to replace the conduit I had just broken, I decided to remove the thermocouple and try to replace that as well. I located a heating and plumbing store just a few blocks from Emily's school, and left 30 minutes earlier than usual to go pick Em up from school. I stopped by the store with the old parts, and within minutes the shopkeeper had placed new ones in my hands. I marveled at how easy it had all gone, and I had 25 minutes to kill before going to Emily's school.
I hate to be cynical about life in Hungary. I love living here and I love the Hungarian people. But I sat in the car thinking "Wow! That was easier than I thought it would be!" And it was either cynicism or the prompting of the Holy Spirit (hopefully the latter) that reminded me that things like this are rarely easier than you think they are going to be, and are in fact usually much harder than you expect. So I decided to take a hard look at the parts the shopkeeper had given me in spite of the fact that she was the expert and seemed so confident she had given me the right parts. Who was I to doubt? Well upon closer examination I could easily see that one of the collar fittings that she had given me for the new aluminum conduit didn't match the one I had removed. It simply would not fit my furnace. So after going back in and arguing a bit with her, she switched out the fitting to the proper size. Upon returning to my car I once again was prompted to make double sure I had all the right pieces. The pressure on the situation was that after bringing Emily home from school I had to leave right away to teach English at our Jászfényszarú English Club and I would not be home until 9pm. I would not have time for a second trip to the parts store. So I ended up going back into the store again, since the new fitting she gave me didn't match the corresponding ferrule she had given me originally.
To make a long story a bit shorter, after much grace from God and prayer filled hour of tinkering with the furnace late Monday night, everything is working like it is supposed to. No more 6 am trips to the cold basement to get the house warmed up. This is especially important since I had wanted to resolve the heating issues prior to the arrival of Heidi's parents in February.
The beginning of this paragraph marks a long gap between when I wrote previous paragraphs and the present. After a wonderful visit from Heidi's parents, we have been on our own figuring out life with a newborn for the last few weeks. Anthony is a very sweet boy, and most of the time very agreeable and pleasant. He does have some cranky evenings, and at about the 3 week mark began to develop some signs of colic. So we rolled out the baby swing and blew up the exercise ball, and with the hard learned lessons from the two previous colicky kids we are able to keep him happy most of the time.
It is amazing though how quickly you forget the hard seasons with your older kids. As we ran headlong into frustration and fatigue with late night challenges getting this little guy back to sleep, it was all too familiar and we found some consolation in knowing it too would pass and become a faded memory. As Easter approaches our puppet team is busy serving at the local schools in the area. This will the first time since we began serving out here that I will not have been at any of the puppet shows. As the time of Anthony's birth grew near, I was able to take a step back from a few things, to free up some time to help more around the house and with the kids. I expect that by the time summer comes around and summer ministries begin to unfold, this season of serving more at home will end and a new season of outreach ministry will begin. In the meantime, I am still involved in ongoing local ministries, like English, baseball, discipleship and youth group.
This summer we plan to be back in the U.S. from mid July to the third week of August. Because of some dates that were changed at the last minute for our annual English Camp, we will not be able to serve there this year. After our Children's camp and teen camp in July, we will be heading to California for a few weeks to reconnect with family, friends and churches there, after which we will spend some time in Michigan doing the same. We do have a goal to raise some additional financial support to help cover some of our ongoing increased expenses. Our monthly expenses have not changed significantly, though schooling and a third child have made a difference. The greater challenge is meeting one time large expenses as things wear out and need replacing. We have been here more than 10 years now, and so the big items we purchased upon initially arriving in country are beginning to wear out. Throughout the year we are also stretched to pay down the $2,600 deductible for our health insurance. Travel expenses are also high, even with gas prices falling, airfare for our furlough will still fall between five and six thousand dollars.
