Tony and Agi Frei | Serving in Hungary

It is my desire and pleasure to share with you, my experience and thoughts about the EFM Worldwide Missionary Gathering that took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand between December 2-7, 2022. Originally, I was not going to participate in the Gathering in person due to my battle with long COVID-19, but David (William)’s and Adrian (Halverstadt)’s love and encouragement during an EFC-I Zoom meeting convinced me otherwise. The flight from Hungary to Thailand was 30 hours there and 26 hours back. On the way back, I caught a cold. It made my work in the church over Christmas more difficult, but our Father helped me through it.

 The time I spent in Chiang Mai with my brothers, sisters, and fellow workers was like a dream. The beautiful environment was like the entrance hall to Heaven! In fact, my ten-year-old students in the Primary School where I teach watched the video I made while there and one of them asked, “Uncle Tony, is it, Heaven?”. This is what Jesus says, “All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other” (John 13:35). I believe that we all felt this Godly love coming from each other. English is not my mother tongue, yet I felt loved and accepted by all present, despite the language barrier.

I am convinced that no online platform or virtual conference can replace in-person interaction and time spent together. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to get to know my brothers and sisters in person. I have received tons of love and encouragement from them.

Our brother, Alan Amavisca’s teaching from 1 Samuel Chapter 14 was particularly interesting and valuable for me. It is a seldom preached passage of the Bible. We received a profound message from him, which then we discussed, applied, and internalized in small groups interactively. Special thanks to sister Lisa Halverstadt, who kindly and lovingly helped Sabino, his daughter Clariver, and me, whose first language isn’t English, during the small group discussions.

I am grateful to God that this is the church where we started planting churches 25 years ago, in accordance with Romans 15:20-21, which is our scripture of calling. We worked with our brother, Dr. John Williams for 20 years, and it is his love in Christ that I experienced in Chiang Mai from all the EFM and the EFC-I Council leaders. (I should mention everyone by name here really.) Jesus says, “The one who leads should be like one who serves” (Luke 22:26). I observed and felt this kind of serving love and humility by all the leaders in the EFM and the EFC-I Council.

On my return, I had a wonderful testimony to share about the Chiang Mai Conference. Numerous photos and videos brought the events to life for my brothers and sisters in Hungary, Serbia, and Croatia. We all feel blessed and grateful that we can build our church in Hungary and Europe as part of EFM. God has given us a real home in this family. We are so thankful for you all.

In Christ’s love,
Antal (Tony) Frei

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The post February 2023 Prayer Letter first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

We managed to travel to Ukraine by the grace of God for the first time in the last days of July.

We have been praying to God since the beginning of the conflict to prepare a way for us, so that we could take the donations to Ukraine for the poor ones, the refugees, and for the sufferers. God had placed this burden on my heart.

In the last few months, my co-worker, Szilvi, who was born in Ukraine and was four years old when she moved to Hungary with her mother, contacted her relatives after 46 years. Her relatives added me as a friend on Facebook and we started to have a good relationship. They helped us with everything. Szilvi’s uncle’s wife, Marika, was used by God to build the acquaintanceship.

We packed a car of seven passengers and a trailer full with 800 kilograms of food and took it to Ukraine. I am enclosing some pictures of it here. We could help and hand the food packets personally to the poor ones and refugees. We mailed 18 kilograms of packets to the conflict-worn citizens and to the ones who stayed at home.

We built very good relationships with the help of God. We saw in Ukraine that the Hungarians, the Hungarian-speaking gypsies, the Ukrainians, and even the Russians live in peace with each other. We handed out food packets to about 30 families, from all of these four people groups.

We worked with two churches in Nagyszőllős. In one of them, we served in the church meeting. They promised us to help in every area on our next mission journey as a host church. We are preparing our next mission journey at the end of November before Christmas. Thank you in advance for your support on our next mission trip!

Our mission might be very little in a country of 40 million people, but for those whom we could help meant a lot.

We are thankful for our Hungarian supporters, for Evangelical Friends Mission (EFM), and for the helpers in Ukraine for the accommodation, the coordination, and the financial, physical and spiritual help.

May God bless everyone who supported us. God helped us in everything. Glory and thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ.

We think of you with love and gratefulness.

Antal (Tony) Frei

The post Our Visit to Ukraine first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.