A New Opportunity (Update following original post)

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who was in prayer concerning the religion class that Peter and I hoped to start in a local school. Peter heard back from the principal last week and we have the green light! We'll be introducing this class to the 5th-8th grade students tomorrow at noon in the town of Rakamaz. We really don't quite know what to expect, what their maturity level will be or what will catch their interest. So, we're just praying that the Holy Spirit will use us somehow to reach out to these kids!

Update: Well, we just got back from Rakamaz! When we got there, they had all of the media equipment set up and ready to go, which was great. There were around 20 chairs set up for the kids, so I was expecting a smaller crowd. But when the bell rang, kids started pouring out of the classrooms carrying their chairs. I'd guess the group continued to grow until there was over 200! This was a mandatory assembly, but still, the large audience was encouraging.
Misi, the pastor of our church in Nyirtelek, gave us a nice introduction and Peter launched into the PowerPoint presentation.

He introduced the program as KEBI, which when translated stands for Christian Ethics and Bible Study. He talked about typical preconceived notions about Christianity (cold and judgmental, uncomfortable, boring, only for old people), and contrasted that with the reality, which is completely opposite. Peter said that the Bible, while very old, is very relevant to life today and contains all sorts of stories that we can relate to. Next, we both talked about how we became Christians and how this has impacted our lives (Peter translated for me). We then called a volunteer up and talked about how God can help us because he cares about us and knows what's best for us. I offered our volunteer some tea from a thermos, but before he drank it Peter warned him not to. I then pulled a dirty sock out of the thermos, to thunderous groans from the audience. Next, we offered him a sandwich. He was much more cautious this time, and deservedly so, because when we took off the top piece of bread there was what looked like a used piece of toilet paper (hey, we had to meet the kids at their maturity level, right? ;) ). Finally, we said that all we had left was a bag of trash. The kid didn't want it, but Peter convinced him to look through it, where he found a fresh, full package of gum. We all applauded for the volunteer and then sang a couple of songs with the kids: the "Halleluah" song where one part of the group stands up for the "Hallelu"s and the other stands up for "Praise ye the Lord" ("Jezus dicserd"), and I introduced "I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N". It was a lot of fun!

I thought I had been prepared for whatever would happen afterwards, whether most of the kids would just have been bored and would be happy to be finished with the assembly, or whether they would have some good questions. But I didn't expect to be simply MOBBED by kids asking me all sorts of questions about America and how old I am and if I knew Michael Jackson. In addition, they all wanted to shake my hand and get my autograph! Talk about unreal! Peter and I had prayed that God would be there and would give us confidence and would work in the kids hearts, but I hadn't expected this at all! It was clear that they were just excited to meet an America and to hear my fumbling Hungarian, but if that gets them to hear the Gospel in the coming weeks and months, then that's great! Thanks again for all of your prayers and support!