Sorry for the lack of posting recently. I've been having problems with all of my computers--my ancient desktop, my phone, and my laptop. I've often found that I'm having problems getting online or posting things. Hopefully that is all cleared up now and posting can be more regular. We will be continuing our series on "Reading the Bible in the 21st Century" in the coming weeks.

This past week, Ken Oldham, Titus Oldham, and I were in Budapest, for the summer Budapest Lectures. We are having this event four times a year (starting this past January) and it has gotten off to a great start in 2013.

There were many things we wanted to do with the Budapest Lectures:

1) Enter into a partnership with the Church of God in Hungary which is taking the stage and doing some wonderful, forward-thinking, dynamic ministry.

2) Model a new way of partnership with a CHOG country (the 3W-Hungary CHOG Budapest Lectures partnership is unique).

3) Provide a hub of constant learning, training, and encouragement in the Europe/Middle East region. Budapest is in Central Europe, an inexpensive city about 2 hours away from every country we work in.

4) We wanted to surround the young Hungary Church of God with some of the best leaders and mentors the Church of God has to offer.

5) We wanted to give Next Generation leaders (under 45) a stage upon which they could impart the knowledge they have learned along the way.

This past week was the first Budapest Lectures that went international (as they are intended to do). We had 3 guests from Bulgaria plus David Simpson (3W) join us. It was a great time. We had a wonderful speaker--our youngest ever---Ken Oldham (3W Egypt), and this continued to expose the Budapest Church of God congregations to great teaching, international connection, and emotional and spiritual support. It really is a win-win for everyone.

Ken Oldham is a great teacher and has a lot to offer any pastors wanting to learn about ministry and managing a church. Ken's also a great organizer. One of his tasks was to prepare to take over the organization of the Budapest Lectures from me. He will be joined in that effort by Daniel and Christy Kihm when they arrive on the field shortly in The Netherlands. Ken did a great job of taking notes and preparing to take over these duties in the coming months.

The Lecture Series is off to a good start. Rainer Klinner (Germany) kicked it off in the Winter of 2013. Greg Wiens (Healthy Growing Churches) spoke in the Spring, and Ken Oldham has now completed the summer lecture. We're looking forward to having Gary Kendall, Tom Planck, 2 Russian pastors, and many others join us in the upcoming lectures. And this is just the beginning.

Last but not least, it was wonderful to have Titus join us. He was a great traveler, never complaining despite all the meetings and the heat, and he's just a great, young man.

If your church is interested in helping to support the Budapest Lectures, please let us know.

Ken and Titus overlooking the beautiful city of Budapest, home of the Budapest Lectures.