Our Blog Has Moved to a New Site

“Dear readers, we have thoroughly enjoyed connecting with you on this blog. As you may know, this blog is part of the Outlook Online blog network (formerly the Mid-America Union blog network). The network is updating to a newer, more streamlined structure (1 blog with multiple authors). We hope that you will join us in making this transition to our new blogging home at http://outlookmag.org (once there, simply hover over “Bloggers” in the main menu and click on David or Marquita’s  name to view our new posts). We will be leaving all of our old posts online as an archive if you still want to read what we have written in the past. Again, thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you on our new blog soon!”

Post-Hungary Thoughts Sabbath March 12

Even though we are home from Hungary now, it appears that Hungary has not left us. What do I mean? Well, this Sabbath I spoke at the Spanish church here in St Louis. This was the first time my family and I had the opportunity to worship with this congregation. The timing was great because during the past month I have grown accustomed to being translated and having to stop after every couple of sentences to let the translated repeat my words. The preaching really has to slow down when you are being translated. So this Sabbath, I again had a translator, but this time in Spanish, not Hungarian.

Before I started preaching I shared for a few moments about our time in Hungary. After the service, a woman came up to me and said— “I am from Hungary!”. I had seen her sitting in the back, but had no idea she was Hungarian. She said that she is from Hungary but has been going to school here in St Louis. This was the first time she had come to the Spanish church. I asked her why a Hungarian was at a Spanish. She said she knows Spanish and decided to visit the Spanish church this particular Sabbath. Isn’t it amazing that she decides to visit for the first time while I am speaking there for the first time immediately after I returned from Hungary. God sure does have time.

I would like to repeat an earlier prayer request. Kathy is the lady we stayed with in Hungary. She is a faithful church member and was so kind to our family and the girls. Her family is going through a difficult time. Her husband is in the hospital facing a serious illness which threatens his life. She has recently lost her job as well. And her mother in law is in the hospital with a life threatening illness. She also has two daugthers ages 18 and 21. I would never have known she was going through these difficulties unless someone had told me. She has such a sweet spirit and trust in Jesus that you could not tell that she was facing trials. She was never concerned about herself. Her concern was making us feel welcome and comfortable. I could sense Chrsit’s spirit in her. She asked me to pray for her family after we returned home. I said we would certainly do this. May I ask you to do something (those of you reading this blog)? Would you send a short a note of encouragement to Kathy and her husband? In this note, you can encourage Kathy that God is watching over her, and you could encourage her husband that God still loves Him and watches over him (He doubts God could accept him because of the mistakes he has made in his life)? If you will email me your notes of encouragement, I will forward them to Kathy and her family. I thank you so much for doing this. My email is davidmklinedinst@gmail.com

Hungary 2011: Final Thoughts from David

Well, we are finally home in St Louis after nearly 24 hours of flying and being (waiting) in airports.  Just like when we began our journey TO Hungary, the journey FROM  Hungary also had problems.  We got up early Monday morning and the president and secretary of the Duna Conference picked us up  and took us to the airport.  That part went well.  No problems.  We gathered in a circle outside the car and had prayer together.  As I said, I’m sure we will be back again.The problems started once we boarded our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany.  Boarding went fine, but then we proceeeded to sit on the airfield just meters froom the gate for nearly 2 hours.  Why?  Because there were six pieces of luggage which were mistakenly put on the plane.  So for the next two hours they proceeded to unload all the luggage to find the six missing pieces.  Meanwhile everyone is missing connections, and unfortunatley for us that means missing the connection from Frankfurt to Chicago (the most important one!).

So by the time we arrived in Frankfurt we had already missed the flight.  This can be a problem because international flights sometimes only depart once or twice a day.  Missing it could mean having to stay overnight.  First we were told to go United to get rebooked, then we were told to go to Lufthansa.  Since a Lufthansas service center was close by we waited in line there.  It was excruciatingly slow.  That’s OK if you’re by yourself, not so good if you have two small kids.

After waiting in line for a while, we were told to go to the main Lufthansa service center because they wouod need supervisor approval if we had to stay overnight (cause Lufthansa would be paying for it).

