Dear Friends & EE Parents,
A former EE parent, Andrea Kopataki, is in the process of becoming a missionary. She will be teaching at a Christian school in her native Hungary. She and her husband spent 20 years in the Woodlands area before moving to Europe with their two teenage children.
Andrea feels called to work with the children of the missionaries who serve Eastern Europe as well as the Hungarians who send their children to the International Christian School of Budapest. Having raised a special needs child, she also has a passion to provide services to families who are raising children with learning difficulties and developmental differences.
I am sending this information to introduce her and to ask you to prayerfully consider supporting her ministry. Andrea is visiting the Woodlands area during the month of July and she would be very excited to meet with your family to give you an opportunity to get to know her and learn about her ministry. Also, if you could introduce Andrea and her ministry to anyone in your circles (family, friends, church groups, community and business leaders) please consider doing so.
I am attaching a 5 minutes long introductory video of the International Christian School of Budapest and a letter Andrea wrote to describe her calling there:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/60r6swuf0hraus9/ICSB_TeacherVid_vFNL.m4v
(Andrea’s letter)
Dear Friends,
I hope this letter finds you well, enjoying God’s blessings.
I am having an exciting chapter of my life. After calling Texas home for 20 years, God has called our family back to our native Hungary. Leaving against all logical reasons to stay was the hardest decision my husband and I ever made and the adjustment was extremely difficult for all of us. We regret not having had the chance to personally say good-bye to many of our friends, but we hope to see everyone when we visit this summer.
I am writing to share with you that God has opened a door and called me to serve in the special education department and of the elementary section of the International Christian School of Budapest (ICSB) as a teacher.
This job is important because ICSB keeps many missionaries (YWAM, United World Mission, ABWE, Campus Crusade for Christ, Entrust, Every Nation, Global Harvest, etc.) in the mission fields of Hungary and Eastern Europe as the school provides a quality education in English for their children. The school is also a witness to the Gospel for the surrounding Hungarian community and specifically to the families of our Hungarian students who make up 50% of the lower elementary and 30% of the 250 total enrollment.
The supplemental services department of the school provides students with learning disabilities and other special needs, a valued and needed service. These services either don’t exist or are in a dismal state in the Hungarian educational system. In this position I will:
· Be a witness on campus and in that community
· Work in the special education department to provide educational therapies to increase students’ learning capacities, drawing on my experience with my own daughter
· Encourage families, especially mothers of children with various special needs by organizing lectures, support groups and Bible studies
· Use my ability to speak both Hungarian and English to work with non-English speaking children and families of ICSB and also to teach our English-speaking missionary kids the local language.
After a long search for God’s plan and His reason to move us here I believe doing this work is God’s calling for me at this time of my life. If you believe in me and in the children and families who would benefit from this work, would you bless us by partnering with me in this ministry, please?
With your help:
· You take part in the fulfillment of the Great Commission and make it possible for me to pledge my time, labor and energy to be an ambassador for Christ
· You make it possible for kids with special educational needs to be in a school environment where they are loved and nurtured, not bullied, and where they will receive a quality education.
· I can attend the courses and obtain the training that will better equip me to provide the specialized programs many of our children need. I can also introduce these programs, widely available in the U.S., to Hungary where they are barely known.
· We can build a sharing library of books, DVDs and other much needed resources
· Many children will receive help in their native language facilitating their learning
· Last but not least my own two children will be part of a loving environment that most resemble the schools they used to attend in our home in The Woodlands.
Thank you for your prayerful consideration of supporting my mission. I would be grateful for your help in some of the following ways:
A. Be on my team as a prayer partner. Please pray for God’s guidance and for my family
B. Help me reach more people during our visit in July in the States by:
a. Inviting like-minded people such as your family, friends, co-workers or neighbors into your home/business where I could personally introduce myself and my ministry.
b. Securing 5-10 minutes of presentation time for me at your place of worship or small group gatherings (such as Bible studies, women’s groups, men’s fellowships, business luncheons) so I could introduce my ministry and ask for help
c. Talking to the Missions Committee of your local church and asking them to consider supporting my ministry at ICSB.
d. Enlisting business owners to regularly donate to this mission
e. Sharing with me any other ideas you may have to help make my fundraising successful.
C. Give financially, sending your tax deductible contributions to my missionary organization, Resourcing Christian Education (RCE)
I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read my letter and for considering to get involved with this ministry.
We will be visiting the U.S. from the 24th of June to the 29th of July and very much look forward to seeing you then. Please drop me a line at akopataki@yahoo.com or call me at 832-312-8839. I would be honored by the opportunity to personally share more with you.
Blessings,
Andrea
Be sure to stop by the Extraordinary Education booth at the Texas Home School Coalition Conference at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Convention Center this weekend.
