As the end of 2011 slowly approaches, we would like to share with you a short summary of events and tasks that characterized these last few months.

Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe

We praise the Lord for continuing to bring more and more students to Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe, students that are not only desiring to grow in knowing the Scriptures, but are also open to the Lord shaping their hearts. It is a priceless experience to see lives being transformed, sins left at the foot of the cross and priorities rearranged in so many lives.

This summer we had the most students yet take part in our summer discipleship program (A Vision for Life). The Fall semester was characterized by true cultural diversity as we had students from seventeen different countries – thanks to the fact that Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe now offers an accredited degree in theology, we were able to secure visas for students from Pakistan, India, South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, and even China. All of the students were part of one of the two dozen outreaches organized, mostly to Hungary, but also to Finland, Romania, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo and Austria.

This year Árpi was teaching a course on the book of Genesis (with Andi translating into English) and a course on Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans in Hungarian (there were about two dozen Hungarian full-time students and almost one hundred Hungarian correspondence students enrolled at the college this last semester). Besides raising children, Andi was mostly involved with translation. A book by Warren Wiersbe was published in Hungarian this year, as well as a handbook for studying the Bible. She was interpreting the course on the book of Genesis and a class on Inductive Bible Study.

Calvary Chapel Hungary

This year marked the twentieth year of Calvary Chapel in Hungary. This was celebrated early this Fall by thousands of believers gathering at an open-air theater for a birthday party and a picnic at the nearby park.

This celebration was somewhat overshadowed by the current legislative situation in Hungary. The ruling Christian Democratic Party in unison with other parties passed a legislation that gives preferential treatment and advantage to some churches (Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Reformed [Calvinist] Church and a few others). When not teaching, Árpi was mostly occupied by discussions and meetings on the topic, or writing proposals and requests. We are looking forward to this period coming to an end (hopefully) soon and Calvary Chapel being recognized as a Christian church.

In mid-November, Andi helped organize and lead the Hungarian CC pastors’ wives retreat. It was an amazing, deep time of much needed fellowship and prayer that everyone was extremely blessed by.

Personal Life

After a turbulent and busy Summer (39 different conferences were hosted this year) we were looking forward to a relaxing Fall, but God had something else in store for us. Our daughter Zoé had to be rushed to the emergency room a day after the semester started, as she had dark blue bruises appear all over her body. She was quickly diagnosed with Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), an autoimmune disease of unknown origin that results in a low platelet count in the blood, which is then not coagulating.

Much of September and part of October was spent in hospitals and with visits to specialists. The good news is that she is healthy now and there is only a small chance that she will relapse. Needless to say, this was a very difficult period for us, but we have seen the Lord come through in surprising and unexpected ways. All the glory is His!

Future Plans

During the first few weeks of January we will spend some time in Croatia, where Árpi is going to teach a few times, while a local pastor is away on furlough. Shortly after that the annual Calvary Chapel Ladies’ Conference will be held in Vajta (co-lead by Andi). During the upcoming Spring semester we are hoping to lead an outreach team of students to Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Finally, we would like to thank you for your support in prayer and otherwise. Please continue to pray for our hearts and the hearts of the students to stay soft and to keep falling in love with Jesus more and more. Please pray for the outreaches planned and the Word of God anointed with power when taught. May the Lord bless you richly in this coming new year.

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If you would like to financially support our ministry, you may send a check to:

Cornerstone Ministries

P.O. Box 2506

Napa, CA 94558

(make checks payable to Cornerstone Ministries and indicate our name separately)

or contact Jan Wagner at cstoneoffice at yahoo dot com regarding other support options.

.pictura.

here are a few pictures of zoe (ζωή, greek life)

.she.is.here.

zoe horvat-kavai was born at 08:15 this morning. she is 4,52 kg (10 lbs) and 55 cm (21½ inches).

introducing ...

... the first printed image of our second daughter. her name? still undecided :)

.camera.fun.

.simple.

in late august of 2007 the lord orchestrated some circumstances, through which we met an extraordinary person. kenzie is a photographer (extremely talented, by the way) who loves god and is passionate about so many things. she spent 10 days in our home and to this day, the room she stayed in is often referred to as "kenzie's room". during those ten days, we bonded deeply, and when she left, it felt like we had known each other ten years!

after she left, we started finding little hidden notes of love and encouragement from her everywhere. on the wardrobe, in my box of contacts, in my recipe-collection folder, in our kitchen cabinet, i even found one in my coat pocket the following spring, and one in a book on the bookshelf last year! but today's find was the best, because it is on the bottom of a candle-holder i have dusted about a million times since then, but have never bothered to look at the bottom (after all, who looks at the bottom of a candle-holder, right?). it simply says: september 2007, i love you, andi! kenz

well, this made my day, and all i want to say is: i love you back, kenz, you are so special, i can't wait to see you again, and i wish everyone had a friend like you!

Storytelling

Nina has been playing all morning with her "Duplo" store set that she got for Christmas. A few minutes ago she lined up all the "products" (cereal boxes, juice boxes, etc), and placed the man and woman figures on top of them. Then she proceeded to tell them a story:
"God went up to the cat and scratched it!" (she also showed them how the scratching is done, scratching her own belly).

How am I supposed to keep a straight face?

Nina egész reggel a "Duplo" bolt-építő kockáival játszik, amit kedves barátainktól kapott karácsonyra. Az imént sorba rakta az összes dobozt (müzlis doboz, tejes doboz, gyümölcslés doboz,stb), majd a tetejükre állította a "bácsit" és a "nénit". Amikor mindenki a helyén volt, elkezdett nekik mesét mondani:
"Isten odament a macskához, és megvakarta!" (eközben a vakarást saját hasán szemléltette is).

Hát lehet ezen nem kuncogni?

.international.name.contest.

dear friends,

as you may know we are expecting our second child to be born some time at the beginning of june 2010. we only have a name picked out for a boy: vince (lat. vincere, meaning conquering), yet it looks like we are going to have a girl again.

we are very excited, but troubled at the same time, for we can't find a name we both like that matches the following criteria:

• it is used in hungarian, english and serbian / croatian as well.
• it is spelled similarly in all the languages mentioned above.
• we like it.

to give you a few examples: benjamin, david, alex, etc.

to trigger your imagination, here is a picture nina insisted on taking the other day :)

.camera.fun.

nina likes to snap a few photos now and then. most don't find this exciting, but some (grandparents, photographers, developmental psychologists) will find this interesting

.communicare.necesse.est.

three days of texting while andi was gone to sarajevo