Dear Friends,

At Charlotte U.S.O. on our way out

Those of you who subscribed to receive our Hungarian ministry posts last year are still on our list, so I'm sending this year's updates as well. If you don't want them, simply unsubscribe. Thanks!

We still aren't over jet lag, but we've had a busy 5 days in country. 

our economy flight home for the 8 hours flight

Tuesday when we arrived, we stayed in a flat in Budapest.

Then we drove (yes! we are using a car) to Tapolca and started living in Shaun and Sondi's farmhouse. 
 

The 100 year old farm house in Hegyesd near Tapolca

The surroundings are lovely, and even though we have no invited farm animals, we have some bugs who visit regularly and the neighbor's dog often barks us a serenade for hours during the middle of the night...yes, hours...and they're doing construction on the house, so sometimes the hum of drills drowns out the chirp of the crickets. But we're comfortable and happy to be here.

I'm trying to keep up with my blog tasks which takes me many hours every week, but I love it.  Just hard staying awake at times.

Gail with the English Club beginners

Had our first English Club Thursday evening and remembered many of the students from last year. They were friendly and welcoming. 
 

Michael with the intermediate class

The lesson was on "Languages" and I gave a devotion I've given before on how God confused languages at Babel and how He uses language to speak to us. It's titled "Caffeine-free or Extra Espresso" because of an incident I had in a Hungarian coffee shop.


I think the students enjoyed the devotion but their favorite part was when I told about Michael ordering mayonnaise in a German restaurant and receiving a glass of schnapps instead.

Tapolca City Center...isn't it beautiful? The water is fed through an underground spring so it stays 68 degrees all year.

I also prepare snacks for the English Clubs and I fear they will miss Sondi's homemade goodies...I have so much to do that mine will mostly be store bought.  This week there will be no Tuesday teen English Club because of May Day, but that will be a part of our duties after that.

It's  a holiday weekend here...May Day...used to be a Communist holiday, but they celebrate it anyway without any Communist trimmings.  

Magdolna and Ava were great tour guides.

Today (Saturday) a Hungarian pastor and his wife who we knew in Budapest came to Tapolca to lead a Bible study. Then two of the Hungarian ladies who attended showed us around Tapolca afterwards.

This was our view at the evening concert.

In the evening we ended up eating from a snack stand and listening to Beatle's music sung by a Hungarian band in the city center which is built on a lake (May Day festivities). The band wasn't bad, and a crowd of teens especially got into "Vee all leeve in a yallo submareene."

We are still tired and our days appear to be mostly unplanned divine interruptions, which is good for us. Keeps us flexible.

Our biggest prayer request is that we do everything with God's strength and quality...our lists are long with lesson plans and devotions and fellowship and keeping up with my blogs and just getting settled in.  Thanks for praying. Bless you all!

Tapolca, English Clubs, and a Little Whining

It was a 4 hour train ride and we had to change trains. One conductor was so helpful that he put us on on the wrong train so we ended up changing trains twice instead of once, but the train rides are enjoyable now that they've made most cars non-smoking.

Thursday: took the train to Tapolca (taw poltsa)

 Stayed at the home of Shaun and Sondi (shon-dee) Carlaw. Shaun is Canadian and Sondi is Hungarian, and they have 3 active bilingual boys, Kelen (7), David (6) and Adam (2).  

They are renting this old farmhouse, much of which is unfinished. All 5 share the same bedroom.

Shaun and Sondi previously directed a successful English Club for  evangelism outreach in Budapest, but felt called to go to one of the unchurched areas of Hungary. 

They moved to Tapolca in September and already have 20 participants in their English Clubs.

They had hoped others would join them, but right now they are on their own and they miss regular fellowship.

Although it was freezing out, we took a quick walk on Lake Balaton, the largest Lake in central Europe, located close to Tapolca. This swan came so close and was so beautiful. The part of its body in the water was about 4 foot long.

They were excited that we cared enough to come and check out what they are doing, and they are praying we will be able to come back and help them some more.

 

I could tell Michael has been doing English conversation in the public schools because he did a great job leading the discussion that evening. He even managed to side-step one woman's attempts to get into American politics. Shaun asked me to give the devotion, and I shared a true story that allowed me to talk about common misunderstandings about salvation.

Friday: Almost missed the 4pm train from Tapolca because Sondi wanted us to take home made muffins!                                                             Sunday: spent all day in fellowship with young people from Golgota church, first at a Scottish pub/restaurant and next at a birthday party for a 76 year old Hungarian woman who had fled Budapest in 1956 after participating in the revolution against the Russians.                                                                                 The picture to the right: Heidi from Ashville hosted the birthday party.