But if there is anything we have learned well in this field, it is that God is always faithful to provide. We hear constant testimonies from our church members about the many ways He is meeting their needs. Our local government offered us a new place to meet and our church has now been meeting in the new location for a couple months. It is right next to where we used to meet, but gives us more room to spread out, visit with each other and most importantly to fit new folks in as we seek to reach more people in our local communities. This is yet one more way that God has met our needs, after a long season of feeling a bit squished on Sundays, and the challenges that come with trying to worship in cramped quarters with two energetic kids.
As I close I would ask for your prayers for the following:
Blessings in Christ,
Roger, Heidi, Emily, Sammy and Anthony
Getting back in line for the roller coaster
by woofamilyblog
There is a funny thing about roller coasters - at some point in your life they stop being so fun. I remember as a kid running back into line over and over to ride The Revolution at Magic Mountain. Those were pre-Colossus days. Somewhere along the way being really excitedly scared stopped being so fun. Probably going down into the ground at Whiskey Pete's in Prim was the last time I really enjoyed a roller coaster. But I was with childhood friends I had grown up with at church, and one was getting married, and we had a blast just spending time together. That was long ago. Since then I have gotten married and have three kids and live as a missionary in a foreign country. So now things like safety take priority over thrill seeking.
But if any of you remember the wise advice of Gil's grandmother in the 1989 film Parenthood, it goes like this: "You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it."
Well despite the fact that I have outgrown the rollercoasters at the amusement parks, I wouldn't trade the ride of this life that God has given me for anyone else's in this world. With all its ups and downs, I know it is the ride God has chosen for me. And as I sit in a hospital bed beside my sleeping wife and newborn son (also sleeping for the brief moment) I know a bit of what lies ahead: Things that will frighten me, make me sick, excited and thrilled all together. And I know that through all of these things God will guide me through each season and give me opportunities to trust Him more deeply and bring Him more glory.
For those who are not on Facebook, our third child Anthony Jacob was born on Valentine's Day by c-section. For the first time since we were married, Heidi and I got away for Valentines Day... we spent the day at the hospital in Budapest while Heidi's parents stayed with our kids at home. No special gifts or flowers from each other this year, just a very special gift from God. Little Anthony is a healthy little boy similar in size and features to his siblings Emily and Sam. His long awaited arrival is now here, and we are excited to have our new family member join us.
Of course the season leading up to his arrival was not without its challenges. Combining fatigue and morning sickness with a 4 and 6 year old home for the summer was not always easy. But God was gracious and Heidi had more fatigue than nausea, and by second trimester things were a bit better. But at that point Heidi and I began shuttling the kids back and forth to preschool and elementary school, a new demand on our time for this season, one more thing to work in, between ministry and meetings. But having them away at school also gave us time with just the two of us, and time to prepare for the big changes in life that accompany a newborn.
One of the things that God helped me address during this time was our heating system. Every year as things cool down for the Fall, I do battle with the furnace, trying to keep it lit and consistently warming up our house during the long cold winter. With the added expenses of a new baby coming, replacing the furnace was not an option for us right now. Yet this year it grew worse and worse, with the pilot light refusing to stay lit, and needing multiple trips down to our basement each day to re-ignite it. One Monday afternoon I heard a peculiar hissing sound that I thought was a small gas leak, and in the process of investigating I snapped off the thin aluminum conduit that feeds gas to the pilot. Without it, the heater would not work at all, and mid-winter on a Monday afternoon, letting the house get down to freezing temperatures was not an option.
I knew it was the thermocouple that had gone bad that was preventing the pilot light from staying lit. I had watched my father-in-law replace one a few years ago on a visit back home to Michigan. Thanks to him I knew what one was, and what it looked like and what its function was. But I myself had no experience with such things, much less in the Hungarian context. But since i had to replace the conduit I had just broken, I decided to remove the thermocouple and try to replace that as well. I located a heating and plumbing store just a few blocks from Emily's school, and left 30 minutes earlier than usual to go pick Em up from school. I stopped by the store with the old parts, and within minutes the shopkeeper had placed new ones in my hands. I marveled at how easy it had all gone, and I had 25 minutes to kill before going to Emily's school.
