Social Ministries of The Reformed Church in Hungary

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Social Ministries ofThe Reformed Church in
Hungary

• Jesus came and stood among them
• and said to them, Peace be with you.
• When he said this, he showed them
• his hands and his side
• Jesus said to them again,
• Peace be with you.
• As the Father has sent me,
• even so I send you.
• And when he had said this, he breathed on them,
• and said to them,
• Receive the Holy Spirit.

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• Introduction
• Prison Ministry
• Gypsy and Roma Ministry
• Homeless Ministry
• Ministry of Marriage and Family Counselling
• Ministry to Alcoholics
• Hospital Ministry
• Refugee Mission
• Airport Chaplaincy
• Mission to the Hearing Impaired
• Crisis Hotline
• Ministry to the Visually Impaired
• Leprosy Mission

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1. Our mission is to preach the forgiveness of
sins and the promise of eternal life according to
Jesus Christs command. The ministries listed
above act as the extended arms of our Church,
offering an eternal treasure to everyone. This
treasure is a relationship with the living God
who is close to everyone. The love of God can be
found in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. His
forgiveness is offered to everybody, it gives
hope to all. 2. Through our personal lives we
confess the power of the Holy Trinity, who never
despised or rejected us. Only God has the power
to give one a new chance at life. As the
followers of Jesus Christ, we want to go where He
went visiting the imprisoned, the sick and the
downtrodden. Human effort is not enough to bring
about such change therefore we confess Gods
Almighty power, which is able to transform
society with renewed lives. 3. It is not enough
to get to know Jesus Christ the mission work can
only be done in full communion with Him. We
confess with the words of D. Bonhoeffer The
Church must be a part of human community, not
commanding but helping, serving it. Life with
Christ, living for others must be proclaimed to
everyone, regardless of rank or social order.
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It is the RMCs mission to preach the
resurrected, living and active Christ, to help,
to heal, and to be present wherever He leads us,
and to depend on Him in everything. The aim of
this booklet is to introduce our ministries,
their work and to provide those interested with
contact information. We hope, that pastors,
their supporters, those who need help or their
family members will receive useful information.
We are prepared to go anywhere if we are called
to introduce our work and our plans. We are also
ready to help with starting any kind of ministry
service in congregations. At the same time we
also ask for your prayer support, involvement in
our work through volunteerism and donations if
the Lord so leads. May 2007. Budapest Rev.
Erzsébet Magyarné Balogh director
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Reformed Mission Centre

