Dear KAG Committee of Trinity Church (Lansing, MI),
We have been blessed very much during the last 12 months at Tatárszentgyörgy. One of these blessings was the KAG project that Trinity provided. Then the Lord has answered our prayer through years when we asked him “Please send laborers to the
field”. Now we have a strong team: Miki and Erika Vig, Cullen and Sarah Menke, Gergo and Hajni Benedek, Cecilia Borsos, Krisztian Komaromi. Ildiko and me are only mentoring these wonderful people.
As you remember from mid 2020, we have got an extraordinary opportunity by a Hungarian State Program to help the most deprived settlements catch up. Miki was employed by this program as a social worker, and we got two part time jobs. Two
dedicated Christian ladies have been employed in this social area. Then, in September 2021, the village’s only primary school became a Baptist-run institution. Miki was also inaugurated as school pastor at the beginning of this year. Cullen is the main English teacher of the school. This month, the village’s new DayCare was opened – also under the auspices of the Baptist Union. They are dealing with the children between 1-3 years of age. Erika was asked to be the deputy head of this institution. From September 2022, the only kindergarten will also come under the authority of the Baptist church. They develop children between the ages of 3-6. From February 2022, we have also been blessed with a new social worker who is a born-again man living for Christ. His name is Krisztián. He does the social work that Miki used to do.
How have these developments affected the progress of the café project?
These huge improvements do have their downsides. For example, the Hungarian Baptist Relief organization (part of the Hungarian Baptist Union), which runs the catch up program and has taken over the school, kindergarten and nursery, has not yet been able to complete the construction of the container offices and, in particular, there are no container units with modes and toilets. Therefore, the construction of a cafeteria has an obstacle. The first step in the development of the cafeteria is to remove the current toilet block and rebuild it. This cannot be started until we can continue the social work in the
appropriate containers that were promised to be ready in the summer of 2021. There were also other obstacles to the café: the Hungarian government has announced huge family support programs, especially for families in the villages with several
children. These have created a huge construction boom in the country, with skyrocketing construction prices and, above all, a shortage of construction workers. Every entrepreneur can only promise work in 1-2 years’ time.
The final problem, was that we had our designer/architect withdraw and it took us a long time to find a structural engineer who would take on a job. Thank God there is a big Baptist Church in Kecskemét (an industrial town 30 km from Tatárszentgyörgy where Sarah and Cullen live), where my father was the senior pastor, so they love us very much. As we discovered, one of the presbyters is a structural engineer, Geza Papp, and his wife, Ildiko, is an architectural engineer. They have taken on the new design of the Café and have got the new plan.
In fact, a Pentecostal architect (who is related to the Kecskemét Baptists) is a contractor and he has promised to get good
professionals to help with the construction of the Café.
Expected date of completion of the project:
So, we trust the Lord that the Café House and Community Center project will be finished by the deadline written in the KAG contract. That is 18 months from the time we got the money. (July 21. 2021.- January 20. 2023)
It means a lot that Sarah has taken the planning in her hands. She herself has done a lot of work on it. It’s also a big advantage that Miki has had their own house completely renovated in the meantime, and has gained a great deal of knowledge and skill in the organization of the construction.
If we can keep to the plans, the renovation work could be ready in July.
We as a team express our gratitude to KAG of Trinity Church and the board of SaN as well as all the supporters via the Menke missionary couple.
Words from Sarah and Cullen Menke:
This is an excellent, well-written report from Géza. I am honored to be trusted with this project, and I am so grateful to Géza and Miki and the team for their assistance. God has been present with the planning: replacing an expensive
architect from Budapest with free help of a Christian couple who regularly are involved in the village. We have also become friends with a couple who are looking to help in the coffee shop when they come back from the States in the
fall. There have also been many connections made with local Hungarian coffee shop owners and barista trainers that will be incredibly beneficial as we progress with the building project. Thank you so much for your support, both prayerfully
and financially! We could not be doing this project without the help of Trinity and KAG. God bless!
In the name of the mission team of Tatárszentgyörgy:
Géza Kovacs, Sarah Menke, & Cullen Menke