Actually staying overnight in Germany for free didn’t seem too bad. We could rest, be together, take the girls to the indoor pool, and get a good long night’s sleep.Except that we had already checked our six pieces of luggage.  That meant having either having to stay overnight with no luggage, no toiletries, no extra clothes, etc, or retrieving our luggage and having to carry six pieces back and forth to the hotel with two small kids.  I don’t think that’s going to work  (-:

Unfortunatley the main Lufthansa service center was on a different side of the airport.  (Frankfurt is the second largest airport in Europe).  When we finally got there we were serviced immediately and got the nicest German lady who spoke excellent English.  It took a while, but she was able to  get us on a flight to Washington DC (instead of Chicago) the same day.  Unfortunately this meant getting home after midnight instead of 7pm.  While we waited they even  let us make two international calls on their phones.  So we called my parents and Rob, who was picking us up.

The flight to DC would not depart for a few hours, so I asked them about some vouchers for food.  Tthey gave us 40 Euros to eat at the airport (about $60 US dollars). I am amazed though at how airlines don’t volunteer this information about giving us vouchers for food when they cause you to miss your connection.  You have to ask for it.

After being rebooked, we had to go down to the United ticket center to get actual seat assignments.  Carting two kids all over this airport is not exactly fun, especially when one of them isn’t fond of escalators.  (-:  Once we got to the United ticket counter, one directed me to a certain counter.  So we went there.  When the woman waited on us, she told us she doesn’t handle this and to go somewhere else.  She pointed us back to the man who pointed us to her.  Then I went back to him to inquire and told him she sent us back to him.

Then they both had an animated discussion (Emiley is crying and having a bit of a melt down simultaneously).  Finally, we get to the right counter and a delightful lady assigns us seats and takes care of everything– we got a whole row of 5 seats in the middle of the plane in the ecomony plus section, more legroom).

Now, it’s time to eat and spend the 40 Euros Lufthansas gave us.  So we decided to go through security and get to the right section of the airport first.  Going through security is always an ordeal with two little ones (take off shoes, coats, get at laptop, belt, wallets, cell phones, carry on luggage, purse, coins, etc).  Phew!  Now that we got through security we inquire of a place to eat only to discover there are no sit down restaurants in that part of the airport.  To go to a sit down restaurant requires us to leave the secure area, go downstairs, then to back through security.  Marquita was not fond of that idea.  Fortunately, there was a little deli-like place where we were, so we opted to eat there and spent the whole 40 Euros, needless to say the manager was happy.

A few hours later we find ourselves on the plane bound for Washington DC– 9 hour flight.  But the girls again did wonderfully on the plane. They even slept for quite a while.  Once we landed in DC I was pleased that we cleared customs and immigration in record time, probably less than 30 minutes.  However, when we looked at the board listing flights we discovered that our flight to St Louis was delayed just a little, only 12 minutes or so.  But nevertheless this made our arrival time in St Louis midnight or later.  That last flight went fairly quickly because I think almost everybody on the plane was sleeping!

Finally we arrive in St Louis and get our bags.  But alas, no cart is availabe.  Well there is no way we are going to carry six suitcases plus 4 carry on’s outside.  Marquita tracks down one cart but it is not big enough.  So I spotted an American Airlines big cart, only used by the Sky Caps.  However, it is midnight and I am not going to trifle over little details, so I “borrow” it for a little while.

Surely American will understand  (-:  We wheel everything outside and, praise the Lord, there is Rob waiting for us.  30 minuntes later we are home and our journey is done.

What is the spiritual lesson in all this:  Evangelism is never easy.  (-:

Hungary March 5: Saying Good-byes

It’s Saturday night and we just finished the last night of the seminar.  This morning Marquita left early to go to Budapest and speak for the International Women’s Day of Prayer.  The girls stayed with me while I preached in the Veszprem church.  I decided to add an extra topic to the seminar and preach it Sabbath morning.  I was happy to hear that 3-4 people from the meetings came to Sabbath worship.  For lunch, one of the church members invited us to share the meal with them.  They were so kind to prepare a full meal for us.  It was interesting to have lunch at someone’s house while trying to take care of the girls…remember Marquita was in Budapest.

That night Marquita met us at the hall and we had the last night of the seminar.  It was a bittersweet experience.  Of course it always good to finish a seminar, but bitter that we have to say goodbye to new friends. I showed some fun video clips of me and the girls doing hula hoops at someone’s house.  Then we moved into the message of the Unpardonable Sin and the importance of following truth.

