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?

Thank You, Lord Jesus for Gifts We Don't Deserve But Dearly Treasure!

Little Paxton almost died.

I suppose it was a good thing that our communication wasn't good enough to know this at the time. I'm not sure I could have slept here in Budapest if I'd known..

• Paxton's pediatrician said she'd never seen such a severe case of croup in her 20 years of practice.
• She insisted he be taken from her office to the hospital in an ambulance.
• Paxton started retracting in the ambulance and the paramedics didn't have what was needed to save him.
• They were slow in getting the correct treatment when he arrived at the emergency room.
• My daughter saw fear and alarm on the faces of the nurses and paramedics.
• They discovered his breathing tube had narrowed to the size of a pin.
• For more than a day he was treated with the strongest steroids they use for such problems.

We're thanking God for the gift of Paxton and more time with him here on earth. And we're thanking God for your prayers.

Love,
Paxton's Grammy

Over the Hill and Over the Ocean...

Well, it feels like we're over the hill...We've never had so much trouble adjusting our time clocks. We've had a few regular nights of sleep, but we still aren't to normal yet. 

This is our living room/bedroom/office/dining room. Notice all the IKEA furniture?

But it's good being here in Budapest again...seeing all the familiar sights and sounds...we love this city!   Our tram rode by the Jewish memorial the other day...small sculptures resembling shoes placed along the Danube where Jews were tied together, shot and thrown to their deaths...

The kitchen

We hope to start thinking about ministry next week. I have appointments with several people. On Friday I'll be meeting with a woman to talk about a Hungarian Bible Love Notes. And Michael should start working with Campus Crusade in the public schools this week too.  Please pray for those ventures.

The front door to our building

Smart car parking on our street

We've got our little flat cleaned and set up. It's 49 square meters (a little less than 530 square feet) but nice and modern. The kitchen and frig are bigger than the one we had when we lived here full time... and this kitchen has a dishwasher, which we didn't have when we lived her...well we actually had two dishwashers, but they weren't electric.

Of course, those of you who know me know a kitchen isn't too important to me..."The only reason I have a kitchen is because it came with the house."

My sweet husband carried this carpet home on the tram. It is so much nicer than the wood floors in the flat and it was cheap.

Andy Anderson

On the same floor of our building we are neighbors to Andy Anderson. He and his wife Phyllis started the Budapest Christian library. Phyllis passed away last year, and Andy comes back to Budapest to distribute books to reading rooms throughout Hungary.  Now remember how I was saying Michael and I are feeling we're a little over the hill since we're in our 60's? Well, Andy told me today at lunch that he's 81! He's an amazing guy! 

Chocolate rolls, one of Michael's favorite high-carb treats

PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Baby Pax. Our first prayer request is for our little grandson, Pax. He's currently in the hospital with croup and a very constricted windpipe. Hard being so far away and knowing he's ill and we can't help.

2. My health.  Please pray for my overall health. thanks.

3. God Opportunities. Please pray that Michael and I will take advantage of every opportunity God has prepared in advance for us (Ephesians 2:10).

4. Please pray for Merrill Davis' eye. Carol and Merrill plan to return to ministry in Budapest in a couple of weeks (they'll also be our floor mates) but  Merrill has again lost his vision despite recent eye surgery.


Praising God for SKYPE so we can keep in touch with Mom and Dad Purath!  We'd love a call from the rest of you as well. Our internet goes in and out, but we've still been able to use it for calls.

Thanks so much all of you who subscribed to keep track of us and pray for us on this 3 month adventure. We miss you and love you all! 

Under the camera (don't tell my nephew) is the tiny suitcase.

OK, for those of you who are still reading...I have to tell you that I had the most FUN morning at the Budapest flea market. Years ago I saw these cute, cute, cute little suitcases made during communism and I tried to find one to own the whole time we lived here. I would see them at craft booths as part of the display, never for sale. But today I found one! Hooray! Plus I got a neat gift for my nephew and a figurine to represent Ansley in my granddaughter figurine collection!  And yesterday I found a stacking doll with 10 dolls in it at a second hand shop for $10.  Little blessings from God : )

If This is Tuesday, It Must Be Budapest!

We're here...but our time clocks are still confused...and yes, I know it's actually Wednesday, not Tuesday. But we lost a day, you see. This is us in our elevator (there's a mirror on one side). OK, I know it's a silly picture, but remember I'm jet lagged!

An Irishman bought the roof of this building and built the sixth floor and put in the elevator...it's quite nice, glass on two sides.

Our friend, Andy Anderson, arrived last month and is staying on the same floor. He put fresh flowers and chocolates in our room as a welcome! Really nice to see him again and we look forward to seeing more of him in the next few months. Andy distributes Christian books throughout Hungary to set up reading rooms, and he may set up a reading room on our floor.

We've done all the routine things thus far:  Got our public Transportation passes--$50 a month for each of us now. It was half that when we got our first ones in 2005, but still a good deal.  Michael is standing in front of one of the main train stations, about a block from our flat.

We went to Auchen, sort of our Walmart here except they are run by the French and I think they have good pastries and breads. That enormous loaf of bread next to Michael's hand costs $4.

We finally got our little flat arranged today. Had to clean things up a bit.  Above is a before picture.

This is a picture looking out of our bedroom/living room window. We're on the fifth floor (which means the sixth floor because Europeans don't count the ground floor).

Here's a picture looking out our bathroom window.  Can you see the pigeons...not my favorite bird.

Sorry, no ministry news...we're still just getting our minds and bodies settled in. Thanks for the prayers. I'm a mixture of feelings--lovin it, wonderin why we're here when we have such a comfortable home in NC, excited for whatever God has in mind, getting used to no car and no Panera : )

But God continually amazes me with His goodness to us!!

What Are the Puraths Doing Anyway?

In front of our apartment building (same one this year)

So many friends have asked how they can keep up with us while we are in Budapest, so I'm inviting you to subscribe to our family blog for the next 3 months...it's easy to unsubscribe after that.


 I hope to post at least once a week while we are in Budapest (September 12-December 6).


So, if you think you'd like weekly updates on our trip, subscribe using the FEEDBURNER tool on the right sidebar.
But be sure to confirm the subscription--you'll get a FEEDBURNER email in your box as soon as you subscribe. If you don't validate that email, it won't go through.


Thanks!
Gail