I hate to be cynical about life in Hungary. I love living here and I love the Hungarian people. But I sat in the car thinking "Wow! That was easier than I thought it would be!" And it was either cynicism or the prompting of the Holy Spirit (hopefully the latter) that reminded me that things like this are rarely easier than you think they are going to be, and are in fact usually much harder than you expect. So I decided to take a hard look at the parts the shopkeeper had given me in spite of the fact that she was the expert and seemed so confident she had given me the right parts. Who was I to doubt? Well upon closer examination I could easily see that one of the collar fittings that she had given me for the new aluminum conduit didn't match the one I had removed. It simply would not fit my furnace. So after going back in and arguing a bit with her, she switched out the fitting to the proper size. Upon returning to my car I once again was prompted to make double sure I had all the right pieces. The pressure on the situation was that after bringing Emily home from school I had to leave right away to teach English at our Jászfényszarú English Club and I would not be home until 9pm. I would not have time for a second trip to the parts store. So I ended up going back into the store again, since the new fitting she gave me didn't match the corresponding ferrule she had given me originally.
To make a long story a bit shorter, after much grace from God and prayer filled hour of tinkering with the furnace late Monday night, everything is working like it is supposed to. No more 6 am trips to the cold basement to get the house warmed up. This is especially important since I had wanted to resolve the heating issues prior to the arrival of Heidi's parents in February.
The beginning of this paragraph marks a long gap between when I wrote previous paragraphs and the present. After a wonderful visit from Heidi's parents, we have been on our own figuring out life with a newborn for the last few weeks. Anthony is a very sweet boy, and most of the time very agreeable and pleasant. He does have some cranky evenings, and at about the 3 week mark began to develop some signs of colic. So we rolled out the baby swing and blew up the exercise ball, and with the hard learned lessons from the two previous colicky kids we are able to keep him happy most of the time.
It is amazing though how quickly you forget the hard seasons with your older kids. As we ran headlong into frustration and fatigue with late night challenges getting this little guy back to sleep, it was all too familiar and we found some consolation in knowing it too would pass and become a faded memory. As Easter approaches our puppet team is busy serving at the local schools in the area. This will the first time since we began serving out here that I will not have been at any of the puppet shows. As the time of Anthony's birth grew near, I was able to take a step back from a few things, to free up some time to help more around the house and with the kids. I expect that by the time summer comes around and summer ministries begin to unfold, this season of serving more at home will end and a new season of outreach ministry will begin. In the meantime, I am still involved in ongoing local ministries, like English, baseball, discipleship and youth group.
This summer we plan to be back in the U.S. from mid July to the third week of August. Because of some dates that were changed at the last minute for our annual English Camp, we will not be able to serve there this year. After our Children's camp and teen camp in July, we will be heading to California for a few weeks to reconnect with family, friends and churches there, after which we will spend some time in Michigan doing the same. We do have a goal to raise some additional financial support to help cover some of our ongoing increased expenses. Our monthly expenses have not changed significantly, though schooling and a third child have made a difference. The greater challenge is meeting one time large expenses as things wear out and need replacing. We have been here more than 10 years now, and so the big items we purchased upon initially arriving in country are beginning to wear out. Throughout the year we are also stretched to pay down the $2,600 deductible for our health insurance. Travel expenses are also high, even with gas prices falling, airfare for our furlough will still fall between five and six thousand dollars.
But if there is anything we have learned well in this field, it is that God is always faithful to provide. We hear constant testimonies from our church members about the many ways He is meeting their needs. Our local government offered us a new place to meet and our church has now been meeting in the new location for a couple months. It is right next to where we used to meet, but gives us more room to spread out, visit with each other and most importantly to fit new folks in as we seek to reach more people in our local communities. This is yet one more way that God has met our needs, after a long season of feeling a bit squished on Sundays, and the challenges that come with trying to worship in cramped quarters with two energetic kids.
