family update - august 2009

as I'm writing this, we're a little more than a month away from our daughter's arrival. Odi is due to give birth on September 29th. a couple weeks ago at the doctor, he said everything looks ok and the baby is a little bit bigger than "normal". but we'll find out when she arrives.

last tuesday, we went to visit the hospital where Odi will give birth. we were both pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. they've really put some effort into making the newborn ward nice. so it was nice to see where the big event will happen.

we're so very excited about our daughter's arrival, we've got everything ready, now it's just time to wait for her to come.

please pray for everything to go well in this last 4-5 weeks and for a smooth delivery.

a woman who used to be a student of Odi's gave us a "home week" of her timeshare so we can have a last vacation before Zara arrives. it's in Budapest, so we're looking forward to a week of R&R in Budapest next week. we hope to visit many friends up in BP.

I'm sure everyone has felt the effects of this "recession / economic crisis" (or whatever they're calling it these days) we're in. we in Hungary have felt this as well. cost of living continues to rise, as the government raised the VAT (value added tax) from 20% to 25% on july 1st. that means anything you buy costs more. i share this with you because we personally started to feel the effects of this crisis recently. one of our supporting churches recently sent us a letter that due to this crisis they've had to reevaluate the missions budget and have decreased the support for us and for pretty much all missionaries. we were actually looking forward to a slight increase with the arrival of our daughter, but now we have to deal with a reduction. on top of that, because Odi has been on "sick leave" due to her past history, she doesn't have the same income level and I don't have many English lessons right now. so, we're having to look at more expenses and higher cost of living with less money.

I was talking with another missionary about this recently and she said something that I never thought about. she said that when she goes back to the states, people think that she gets the same salary as a staff member of the sending church. we've been very blessed at how God has provided for us over the years through different churches & people, but in case you were wondering I don't receive the same salary as a pastor in the states.

we know that God is bigger than this crisis and He's not worried. we know He will provide for us. we'd like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining in God's work here with us financially.

for anyone who is interested TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donations can be sent to

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa

3800 S. Fairview

Santa Ana, CA 92704

please include a note that the check is designated for us and they will attach it to our monthly support check.

we truly don't like to bring this issue up, but it's something that's going on with us and we'd like to ask you to pray with us about.

in His love,

kyle & odi