 At the end of the meeting, they showered us with gifts, thank you’s, and appreciation.  We were given quite a few hand-made gifts and a book about Hungarian history.  I was thankful  to know that people had been blessed by the topics of the seminar.  Pastor Szilard tells me between 25-35 guests had been coming each night.  4-5 people had requested baptism in the near future.  About 10 requested beginning personal Bible studies.  And a special item for us was that Melaney filled out two decision cards in which she marked she wanted to be baptized.  So we know she is really thinking about spiritual things.

Then later back at the home, we had  a time of prayer with Pastor Szilard and his wife Heni.  Marquita and I and the girls have been blessed by being here and have been touched by the Hungarian hospitality.  I am sure we will be back again.

Tomorrow afternoon we will leave for Budapest and stay in a hotel near the airport since our plane leaves Monday morning.

Marquita will tell you about her day in Budapest at the International Women’s Day of Prayer in a separate post.

Incidentally, here’s the video clip of me and girls hula hooping.  You might have seen Marquita posting this on Facebook.

Melaney and Emiley hula hooping— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYubFF5Pkew

David hula hooping—  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPqc49az6Ck

Hungary March 4

Today we had lunch with Pastor Szilard and his wife, Heni, at their house.  It was good to share some time together.  We had a delicious meal of fruit soup, pasta with mushrooms, and cookies.  The girls were particularly interested in the two cats which they have.  They just roamed around the apartment and the girls followed.  The cats seemed to have quite an interest in the frogs in the aquarium.  (-:

I have enjoyed working with Pastor Szilard.  I believe he has a heart for soul winning and understands the importance of personal contact with people.  I will miss working with him.

Tonight, we finished the topic of the remnant and used a decision card for the last time in these meetings.  I am always amazed at how fast the time goes, especially when you’re being translated.  It always goes by faster than I expect and I feel like I cannot cover everything.  I don’t like to rush through a message, but I felt like I was tonight.  I should have made the message shorter because I felt like I was rushing through the decision card process.  It takes much longer because the translator has to repeat everything I say.  And I don’t want rush too much because I try to keep the decision card process light hearted.  This culture tends to be very private and is not used to decision cards so I really have to think about what I’m doing.

I will be transparent.  Tonight, I felt like I didn’t go a good job of timing the message and I had to rush too much at the end.  Nor did I like the way I handled the decision cards.

SPIRITUAL LESSON–  It doesn’t matter.  The Bible says God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.  Even though I may wish I would have done things differently, God’s Spirit is still working to cover my faults and weaknesses.  That’s the great thing about being a missionary for the Lord– He already knows our weaknesses and He’s got us covered.  I will be interested to see how people marked their decision cards.

Tomorrow is our last day with the people in Veszprem.  I will preach for Sabbath worship, then in the evening.  It will be difficult to say goodbye.  I hate to leave.  But at some point you have to return to normal life.  (Especially since we are beginning a meeting in St Louis on April 15).

Hungary March 3: A Wonderful Evening with Hungarian Friends

Today I had the devotional and made a presentation on the importance of having an evangelism cycle at the pastors meeting in Budapest.  I presented there last year as well, so I recognized some of the faces.  We talked about the importance of developing an evangelism cycle where churches are intentionall building relationships and planting seeds in their community all year long.  This requires a long term commitment of 1-2 years before a church can expect to have a successful evangelistic meeting.  I shared with them some statistics about the St Louis metro area.  Only 18% of the people in St Louis know someone who is a Seventh day Adventist, and only 45% ever heard of “Seventh-day Adventist.”  I stressed he importance of building positive relationships so people know who we are.

It turns out that the statistics are similar for Budapest (a city of about 1.5 million).  Not many are familiar with the Seventh-day Adventist church and many are not interested in Christianity at all.  In fact, the president mentioned that he would be happy if 18% of Budapest residents knew someone who is a Seventh-day Adventist.  He would be thrilled if 45% had heard of the church.  I guess this gives us some perspective here in North America.  There are some mission fields that are evening more challenging than ours in North American.

