Mark Home From Iraq

We just heard from our son Mark. It was great to hear his voice for the first time in six months. He just arrived at Fort Riley in Kansas from his tour in Iraq. Praise the Lord! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him and for all our soldiers.
Mark has resigned from the Army and will be officially discharged on July 1. He has already signed up for the Montana National Guard in the hopes of being able to spend more time at home with his wife and one-year-old son. Mark and Nadine are making their home in Billings, Montana.
Welcome home, Mark!

Things Hungarian IV

There are some really cool buildings here in Debrecen. Here are a couple of pictures of streets near the city center. Some of these are being torn down now, though, to build new apartment buildings. What a shame!

Weekend

We just had a very busy but great weekend. Friday after language class we went with Michael Gulyas to a small village not far from Debrecen. Louis Zapata, the evangelist from Argentina, was there holding meetings in the town hall. The place was packed. The preaching was in Spanish and translated into Hungarian. I (Nancy) was a little overwhelmed. I picked up a few of the Spanish words (I took Spanish in high school) and then I picked up a few more words in Hungarian. Some things matched and some things didn't. Maybe I misunderstood the Spanish word. Maybe I misunderstood the Hungarian word. Maybe the translator used another way of saying things than what I expected. Maybe all three! But the most exciting part of the service was when the altar call was given and more people than I could count came forward for salvation. Praise God!

We were encouraged on Friday by signs that our Hungarian is improving. We were able to communicate before the service with a Hungarian brother and learn a little about his six daughters. Then after the service, we were able to give directions to the Hungarian ladies who gave us a ride home, even if those directions were only "turn right," "turn left," and "follow the tram line."

Saturday we attended the International Church service here in Debrecen. It was another blessed service. The guest speaker was a pastor of a church here in town. That sermon was given in Hungarian and translated into English and was followed by a wonderful worship time.

Sunday we went with Michael Gulyas and a couple other men to an independent church in Budapest. Michael Gulyas preached and Mike shared a few minutes in that service about INSTE. We were encouraged by the response from many people interested in INSTE. This service, too, was followed by an extended time of ministry, so we did not leave the church until almost two o'clock. Our hosts took us to a restaurant where we ate and talked for about three hours. (People stay as long as they wish in Hungarian restaurants. No one is given the bill until they ask for it.) By the time we got home, it was getting late and we were tired from our long day, but happy to see God at work in Hungary.

Romanian Trip

Yesterday we went with Tammy to Oradia, Romania, to check on the INSTE group and the translation work being done there. The work is going well and when we were done, we had time to stop by the piac (farmer's market) and buy some meat and cheese for our lunch. We ate these outside since it was a beautiful day. On the way back, we took a picture of a stork in its nest in a Hungarian village. No, they don't bring babies, but they sure look big enough to carry them!

Police and Tammy

If you've been keeping up with Tammy Swailes on her blog, tswailes.blogspot.com, you know she has had a few encounters with police. We thought that when we were with Tammy that police would not be a problem, but then we ran into this officer. This is actually one of several statues at the Route 66 American restaurant Tammy introduced to us this week while she was in Hungary. We enjoyed a burger and fries, club sandwich and fajitas. This officer looks real mean, though, doesn't he?

Things Hungarian III

One thing we're getting used to is Hungarian money. Hungarians still use the forint, but will eventually switch over to the Euro. Bills come in 20,000, 10,000, 5,000, 2,000, 1,000, 500 and 200 denominations with pictures of Hungarian kings and in a lot of pinks and blues. Coins come in 100, 50, 20, 10, and 5 values. We have to remember to look closely at the money when we use it. The other day the total at the grocery store came to 4,000 forint. Nancy handed the cashier a bill and she gave her a funny look, repeating "4,000 forint." Nancy had given her a 1,000 forint bill instead of the 10,000 bill she thought she had. She had to make the whole line behind her wait while she fished through her purse for the correct currency.
When we came in January, 1 forint and 2 forint coins were still being used. We were in church one Sunday when there was some sort of announcement about the coins that we didn't fully understand. The English-speaking friend sitting by us said that we weren't to use 1's and 2's anymore but to bring them to the church. We thought it was a fund drive kind of like collecting pennies, but we found out that on the first of March, those coins were being discontinued. Banks would still accept them for a short time, so everyone in the church donated their leftover coins for the church to redeem. Now the total at the store is rounded up or down to the nearest five forints.
We are constantly asking each other, "What is that in dollars?" to get a feel for what something costs in more familiar terms. The exchange rate now is about 160 forints for each dollar, but the exchange rate changes constantly, so items can be more expensive or less expensive for us as the exchange rate goes up or down.
Since Hungary is a part of the European Union, they will be switching to Euros in the next few years. Our language school prices are already listed in Euros, so we figure that cost at the Euro exchange rate! Please pray that the value of the dollar goes up before we pay for our next language course!
One more interesting thing about Hungarians and money--many if not most Hungarians use cash to pay their bills. A bill comes in the mail and the customer takes the bill to the post office and pays it in cash there. Companies make arrangements with the post office to receive payments for their bills. You can pay all your bills together with cash at once if you want. The trick is to find a time when the lines at the bill-pay windows are not long!

Things Hungarian II

Debrecen has many main streets with several lanes for traffic and wide sidewalks. However, side streets are another story. These are pictures of the sidewalks we use to walk to and from the tram stop. The picture without Mike is the street in front of our apartment. We can walk side by side on the first sidewalk, but on our street, the sidewalk is definitely single file. Many of the streets near our apartment that have a little more traffic are one-way since they are so narrow. This includes the street to the cukrazda, but we (and many others) make it there to eat cake anyway!

Things Hungarian

We've discovered some things since we moved here that remind us that we are "not in Kansas anymore." Of course, the language is one of the most obvious, but there are many other things that we enjoy observing. One of the these is the pride and pleasure many Hungarians get out of growing things. Hungary has been blessed with fertile soil and good growing conditions, so we see many small yards packed with plants of all kinds. Even people in apartments make full use of their windows and balconies to grow plants in containers. Here are some pictures of our neighbors' trees and the garden we can see from our kitchen window. These neighbors have fruit trees, grape vines and what appears to be the beginnings of an extensive vegetable garden in their small yard.