The Reformed Mission Centre is temporarily
functioning at Reformed Synod Office, Budapest
1146, Abonyi street 21 until the renovation of
the Reformed Mission Office building at Alagi
square is finished. The centre coordinates the
work of all the ministries. It assists the
various ministries by offering professional and
material support. It also helps them to
participate successfully in writing grants and
providing human resource support. The Centre
also represents the ministries to bodies within
and outside of the church. We invite you to
approach the Centre if you have any questions,
concerning any of the ministries. If you are led
to donate to the Centre or to any of the specific
ministries, you may send your contribution to
RMCs bank account number listed above or through
the attached postal check. If you wish to donate
to a certain ministry, please ear mark the name
of the ministry on the check. Bank account
number Inter-Európa Bank Rt. 11100104-18188404-
36000001
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Prison Ministry
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The Reformed Churchs prison ministry is focused
on the proclamation of Gods love through Jesus
Christ. This is a very important fact to be
recognised by all the prisoners. The ministrys
work is two-fold to proclaim the freedom of
Jesus Christ offered through repentance and Gods
forgiveness offering spiritual support to those
incarcerated and to offer support to those
ex-prisoners re-entering society. One of the ways
in which the latter is achieved is through
organizing family weeks for prisoners. This is
composed of one week where prisoners can attend a
retreat with their families. This has proven to
be a very important element in helping inmates
reenter society after having served their
sentence. Another aim of the ministry is that
members of the church would not forget about
those who live their lives in prison. A long
term goal of this ministry is to establish a
half-way house for those inmates who have no
family to return to once released. The prison
ministry operates throughout the country.
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Gypsy and Roma Ministry
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This ministry is focused on the proclamation of
Gods love through Jesus Christ, which is very
important to be recognised by all the Gypsy and
Roma people. The ministry wishes to emphasise the
importance of the biblical and the confessional
teachings of the Reformed Church. It is committed
to act according to Jesus Christs command to
destroy the walls of prejudice and to feel
responsibility for all the Gypsy and Roma people
recognizing them all as Gods children. Summer
camps and Religious education is an important
part of the ministry which also reaches parents
and the families through the children and youth.
This ministry tries to help the Gypsy and Roma
population in providing counselling regarding
life questions, healthcare education and crime
prevention. In the Reformed Church district of
Tiszántúl and Tiszáninnen independent roma
missionaries are serving the local population.
One of our goals is to inspire more pastors and
congregation members to serve actively in mission
among Roma people for the glory of God. Another
aim of the ministry is to help members of the
church accept and make a place for Roma people in
church and congregational life.
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Homeless Ministry
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The Homless Ministry is focused on the
proclamation of Gods love through Jesus Christ.
This is an important truth to be recognised by
all the homeless people. The aim of the ministry
is that the members of the church would not
forget about the homeless people. The goal of the
ministry is that those who live without a
functional family and without the community of a
congregation would experience the power of the
healing love that can be found in Christian
community. The ministry does not aim to convert
the non-Reformed homeless, but uses the
importance of the Biblical and the Confessional
teachings of the Reformed Church as the framework
for its activity. It is committed to help
homeless people find a congregation to belong to
and help them by nurturing their faith. Regular
events include Bible studies, worship and
outreach events. The ministry works in Budapest
but our goal is to establish centres for the
homeless and expand services to the homeless
-based on Christian principles - in more cities
of the country.
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Marriage and Family Counselling Ministry
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Disaster in the family, children with behaviour
problems, conflicts between family members,
living with a disabled child these are examples
of crisis situations. The task of the Marriage
and Family Counselling Ministry is to give a
pastoral and psychological help to the victims of
these kinds of crisis situations. The ministrys
service is focussed primarily on pastoral care
and crisis-intervention. However, it also
attempts to help individuals return to
congregations where they can enjoy the support of
a full community. The director and the
co-workers of the ministry are always ready for
dialogue and consultation in cooperation with
pastors and other experts. At the same time the
ministry staff are also ready to meet and share
the work of the ministry with congregations,
cultural centres and schools through professional
presentations, (for couples and families)
communication trainings in order to raise
awareness of the availability of such a service.
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Ministry to Alcoholics
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Our goal is to transmit the message of John 836
to people suffering from addiction and especially
those who are alcohol dependent If the Son sets
you free, you will be free indeed. We offer
treatment through Blue Cross Ministry in the city
of Dömös. We hold alcohol-prevention
presentations in among children and teenagers
schools. The new lives of those recovered from
an addiction are the witnesses of the Father and
Son and Spirit who works with power and
authority. Aftercare groups offer community and a
sense of belonging to those who recently entered
recovery. They also encourage recovering addicts
to belong to a church. Our goal is to introduce
alcoholics to the blessing and need to depend on
the living and active God instead of depending on
alcohol or any other substances. We are happy to
share our testimony in congregations.
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Hospital Ministry
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Our mission is to comfort and encourage those who