As I close I would ask for your prayers for the following:
- Continued health and development of our new baby
- Strong recovery for Heidi after her c-section
- Wisdom in shepherding and parenting our older kids in this intense season
- Patience and discernment for new ministry opportunities this summer
- Our growing youth group and the young souls in it who still need to repent
- Scheduling and financing our furlough this Summer
- Keeping the priority of prayer and time in the Word when time and energy seem in short supply.
Blessings in Christ,
Roger, Heidi, Emily, Sammy and Anthony
August 2015
Update from last fall
by woofamilyblog
Dear Friends, Family and Supporters,
Greetings from Petőfibánya Hungary! This blog entry is a post from a newsletter we sent out in the Fall, but I wasn't able to get it posted to the blogsite. It marked 10 years for me in the field here in Hungary, and even longer for Heidi. Heidi arrived in Hungary earlier than I, but this October we will have been in Hungary together for ten years! Much has happened in that time, and much has changed. We both arrived as singles, separately seeking God’s plan for us as missionaries. But now after eight years of marriage we serve as a team, balancing roles as parents, spouses, friends and fellow servants.
No wedding rings yet here!
Much has also changed since our early days of serving here in Hungary, when we were both in Budapest. There, it seemed things were changing every six months. Moving out into the countryside and starting a family has definitely allowed us to put down our roots and grow with the community. We have now served here in Petőfibánya for seven years, and it really has become our home town.
As part of a larger church planting team, we have the advantage of maintaining a large number of annual ministries, with the support of our Pioneers teammates, national missionaries, and layfolks in our church. In addition to the puppet ministry that continues to be a part of our Christmas and Easter outreach, we have three annual camps in the Summer, two local camps for young kids and teens, and our English Camp which Heidi and I have been involved in since before we came to Hungary and which was instrumental in our decisions to serve here long term.
God continues to amaze us as he works through our church, even though it has been established in the community for over ten years now. Folks who knew us all those years ago and chose not to seek further are now coming to Christ for repentance. This past summer God has added several new young families to our congregation and we are once again bursting out of our building on Sundays. God has been faithful in growing our church both in size and maturity.
September is always a busy month for us. During the summer we take a break from many of our regular weekly ministries to focus on the big events like Children’s Camp (VBS). But once kids return back to school at the beginning of September, we quickly get back into our regular outreach and discipleship. This year we had the extra excitement of Emily our 6 year old starting first grade. We chose not to send her to our local elementary school for several reasons, not the least being the lack of discipline in most classrooms and some teachers who don’t actually like being around kids. We also didn’t feel it would be fair to her as I am working at the school and she would never get to just be herself.
She would have always been Mr. Woo’s daughter and whether she garnered favor or discrimination because of it, she would have to endure that challenging situation for the next eight years.
Through my contacts at the cable factory where I teach English once a week I had heard about a very good school in the closest large town of Hatvan. It is a music magnet school and she qualified to attend on her own merits. She is now happily attending her class of 24 kids, and comes home every day with a big smile on her face telling me “it was good”. Praise God! You can’t as for much more than that from a first grader starting school in a strange town!
It’s a blessing how God has helped us adjust to the new routine. We have a short 20 minute commute into town, and it gives Emily and I a bit of father – daughter time alone in the car each day. Sometimes we count Opel Astras (her favorite European car at the moment) and sometimes she just daydreams as she looks out the window at the beautiful countryside dotted with sheep, cows and horses along the way. Meanwhile Heidi has been getting Sammy off to preschool, depending on weather they sometimes walk or he takes his scooter. He has also quickly adjusted to being back in school, and seems to enjoy being there on his own without big sister there to help.
We’ve once again returned to Jászfényszarú, one of the towns God has led us into to continue church planting work. A family from that town has been attending our church, and we are looking to start a gathering of believers in that town as well. Every Monday we teach several hours of English, with a new class begun this season for kindergarteners. Between myself and my teammates, we teach 30 to 40 folks of all different ages from 5pm to 8pm. Several from our local body come along with us to serve and improve their English skills as well. Two of our groups have been using the Bible for the second hour of their teaching time, and this past August, one of our advanced level students made a decision to follow Christ at our teen camp. The English ministry was instrumental in giving her a weekly opportunity to learn about what it means to give your life to Christ, and she had access to a wide spectrum of believers in her group – younger, older, new believers, mature believers – with which she could speak and ask questions. We look forward to seeing how God continues to use us as salt and light in the community of Jászfényszaru.
