28 Oaklands, Elton Road, Clevedon, North Somerset, BS21 7QZ, UK, 01275-463868

20 May 2021

Dear Friends,

We hope you are reasonably well, and finding reasons to rejoice and be thankful to God every day?

We’re writing this because, of late, some have been asking if we are OK: as one couple said, they have ‘not

heard from ‘4H’ HQ recently….’

In fact it is only 7 weeks since our last Quarterly Prayer / News Letter, but it will be another 6 before the

next, so we thought we had better send a brief summary of ‘where we’re at’ just now – aware that in every previous

year since ‘4H’ began in 2003 we have sent ‘mid-term’ updates to prayer partners on our emailing list, indeed often

two: namely an advance Mission trip schedule, and a report on our return from Eastern Europe.

So thank you for noticing something seemed to be missing, and for your concern for us and our work to

‘help Hungarians’! What follows is a brief summary of the present state of play.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN ‘GREATER HUNGARY’

Sadly, the countries we visit – Hungary itself, plus parts of Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine – have

all suffered far more with CV-19 this year than they did last year. Many of the churches we visit have had

members who have been ill, and some pastors and their families whom we love have been ill too. Some, though

happily relatively few, have died. The whole of the Carpathian Basin has been in even tighter lockdown than in

2020, so travelling there has been completely out of the question, even though welcoming church leaders said they

would have gladly given us invitations as ‘business visitors’ to secure our entry to those Hungarian-speaking countries.

Why, then, have we not gone? The first reason is that we would have to quarantine for at least 10 days on

arrival, in what would be in effect a government detention centre, something we could not countenance on a

normal-length 12-15 day trip. To make matters worse, on an unpredictable basis, we would expect that some key

people we wanted to see would not be available because of their own CV circumstances, and most usual functions

into which we often input would not be taking place.

More happily, we can say that the Lord’s work has been continuing ‘out there’, as it has been in the UK,

though with some different emphases, and sometimes in different ways from usual. It has been our privilege to be

in daily touch with Hungarian friends, via emails, text messages, telephone, Zoom and YouTube – all facilities

effectively unknown or unavailable earlier in our lifetimes, but now such vital tools in the Master’s service!

SO, WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN THE ‘4H’ OFFICE?

We’ll say, and show, more of this in our Summer Prayer / News Letter at the end of June or the beginning

of July, so here is just a very brief list of things and projects we’re involved in at this very moment, and for which

your prayers are specially requested. Some of them are very time consuming and effort-intensive indeed:

● Book formatting: our colleagues in the Hungarian mission, Örömhír Alapítvány (the Good News

Foundation), have asked us to prepare and print a new A4 edition of the ‘4H’ children’s story and colouring book,

Countryside Tales, that we first published in an A5 format in 2016 under the title Árkon-bokron át. It would not

work well if we simply photo-enlarged each page to the times-two bigger format, so every page has to be reformatted

individually: an hour’s worth of work for every one of its 96 pages. This is on our ‘number 1 computer’ as we write.

● Reprint negotiations: there is a call for a (large!) reprint of Csoda-krumplik, the Hungarian version of

Angus Buchan’s acclaimed autobiographical work, Faith like Potatoes, that some of you may have read. ‘4H’published the Hungarian translation in 2006, and our contract with the English originators, Lion Hudson needs

renewing. Because of CV-19 affects on company offices and procedures, this (like a number of other things recently!)

is proving much more time-consuming than we had hoped….

‘4H’Magyar Misszió

A MAY 2021 UPDATEfrom

ERIC & ROSEMARY BARRETT

eric.rosemary4h@blueyonder.co.uk

● New talk preparation: we frequently need new Bible messages, and the ‘4H’ story is constantly changing.

In recent weeks we have given talks by Zoom and YouTube as far afield in the UK as central Scotland, and even

‘live’ in Hungary too. At the request of several churches, we have sent them shorter Powerpoint slide sequences

with recorded commentaries, or video-format presentations, to describe selected aspects of recent ‘4H’ ministries.

All these visual productions call for much more production effort than old-fashioned missionary talks used to do…!

We hope you’ll want us to share one or more of them (a few examples, above) with your Fellowship soon?

● Responding to new practical and personal needs from ‘the Field’, as and when they arise, which is

almost every day of the week. They are as varied as you could imagine, and often more unexpected than anyone

could guess in advance – even us!

● Checking on the progress of on-going ‘4H’ projects, and planning and discussing (both ‘here’ and ‘there’!)

new ones as the opportunities arise.

● Responding to emails, letters and phone calls from friends like you – among the happiest of our tasks,

because we are so grateful for your interest, support and prayers, and love to hear from you.

● Yes, and we’re even engaged in Calendar design and construction for next December’s ‘thank you’ gift

to all those Prayer Partners on our ‘snail mailing’ list. For some of us at least, Christmas begins very early indeed!

All the above and more are, of course, are in addition to the tasks undertaken daily to keep ‘4H’ going,

and meet the legal requirements of a UK-registered Charity.

WE WOULD SPECIALLY APPRECIATE YOUR PRAYERS FOR:

◊ All those Hungarian churches, pastors and their families, and others who have suffered so much because

of CV-19, and those who are struggling still because of it. We are really touched when they ask how they

can pray for us, but their need is the greater.

◊ Continued health and energy for us to be able to go on helping them wherever we can. The last year

has emphasised again and again how fragile life here is – and (think about it!) why the Bible says that to be

with the Lord will be much ‘better’.

◊ Sufficient resources to ‘help Hungarians’ as they need it today. We have

had a lot fewer meetings in the last 12 months, meaning that some of our

income streams have largely dried up, and…

◊ A realistic opportunity for us to go back to Hungary soon: it is so much

easier, and there is so much more we can do, if we can be there in person rather

than spending so long in the office trying to do things from a distance.

Thank you very much! Though we have not been able to stay away from home

overnight for some 9 months now, we have been able to visit little grandson Noah in

Exeter a few times, and greet him here (picture, R). Perhaps you, like us, have had

some unexpected pleasures as gifts from God to help us through the darkest times

most can remember?! We leave you now with this verse from the Old Testament:

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.(Proverbs 19:21)

May He show every one of us what those purposes are for us as – hopefully! – CV restrictions are consigned

to history, and the task of restoring His Church in more of its local, and distant, expressions, gathers pace.

With our love, thanks and best wishes,

Helping HIS Hungarian Heroes.….….…….…….………..……………………………………UK Registered Charity 1100270