Budapest, Hungary
CELEBRATION ORCHESTRA
December 12 - 21, 2024
This Hungary project was one of the most unique mission projects experienced by our Celebration Orchestra. We have been to Hungary on five previous occasions with our wonderful mission partners, Dan and Rose Smith. All of our projects there have been exceptional opportunities to share the Gospel message and minister to many, including several hundred children in schools.
Three things made this project very unique:
First, it was in December. We have always avoided December due to many churches in the U.S. doing special Christmas music in the month and we were not sure our musicians could be available to go during that time.
The second was that we were partnered with a special Hungarian choir to perform an evangelistic Christmas musical.
The third thing was that three of the four concerts were in public theaters and not in churches.
All of this began as a request from Dan and Rose to come and perform “The Wonders Of His Love”, as it was the 25th anniversary of the first time it had been performed in Hungary. To our surprise, we had 35 of God’s chosen musicians sign up to be a part of our outstanding orchestra team.
Our first concert was actually in a Hungarian Baptist Church in Oradea, Romania, and the other three were in theaters in three different locations in Hungary. The choir had been rehearsing since August and had the entire musical memorized, which enhanced the presentation immensely. Their faces shown with the love of Christ as they sang, and the orchestra was magnificent with excellence.
All four of the concerts were filled to capacity with over 700 people in each of them. We were blessed to know that God’s message of love was shared with over 3,000 people. In each presentation, a pastor came up during the concerts and presented the Gospel clearly in addition to the message through the narrations and songs.
Many were impacted through the music and message and we know God is still speaking to many of the listeners. We heard from many people in the audience as we went out to greet them after the concerts that told us what a blessing they had received.
Here’s a video from our concert in Romania: