A woman at the Old Age Home in Transcarpathia

By S. Jean Szilagyi, SARA Co-founder and Secretary

TRANSCARPATHIA, UKRAINE — Stephen recently met with the former commander of the Hungarian Customs Service. He, his wife and his son (who is an English teacher) are anxious to help smooth the crossing to Ukraine for SARA personnel and humanitarian equipment and supplies.

Yesterday, we crossed the border into Ukraine at 6:00 a.m. at Chop. We visited Bishop Majnek. He looks well and sends his blessings to all of SARA’s friends.

Mr. Laszlo Katko was our driver around Transcarpathia. During the drive, he mentioned that the agricultural production for this summer will be diminished by at least 50%. Heavy spring rains and extreme heat have caused considerable damage. The only crop producing at its usual level is the corn. As a result, he will need to purchase food from others in the area to carry the orphanage through the winter. He needs more than $5,000 to address this predicament. THIS IS AN URGENT PLEA FOR FUNDS TO BE DESIGNATED FOR “GOOD SAMARITAN HOME.”

We met with the editor and official translator of the Hungarian version of Stephen’s “From Habbakkuk to SARA: A Memoir of the Reverend Stephen Szilagyi and His Founding of the SARA Ministry”. It should be published within the month.

Bishop Gulacsy has moved into the Old Age home across from the Reformed Church’s Diaconate, which is run by Bela Nagy.

We received the copies of the Russian Translation of Stephen’s book, provided by Mr. Alex Rovt.

Our adventures for the day concluded with a delicious meal of soup, potato dumplings with cottage cheese and bacon before a two-hour trip across the mighty Tisza river on a raft and the usual, “Hurry up and Wait” at the border!