Many countries in Europe face an extremely secular culture that is resistant to the gospel.  So even though North America faces challenges, we must remember that there are many other places with even greater challenges.  And there are other countries who would love to have our statistics.

This evening we also shared a meal with Tamas (my translatlor) and his wife Edith and their family.  They made a wonderful meal of fruit soup with spiced apples, cabbage and onions, French salad with hard boiled eggs, brown rice, potatoes, carrots, and a tofu and mushroom sauce, with some cookies and cakes for dessert.  Melaney and Emiley went upstairs and played with his two youngest kids.  It is amazing how they can play together when they don’t even know each other’s language. I guess kids have  a universal language.  But we shared many things about life together and it is clear that we all face the same challenges and difficulties in this world, not matter what country we live in or what language we speak.  Perhaps this meal we shared with them was a little foretaste of Heaven and what it will be like to be united with believers from all over the world and share our testimonies with each other.

Tomorrow we cover the second part of the topic of Revelation’s Remnant and we will use the final decision card.  So we ask for your prayers.

This is a clip of my preaching……  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIYhSf7GQWw

Hungary March 1: Special Request

Today we decided to get the girls out of the house and walk to the local shopping plaza.  So we bundled up and started walking.  The temperature was 0 degrees Celsius.  There was a kiddy ride in the mall which was a police car that went up and down.  Interestingly, it said NY Police Dept on it. Then we shared a cheese and tomato pizza with a salad.  How did we order?  I did a lot pointing!  Plus we know a few Hungarian words. Then the girls each got a small ice cream cone (actually it was sorbet.)  Had  to bribe Emiley with a treat to get her to walk all the home so we didn’t have to carry her back home.

Tonight we covered the subject of Revelation’s Keys of Death and explaining what happens when you die.  Pastor Szilard tells me there are 25-30 guests attending.  About 9-10 have indicated a future desire for baptism.  However, half of them did not include their name on the decision card.  We are not sure if that was by accident or on purpose.  This culture tends to be very private.  But we are thankful to know that there are people who are really thinking about things and at least responding in their hearts.

SPECIAL REQUEST

Now we have a special request for the readers of the blog.  We are staying with a lady named Kate.  She is a wonderfully kind and hospitable woman who exhibits the character of Christ in her life.  She just loves our girls.  Her husband is in the hospital with a serious illness.  Kate and her family are going through a difficult time.  In fact, Kate recently lost her job as well. Will you please pray for her husband?  Pray that he will be healed physically and spiritually.  Pray that he will sense and understand God’s love for him.

In fact, I am asking all of you who read this to please send a special note of encouragement to Kate.  Send it to my email at davidmklinedinst@gmail.com, or post it on the blog.  I know she would be encouraged to know brothers and sisters around the world are praying for her. Then before we leave Hungary, we will give her the notes you send.  Thank you so much.  ~Pastor David

Hungary Feb. 27: Training Weekend

It’s Sunday night and the end (unfortunately) of an absolutely awesome (and tiring) weekend.  Wow!  Friday we ended the second week of evangelistic meetings in Veszprem and presented the topic of baptism.

We decided to use a decision card on this one.  How could I present baptism and then not give people the opportunity to respond in some way?  The church wanted me to use a decision box on the registration table.  At the end of the sermon,  the decision cards would be distributed and I would review it with them.  Then people would turn in their decision cards by placed them in a beautiful box on the registration table.  I was a little unsure about this because i wondered if people would turn them in.  But they did.  In fact, they turned in quite a few.  I am still waiting to hear the results.

Then Sabbath and Sunday the Duna conference held their annual lay training conference where lay people throughout the conference (which is the western part of Hungary) come together for training and fellowship.  They rented a school gymnasium for the morning worship and it was filled to the brim.  Then the afternoon training was done in the Veszprem church.  The church also was filled to overflowing in both the sanctuary and the balcony.  Awesome!  I presented 4-5 sessions on how lay people to preach a short and simple sermon.  We covered how to use study tools, how to make notes, how to write a short sermon, and how to present it.  I was amazed how closely they paid attention, most of them anyway.  I spoke for about 5 hours on Sabbath.

Then after sundown the pastor and I joined the youth for sport and recreation.  They had rented a local gym.  So they played basketball to accomodate me, even though they don’t normally play it.  Then the played their favorite sport which is soccer.  So I played soccer since they played basketball.  Now personally, I really don’t like soccer.

