“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed…the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree…” (Matthew 13:31-32). Lula and I just completed the first leg of our trip. The highlight was visiting our Hungarian Luther Academy students at their church plant in Budapest. They had invited me to conduct their first Divine Service in a church building. Up to now, their weekly services were held in the living room of one of the students. Pictured here is seminarian Andrew Horvath, originally from Los Angeles, CA, who moved to Hungary ten years ago to reconnect with his Hungarian roots. Over the years, the Lord has been strengthening Andrew’s faith—to the point that he now aspires to become a pastor. Andrew is currently completing his first year of seminary. *** Most church plants start off as house churches. Case in point, there might be tens of thousands of secret house churches in Iran. But in light of the open persecution of Christians in that country and thus the lack of pastors, almost no one in those proto congregations can be baptized, let alone receive the Lord’s Supper. And yet our Lord continues to grow house churches into church plants all around the globe—sometimes invisible to the outside world. By God’s grace, some of these church plants grow into trees. Seminarian Horvath invites all Confessional Lutherans traveling to Budapest to contact him and worship with their community Független Hitvallásos Evangélikus Misszió. Take him up on that offer and experience first-hand the Lord’s little mustard seed that, God willing, will grow into a vibrant church plant and maybe even a tree!
The Tiews in Germany 