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Prayer
- Pray for our Community Health Evangelism workers as they minister to people in impoverished communities in Central Europe and the Balkans.
- Pray for Ron and Jeannie as they work long-distance from the US until they can return to Hungary.
Praises
- Roma community leaders in Boldog, Hungary, are doing their own community development project to aid villagers without food.
- We praise God for an inspiring tour of churches with Laci and Eszter in February and March.
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
Isaiah 58:6–7
Dear Friends and Co-Laborers with Us in Jesus Christ,
We will all remember 2020 as the year of COVID‑19. When significant historic events occur, like President Kennedy’s assassination or 9‑11, we can all immediately answer the “where were you when it happened?” question. It will not be hard for most of us to recall “where were you when the coronavirus pandemic took place?” The answer will be, “We were locked down at home.”
OUR TRAVELS
Jeannie and Eszter hang out with Mission Board Members at Fellowship Chapel, Sterling Heights, MI.
That’s not how it started with Jeannie and me. We were on a six-week tour of NAB churches in the US and Canada with Laci and Eszter Daróczi-Csuhai and their two young sons. When we began the trip, people were saying, “COVID‑19? It’s just like the flu. Nothing to worry about.” By the end of week, four churches were closing, borders were closing and meetings of every size were being cancelled! We found ourselves in the Seattle airport, the US center of the pandemic at that time. The Daróczi-Csuhais had to scramble back to Hungary, and Jeannie and I needed to seek safety back in Phoenix, Arizona.
Up to that point, it was an awesome, blessed, and encouraging adventure. We want to thank all the churches, pastors, and mission boards in Detroit, Michigan; Reading, Pennsylvania; Seattle-Tacoma, Washington; and the Vancouver, British Columbia, regions for their warm hospitality, mission-minded enthusiasm, and partnership in prayer, short-term teams, and financial support. To those churches in Oregon, Washington, and California that we could not visit because of the pandemic, we look forward to seeing you in the near future, Lord willing.
OUR TEAMS
Because of pandemic travel bans, Jeannie and I were not able to return to Hungary on March 25 as planned. So, we will have to ride out the pandemic here in Phoenix and interact with our co-workers long distance.
Our Community Health Evangelism (CHE) Teams in Central Europe and the Balkans are still as active as possible within their country’s various restrictions, seeking ways to provide health and spiritual care to their impoverished Roma communities.
Laci and Eszter and their MEK Team, along with their Boldog Roma Leadership Team, have been able to launch a wonderful relief/development project. Because of the coronavirus, many Boldog Roma villagers are now out of work and without food. But they do have time on their hands.
A Boldog villager participates in the food- for-community-service program.
The Leadership Team has organized a food-for-community-service program and have enrolled between 20 and 30 families in it. Each week the leadership team selects a community project (village clean-up, community center clean-up, yard and house clean-up) and those families that participate in the project receive groceries from MEK. The food parcels have printed information about coronavirus protection methods, MEK, and having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
So far, the villagers are loving it! People are having a good time visiting and improving their community while having a guaranteed source of food. The MEK team is buying, packaging, and delivering the food, printing the materials, and keeping in touch with villagers via social media. (Visit https://youtu.be/YCS83npJ8Pc to see a video about this project.)
Marijana Čizmanski and her co-worker and sister, Tamara, are able to do care visits to Donji Petrovci, Serbia, regularly and are exploring community needs in the midst of the crisis and how to meet them. Klara and Emil Kisgeci-Dudas are seeing spiritual, emotional, and health progress in the lives of the Roma family that are championing the development project in Nadalj, Serbia. They have also started a food parcel relief program.
Please pray for all these CHE workers, plus those in Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia, and Albania who are risking their own health and well-being to serve others in need.
OUR TIME AT HOME
Although we are anxious to get back to Central Europe, we are also thoroughly enjoying our time at our home in Phoenix. We are near family and friends. We have had a house here for nine years but have spent most of our time in Europe. We have never seen springtime in Arizona. Each day we go out for a bike ride and marvel at the splendor and beauty of the desert in bloom. God is so creative!
We’ve also managed to instigate a bit of a community development project in our own neighborhood. Twice a week, 8 to 16 of our neighbors get together (at a proper social distance) for coffee (Thursdays) or dinner (Saturdays) on the street. It is helping everyone with their cabin fever and lack of social connection. We even held an Easter Sunday service!
A Boldog villager participates in the food- for-community-service program.
Workwise, we are catching up on a lot of administration and paperwork, doing team planning meetings, organizing team projects, participating in online prayer meetings, and arranging a 28-lesson training course for our CE and Balkan CHE staff. It’s great to have tech tools to be able to do all of this long distance. We praise the Lord.
If we want to see or read more about our activities, go to our webpage at justaseck.wordpress.com and click on the “Happenings” tab.
For His Kingdom Come,
Ron and Jeannie Seck
3023 N 17th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85015, USA
Ronseck@me.com | Jeanseck@gmail.com