As I mentioned earlier I am still working at our local school which teaches first through eigth grade. I am there a couple times each week helping to teach the Bible class to fifth, sixth and seventh graders. I have been working alongside a local Hungarian pastor who is also officially our school’s pastor. He spends two days a week at our school and is otherwise in the town of Hatvan where he is the pastor of a high school as well that is a sort of continuation school or reform school for troubled teens. Interestingly we both separately made the decision to send our first graders to the music school in Hatvan, and our kids are now classmates!
I have found it challenging at times to handle the occasionally unruly teens, especially when I am left on my own as a substitute teacher to hold the class on my own. Maybe it is the lazy way out, but I’ve found that a cheap bag of gummy candy goes a long way to restoring order when the kids start testing the boundaries of their freedom. I am thankful though, because it gives me a connection with dozens of young teens that I would not otherwise come into contact with.
This September we started a new Baseball Club at the school. Our first event had a great turnout with dozens of kids and parents and an amazing team of coaches and helpers from the league to help us kick off the first practice session. As a result of generous donors, we also received a huge amount of equipment... everything we need for a real little league team and a T-ball team as well. Now we just need more helpers and coaches, and wisdom from God as to how to lead and train all these kids.
Heidi is midway through her pregnancy and has toughed it out through the first trimester, when fatigue and nausea were taking their toll. Though she is naturally a bit more tired than usual, she is doing well. We started feeling the baby kicking around in her belly a few weeks ago, and next Monday we will have our next appointment and hopefully find out if God has blessed us with a little girl or little boy. We will let you all know!
We just got news about a huge blessing: This winter Heidi’s parents plan to spend a month with us around the birth of the baby! Because Heidi will have a scheduled C-section, we can be fairly certain about the timing of the birth. Both Emily and Sam showed no signs of coming early, and Emi was in fact a few days late when Heidi went into labor. So we are excited to prepare for their visit and for some really good quality time for us and the kids with them as we welcome our new addition into the outside world.
Praise God with us for a really wonderful baptism service where 11 folks made public professions of their faith and desire to follow Jesus. In mid-September we rented out a large hall at the Cultural Center and had over 100 present as these folks made this great step of obedience. There were young teens and older folks, but the majority were middle aged parents, who from different channels of outreach and different paths as seekers were brought to a common decision to follow Jesus. This summer we experienced a truly bountiful harvest, with more than a dozen folks committing their lives to Christ.
We still have a few folks who plan to be baptized in the very near future!
After looking back at what God has done in the recent past, and through the many years that God has allowed us to serve in this capacity, we are excited about what the future holds. As our church grows and matures we have more and more folks who are stepping up into ministry roles. We have an ever growing network of transformed hearts that are salt and light to the community of unbelievers in our area. Lives that were shattered and broken, or simply just lost and without hope have found the Way,
the Truth and the Life, and they cannot help but share with others. All of this growth and fruit has been made possible by the founding and ongoing existence of the church in Petőfibánya. We have outreach or discipleship happening in a half a dozen outer communities, all with the greater goal of planting new churches.
Words are so inadequate to express our gratitude for faithful folks like you who have allowed us to serve here unhindered by financial shortcomings. In the past ten years we have been able to spend about 94% of our time here in the field with a relatively small amount of time in the States raising support. As a result, the regular ministries we are involved in have not suffered unnecessary interruption or long breaks. We plan to return to the United States in late Summer of next year to touch base with folks and try to raise some additional support. We will have some ongoing needs as a result of the additional family member, as well as some one time expenses related to medical expenses and our travels back to the U.S. As you remember to pray for us and our church, we ask that you would consider helping us find additional folks who might be willing to support us here, either through one time gifts or regular ministry. If you have contact information of someone we might get in touch with during our visit, please forward that to us via email at heidger@gmail.com.
