Refi's Got Talent 2013 - Magyar / English

(Scroll down for the English article)

A Pataki Refi diákjai ismét alkottak valami csodálatosat. Valamit, ami megnevettetett, ami megihletett, és ami összekötött.

2013. december 11-én rendezték meg a gimnáziumban második alkalommal a Refi’s Got Talent elnevezésű műsort, melynek sikere ezúttal sem maradt el. Ismét bebizonyosodott, hogy milyen sok géniusz és különleges fiatal választotta iskolánkat. A tehetség pedig olyan, mint egy szivárvány. Istentől kaptuk és még annál is sokszínűbb, mint gondolnánk.
Ez kicsi csapatunk eddigi legeredményesebb eseménye és ez még csak a kezdet. Határ a csillagos ég! 

A hangulat már egy órával a kezdés előtt zajos volt és vidám. Hova lehet ezt még fokozni? - kérdeztem magamtól kissé aggódva. Azonban ismét tanultam valami újat. Először is, ez legyen a legnagyobb fejtörésünk a jövőben is.  Másodszor pedig, mindig van még feljebb. Ez be is igazolódott. A hangulat a tetőfokára hágott és nemcsak a közönség, de még Szabó Viktória tanárnő is, aki Simon Cowell háládatlan feladatát kapta, együtt dúdolta a dalokat a fellépőkkel és dobolta a ritmust. A zsűri másik két tagja, Judit néni és Kiss Norbert tanár úr is hasonlóképpen jól érezték magukat szerepkörükben, ha csak a műsor erejéig is.

Aztán csend lett. Egy megható, elgondolkodtató vers következett. Meglepve tapasztaltam, hogy ugyanazok az emberek, akik az imént még hangosan kacagtak és felszabadultan örültek, most áhítatos csöndben koncentrálnak társukra, aki saját szerzeményének vagy kedvenc művének mély érzelmeit igyekszik átadni őszinte hittel és meggyőződéssel magyarul vagy éppen angolul. 

Legyen a műsorszám egy megható költemény, humoros jelenet vagy vidám dal a kemény munka gyümölcse ugyanaz: tapsvihar.
A különböző produkciókra való ráhangolódásban lelkes műsorvezetőink voltak segítségünkre: Hochrek Dóra és Lastóczki Ábel. Barátaink úgy mozogtak a színpadon, mintha erre születtek volna és frappáns, humoros megjegyzéseikkel tovább emelték az este hangulatát. 

A rendezvény legfontosabb résztvevőit, főhőseinket szándékosan a végére hagytam. Hadd ragadjam meg az alkalmat, hogy ezúton is gratuláljak az est sztárjainak és megköszönjem szereplésüket. Köszönjük a könnyfakasztóan humoros és kreatív színdarabokat, megindító verseket, gyönyörű zongoradarabokat és dalokat. Jövőre ugyanitt, ugyanekkor!

Written by Laczkó Kitti

Edited by Szabó Viktória

As some of you will remember, 2012 saw the debut of a new Refi tradition – Refi’s Got Talent – where students and teachers alike, took to the stage and shared their gifts, in all possible forms. This year, hosted the most successful Refi Revolution Team event, to date, as the audience enjoyed Refi’s Got Talent 2013. It was a truly unforgettable evening.

 There were moments of side-splitting laughter, encouragement and absolute respect for those who laid themselves bare, in front of an audience of their peers. The performers showed talents that even their class mates, students, colleagues and teachers were unaware of.

The evening was hosted by our hilarious and adorable duo, Lastóczki Ábel and Hochrek Dóra, from class 12.E. The pair entertained the audience, as much as they protected the performers from our ’resident Simon Cowell’, Szabó Viktória. Dóra repeatedly rebuked the literature teacher for her endless and unbelievable comments against the school’s most talented.

Don’t worry; despite Viki’s best efforts to smash their self-esteem, they were given indescribable hope from RGT’s most loving judge, Baumgartner Judit. In addition, the witty yet, balanced judge - Kiss Norbert, also offered comfort to Viktória’s most masterfully destroyed victims.

There were three categories: music & song, drama and poetry. All three categories were thoroughly represented by artists from all grades and classes! There were pieces performed in Hungarian, English and German.

As chosen by the audience, there were three deserving winners, one for each category, honoured at the end of the evening by our presenters.

The level of talent displayed shocked all who came and instilled a loving gratitude within each of us. Not to mention, an inner excitement looking forward to RGT 2014, bring it on!

This year's event raised a whopping 14,000 HUF and will be used to support the team's upcoming mission to London and Aberdeen, UK.