Monday: Michael helped all day with public school ministry

Tuesday (tomorrow): One of the students asked Michael to meet him after school and a single missionary asked to meet me for coffee and prayer in the late afternoon.

Thursday: We take another train trip to Tapolca to help with English Clubs. Michael will give the devotion.

We made an unexpected stop at Ukk (ughk)

I'm homesick and looking forward to a clothes dryer. Even with a fan, we've had trouble with clothes drying too slowly and smelling sour : (   It's really cold right now....brrrr....down in the 20's at night. I'm weary and looking forward to NC weather, reliable internet, my own bed, my ice-maker, and my grandchildren.  

I know...I'm whining.

God is good, all the time.

But I'm not!

The Streets of Budapest Don't Let Me Pretend

A woman passed out drunk in a store doorway

The streets of Budapest don’t let you pretend.
They force you to think.

Last week I saw an old man shuffling slowly, painfully toward a small grocery. I’d almost passed him when I heard him mumble something in Hungarian.

I wasn’t sure what he’d said, but I went back, opened the door for him and held out my hand to help him up the single step. But the store clerk, obviously annoyed with the man, whisked past me and in Hungarian asked him “One or two?”

passed out oblivious to the day time world

He handed her some money and never entered the store. I think the step was too much for him to manage. I imagine he frequented the store to buy cheap bottles of liquor or cigarettes.

As I moved back into the street past the old man, his stench—alcohol, sweat, and urine—filled my nostrils.

I am frequently confronted with such sights, sounds and smells on the streets of Budapest.

Don’t get me wrong, Budapest is a beautiful city when you’re a tourist. You can spend a week in the city and avoid such sights if you take what I call the “Oprah Tour.” I coined this phrase after hearing she’d visited the city.

• I imagine she never got on a crowded communist-looking metro car or city bus with mysterious black smudges on her seat. 
• Her limo probably sped by the men sleeping under piles of filthy blankets in the doorways of closed businesses. 
• I imagine she never saw the cold concrete structures that house most of the population. 
• I don’t suppose she had to step around small puddles of urine on the sidewalk or fresh vomit on the curb.
• I doubt she was accosted by a Gypsy woman who demanded she give her money and spit curses her way when she didn’t.
• I doubt she saw the blind or maimed people who sometimes stand with hands outstretched at busy intersections. 
• She doesn’t know about the old woman in front of the patika (pharmacy) who asked if I could help buy her medicine or the old man in the market who asked if I’d buy him some apples.
• Enjoying the fine hotel restaurant, she probably never imagined how many would be rummaging through the hotel’s trashcans for crumbs of her discarded food. 

This fellow is sleeping about a block from our flat

It’s not Oprah’s fault. She only sees one side of the city. I don’t have her excuse.

The streets of Budapest don’t let me pretend. They force me to think.

Why is this crippled old man feeding his addictions on the streets? Is he a lazy, selfish old bum? Or did he take a stand against Communist oppressors forty years ago and end up lame and broken for his courage?

I’ll never know, but there’s One who knows, and He calls me to show compassion.

I admit that sometimes my nostrils can’t stand the smell and my eyes want to look away. My heart begins to get hard at times when the needy are rude, pushy and unlikeable, and I have to pray for God to soften me. Sometimes I long for my nice neighborhood in the States where I can pretend people like this don't exist.

We saw this fellow about 2 minutes after the one above

The streets of Budapest don’t let me do that.
They force me to hear and see and smell and think.

Pray that Michael and I will think God's thoughts as we walk the streets of Budapest.
Thanks!

Blogs, Visitors, Fellowship, Opportunities

Monday I had a great day working on the blog with Marta. This weekend Marta and I got some info sent out and we have 22 subscribers to A szeretet üzenete thus far. Please pray that more women will hear about this Hungarian version of Bible Love Notes and subscribe before our start up date of November 1st. 

Take a look at the blog and our new facebook page: A szeretet üzenete. You can "like" it if you want, but it will put the Hungarian posts on your feed, so you might not want to do that unless you'd like them as reminders to pray for the ministry.

Nyugati Train Station which is right across the street from where we live.

Michael finished two weeks with Campus Crusade's public school English classes last week, and they took a break this week. Now CCC will only go into the classes twice a week, and Michael plans to help with that when he can.

Can you see the four men painting at the top of this building.  The woman on the ground is sending up buckets of paint.

I meet with Edina (Ann, Pam and Greg will remember her because she translated for some of our meetings last year and for our meeting with Father Placid) on Monday. She is sort of a "consultant" for A szeretet üzenete. She won't have time to translate since she is teaching school full time, but she can help me make sure we're off to a good start. And I'll meet with Marta again on Thursday as she continues to translate various sections of the blog and the devotions. This week my project for her is to translate the FEEDBURNER notice into Hungarian so Hungarians who subscribe will get understand the directions instead of having to figure out the English.