Due to the increasingly electronic nature of our world, paper printing and postal expenses have increased significantly. The last printed newsletter we sent to our entire mailing list cost the equivalent of about a fourth of our monthly income. As a result we are not regularly sending out paper newsletters, but are using our blogsite and Heidi’s facebook as our main means updating folks back home. Our blogsite can be found at https://woofamilyinhungary.wordpress.com/ and by the time you receive this letter our blogsite should be updated with the new information you have just read. Please take the time to look us up at the blogsite and subscribe to receive updates automatically.
We understand that not all folks are online or on facebook and we wanted to give you an opportunity to request a paper newsletter from us when we send out updates. If there are several folks who are blessed to just hold a letter in their hands and read it, we understand and would like to accommodate you. You can do this in a couple different ways. One thing you can do is simply drop us a note via mail to our Hungary address:
Roger and Heidi Woo
Fenyőfa utca 62
Petőfibánya, Hungary 3023
You can also give us a phone call on our Vonage line at 805 991 0620, keeping in mind that we are 6 hours ahead of Michigan time and 9 hours ahead of California time. Even if you are connected and on social media channels, we are still happy to provide a printed newsletter at times when we do a mailing, so you can always just email us and let us know that it is your preference. We just don’t want to go through the expense of printing and posting newsletters to hundreds of folks who may or may not even open or read our newsletter.
As I close this newsletter we are in the first day of our Autumn break that kids here in Europe enjoy. So we have a week of lighter ministry load, coupled with the task of keeping two lively kids happy and preoccupied. But we are thankful for the extra family time as now Emily spends almost 8 of her waking hours at school each day. Please continue to pray for our family members, especially for the health and development of our newest member, which we recently found out will be a boy! We haven’t decided on a name yet, but we are excited to welcome this new little life into our family! May God bless you richly for your involvement in our ministry here.
Grace and peace to you in Jesus,
Roger, Heidi, Emi, Sam, and baby boy!
Pioneers 10123 William Carey Dr. Orlando, FL 32832 (407) 382-6000
Update from last fall
by woofamilyblog
Dear Friends, Family and Supporters,
Greetings from Petőfibánya Hungary! This blog entry is a post from a newsletter we sent out in the Fall, but I wasn't able to get it posted to the blogsite. It marked 10 years for me in the field here in Hungary, and even longer for Heidi. Heidi arrived in Hungary earlier than I, but this October we will have been in Hungary together for ten years! Much has happened in that time, and much has changed. We both arrived as singles, separately seeking God’s plan for us as missionaries. But now after eight years of marriage we serve as a team, balancing roles as parents, spouses, friends and fellow servants.
No wedding rings yet here!
Much has also changed since our early days of serving here in Hungary, when we were both in Budapest. There, it seemed things were changing every six months. Moving out into the countryside and starting a family has definitely allowed us to put down our roots and grow with the community. We have now served here in Petőfibánya for seven years, and it really has become our home town.
As part of a larger church planting team, we have the advantage of maintaining a large number of annual ministries, with the support of our Pioneers teammates, national missionaries, and layfolks in our church. In addition to the puppet ministry that continues to be a part of our Christmas and Easter outreach, we have three annual camps in the Summer, two local camps for young kids and teens, and our English Camp which Heidi and I have been involved in since before we came to Hungary and which was instrumental in our decisions to serve here long term.
God continues to amaze us as he works through our church, even though it has been established in the community for over ten years now. Folks who knew us all those years ago and chose not to seek further are now coming to Christ for repentance. This past summer God has added several new young families to our congregation and we are once again bursting out of our building on Sundays. God has been faithful in growing our church both in size and maturity.
