By God’s grace, for the fourth time in eight years, the Hungarian Field has hosted this international gathering for youth, from August 5–12, 2001. Over 460 people attended the eight days of the congress, representing young people from 21 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United States of America, and Yugoslavia. Imagine the work of the translators into and from so many languages!
We had the chance to study together very important themes under the titles “The Power of Liberty”: “The Seat of Liberty” (or as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”), “Liberty or Liberality?” (courtship that pleases God), “A Yoke or a Crown?” “To Love, or to Be Loved” (marriage and family). So, dealing with courtship and marriage, together with Br. Sas, we started the workshops which were very interesting. These were followed by other studies: “The Family and the Gospel” and “Marriage in the Light of the Cross of Calvary.”
Other presentations were made on true liberty and on conversion—as the Scripture says, “meat in due season”! The open discussions in the workshops were so deep and interesting that some times we had to adjust the program schedule in order to have enough time for them.
Meanwhile, almost everybody was also squeezing in time for the choir practice. Each evening featured a “surprise,” which turned out to be some practical lessons, such as how to do massage, or as you may see in the picture above, when Martha, from Novi Sad, Serbia, was teaching us how to make a good loaf of bread. Some volunteers were helping her, and finally everybody tasted that they had really done a good job, when the baked breads were served in the evening meal!
But the enemy was not happy with what we were doing in this Congress, and we noticed it in a very unpleasant way Wednesday morning when the amplifier and two keyboards disappeared from the church. We had special prayers, and each one was carefully searching his own heart, trying to understand why God had permitted this to happen. . . . But one thing was clear: This would not cause us to sing any less! The choir practice continued without the keyboard, and a special offering was collected to purchase new equipment.
For Sabbath we had a wonderful international musical team, with brethren—and instruments—from Austria, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Yugoslavia and Hungary. We believe that there now was as much music as if nothing sad had happened at all! The church was almost full on Sabbath, and we enjoyed Sabbath school in classes, followed by a study with Bro. Jaksic dealing with true liberty. In the afternoon there was an unforgettable praise service, with more than 35 musical items, poems, etc., all the way until sunset. The only sorrow was that part of the people now present had not been able to join us throughout the whole week, so they had missed out on some of the joy! Sitting there and attending the program we were remembering all the studies and the discussions—sometimes “hot”—during the week. . . . We were remembering the wonderful day of Thursday after the sad-enough day of Wednesday. . . . That Thursday for sure is going to remain in the memory of all that took part! We started very punctually in the morning, by train and by metro, up to the Danube River. Then started a very pleasant experience, to travel by boat, through the city of Budapest, seeing many beautiful historical places. There were at least 200 people present, many of whom were not of our group. We had a chance to sing for them, practicing with the choir, and enjoying the gift of being together. We got to know each other better, and build up friendships. Following the boat ride we had an unforgettable walk. In the beginning it started off along a wide, easy pathway, which after some kilometers changed little by little into a narrow and difficult path as it went deep into the forest. The greatest lesson was to remember the journey of the Advent believers as shown to the Lord’s messenger in vision. (See Testimonies, vol. 2, pp. 594–597.) In that dream the faithful company pressed on under increasing hardship, symbolic of casting off more and more of the things of this world to come on higher ground.
In our experience, improper shoes were put off and some clothes got a bit soiled as we ascended. But everybody was finally able to return to the ship fully satisfied and, as you can imagine, tired, yet with the great feeling of having overtaken what had seemed almost impossible!
On Friday we studied together with Bro. David Zic on how to build a truly successful career, and on Saturday night after a full day, we still came together in fellowship to try to know each other better. Each country represented had the chance to give some brief information about the young people of their country, and their interests and activities, to answer questions, and to sing (as the German group did). . . . The last day meeting gave us the possibility for questions and answers, and to remember the reality of the power that God is willing to give to everyone, the power of liberty in all aspects of our life, and for victorious liberty from sin and the defilement of this world!
May the Lord help us to live a life of godly freedom in Christ, to experience it daily for our present and eternal joy, and for the glory of our Lord. This is our wish and prayer for all our young brethren from all over the world!