The Refi Revolution team would like to thank everyone who took part and helped to make this event a success. That includes our amazing judges, presenters, performers, technical support, those strong boys that acted as removal men when preparing the stage and of course - the audience.

In addition, we would like to thank our head teacher, Szatmáriné Tóth-Pál Ildikó, for her continued support, allowing us to carry out such events. We would also like to give a special thanks to one of the hardest working members of our team, Szabó Viktória. This event would simply have been impossible without all her hard work, behind the scenes as much as on stage. Thank you.

Written by Aiysha Jebali

Should Christians be creative?

As Christians, can we be creative and glorify God?

Firstly, The Lord inspired me to share this with you after speaking on this topic at Sárospataki Református Kollégium Gimnáziuma’s bi-annual literary convention of 2013.

This event was an opportunity for talented young writers from local Hungarian Christian high schools to compete in the fields of poetry translation and short story writing from a given stimulus.

The subject of humans being creative is sometimes a grey area for many young Christians because it can easily be confused with ‘Christian bad words’ like idolatry and self-glorification. 

Many have asked the same question that I did at one time or another about whether or not our gifts are acceptable to God, whether or not we should use them and how to use them in an acceptable way.

For example, I love to dance! I love having a really deep rhythmical drum beat to get lost in and to dance until I drop to the floor with happiness and a feeling of being connected. 

However, when I first became a Christian, I was lead to believe, by some of my Christian friends, that dancing was taboo and unacceptable. It was a worldly hobby that real Christians do not yolk themselves with as it is ungodly and it only attracts the attention of the opposite gender…

I agree that it is very possible to attract attention through dance – but that is not its only purpose! 

Unfortunately though, as a new Christian, I did not have the Biblical knowledge to support what The Spirit told me. So, from then on I stopped dancing as much as possible because I didn’t want to offend other Christians and on top of that, I stopped dancing in front of most people, in general.

Time passed and I became acquainted with King David and so, I would like to tell you that not only can you dance for The Lord but you can create in any and every way for God.

Let’s take a look at how this world began, going right back to Genesis. The world came into existence because God said let it be so. The world was made because our Father created it. Then, if we look at how people came into being: Genesis 1:27

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 God made all of us in His image, both men and women. We are a small shadow-like reflection of Him. 

We cannot and never will be able to have and be everything that He is but each one of us can reflect a small part of His glory through the creativity that He gave us. 

Do you know what Adam’s first job was in the Bible? What was the first thing that God gave Adam to do? He called him to create names for all the animals and all the birds of the sky. It is clearly written in Genesis 2:19:

God didn’t tell Adam what to name them. He just took each animal to Adam “to see” what he would name them

So, Adam’s first task from God involved creativity. Can you imagine having to think of so many names for such a multitude of animals? Or, trying to remember them all after you finished naming them? It was no small task…

The other jobs given to Adam and indeed, Eve too were things like caring for the garden and nurturing all that God had created in it. They were the keepers of the garden and that involved decision making, planning, application and so on. These are all very much a part of the creative process and they were crucial to the keeping of God’s commands to them.

If we move forward and start thinking about what happened to God’s people after the fall, we can see that they were continuously expected by God to be creative. Although their works would never have the same value as they did in the garden – nonetheless, they continued to be creative as humans and they were regularly commanded to create, by God. For example, in Exodus 31:1-6:

<<< Now, this particular passage is overflowing with spiritual gold, in my opinion. There is just so much to work with here but I will try to pick out just a few of the main points:

1)      God carefully chooses and appoints people to be creative for His special purposes.

If He has given you a gift – he wants to use it for Him.

2)      In the description of the Spirit of God, we see what it means to have it. It means that if we have the Spirit of God – we can have His wisdom, understanding, knowledge and creativity. The scripture then lists a long but non exhaustive list of types of creativity that God wants this particular man to use.

He does the same with us. He chooses exactly how much of each type of gift to give to each individual. That’s why we have strengths in some areas and weaknesses in others.

3)      He doesn’t force Moses or Bezalel to do it all alone either. He says no, rest assured, I have also chosen others with strengths where you have weaknesses and they will help you complete my mission for you.

This tells us that God never tells us to do something that’s truly impossible. With God, all things are possible in His name. God prepares us and he prepares those around us to do all that He wants us to do. He empowers us and blesses our hand in ways beyond our imagination.

You see, God is the source of our creativity. 

We are just an imitation of Him and a mere glimmer of what He can do. Through us, He can show us how amazing He truly is. The things that we may say are impossible are as easy as tying your shoe laces for God.

