Lunch With The Prime Minister??

The man facing the camera is the Prime Minister of Hungary. The lady to his right is April Foley, the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. She's new to Hungary and took the place of George Walker.

Curt and Shay tried to look professional in hopes that no one would realize we've never been at a luncheon with a Prime Minister and a U.S. Ambassador!

Curt and Shay got an incredible opportunity to attend a American/Hungary Chamber of Commerce Luncheon this past Friday. The guest of honor at the luncheon was the Prime Minister of Hungary, Ferenc Gyurcsany. Also in attendance was the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. It was a really big crowd because the Prime Minister was to speak and then to answer questions from the audience. Of course, we kept our mouths shut because we had nothing to contribute and we were obviously out of our element! Hopefully, we didn't embarass ourselves too much and didn't look like rednecks from the country! :) The lunch was delicious and it was a rare opportunity to be among people that will directly affect the future of Hungary.

brannons@scsonline.com

Budapest Demonstrations

Some of you may have seen pictures like this on the news this week. Thanks for checking on us to see what was going on during the October 23rd celebration of the Hungarian uprising against the Soviets. The uprising happened 50 years ago this week and this year's celebration was supposed to be a big one. The celebration was marred by demonstrations like this. Many of the demonstrations were peaceful but some protesters are still very angry about the political situation and the current Prime Minister. We stayed away from the area and we feel that there will be no more demonstrations like this in the near future. Please pray for the peace of Hungary--the peace that only comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.

brannons@scsonline.com

International Day of Prayer

Did you know that Sunday, November 12th, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church? In many countries, our brothers and sisters in Christ can not worship God freely and proclaim openly their faith in Christ. They are persecuted physically, socially, or even financially. Many have their lives threatened. We must pray for them and be informed about their struggles! An organization that tracks these situations and informs the world about them is The Voice of the Martyrs. Their website is: www.persecution.com Mark your calendars for November 12th to pray and why not consider adding this issue to your ongoing prayer list? We feel the need to do that at our house!

brannons@scsonline.com

Men's Group

Lunch on Thursdays is men's small group time at the Brannons. Several men gather during their lunch hour for a quick bite to eat and then discussion on issues that face Christian men today. A nice size group comes each week and several of these men attended the group last Spring. There have been 5 or 6 new men that have joined this fall. After the group time is over, most of the guys have to quickly get back to their jobs. But there are a few men that are willing to stay a little longer to pray specifically for a potential men's BSF group. This prayer group has been a great encouragement to Curt and to his fellow BSF teammate, Bob. Please pray with us that God would allow men in Budapest to become interested in a BSF class and that men would be willing to participate as leaders in this future class.

brannons@scsonline.com

Sunday Preaching

Thanks for all the prayers for Curt as he prepared to preach at our Budapest home church. He preached last Sunday on some verses from Nehemiah. Ronnie Stevens, our pastor here, needed to be in the states for a couple of weeks so he asked Curt to preach for him. All the Brannon ladies think Dad/Curt did a great job!


brannons@scsonline.com

Studying Like a Junior

Is that Chemistry that Olivia's studying? Maybe it's Spanish? Whatever it is, it's stuff that a Junior needs to study! Please pray for Olivia as she has the ACT coming up on Saturday, October 28th.

School Continues

Meredith worked on a poster for a school assignment in history. She's studying about the New World of America. Seems a little strange to be studying about the United States since we do live in Europe! But we are still Americans and we do love our heritage and our culture!

Update on the Riots

Thank you so much for the many emails and calls we got from you last week to check on us during the riots. We woke up on Tuesday morning last week to the news that there had been violent riots the night before in the city of Budapest. It caught many people by suprise, including us! Class was on Tuesday morning so we hoped that what had happened the night before wouldn't hinder anyone from coming to class. Everyone got to class safely and we were thankful.

All last week the protests continued and we stayed away from that part of the city. Ironically, one of the main areas that the people were rioting in was just across from the American Embassy which is located in what's called Freedom Square. We think that's an appropriate place for the American Embassy to be! Unfortunately, during the riots, over 250 people have been injured, many of them policemen. Some 200 people have been detained for questioning. After 3 days of violent protests, there have been several days of peaceful protests with thousands of Hungarians taking part. Many Hungarians have vowed to keep protesting until the Prime Minister resigns. At this point, he has refused to do that.

We recognize that we are guests in this country that we have grown to love and care about. What the Hungarians are concerned about are things we want to be concerned about. So, we pray for governmental stability so our visas will be secure, we pray for freedom and democracy to prevail, and we pray for the nation of Hungary to recognize the sovereignty of God over all things.

Thank you for your prayers for our safety and for your interest in this part of the world.

brannons@scsonline.com