Fascinating History

We were so busy during language classes and this last week catching up on work, that I (Nancy) forgot to post about my field trip with our language class on January 17. Mike couldn't go on the trip since he was leading an INSTE seminar that day.
We stopped at several places that day in the Tokaj region of Hungary. I will describe the two I found most interesting. At the village of Szabolcs is what was described to us as the Earthworks. When the first Hungarian tribes came to the Carpathian basin in 895 and 896 AD, they were still mainly nomads. To protect the women and children while they were away, the men built these huge earthen walls to surround the camp. The walls, I guess about 30 feet tall and surrounding an area larger than a football field, survive to this day. We were able to walk on top and see the monument that was set there in 1895 to commemorate the thousand-year anniversary of the Magyars in Hungary.
The synagogue we visited in Tokaj was compelling. Actually, it is not now used as a synagogue, but as a community center. We were told that in the middle of the 1800's, many Jews fled persecution in Russia. Enough of them settled in Tokaj to build a large synagogue at the beginning of the 20th century. The Jews were welcomed in Tokaj and prospered as distributors of the famous wines made in the region. Then came the Nazis and World War II. The Jews were forced either to flee or be sent to concentration camps. The synagogue was abandoned. By the end of the war, there were not enough Jews who returned to be able to re-establish the synagogue and the building remained empty. After the communists left, funds were raised to renovate the building and, just a few years ago, money was received from the European Union to complete the project. Now this beautiful building is used for concerts, plays, dances and other meetings. To me it is a sad reminder of persecution of Jews around the world.

Life After Birth

During our two weeks of intensive language classes in January, we had one class period per day devoted to Hungarian literature, poetry and songs. Our teachers chose the simplest pieces for us to study and explained (in Hungarian, of course) the new words so we could understand the articles. Here is a loose translation of my favorite short story (okay, so I can’t really call it a translation. Let’s call it Nancy’s best guess as to what it says!) :

Living Word

by A. J. Christian

There is gold that doesn’t shine, roads you can’t walk on, seas that are not blue, and truth that cannot be grasped.

I heard this—please listen to this, too.

Two embryos were talking in their mother’s womb:

- Tell me, do you believe in life after birth?

- Of course. After birth comes life. Perhaps that is why we are here, to prepare us for what comes next.

- Pooh pooh! After birth there is nothing: no one comes back from there! And besides, what would it look like?

- I don’t know exactly, but I feel that there is light everywhere. And perhaps we will walk on our own legs and eat with our mouths.

- That’s crazy! Walking is impossible! And how can we eat with our mouths? How laughable! Besides, can’t you see the umbilical cord? If that is how we live now, think for a moment: it is impossible for there to be life after birth because the umbilical cord is too short.

- Yes, but I believe there surely must be something, something different, than the life we see now.

- You’re nuts. With birth comes the end of life, and that’s it.

- Look, I don’t know exactly what life will be like, but then the Mommy will help us…

- The Mommy? You believe in the Mommy?

- Yes.

- Don’t make yourself a laughing stock! Have you seen her? Has anyone seen her?

- No, but she is here all around us. We live in her. And surely we should thank her that we exist.

- I guess I’ll just have to leave you to your craziness, okay? I’ll believe in the Mommy when I can see her.

- You can’t see her, but if you are quiet, you can hear her song and feel her love. If you are quiet, you can feel her gentle touch and her caring hand.

The Semester Ends

We just finished another two weeks of language school. We had been placed in the advanced level class which means that we did not learn any new grammar, but the class focused on reinforcing what we already learned. Plus, there were a LOT of new words we were introduced to. We enjoyed our teachers (Thanks, Edit, Ági, Tamás, Szilvia, and Katalin!) and it was great to make new friends from around the world. Nancy and I did pass our test, but the true test is how well we will be able to use what we learned out in the community.