are in the midst of the trial of disease, are
suffering and are in a desperate situation,
through visitation and offering pastoral care. We
pray for them and with them to experience the
presence and guidance of the merciful God.
Hospital chaplains, congregation members and
hospital staff do this work and it is essential
to have the prayer support of the congregations.
Not only the poor but the sick will also be
always with us. Illness is something that can
touch us at any time and on that day the words I
was sick and you visited me will be understood
in an entirely different way. This encouraging
service is left up to us to incite our natural
family and our congregational family as well to
visit the sick and pray for them and this
ministry.
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Refugee Ministry
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The service is focused on the proclamation of
Gods love through Jesus Christ, which is and
important fact to be recognised by all refugees.
The goal of the ministry is to transmit Gods
love to those refugees individuals and families,
who live in refugee camps and have been forced to
leave their countries because of their Christian
faith through pastoral care. The ministry does
not aim to convert the non-Christian but it
Biblical and the Confessional teachings of the
Reformed Church serve as the basis of the work of
the Refugee Ministry. Those serving with this
ministry are committed to give refugees the
experience of a community, to help them in
learning Hungarian and integrate into Hungarian
society. When appropriate, the spiritual needs
of the refugees are also met by distributing
Bibles and Christian tracts to encourage them in
their faith. The Scott Mission of the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland located in
Budapest provides them with a place of English
language worship and Christian fellowship.
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Airport Ministry
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Before taking a flight, many of us can be
nervous, depressed and afraid. In their feelings
of desperation and defencelessness, passengers
need to be assured of the presence of God,
regardless their denomination. There is a serious
need for some at this time for pastoral care and
a sense of being listened to. This arises from
our most basic human needs. Worship services at
the airport are ecumenical and are run by the
four main-line churches in Hungary. There are
regular service hours and worship services in the
ecumenical chapel at Budapest Airport - Ferihegy
II. The dates of the worship services are noted
in the calendar of the ecumenical chapel. There
is one pastor from the Reformed Church in Hungary
who ministers at Ferihegy.
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Ministry to the Hearing Impaired
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This ministry is focused on the proclamation of
Gods love through Jesus Christ, which is very
important to be recognised by all the deaf
people. The ministry does not aim to convert the
non-Christian hearing impaired person but it uses
the Biblical and the Confessional teachings of
the Reformed Church as the theological basis for
its ministry. The Ministry to the Hearing
Impaired is committed to helping deaf people and
hearing impaired people to find congregations to
belong to and also provides them with spiritual
support so that they could practice their faith.
Bible studies and community events are held in
several cities of the country. Religion classes
for the deaf and hearing impaired are offered in
the Institutes for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired.
To serve the children and youth, the ministry
organizes summer camps and after school events as
a means of reaching this young people with the
Gospel. The ministry is also willing to visit
congregations to introduce its work.
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Crisis Hotline
Psychological problems and diseases and suicide
attempts appear to be more prevalent in modern
societies. Hungary, and especially Budapest leads
the statistics on the world suicide list. The
emerging numbers of these cases raised awareness
among a number of existing organizations to help
those in need by preventing suicide and helping
them to find a way out of their crises. The
Telephone Pastoral Care is a preventative service
and it volunteers in suicide prevention,
crisis-intervention and in the provision of
psychological counselling. Its goal is to prevent
critical situations from escalating and to help
people to find solutions. Flyers and placards are
made available to congregations to inform
everyone of how receive help.
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Ministry to the Visually Impaired
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The service is focused on the proclamation of
Gods love through Jesus Christ, which is a very
important fact to be recognised by all visually
impaired people. The ministry does not aim to
convert the non-Christian, but its work is based
on an understanding of the importance of the
Biblical and Confessional teachings of the
Reformed Church. It is committed to help blind
and visually impaired people in finding
congregations to belong to, and also
disseminating among them Christian literature in
Braille providing them with additional spiritual
support. In several cities of the country Bible
studies and community events are organized.
Lectures on Bible study, worship and evening
devotions are held regularly. For detailed
information write to the address listed above.
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Cooperation partner Leprosy Mission
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The Leprosy Ministry has been serving on an
ecumenical level since 1974 and since 2002 it has
been a member of the International Leprosy
Ministry. It cooperates with local protestant
ministries. The Reformed Church in Hungary, The
Hungarian Evangelical Church and The Hungarian
Baptist Church send delegates to the
decision-making council of the National
Committee. The ministry operates according to
Jesus words Heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, cast out demons. (Matthew 108).
The goal of the ministry to heal the lepers all
over the world (the estimated number is 6 million
especially in India), the rehabilitation of the
healed, to educate them and their families, to
teach them professions, to find them jobs and
homes. This ministry is supported by Christian
denominations in Hungary. The way to support its
work is to collect donations of hand knitted
wound-dressings /bandages / and blankets. The
co-workers of the ministry are pleased to show
illustrated presentations on the service of the
Leprosy Ministry in congregations or at other
events.