School Starts Back Tomorrow

If you are hearing any moaning and groaning from this part of the world, that would be Olivia and Meredith! Summer is over and school is about to begin. Tomorrow is the first day of school for Olivia's senior year and Meredith's freshman year of high school. Although both girls know that we need to start in order to get our days in so we can do some traveling this fall, it's sort of hard to work on Economics or Algebra when everyone else is out swimming or going to the movies. But if we stay on track, then we can take a few days off this fall to be able to travel to some places in Europe we haven't been. Plus, both girls have a heavy load of school and outside activities this year and we need extra time to get it all done.

If you count Olivia's kindergarten year, this will start our 13th year of homeschooling. We're thankful that we've been able to continue homeschooling here in Budapest. Although it HAS been a little tricky getting our curriculum each year! Thank you to the Elder family for allowing us to order our curriculm online and have it sent to their house in Alabama. Then, when someone is coming this way to Budapest, the curriculum is loaded up in the luggage to make the trek over. Talk about heavy bags! Curriculum weighs a lot.

We hope and pray that if you've got school-age children starting school soon that you'll have a terrific year filled with God's blessings!

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Happy 25th Anniversary!

Curt and Shay celebrated their 25th anniversary today. Married on July 24, 1982, at First Baptist Decatur, by the Reverend W.K. Stephenson. Here's to the next 25!

A Missionary to Mexico

This is our newest missionary from Danube International Church, Timi, with Pastor Ronnie. Timi grew up in a non-Christian family from Transylvania, Romania. She had a difficult upbringing and "wondered if there was love in the world at all." By God's grace, she was saved during an American Christian camp in the summer of 2000 in Romania.

For the last 4 years, she has lived and worked in Budapest. She was a Word of Life Bible School student for the first 2 years. Then she stayed 2 more years as an intern with Word of Life, serving as the Assistant Dean of Women. She also has been a valuable member in Danube International Church. Timi was one of Meredith's teachers in the Awana program when we first arrived in Budapest! The Sunday School program at Danube has also benefitted from Timi's service.

After getting the chance to visit the family in the states who payed her tuition for the Bible School, the Lord burdened her heart for the youth of the Americas. She started praying for an open door somewhere in the Americas. God opened a door to Mexico and beginning in September she will serve with Adventures in Missions (AIM http://www.adventuresinmissions.org/ ) in the First Year Missionary Program. Timi will be ministering to people that need the gospel, discipling others, and being trained by full-time missionaries in various areas of ministry.

If you're interested in knowing more about how God is preparing Timi for her 9 month stay in Mexico, please visit her blog. http://timeaszakacs.myadventures.org/

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Another Pizza Run!

We had another opportunity to drive down to see Olivia during some off time she had this past Friday. Most everyone of the staff/counselors had gone to Vienna for the day. But some decided to stay behind and catch up on sleep and clothes washing. Here is Olivia and 3 of her friends that decided not to go to Vienna. So, we took them out for pizza and they even had leftovers to take back to the dorm! Olivia looked well and was greatly anticipating what God might do this last week of camp. This week she has 3 girls in her tutor group and she again asks the same prayer as last time. Please pray that the girls would open up and talk freely and feel comfortable with her.

Thank you to all of you that have sent her mail during her time during Speak Out. Apparently, she has been one of the ones that has received the most mail! After camp is over and she returns to Budapest, she'll be writing you and updating you on her ministry month.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

A Translation Project For Serbia

We are very excited that the Lord is using a generous family from our home church, First Bible Church of Decatur (http://www.fbc.org)/to sponsor a new translation project in Serbia called : The Picture Bible for All Ages. At first, our enthusiasm was based on providing a new tool to reach Serbian-speaking children. But, we have since heard several stories about adults in the former Yugoslavian nations finding picture Bibles attractive. The Orthodox church does not encourage adults to read the Bible for themselves, but depend, instead, on their priests for interpretation. The Orthodox Bibles are not in modern Serbian and can be difficult to understand.

Please pray for excellent translation and quality production on schedule (before the end of the year) and on budget. Also, please pray that these Bibles will find their way into the hands of both children and adults whom will use them to find the Lord. Finally, we pray that more than the original 2,000 copies will be needed.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Thank You For The Prayers

Curt and Olivia arrived safely from Korea. Thanks so much for those that prayed and kept up with what was going on with them. They'll probably post some more pictures later. We feel that the effects and impact from this conference will last a long time!

After arriving on Saturday to the airport, Olivia swapped out a few clothing items with us, and then got on a bus with other team members and headed back to Speak Out. They arrived at Keszthely with the 2nd week of camp in full swing. Campers had arrived and tutor groups were being assigned. Olivia has 4 girls assigned to her this week. Please pray for these girls to feel comfortable with Olivia and to be willing to interact within the group.

During Olivia's time in Korea, her 3 friends from the states, Drew, Amanda, and Anna, had a terrific week. All are doing well and staying healthy. They'll probably have a lot of great stories to share with Olivia.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Happy 4th of July!

Another Independence Day celebrated in Hungary! Such an unusual feeling when no one else is celebrating. Just another day for the Hungarians. But Shay and Meredith did got the opportunity to celebrate the day with some other Americans. It's cold and rainy here (so different from yesterday!) but we still grilled out. It was wonderful to get together to laugh, talk, eat, and listen to patriotic music in the background. We miss Curt and Olivia and feel pretty sure that they didn't get much chance to celebrate in Korea!

Our thoughts and prayers turn to our men and women in the military stationed all over the world. Especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan. We stumbled upon a really neat website that gives people the opportunity to send needed items to an individual soldier or to a group of soldiers. The soldier updates the website by sending in emails. Prepare to have your heart broken! Reading about their excitement about receiving basic items that we take for granted really puts things in perspective. Maybe you would like to check the website out:

http://www.anysoldier.com/

We thank our God for America and for the many blessings He has given this great nation. We pray for revival in the land and that many would turn back to God in repentance.

CM 2007

If you're interested in knowing more about the conference that Curt and Olivia are attending in South Korea, check out the information on the web: http://www.cm2007.net/ Click on the map to make the picture bigger. Also, there are new postings on Curt and Olivia's blog that you might be interested in, too!