September is always a busy month for us. During the summer we take a break from many of our regular weekly ministries to focus on the big events like Children’s Camp (VBS). But once kids return back to school at the beginning of September, we quickly get back into our regular outreach and discipleship. This year we had the extra excitement of Emily our 6 year old starting first grade. We chose not to send her to our local elementary school for several reasons, not the least being the lack of discipline in most classrooms and some teachers who don’t actually like being around kids. We also didn’t feel it would be fair to her as I am working at the school and she would never get to just be herself.
She would have always been Mr. Woo’s daughter and whether she garnered favor or discrimination because of it, she would have to endure that challenging situation for the next eight years.
Through my contacts at the cable factory where I teach English once a week I had heard about a very good school in the closest large town of Hatvan. It is a music magnet school and she qualified to attend on her own merits. She is now happily attending her class of 24 kids, and comes home every day with a big smile on her face telling me “it was good”. Praise God! You can’t as for much more than that from a first grader starting school in a strange town!
It’s a blessing how God has helped us adjust to the new routine. We have a short 20 minute commute into town, and it gives Emily and I a bit of father – daughter time alone in the car each day. Sometimes we count Opel Astras (her favorite European car at the moment) and sometimes she just daydreams as she looks out the window at the beautiful countryside dotted with sheep, cows and horses along the way. Meanwhile Heidi has been getting Sammy off to preschool, depending on weather they sometimes walk or he takes his scooter. He has also quickly adjusted to being back in school, and seems to enjoy being there on his own without big sister there to help.
We’ve once again returned to Jászfényszarú, one of the towns God has led us into to continue church planting work. A family from that town has been attending our church, and we are looking to start a gathering of believers in that town as well. Every Monday we teach several hours of English, with a new class begun this season for kindergarteners. Between myself and my teammates, we teach 30 to 40 folks of all different ages from 5pm to 8pm. Several from our local body come along with us to serve and improve their English skills as well. Two of our groups have been using the Bible for the second hour of their teaching time, and this past August, one of our advanced level students made a decision to follow Christ at our teen camp. The English ministry was instrumental in giving her a weekly opportunity to learn about what it means to give your life to Christ, and she had access to a wide spectrum of believers in her group – younger, older, new believers, mature believers – with which she could speak and ask questions. We look forward to seeing how God continues to use us as salt and light in the community of Jászfényszaru.
As I mentioned earlier I am still working at our local school which teaches first through eigth grade. I am there a couple times each week helping to teach the Bible class to fifth, sixth and seventh graders. I have been working alongside a local Hungarian pastor who is also officially our school’s pastor. He spends two days a week at our school and is otherwise in the town of Hatvan where he is the pastor of a high school as well that is a sort of continuation school or reform school for troubled teens. Interestingly we both separately made the decision to send our first graders to the music school in Hatvan, and our kids are now classmates!
I have found it challenging at times to handle the occasionally unruly teens, especially when I am left on my own as a substitute teacher to hold the class on my own. Maybe it is the lazy way out, but I’ve found that a cheap bag of gummy candy goes a long way to restoring order when the kids start testing the boundaries of their freedom. I am thankful though, because it gives me a connection with dozens of young teens that I would not otherwise come into contact with.
This September we started a new Baseball Club at the school. Our first event had a great turnout with dozens of kids and parents and an amazing team of coaches and helpers from the league to help us kick off the first practice session. As a result of generous donors, we also received a huge amount of equipment... everything we need for a real little league team and a T-ball team as well. Now we just need more helpers and coaches, and wisdom from God as to how to lead and train all these kids.
Heidi is midway through her pregnancy and has toughed it out through the first trimester, when fatigue and nausea were taking their toll. Though she is naturally a bit more tired than usual, she is doing well. We started feeling the baby kicking around in her belly a few weeks ago, and next Monday we will have our next appointment and hopefully find out if God has blessed us with a little girl or little boy. We will let you all know!
We just got news about a huge blessing: This winter Heidi’s parents plan to spend a month with us around the birth of the baby! Because Heidi will have a scheduled C-section, we can be fairly certain about the timing of the birth. Both Emily and Sam showed no signs of coming early, and Emi was in fact a few days late when Heidi went into labor. So we are excited to prepare for their visit and for some really good quality time for us and the kids with them as we welcome our new addition into the outside world.