Not sure what it's for, but it looked like a good place to take a photo! : )

We had a nice time of fellowship with the Thursday evening fellowship from Golgota and Jakub (who worked with Michael in the public schools) insisted we go out to supper afterward with him (at 9:30pm...European supper time). I can tell he really likes Michael and is excited he'll have more chance to interact with him.

At dusk with the lights of Parliament glowing yellow

Friday we had a wonderful visit with Kim and Janna who were returning from a week of ministry in Romania with formerly homeless elderly people. Their ministry is really neat. If you want to read about it, go to Elder Orphan Care.  Our friend Andy Anderson put them up in style and was a wonderful host! We are blessed to have him as a neighbor. (He has extra bedrooms and we are in a studio flat). And I know Kim and Janna enjoyed Andy's company.

Hungarian paprika everywhere!

It was such a pleasure to have them here for the day and a half because they were more interested in getting a feel for our lives here than for seeing the sites. Janna wanted to go to Ariba our "Budapest Panera" and they enjoyed seeing our flat. 

We spent a lot of time visiting...hearing their stories and sharing ours.  It was special to have someone interested in our lives here and special to hear about their ministry.

Mmmmm....hummus, felafel, eggplants.....Not Michael's cup of tea.  But they did have chicken too.

Market after Sunday lunch

And today we had a great time of fellowship after church with the Golgota crowd. Much to Michael's chagrin, we went to a hummus bar, but the fellowship is what counts. And I loved the food myself...maybe I'll even be able to drag Michael back. On the way home we ran into a lovely little street market in the Jewish section of Budapest with nice, but pricey handicrafts.  It was fun to look.  Every street in Budapest is an adventure.


Please pray for us. My health continues to be a challenge at times, but we are enjoying the opportunities here and enjoying the city. I have a couple of opportunities to meet with and pray with some women here, so pray about those opportunities too.

Blessings on all of you for asking to be on our blog updates, for thinking of us and praying for us.  Gail

October In Budapest

Can't believe that on Tuesday we will have been in Budapest 3 weeks...as Michael always says, "Time flies when you're having fun."

We hope we are over jet lag.

Our weather has been summery...high 70's and 80's ever since we've been here--not typical for Budapest.

Yesterday we ate outdoors at Marcello's, one of our favorite restaurants and walked along the Danube afterward. Beautiful Saturday.

This last week, Michael helped Campus Crusade for Christ in the public schools, doing English conversation in English classes and then meeting with students after school at Allee, a new mall near where we used to live. It's really something...Budapest is definitely changing. This mall is gorgeous...but many of the stores are overpriced for the average Hungarian (and for us too!).  

One of the CCC workers, Jakob (yaw-cob) is from Slovakia and he's a really nice young man. Michael will be working with Jakob again this week in the public school ministry. Tuesday they'll be in an all-boys school. The other days they'll be in a regular public school.

Allee Mall. I took this picture from the food court.

On Friday I met with Marta, the woman who has been translating some of my Bible Love Notes into Hungarian.  She and I started a Hungarian Love Notes site which we hope to launch November 1st after putting the word out and getting subscriptions started.  

Please take a look at the site A szeretet üzenete if you haven't already. And have you become a member on Bible Love Notes? I'd appreciate you doing that, if you haven't.

Sometimes I have to refresh the browser several times for the followers button ("join this site") to come in. THIS IS NOT A SUBSCRIPTION...but it makes BLN site look more robust and attracts more readers. Thanks!

Our Church delay!

On our way to church this morning, we encountered a road block....a Budapest marathon. We couldn't cross the street until all of the runners passed, so we got to church late. 

In the church lobby a German girl we'd met at our small group called us over to visit. As we were visiting, a Croatian man came in and asked if we could assist him. He was in a bike accident and needed 15 euros for a train ticket home to Croatia. One of the church staff talked with him and gave him the money he needed.  He only asked for the exact amount he needed. He even gave the church leader change when he handed him a bill that was approximately $5 over the amount.

We asked if we could pray with him, found out he hadn't eaten since the previous night and took him to get something to eat. 

Our Croatian friend...please pray that this man gets home safely and is impacted by the love and concern he experienced from Golgota church. I asked him if we could take his picture to remind us to pray for him, and he seemed pleased with the idea.

After church we went to lunch with 6 friends and visited with Heidi for several hours afterward. Those of you who were with our team last year will remember Heidi (from Asheville, NC). She's doing fine, always a pleasure to be around.


Thanks for your prayers!

holding my fresh figs

BTW: I bought two fresh figs from a little old man on the street because I felt sorry for him.  Anyone know what you do with fresh figs?