Szia ~ Greetings

Fall 2010
from Ars Longa North America and the Ars Longa Foundation, Hungary
Ars Longa North America (ALNA) exists to promote the formation of historical Christian values among young people in East
Central Europe to further the development of strong Christian communities. It works primarily with the Ars Longa Foundation in
its efforts to offer consultation, fundraising, and encouragement to youth programs associated with the Reformed church in
Hungary, the Ukraine, and Croatia. ALNA has chosen to focus its efforts on two facets of Ars Longa’s work: the Reformed high
schools in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, and the Ars Longa community development effort in Baranya County, Hungary.-
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Daniel and the Roma Children
The first kindergarten for Roma children in the town of Nagydobrony, Ukraine, was launched three years ago. It
operated in the basement of the Roma community prayer hall until this past Christmas. In late January of 2010, the
rising level of ground water forced the children to leave and join the town’s other “dry”kindergarten for Roma
children.

The “dry” kindergarten has operated for two years in a large building now in the possession of a local foundation,
spearheaded by Gizella Kupas. She was the first person –almost twenty years ago– to communicate the teachings of
the Gospel in the town’s Roma encampments.

Since the building was acquired, it has been undergoing continuous renovation. To help make better use of the larger
interior space, seven skilled tradesmen from the Netherlands recently spent an entire week there. They installed walls
and windows, electrical wiring and lighting, doorframes and doors, toilets and sinks, and a hot water boiler. They even
installed new kitchen furniture.

Although the interior of the building has become much more “user-friendly,” the kindergarten itself operates on a
shoe-string budget. Yet everyone carries out his/her duties with full dedication and joy. One of the highlights for the
children is the warm lunch meal served each day. Because the meals are prepared by the cooks at the Good Samaritain
Children’s Home, a Reformed church institution, the price for a meal is modest. This expense has been shouldered by
the First Presbyterian Church community in Covington,Virginia.

The official kindergarten year ended around the middle of June. One
week later, my missionary colleague, Daniel Szabó and I dropped in
to the kindergarten for a meeting with Gizella. Much to our surprise,
the building was teeming with Roma children happily engaged in the
summer day-camp program for children between the ages of 8 and
13. We had arrived just in time for their mid-morning snack. Daniel
immediately seized on the opportunity to teach the children a Bible
story and its relation to their lives. He explained that God had given
talents to each of them, and it was their duty to discover them. How
good it would be if they could use their talent to better not only
themselves but also to serve their home community, and in this way
glorify God.

To illustrate what a talent might be, much to the delight of the children, Daniel demonstrated his talent for juggling
three and then four balls at a time. The applause was deafening. Before saying farewell, we joined the children in
singing a song which they had recently learned: Lord, lend me fire. May the Lord hear this and grant these children
such fire, in their hearts and in their struggles to rise to the image in which all people were created, the image of God.

David Pandy-Szekeres
June 2010
News From Transcarpathia
The Terra Dei Foundation
The Terra Dei Foundation is a Reformed church-related organization whose
goal is to improve farm production both in quality and quantity. It provides
local farmers with training on improving livestock, primarily pigs and cows,
as well as improving grain, vegetable, and fruit production. As part of this
effort, Terra Dei maintains a model farm.

David Pandy-Szekeres plays an active role in designing the programs and in

securing funding for Terra Dei’s work. According to David, the Terra Dei
model farm has been successful once again this year. Although funding
sources continue to dry up, plans for the coming year are slowly taking
shape.

This year Terra Dei will again submit a revised version of last year’s grant
proposal for funding of a project to introduce a variety of environment-
friendly farming techniques in Transcarpathia. Please pray that this proposal
will be fairly and positively reviewed by the EU jury.

The Reformed High Schools

The RCCU secondary achools were able to complete the 2009-10 school year successfully. Funds
which ALNA had collected and sent were used to meet salary payments for the faculty members and school
personnel in May and June. Payments for July and August will be made as soon as money promised by the
government of Hungary arrives. Although the schools have no funds at the moment to launch into the
current academic year, a great deal of negotiating has transpired between school officials and the
representatives of the new government of Hungary [elected this past April] and, as a result, commitments
have been made to assist the schools. It is not yet known exactly what form this will take, but the
encouragement being provided is certainly positive.
The new minister of education of the Ukrainian government has reinstated the right for ethnic
minorities to study in their own language. It is hoped that this turn of events will strengthen the position of
the RCCU schools and encourage ethnic Hungarian students to enroll in schools which provide instruction in
their native language.

Thank-You Eric!
ALNA and the Ars Longa Foundations would like to offer a special thanks to
Eric Hoeksema, an associate and faithful supporter of the Reformed high schools
in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. For over a decade, he has been working behind the
scenes teaching English, promoting programs, and recruiting volunteers to staff
summer camps in the Ukraine, Hungary, and Croatia. He has linked exchange
students with families in Western Michigan, and has acted as a liaison for long-
term American volunteers in the Ukraine. In addition, he has served as a formal
tour organizer and guide for student groups from Dordt College, Sioux Center,
Iowa, and as an informal guide for numerous visitors from North American. His gentle, patient demeanor
belies a determination and tenacity that has given encouragement and hope to many people and programs in
East Central Europe.
Reflections

Daniel Szabo’s thoughts on current challenges facing Hungarian Society . . .