It doesn’t float my boat, if you know what I mean.  I don’t like sports where I can’t use my hands  (I should have played goalie).  I felt a little out of place because I don’t know the strategies behind soccer (the different kinds of defense, the positions, etc).  But we just played for fun– and believe it or not, I actually scored two goals.

Then the lay training continued Sunday morning.  The devotional began at 8am and my part began around 8:30am.  I thought there would be less people there that early on Sunday morning.  Wow, was I wrong!  The church was packed when I arrived, even in the balcony.  It was so encouraging to see people so interested in receiving training.

Believe me, ask any speaker, it fills us with more energy when we know the people are passionate and serious about being trained.  I wish I could experience that every Sabbath in the USA.

LESSON– The key to successful evangelism and church growth is lay involvement.  It is imperative that lay people be given ministries they can conduct.  Pastors cannot finish the work themselves.  If we are going to have an Adventist presence in cities, towns, and villages all over the world (or communities all over St Louis), then there are going to have to be small groups, church plants, or seminars conducting by lay people.  There are not enough pastors to do it all.

Lay ministry is why the early New Testament church grew and why the early Adventist church grew in the 1800s.  And it is how the church in the last days will grow as well.  Do I hear an Amen?

P.S.– If you would like to view other video clips about our work in Hungary, I find a website that is easier to navigate.  Go to………

http://www.videosvallenatos.com.co/David+Klinedinst/

Hungary February 25: David’s Experiences

Well, it’s Friday evening.  What a day today has been!  I decided to go running with Szilard, the pastor of the Vesprem church.  He said he goes running every day so I decided to join him.  I discovered he is a good runner.  We went about 8 kilometers from Veszprem to the next village which was Szkiralyadbadan (or something like that).  I did a combination of walking and running.  It was great excercise, but I must confess he beat me.  He practices running every day and even enters races, so I knew he would be good.  (I’ll get him Saturday night when we play basketball! (-:

Last night I finished the second part of the Sabbath message.  I decided to give the people a card where they could request a free book about the Sabbath for further study, or where they could request a visit from the pastor.  Well, things didn’t go as I planned and we put this together at the last minute.  I did not like how I handled the decision card and I was disappointed with myself afterwards.  But I discovered that 7 guest turned in cards requesting more information about the Sabbath and/or requesting a visit because they had a question.  That is very good for Hungary.

THE LESSON– Once again I realized that it is God’s Spirit that makes the difference.  He can take a mistake and turn it into something good.  God never asked for perfect people to do His work.  He just wants willing people.  And even when we don’t do things “right”, the Holy Spirit is there to make up for our weaknesses.  “His strength is made perfect in our weakness.”  There will always be situations where we could have done things better, or where we could have said something else, or handled things more appropriately.  But the point is that God is still able to bless our imperfections and use us even in our weaknesses.  What do you think?

Hungary February 25: A New Friend

We have been in Hungary for 2 weeks. Oh, how the time flies! Before we left the U.S. I had been praying that God would help us make a connection with the people here. I knew language would be a big barrier to forming close relationships.  It has been interesting how we have been trying to learn Hungarian and some of our new friends have been attempting some English to help overcome that barrier.

Beata and Marquita

I met one such friend two nights ago. She is a dear gal by the name of Beata (pronounced bay-ere-ta). She teaches German in one of the local high schools. Her name means “happy” which describes her personality perfectly.  We started talking and she shared that she had learned English 8-9 years ago. But of course, without practice, she had forgotten a lot. To me, though, she was doing quite well. Anyway, it was such a joy to connect with someone close to my age and share encouragements with each other. When it was time for us to part ways that evening, she smiled and hugged me tightly. She wanted to know if we could continue to talk with each other so she could practice her English. Of course, I said yes!  

God has also arranged that she can travel with me to Budapest on March 5. I am speaking for a women’s ministries event and it will be nice to have a travel buddy who can help translate between me and the couple that are driving us (they do not speak any English). God is so good!  Whenever I make new friends around the world, God reminds me these experiences are but a little taste of heaven. What will it be like when we make new friends from all the ages of time?  That day is coming soon…Hallelujah!   ~Marquita