It may be easy to say that these scriptures don’t apply to you or your gift because you are not a builder or a painter but believe me, you are an artist. 

You are an artist in whatever area of gifts He has chosen you to have.

Here, are some examples:

11)      Creative writing – there are many Christians that struggle with what or how to write, and if they have the right to write as ambassadors of God. If you want some fine examples of literary platinum or gold, read Songs of Solomon or the Psalms for some of the most exquisite poetry known to man. Then, if you are more into the imagery that can be built up through written codes, metaphors, symbols and so on – you will find no better than the book of Revelations! After reading just one chapter, you will need time to ponder the meat from it. Outside of the Bible, you have such writers as C.S Lewis who were called to write fiction and nonfiction.

22)      Music – we are continuously reminded to play loud exalting music for God. God loves music and being praised by it, that’s why he created so many instruments for us to build on them with musical genres – all of which can be used to glorify Him when used correctly and for His purpose. Look at Psalms 150:3-6:

“Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise Him with the harp and lyre, praise Him with the tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and pipe, praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with resounding cymbals.”

Almost every category of musical instrument is mentioned here and the genre in which we apply them is irrelevant – it is the state of our heart while using them to praise him that is of the truest importance.

33)      Singing – I have many Christian friends that loathe Churches that are a little louder or have people singing out at the tops of their voices. I absolutely disagree. Although, personally, I am not the best singer nor do I enjoy it as much as some – but we are commanded to sing with joy to our King. We are allowed to clap our hands as we sing praises to Him, so long as it is Him that we are clapping for. Look at Psalms 47:1:

“Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.”

44)      Dance – as I’ve mentioned, look at King David – He is truly inspirational in terms of his audacity when dancing. He danced in front of God, half dressed while crowds were gathered! And, to make matters worse - he was a King! He had certain expectations to live up to; there were just things that a royal should and shouldn’t do. His behavior was simply unacceptable and irresponsible according to many at the time. Miriam, a God fearing woman, was actually punished for her lack of faith in that situation.

I would also like to add that you shouldn’t pick a fight with God. Don’t argue with Him in regards to your gifts of creativity! 

He gave you these gifts for a purpose that He will reveal to you in the correct timing. 

Heed the scripture, “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker.” Isaiah 45:9

He knows best… Just praise Him in any and every way you can because of that fact! Praise Him with every fiber of your being because He is God alone!

Amen!

Written by Aiysha Jebali

English Feature Article - Recording studio in Scotland

"I'll bring you more than a song"

Meanwhile at the studio...

As I stepped out of the car in Tillydrone, on the outskirts of Aberdeen, Scotland and took one long look around us - I wasn't quite sure we had come to the right place.

A shattered white building stood in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. I certainly wouldn't have thought that that building would hold a fully equipped recording studio, nor that it was where one of the most exciting experiences of my 18 years would take place.

While on our first school relations team mission to the UK, Aiysha Jebali (our school's native speaking teacher), Gábor Tirpák (Refi student) and myself got the amazing opportunity to work in a recording studio for three days, rehearsing and finally recording two of our own songs, praising God.

The songs were written by Aiysha, with the piano accompaniment created by Gábor, our wonderfully talented musician, and I leant the vocals, after making the melody of the songs. 

In the first two days, we had four and a half hours at the studio which were just about rehearsing and fine- tuning the songs. They wanted us to "get comfortable" with the feel of the beautifully equipped and professional-looking studio.

Of course, we couldn't have done this alone; we had endless help from Tilly Youth Project’s vocal coach, Simon; their sound engineer, Ian; and a youth worker named Sean.

They took us through the whole rehearsing and recording process, step by step. They were kind, always enthusiastic and ready with some advice to help make the songs the best that they could be. Needless to say that we are very grateful for that! And, also for the occasional tea that they made for us, when our throats were getting sore!

The third day was recording day; although I can safely say that we were all a bit nervous, we had from 10am until half past 6 in the evening to calm our nerves and get both songs successfully recorded.

The piano was recorded first, then the vocals (which included singing and spoken word). We did about 3-4 takes of each, choosing the best ones at the end.

We were exhausted by the time we finished, but as we walked out of that shattered white building, there was a feeling of inexplicable joy in each of us.

It was a Joy that comes from experiencing the power and love of Christ through simple but beautiful things - such as, two songs that came from the inspiration of three very different, but divinely similar people.

This is the slideshow of our whole mission trip, with one of our songs as the backing track.

Us relaxing at Dunnotter, after a Blessed time at Tilly Youth Project

Written by Sandy Magyar
Edited by Aiysha Jebali