If God gives a longer lifetime to a nation, He wishes to teach it to think in historical perspective when
reflecting upon God’s work, His grace, His judgement and His very historical existence. Our survival and
each of our new beginnings have been nothing less than miracles of God. Through His Word have we
understood that our continued presence and very existence are, in fact, gifts from God. Our national
hymn/anthem itself is a prayer seeking His blessing and liberation, all the while confessing our sins and
humbling ourselves beneath His powerful hand. This hymn/anthem is so evangelical in content that during
the Communist era there was a great push to have it changed, but none of our writers or composers were
willing to alter it from its original form.

Of our entire history thus far, the most defining, tragic period was the 20th century, when we lost two-thirds
of our national territory and five million members of our national population; we were forced to experience
the World Wars as they raged between the world’s powers and were trampled and totally looted in their
wake; and then followed the merciless crushing of our small nation’s euphoric revolution of 1956.

But in final analysis, the most difficult to overcome is not what was stolen and looted from us by the German
and Soviet occupational armies, but much more so, what they have left here. For they left here the political,
intellectual and spiritual infection which, for close to a half-century, was propagated and indoctrinated by the
Communist overlords and continues to poison our capacity for reflection. In this weakened and distorted
condition we have methodically assaulted the centuries-honoured values of our nation’s past and also its
future through the practice of unabated abortion. At present we number a mere ten million in population but
have destroyed seven to eight million fetuses in the last few decades.

In this new historical period dating from the 1990s we have acquired relatively greater freedom and also
relatively greater global economic dependency but the century unremittingly depleted the ranks of those who
had vision, who were the most responsible and loyal and who were willing to make sacrifices. The quality of
the nation has greatly diminished. A significant portion of our population has lost or never developed a
living connection to God, even though our statistics in category, on the average, were relatively good for
Europe. From the atheist ideology which was forced upon us for over forty years, we plummeted into a
world where the materialist vision dominates.

The big challenge now is to see whether our nation has realized that we can no longer continue in this
direction, for if we do, then we shall surely perish. We shall have to face this fact and also confront
ourselves in this; we shall have to adopt a standard which regulates not only the human and social spheres
but also one which is God’s standard.

The big challenge at the moment is that the nation’s electorate, in the spring 2010 elections, has chosen –
perhaps at the final hour– to give the reins of political power to a party which has many members in leading
positions who have spiritual vision and dedication. There are many members of this new parliament who are
Christians.

After having made a good choice at the ballot box, the big challenge is whether the whole of society will
support and defend the government it has elected and whether it will allow a more pure and more honest
perception within this sphere of activity to take root within itself. Will it want and will it be able to make
sacrifices to ensure the establishment of a Christian standard? Will we truly want to seek the Lord, to hear
and act upon His Word, to love Him and to love one another as neighbours?
What They Said About the English Camps
Volunteers from the U.S. and Canada provided energy, enthusiasm, and joy in the English camp held at the Peterfalva
Reformed High School in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, and in the Hungarian village of Varchartya at a teen camp
sponsored by the Reformed Church of Erdokertes. We salute volunteers: Danielle Bakker, Cassidhe Hart, Sam
Hinnekamp, Eric Hoeksema, Stephanie Krych, Rog and Deb Hoeksema!

Varchartyan, Hungary
“ We hope not only that the students were able to take away a greater knowledge of language, but also a
greater knowledge of their God and Savior” ~Danielle Bakker

“ The Hungarian teens want to improve their English. Pastor Barnabas wants to help with their English, but
he also wants to build a real Christian identity.” ~Eric Hoeksema

Peterfalva, Ukraine
“It was an exciting nine days of continuing education, fun activities, spiritual growth, singing and
communicating. Please remember the schools in your prayers especially as they struggle to meet financial
needs.” ~Deb Hoeksema

Welcome to the Peterfalva English Camp!

8:30 - Breakfast together. Each meal begins with a song and short
prayer in English. Then we pass around the bread, sausage, butter,
and sweet, fruity tea. We finish the meal with a devotion.
9:00 - Class begins. Splitting into groups, we play word games,
study vocabulary, discuss scripture - always searching the
Hungarian/English dictionary . . . but we do communicate!
12:30 - Dinner! This is the largest meal of the day in Hungarian
culture, and we always begin the meal with soup.
13:30 - Time for group activities: scavenger hunts, jewelry
making, football, swimming in the Tisza River or just sitting and
talking. Baseball proved to be a hit (ah, no pun intended).
6:00 - Study hall for the students, lesson planning for the teachers. Each day is an exercise in creativity -
what can we do with the resources available? We print most things on paper with a pizzeria's menu on the
back. Re-use everything!
18:30 - Supper, again followed by devotions.
In the evening, we played Frisbee, learned Hungarian dancing and enjoyed watching the World Cup. The
camp finished with a simple program that we put on for each other. There were lots of thank you’s, and the
principal invited each of the teachers to come back. "You are always welcome," she told us. "Coming here
is now coming home." I know we all look forward to coming home to English Camp next summer!
~Cassidhe Hart

Please keep the schools, the summer camps, and our Hungarian colleagues in your prayers. If you have
questions, a story to share, some advice, or would like to get more involved, please contact us.

Aldas, bekesseg (blessings and peace)!

Marilyn Smidt, Director, Ars Longa North America
Email: arslongana@gmail.com
Ars Longa North America (ALNA) is a registered non-profit 501(c) (3) and is an affiliate of the Ars Longa Foundation,Hungary.
ALNA Board: Ryan Dokter, Beth Lantinga, Raymond Lantinga, Patricia Posthumus, Johannes Witte
Ars Longa Foundation principals: Janos Erdos, Robert Hunlich, David Pandy-Szekeres