Ruth, Noel and Eliot are part of Carry the Love Hungary, a movement that wants to mobilize the youth to reach the nations. Carry the Love Hungary is a fruit of Carry the Love America, whose goal is to kindle a fire in Europe. We talked to them about their mission.
How it started
Some of the people involved in Carry the Love Hungary were part of a movement started by the son of the Hungarian president. This movement had the desire for “people from different regions of Hungary to come to places where they can worship and where they can be revived. This movement received a vision that after a year, the seed will die, and new things will come from it,” Ruth explains. Ruth, Eliot and Noel believe Carry the Love Hungary is one of those new things.
Carry the Love consists of people from several different churches in the city of Szeged. “Each of us has a desire in our heart that has been kindled years ago for a revival in Hungary.” They longed for a group where they could share this desire and do something with it in a bigger way. When someone from Circuit Riders in the US sent them a message to work together, they all “felt the hope that God wanted to do more than had happened so far, so we said yes.”
“It’s more about igniting that fire in people, being catalyzers for people that desire to love Jesus more, to run after Him more.”
In February of this year, Carry the Love Hungary held their first event. “It was crazy to see what impact it had on people,” Ruth says. “There were people who got saved, there were people who rededicated their lives to Jesus, there were people whose desire was just opened.” But Carry the Love is about much more than just hosting events. “It’s more about igniting that fire in people, being catalyzers for people that desire to love Jesus more, to run after Him more.”
Since that first event, they have been working closely with Circuit Riders, sharing a vision, getting trained by them, and working on creating a leadership group culture. They visit churches where they introduce themselves and share their vision. They are already seeing the impact that their movement has on people. “I think it’s a matter of people wanting to have that fire for Jesus, but not wanting to walk alone. Seeing how we are a team that looks at Jesus and not at denominations or anything like that, just focusing on the biblical truths and making that our top priority, and just running after Jesus, it’s impacted so many people.”
Mobilizing the youth
“It’s a lot about the great commission,” says Eliot. “Our vision is that we mobilize young people to reach the nations. What God has started among us, we want to see this multiplied in other groups. We want to be a group that is able to be a birthing place, or just a ministry that can lead the way for young people.”
One way they do this is through their events called ‘revival nights’. “We trust the Holy Spirit that He would minister to people individually during these nights.” They see that those revival nights are very effective. They are already seeing many youth on fire who say: “We need to go back to what the Bible tells us to do.” During their first event, there were around 130 young people present. They want to keep organizing revival nights every couple of months.
During these revival nights, there is a time of worship, the gospel is preached and testimonies are shared. “We want to encourage the youth with what we are doing,” tells Noel. “We try to preach the gospel how they’ve never heard it before. We try to give them a picture of Jesus’ heart and give them His love.”
“It’s part of our vision to eventually go from village to village, and to the neighboring countries, mainly those with a Hungarian tongue, like Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.” Their desire is to see God uniting churches and young people in each region, regardless of personal denominations or affiliations, so that they can come together and reach people in their villages.
“We want to mobilize teams in Szeged to go out and preach the gospel, on the streets and in universities.” They also want to give out Bibles in high schools, so that they can also reach that age group. “We want to mobilize an army of people on fire who want to see the lost saved.”
A movement led by the Holy Spirit
Carry the Love Hungary wants to become a hub in Hungary, but not necessarily as a physical center. “We want to work with other groups, that they would reach their own regions and cities. The job is way bigger than just us doing mission trips and sharing testimonies. We want to be disciple makers. We want to pass it on.”
“We want to be a movement that is truly led by the Holy Spirit.” Eliot tells about a girl that saw them preaching on the street, who had been praying for something like that to happen in her youth group. Carry the Love Hungary went to her church and experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit there. “It was such a divine answer for the church and the youth there. We want to pursue those connections. We want to be Jesus’ hands and feet and literally build the church up.”
We are willing to lay our lives down to do this…”
Circuit Riders really helped Carry the Love Hungary start their mission, but it goes both ways. By walking alongside Carry the Love, they allow them to help in Circuit Rider’s mission as well. Eliot explains that Circuit Riders has been praying for groups all over Europe that are training missionaries to reach the people in their region, and they see that happening in Hungary with Carry the Love. That is why they have decided to join arms and work together. The Carry the Love team will go to the US in January to get trained by Circuit Riders, and then return to Hungary to do a gospel crusade in their country with them. “We are willing to lay our lives down to do this, three months in America and then two months to go all across Hungary with Circuit Riders. We believe that this will kickstart a move of God in Hungary.”
Watch the video below to get an impression of the ministry of Carry the Love Hungary:
