In early November, Tom traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia to explore a new possibility for CEO partnership. While there, he learned about “business as missions” up close and personal. He stayed with and learned from a family who are thinking and living strategically about bringing the gospel to Central Asia. They are living in Georgia as Georgians do and impacting the culture by living the Gospel in their home, business, school and among all the people that their lives engage with. This is just what all followers of Jesus should do in their everyday life. Rather than talk about living like the first century church, this family is really doing it in a place where such commitment to following Jesus is rare. CEO will be following this ministry closely and looking for ways to integrate these principles into its philosophy. Later in his four week trip, he was able to share with other folks serving in different parts of Europe how these principles can be implemented strategically.
CEO is exploring alliance and partnership possibilities in western Spain. Tom Foley visited there for several days in November to visit a missionary team among whom is a missionary who traveled twice with CEO to serve with our partners on summer trips. On the agenda for partnership conversations is English education as a platform to enter the lives of young people with the Gospel.
In February and March, Tom will return to the region.
For two days, Tom invested time with friends and partners just north of Budapest in the city of Vac. He was able to see some excellent classroom instruction by both Coppages. Upon returning to Budapest, Foley spoke at the new church in South Budapest and then he and Laci Nemeth drove 7.5 hours to visit Bosnia to explore outreach possibilities.
On my recent visit to Szeged, I was present at the renewed and reinvigorated ICF-Szeged. It was great to see familiar faces and a couple of new ones. ICF stands for International Christian Fellowship and was started by Arden Campbell (now on sabbatical) and now being coordinated by Andy, Samm, Sarah and Erik, all of whom are affiliated with Szeged University. At last week’s meeting, we watched “Rain” (a Nooma dvd, part of a set that I brought for the use of partners in Hungary) and discussed the fact that God nevers leaves us when it gets hard for us. It was a great conversation starter and a valuable time.
On Saturday night, I spoke at Cornerstone Church and then attended a meeting of the youth leaders of Szeged which was organized by our friend Rob George. It was awesome to see these young youth leaders discussing ways to collaborate in ministry to reach the youth of Szeged. This is NEW and is awesome.
On this three day trip to the city where CEO began, I saw and experienced renewed vision to reach the heart of Szeged with the Gospel. – Tom Foley
Tom Foley will speak at Cornerstone Church in Szeged tonite
Szeged, Hungary is where CEO began. Tom will be in Szeged today and tomorrow working with some of the local leaders about an outreach in the city center next spring. He will be speaking Saturday in a church east of the city center.
After a bit more than a week in Ukraine and Georgia, Tom returns to Hungary. Please pray for his travel from Tbilisi (via a stop in Kyiv for a dozen hours) to Budapest.
Week two of the autumn trip begins today. I am working at Father’s House and this afternoon fly to Tiblisi. I have uploaded a few key pix of the trip so far which you see in the pix on the right. But i’ve put captions on each of them and to see that album to learn more, click here.
