Overview of the
Word of Life Hungary Ministry

Summer Camps
Word of Life Hungary’s camping ministry began on our Tóalmás castle property with seven weeks of camp during the summer of 1990. In 1991 the camping season was extended to 10 weeks. In the eleven summers between 1990 and 2000 more than 10,000 campers have spent a week with us. Of these, several thousand have made public professions of faith in Christ, while many more have made personal commitments of dedication to live for the Lord.

The weeks of summer camp are filled with sports and games and solid biblical instruction. Each day there is a morning Bible hour and an evening meeting that includes special music, skits, and messages from God's Word that challenge the youth to trust Christ for salvation or to walk more closely with Him.

The first three weeks of youth camp are for children ages 8-12. The remaining weeks are for young people ages 13-20 and are theme-oriented. During these weeks the campers receive special instruction in vocal or instrumental music, basketball, soccer, volleyball and computers, as well as English and German language instruction. The final week of the season is generally a family camp.

To conduct summer camps with as many as 200 campers each week requires a tremendous staff of counselors and helpers. The Lord has faithfully provided us with such a staff each year.

Other Camps and Conferences
Throughout the time Word of Life has ministered in Hungary, much of the focus has been on evangelism and discipleship apart from the regular summer camping season. There are winter camps as well as special conferences, such as the annual Ladies Conference in the fall and the Pastors Conference in the spring. We also occasionally host other ministries which desire to use our facilities. In 1992 and again in 1999, Word of Life Hungary hosted  Euro-Youth, a Europe-wide youth missions conference conducted by Word of Life International, in conjunction with its many fields in Europe. Because of our central location between Eastern and Western Europe we are often a stopover point for various ministry teams that are traveling in or through Hungary. We have also hosted a number of groups from American Christian high schools.

Country-Wide Ministry
Apart from ministry at our facilities in Tóalmás, Word of Life Hungary has always been very active throughout the country. Almost every weekend of the year Word of Life team members are in Hungarian churches speaking in their regular services or helping them with various special events and programs that include various forms of evangelism and discipleship. Such ministry has included concerts by the vocalists Dave James and Vica Fazekas, saxophonist Al Konya and the Word of Life Hungary vocal ensemble. There have also been evangelistic rallies as well as Missions and Bible conferences. Businessmen's seminars throughout Hungary has also been a special means of outreach.

Bible Clubs
In the fall of 1993, we began the Word of Life Bible Club program in three local churches. Since then the club ministry has grown to nearly 20 clubs and we expect this number to continue to increase over the next several years. Over the years many teens have trusted Christ for salvation through the Bible Club ministry. Of these, many have been involved with our camping ministry as helpers and counselors. We have also seen a good number enroll as students in the Bible School. We anticipate growing interest in the club program and have plans for steady, controlled growth over the next few years. As we are able to develop trained Hungarian leadership we will be able to more aggressively pursue expansion of this phase of our ministry.

Bible School
The Word of Life Hungary Bible School opened in September, 1994 with 22 students from two countries, Hungary and the United States. Now, as many 60 students study here in a given year. Our graduates include students from 17 different countries. The details of the Bible School program can be found on the following pages.