Here is our class. From left to right is: Katalin (one of our teachers), Helmut (Germany), Maria (Austria), Szilvia (teacher), Nancy, Ági (teacher), Edit (teacher), Mike, John (Ireland). Our day was divided into four classes- two in the morning and two in the evening. We had a different teacher for each class. We enjoyed each of them.


A couple of new friends we made during this course is Riikka Maijanen (on the right) and her daughter (Eriika) and grandson (Touko). Riikka and Eriika are from Lapland which is in the far northern part of Finland. With my Finnish heritage we naturally found a common bond.

Of course, Touko was the main attraction of the farewell dinner at the end of the two weeks. It is amazing how babies can be the center of attention without even trying.

New INSTE leaders

INSTE Leaders from Élet Gyülekezet l to r:
Konz Zoltán, Konz Ilona, Lamp Károly, Karap Irén, Bereczki Csaba,
Kiss János (not pictured- Pastor Kiss József)

Last Saturday, January 17, I conducted a seminar at the Élet Gyülekezet (Life Church) here in Debrecen. They are excited about using INSTE for discipling the members of their church, and we are very glad to be able to work with them. They already have several people signed up to take the first class, and plan on beginning with three groups next month. Pray for God to help the people of this congregation grow, and that we will see many, many lives changed!

(Note: remember as you read the names that Hungarians put the family name first, then the person's name.)

Winter Wonderland

The street just outside our apartment

The main building at the university

Nancy and a fellow student walking to class

Winter finally arrived in Debrecen. We have had periods of cold and a little snow, but when we woke up this morning we were welcomed by this beautiful covering of snow. This is the kind of winter I (Mike) enjoy.

We just finished our first week of the two-week language class and it is going very well. We are seeing an improvement in our ability to hear and speak the language. Along with the classes the school also provides field trips for the students. Tomorrow (Saturday) Nancy will be going on the trip to the northern part of Hungary where they will visit museums, a Synagogue, and a Cooper's workshop. She will provide pictures when she gets back.

Mike will not be going on the field trip, and will instead be conducting another INSTE leader training seminar. Another church in Debrecen is wanting to use INSTE to disciple their people, so Mike will be training 7 leaders who will be starting groups next month.

Pray for a blessed weekend for both of us.

We've finished the first two days of our two-week intensive language classes. Praise the Lord for answering prayer about our teachers and classmates. We have four teachers and each one is a very good teacher that we can (mostly) understand and learn from. Our classmates all seem to be on the same level as we are, which makes learning together so much easier. Praise the Lord! Please keep praying for us as the days are long and there is much to learn. Mike will be giving an INSTE leader seminar on Saturday, too.

More Language Classes

We begin another two-week intensive language course today. Actually, this afternoon all we do is register and take an oral placement test. Classes begin on Monday, eight sessions a day, equal to six clock hours in class per day. Please pray for us that we will have good teachers that work well with us, good classmates to interact with and that we will make a lot of progress in these two weeks. This is also an opportunity for us to touch many nations with the gospel. Pray that we will be able to share the good news of Jesus Christ and that the Holy Spirit will open the hearts of our teachers and classmates to receive the gospel.

First Year Anniversary!

One year ago today we arrived in Hungary. (This is Pastor Misi Gulyas meeting us at the airport.) The year has gone quickly and well. We have made a lot of adjustments, learning Hungarian culture and language, meeting new friends and getting settled in the country. I must admit it has been stressful at times, but not as difficult as I had imagined. God has been so very good to us.