Praise God with us for a really wonderful baptism service where 11 folks made public professions of their faith and desire to follow Jesus. In mid-September we rented out a large hall at the Cultural Center and had over 100 present as these folks made this great step of obedience. There were young teens and older folks, but the majority were middle aged parents, who from different channels of outreach and different paths as seekers were brought to a common decision to follow Jesus. This summer we experienced a truly bountiful harvest, with more than a dozen folks committing their lives to Christ.
We still have a few folks who plan to be baptized in the very near future!
After looking back at what God has done in the recent past, and through the many years that God has allowed us to serve in this capacity, we are excited about what the future holds. As our church grows and matures we have more and more folks who are stepping up into ministry roles. We have an ever growing network of transformed hearts that are salt and light to the community of unbelievers in our area. Lives that were shattered and broken, or simply just lost and without hope have found the Way,
the Truth and the Life, and they cannot help but share with others. All of this growth and fruit has been made possible by the founding and ongoing existence of the church in Petőfibánya. We have outreach or discipleship happening in a half a dozen outer communities, all with the greater goal of planting new churches.
Words are so inadequate to express our gratitude for faithful folks like you who have allowed us to serve here unhindered by financial shortcomings. In the past ten years we have been able to spend about 94% of our time here in the field with a relatively small amount of time in the States raising support. As a result, the regular ministries we are involved in have not suffered unnecessary interruption or long breaks. We plan to return to the United States in late Summer of next year to touch base with folks and try to raise some additional support. We will have some ongoing needs as a result of the additional family member, as well as some one time expenses related to medical expenses and our travels back to the U.S. As you remember to pray for us and our church, we ask that you would consider helping us find additional folks who might be willing to support us here, either through one time gifts or regular ministry. If you have contact information of someone we might get in touch with during our visit, please forward that to us via email at heidger@gmail.com.
Due to the increasingly electronic nature of our world, paper printing and postal expenses have increased significantly. The last printed newsletter we sent to our entire mailing list cost the equivalent of about a fourth of our monthly income. As a result we are not regularly sending out paper newsletters, but are using our blogsite and Heidi’s facebook as our main means updating folks back home. Our blogsite can be found at https://woofamilyinhungary.wordpress.com/ and by the time you receive this letter our blogsite should be updated with the new information you have just read. Please take the time to look us up at the blogsite and subscribe to receive updates automatically.
We understand that not all folks are online or on facebook and we wanted to give you an opportunity to request a paper newsletter from us when we send out updates. If there are several folks who are blessed to just hold a letter in their hands and read it, we understand and would like to accommodate you. You can do this in a couple different ways. One thing you can do is simply drop us a note via mail to our Hungary address:
Roger and Heidi Woo
Fenyőfa utca 62
Petőfibánya, Hungary 3023
You can also give us a phone call on our Vonage line at 805 991 0620, keeping in mind that we are 6 hours ahead of Michigan time and 9 hours ahead of California time. Even if you are connected and on social media channels, we are still happy to provide a printed newsletter at times when we do a mailing, so you can always just email us and let us know that it is your preference. We just don’t want to go through the expense of printing and posting newsletters to hundreds of folks who may or may not even open or read our newsletter.
As I close this newsletter we are in the first day of our Autumn break that kids here in Europe enjoy. So we have a week of lighter ministry load, coupled with the task of keeping two lively kids happy and preoccupied. But we are thankful for the extra family time as now Emily spends almost 8 of her waking hours at school each day. Please continue to pray for our family members, especially for the health and development of our newest member, which we recently found out will be a boy! We haven’t decided on a name yet, but we are excited to welcome this new little life into our family! May God bless you richly for your involvement in our ministry here.
Grace and peace to you in Jesus,
Roger, Heidi, Emi, Sam, and baby boy!
Pioneers 10123 William Carey Dr. Orlando, FL 32832 (407) 382-6000