ALTRINCHAM Baptist Church has played host to two welcome visitors from Eastern Europe.

Hungarian pastors Arpad Revesz and Zoltan Eszes were the guests of Altrincham Baptist Church.

They spent a week in the town to learn about church life in the area and to build a partnership with the Hale Road church.

Arpad is minister of a down town Budapest church and Zoltan heads a church in a small town outside the capital.

The friendship between the three churches was forged when Geoff and Marion Rushton, from Altrincham, taught English in Budapest between 1996 and 1998.

The Hungarian pastors work in a society where religious freedom is relatively new. Building trust is an important aspect of their work, in a church which previously took for granted the presence of informers at any meeting.

Social outreach is another area which has only been allowed to develop in recent years - because of the implied criticism that the Communist government was not meeting all the people's needs. Today's Hungarian government welcomes the church's contribution to society.

Marion says: "We've a lot to learn from these Christians, who were faithful to their beliefs even under persecution."

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