Hungarian Folk Art

The library near our house had a display of miniature furniture this month. It included many types of traditional Hungarian furniture decorated with Hungarian folk art. Hopefully these pictures will give you a little glimpse of the rich Hungarian folk culture.

God Be with You, Christen!

We crashed a party Friday night. Well, not really. We saw on Facebook that the Everetts, a missionary family we are friends with, were having a going-away party for their oldest daughter Christen. Christen was leaving Hungary to go to college in the US. The Facebook note said friends were welcome, so we just showed up! We knew we had to go to wish Christen well and to encourage her parents. It is difficult enough to send your oldest child off to college without her being an ocean and half a continent away! God bless you, Christen, in your studies. May you and your family sense God's presence with you in this time of adjustment.

Joseph's Coat

We saw a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" at Nyiregyhaza last night. The cast was made up of members of the Open Bible youth groups from Nyiregyhaza and Debrecen plus a few adults. They did an amazing job and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The play was done on a temporary stage set up in the back yard of the Nyiregyhaza church. Several things in addition to the excellence of the cast and director made this production special.

The point of the production was not just to entertain, but to present the gospel to as many people as possible. So, the cast and several others spent three days praying and distributing flyers throughout the neighborhood to invite as many as possible to the free play. After the play, Pastor Gulyas have a short presentation of the gospel tying it in with the story of Joseph.

About an hour before the play was to begin, though, a huge thunderstorm rolled through the city. The cast scrambled to protect the equipment and props and then began to pray for the storm to go away. And it did! Blue patches appeared in the sky and the rain stopped in time for the chairs to be replaced, the equipment set up again and the show to proceed! Praise God!

Random Photos

I (Nancy) am trying to remember to take more pictures so I can show them to you. I remember to take them at the oddest times, though. Here are some recent random photos.Our neighbors invited us over for a spur-of-the-moment outdoor gulyas party. They cooked the soup in a pot over an open fire. It was superb! I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I remembered to take a picture of the soup.

We were waiting for the tram near our house one day last week and saw a fire truck's ladder being used to reach tree branches to cut them down. We figured the trees were a fire danger somehow.

We were at the zoo today and saw these turtles sunning themselves along the shore of the turtle pond. Ever feel like a turtle in rush-hour traffic?

God Is Moving in Tomor

We had an uplifting meeting with our friend Zoli this afternoon over coffee. Zoli is a Level 1 INSTE graduate who moved to Budapest shortly before we left for America last summer. Zoli told us a little bit of what has happened with him and his wife Dori the past year:

Zoli was scheduled to speak at church in Budapest last December and he invited a new friend to come hear him. After the service, his friend told him he must go to his hometown Tomor and talk about Jesus there. Zoli was able to go with him the next day and preached a salvation message to the people his friend had gathered to listen to him. Zoli gave an invitation to receive Christ as Savior, but no one responded. They next day, people still wanted to talk about Jesus and soon nine people gave their lives to Christ! These new believers asked Zoli if he could come back and teach them about Jesus. After prayer, he told them he could lead a Bible study every two weeks or so. This is a great sacrifice for Zoli since Tomor is several hours from his home and gas is expensive. But God is working in Tomor. More people are becoming interested in Jesus and more are surrendering their lives to him. The new believers are growing and are interested in studying INSTE, but they are quite poor and are not able to afford the entire price. We were so happy to be able to tell Zoli that some generous people in America are giving to a scholarship fund to help in situations just like this!

Please pray for Zoli and Dori and the new believers in Tomor that God will help them to grow in him, will give them wisdom and direction, and will bring many more people into His Kingdom in this area.

Getting Settled in

We have had some fun experiences this week.

We woke up one morning to a wet floor from a leaking bathroom sink faucet. The landlady sent a plumber over and he replaced the faucet a couple of days later.

The car battery died and two days later, Mike was able to charge the old battery, drive it to the service center and get the battery replaced.

Nancy tried for the first time to order some books online. They didn't take credit cards, but she was able to order them COD and, thankfully, was at home to pay for them when they arrived a couple of days later.

Mike met with his conversation partner, Balazs. Balazs has finished his schooling and is starting a full time job soon, but he still wants to meet regularly with Mike to continue working on his English skills. This will be helpful to Mike, too, since they speak English for half the time they are together and Hungarian the other half.

Wednesday evening we enjoyed being in a multi-church service with a guest speaker from Germany. Many of the people we have talked with this week say that our Hungarian is even better than when we left, especially Mike's! That is so encouraging to hear!

We are once again noticing that it takes a little more time to handle everyday life in a foreign country. We are thankful, though that things are going well for us.

Renewing More Friendships

We had a good weekend seeing more of our friends and catching up with so many people.

On Sunday morning we went to church and shared a little bit (in Hungarian!) about our year in the US. It was wonderful to see so many friends and talk a bit with them. All the kids and teenagers sure have grown the past year! And it was awesome to meet some new believers who were saved while we were gone and are growing in their faith. They even talked about maybe taking INSTE in the fall! We sure do enjoy being with God's people, anywhere we find them!

On Monday, we celebrated the 4th of July with Steve and Penny Everett and their three teenagers. They had us over for a cook out at their new home in a village just outside Debrecen. We are very happy for this missionary family since they were able to buy a car and move out of their very noisy apartment in downtown Debrecen into a good home outside of town. We enjoyed visiting and catching up after our year's absence. How good it was to hear of the ways God has blessed each of them and how He is working in their ministry!

Back "Home"

We are back "home" in Hungary. And it feels like home, too. It is good to be back.

Our trip was good. We were only delayed by an hour and a half when our plane in Zurich, Switzerland had mechanical problems and we had to wait for another one. When we arrived at our apartment, we were greeted by a supper left in the kitchen by our landlady and friend Éva. The next day, our pastor and friend Misi Gulyás stopped by and visited, filling us in on the highlights of the year we missed. We see more of our friends every day and are so very happy to see each of them.

We are slowly getting settled in again. Jet lag has not been as bad as before, maybe because we left from Miami and had only two, not the usual three planes to take. Yesterday Mike was able to get our car serviced and the required emissions test completed so that we can legally drive it again. We were happy to discover that the car is in good condition even after a year of sitting while we were gone. Also yesterday, we were able to make arrangements for internet service for our home/office. At both the internet office and the service garage we were able to conduct our business in Hungarian. How wonderful to find that we have not lost any of our Hungarian skills!
We thank God for helping us thus far and look forward to the next two years here in Hungary!