More Travels

Wednesday morning we will be flying from Budapest to Barcelona, Spain. We will spend a couple of days vacation touring the city, then head down the coast to attend the Open Bible Convention in Benicasim. It will be good to visit family (Nick & Leona Venditti) and friends (Tammy Swailes, and Don and Margaret Smith), as well as meet our Spanish Open Bible family. Pray for safe travel, good weather, and an anointed convention.

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year we invited some of the people who are currently helping us learn Hungarian. They are (from the left) Piroska, a retired German language professor who is Nancy's language partner, Mirjam, our private tutor, Eva, our neighbor and landlady who once or twice a month goes out with Nancy for lunch and conversation, Mike, Anna, our neighbor and optometrist who occasionally goes on walks with Nancy and helps her with her Hungarian, Istvan, Eva's husband, and Balazs, a graduate student and Mike's conversation partner.

The conversation over dinner was almost all in Hungarian. The two of us listened more than we talked, but we understood almost all of what was said.

Nancy cooked a fairly traditional American Thanksgiving meal including turkey (just turkey breast since the oven is too small for a whole turkey), dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes (sent from America by our son and daughter-in-law) and apple pie. Everyone said they enjoyed the American food. The only food that wasn't enjoyed by some was the sweet potatoes. But, Nancy doesn't like sweet potatoes, either.

We went around the table and shared what we are thankful for and we got to share how good God is to all of us. As they left, everyone said they enjoyed sharing this American traditon with us.

The evening was topped off by connecting through Skype with all our kids in the US. God is so good to us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Adjatok hálát az Úrnak, mert jó.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

A Very Busy November

The month of November was very busy for us. Below are a few pictures to show you where we went and what all we have been doing.

Thursday, November 12- We were asked to minister to a home prayer group in a village called Bagamér. This is a village about 40 kilometers east of Debrecen. Nancy sang, I shared from the Bible and we all prayed together. In the picture you can see the four ladies from the prayer group, Nancy and myself, and Misha Tovtin who helps me a lot with translation. Robert Szabó, a leader at the Shalom Open Bible Church in Debrecen, was also present. He took the picture.


Sunday, November 15 we ministered again at Örömhir Misszió (Good News Mission) in Budapest. This is one of the churches that has an INSTE group. God really blessed in the service that morning. We minister in this church quite regularly and have some very dear friends there.

Friday, November 20 we went to Oradea, Romania where we attended a prayer group that meets in the home of a friend of ours. Several people came after this picture was taken, and we ended up with about 30 people who gathered to pray for the churches, the city and for specific needs of the individuals. Our friends said that it is not unusual for them to have 60-70 people coming each Friday evening.

Here we are with six of the Romanian INSTE students who are studying in Oradea. They are excited about INSTE and how it has already helped them to grow spiritually and to strengthen their faith.

We left Oradea and traveled to Gherla, Romania to spend the weekend with John and Nelly Pop, who are the pastors of the Open Bible church there. We ministered to their congregation (seen above) that Sunday morning, and again God blessed and touched lives. They have also begun using INSTE in their church and are excited about the growth they are seeing already in the students. They are planning on starting new groups next year in the church in Gherla as well as the surrounding villages where they minister. Below is a picture of the INSTE students in Gherla with Nelly Pop (second from the left) as their leader.

Monday, November 23 on our way back from Gherla, we stopped in Cluj, Romania at the Starbucks in their new mall to meet with a pastor and talk about INSTE (see picture below). We were speaking English with a Hungarian pastor in an American coffee shop in Romania about INSTE- talk about an international experience!

This Sunday, November 29 Mike will also preach at the Shalom Open Bible Church here in Debrecen. Pray for God's anointing upon this service as well.

We have had a busy month with a lot of traveling. We are a bit tired physically, but God has blessed us and has ministered through us. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers. And we ask that you continue to pray for these churches, home groups and INSTE students!

Back from Romania

We arrived back home from Romania this afternoon. The trip was tiring, but great. What powerful services we had! And the fellowship was wonderful in languages both understood and not understood. GGS (God's Guidance System) worked great--we didn't get lost once. We'll post some pictures soon.

Travels

Friday we head out for Romania. We will be staying just across the border in Oradea with some friends and attending their Friday evening prayer meeting. They have been asking us to come for a loooong time, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to do that. We will also be bringing their daughter who is attending college in Debrecen with us.

Saturday, we head out from there to Gherla to spend the weekend with John and Nelly Pop who pastor the Open Bible Church there. Mike will be preaching in the church Sunday morning. Then, on Monday on our return trip, we will stop in the city of Cluj and visit with a pastor about the possibility of using INSTE in their church. This is a large Hungarian church in Romania, so it would be good if we can work with them in helping them in their leadership training.

This will be the first trip crossing the border on our own, so we ask for your prayers for wisdom and guidance; for safe travels; for God to open doors and for a blessed weekend. Thanks!

Good Weekend

We had an AWESOME service in Budapest yesterday where Mike preached. God touched many lives. Afterwards, we had lunch with the church leaders, then drove two and a half hours back to Debrecen. We arrived in time to go to supper at our neighbors with great food and good fellowship (we laughed a lot). We were full both physically and spiritually!

In answer to your question...

We've been asked, "What is it like living in a foreign land?" Well, it's exciting, scary, interesting, confusing and fun all at the same time.

It's exciting to eat new foods like fruit soup and "fatty bread" and to see new sights like the Danube River and the famous Hungarian horsemen. It's really exciting to make friends with people from all around the world.

It's scary driving for the first time, not being used to new signs and narrow roads. It's scary going to get permits or licenses and not know exactly where to go, how to read the signs, or what to do, and not being able to understand when someone tries to explain it to you. It's scary when the police stop you and you don't know why; but you're relieved when they motion for you to move along because trying to answer their questions would be very difficult.

It's interesting living in a country that is over 1000 years old with a history filled with kings and battles. It's interesting listening to older people tell stories of what life was like under communism. It's even interesting discovering how the language works and learning new figures of speech (like "hungry as a wolf").

It's confusing when you try to go shopping and can't read the packages, can't make sense of the sizes and measurements, and the money is different, too. It's confusing when people do things differently than what you're used to like saying "hello" before they hang up the phone. It's confusing when you almost understand what the clerk said, but not quite. She notices your confusion and instead of repeating what she said, she says it in a way you don't understand at all!

It's fun when people are pleased that you are learning their language and are trying to speak with them. It is great fun to be able to worship with other believers because we enjoy being with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is the best fun to be a part in winning people to Christ and helping them grow in their faith.

It could be said that living in another country is kind of like getting married. You live with people you don't understand, who speak a different language than you do, do things differently than you do, and think differently than you do. But if you do it for love, it's worth it.

Time Passes

"The length of our days is seventy years--or eighty , if we have the strength...they quickly pass and we fly away...Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:10, 12

Constant Companions

These are our constant companions, our Hungarian/English and English/Hungarian dictionaries. We are always referring to them when we study, write emails, read, or just need to know what a word means or how to say something. Each of us has our own Hungarian/English dictionary since we both frequently need to use them at the same time. Yes, the dictionary in the picture is held together with duct tape. Did I happen to mention we use them constantly?