We thank the Lord for...
--the many new friends he has given us. Some speak English, some do not. Many are believers, some are not yet. So many of our friends have helped us in countless ways in getting settled into the country. They have helped us get our paperwork finished, make contacts with other people, find places to shop and get our hair cut and in general just make us feel at home.
--the progress we have made in our Hungarian language learning. We have read that it takes seven years to become fluent in Hungarian and some missionary friends we know told us they could share the gospel on their own only after three years. So, even though we would like to be proficient communicators already, we are very happy that we can communicate on a basic level already.
--INSTE progress. We are so happy to have two INSTE groups in two different churches almost finished with the first book already! And there are leaders trained and being trained next week who may be starting up to five groups in their churches later this winter! How wonderfully God is working! We know it is God at work since our abilities are so limited right now.
--the wonderful support we have from home. Vince McCarty, Delores Winegar and Julie Patton in the Open Bible International Ministries office have been so very helpful. And all of our supporters have been so faithful in donating toward INSTE in Hungary and in praying for us. We thank you all.

Now starts Year Two. We can't wait to see what God has in store for us, for INSTE and for Hungary this year.

Cold, Snow and Heat

We finally got some snow here, just about an inch of light, fluffy stuff. And it got cold, too, with lows around -1o Celsius (about 12 degrees F). So now it officially feels like winter.
Most people here heat with natural gas that is piped in from Russia. The pipes run through Ukraine and that is causing a lot of news now. Ukraine is in a dispute with their natural gas supplier in Russia. Ukraine claims that they paid their bill but the Russian company says they still owe late fees and so has cut off the supply of gas to Ukraine. That was not supposed to affect the European countries that receive their gas from the same pipeline, but many countries including Poland, Romania and Hungary have had their gas flow reduced by up to 30 percent. (Hungary's gas flow has been reduced by 20 percent.) So, the Russians claim that Ukraine is siphoning off gas, causing the supply to fall. Thankfully, there are gas reserves and other gas suppliers available to the European countries so the heat is still on. And we thought our neighbors were kidding when they said there is firewood stored in the basement in case the Russians cut off our gas!

The Hungarian name for New Year's Eve is Szilveszter (Sylvester) after the name day (Every name has a special day assigned to it so people celebrate their name day as well as their birthday). This day usually is a workday. After working people prepare for the night. They spend the last night of the year with their friends having a good time. The traditional dishes of this night are cold pork in aspic, wienerwurst with horseradish or mustard and poppy-seed and nut roll which remained from Christmas, after midnight roast pig. In the morning after a heavy drinking they eat cabbage soup. At midnight people open their champagne and stand up and sing the Hungarian national anthem. (This begins as a prayer: 'God bless Hungarians with high spirits and wealth...') After that on the New Year's Day people greet together with BUEK, (Boldog Új Évet Kivánok) that means 'Happy New Year'.

So how did we spend New Year's Eve? The Shalom Open Bible Church here in Debrecen had a special meeting. About 18 of us gathered at 8 pm in the church fellowship/kitchen area. We began with some worship and sharing from the Word of God. This was followed by food, lots of it and plenty of fantastic desserts. After everyone was finished eating we played games. We divided into teams and played a sort of Bible trivia pursuit, which was difficult for Nancy and me because it was entirely in Hungarian. We did participate and were able to help answer some of the questions. It was good practice for us.

At midnight everyone stood as they sang the Hungarian national anthem, then they had Nancy and me sing the American national anthem (don't ask us to open any baseball games). This was followed by everyone greeting each other with a kiss on both cheeks and saying "Boldog Új Évet Kivánok".

Nancy and I left shortly after that and on the walk home we could hear many, many people out in the streets cheering and having fun with their neighbors and friends. We could also see the many fireworks going off in each neighborhood. It seemed that just about every block had someone who was setting off fireworks, and I'm not talking just firecrackers or little bottle rockets. These were some pretty large rockets. The night was cold and cloudy and you could see the sky lit up with mini explosions all over the city. It was pretty, but I couldn't help but think that this may be what a war zone might look like during a night-time raid with the explosions and flashes of light.

We did make it home safely having thoroughly enjoyed our first New Year's celebration in Hungary, and are planning on doing absolutely nothing today. We do pray that 2009 will bring you deeper in your understanding and experience of God's love (Eph. 3:17-19).