A short moment to reflect on the trip to Ukraine that happened a while ago...

because I will soon start sharing about the trip I just took to Romania.



While in Ukraine, we had an opportunity to stop and visit one of our fellow volunteers, Heidi. I have really enjoyed opportunities to see in person what other volunteers are doing... for many reasons. It gives me a chance to put together a picture of the place they talk about at the seminars. It also gives me an overview of the work that's being done throughout the region and opens my eyes to take in new perspectives outside of Budapest. As my roommate, Silvia, put it last night: "I'm not in Hungary, I'm in Budapest." There's so much truth to that statement that I don't even know where to begin to describe what she means.

Anyway, while traveling through Ukraine, we stopped at a Hungarian Roma camp in a place called Szürte (Hungarian name). The emotions that flooded over me were too many to actually put words to, but I was reminded of the cardboard cities in the frontera of Mexico, the mountains outside Santiago, Dominican Republic and the bridge people outside of Nashville, TN... where the poverty was more than overwhelming. Matt, who was with us, even stated that it was probably the poorest place he's ever seen.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but you must understand that out of respect, most of my visit was just "look and listen"... and trying to figure out how I respond in love (not necessarily to THEM, but to God's voice through this).

What do you say when one of the women tells you that it's just a poor village?
What do you feel when you see a tiny house without a roof after being informed that they had to tear down the roof this winter in order to heat the house?
What do you think when you see the one room smaller than your bedroom in which 3 children and two adults live?
How do you respond to a community with no running water, no electricity and while they're not content, they're still living there the best they can?

Where is God here?

...

the view from the community center recently built by a mission team... you can see some of the homes here.


our volunteer, Heidi, and three of her young friends :)


*~*~*

there are sooo many snails in Hungary - reminds me of GVSU. After a rain, the worms invaded the sidewalks. here, snails invade the sidewalks!


ewww!


*~*~*

We are waaay in the south of Budapest, checking out our city from far away :)

Tomorrow/Today?

Tomorrow is my last day at the Children's House.
I have mixed emotions about this.

First of all, it's not like I've really gone lately. They told me flat out that no babies ever come if it's raining, so if I wake up and see rain, I just stay home and don't go out in the rain myself. It's given me time to work on some things for the camp, and also allows me to clean the flat which I'm sure would get neglected if I didn't have the time.

Second of all, it's weird to actually have a "last day." Upon leaving the other two placements, I didn't really have a last day that was known in advance... they just stopped. So it's weird that tomorrow I will actually have a chance to say "goodbye."

And what's kinda funny is that there's a chance I won't go to the Balaton after all... and still work at the house...
yup. hmmm... i'll let you know how tomorrow goes :)

*~*~*

Ukrainian architecture -

Check out the Orthodox churches we drove by!



a castle outside Mukachevo (Munkács)


*~*~*

One day, I visited Matt's placement. Matt works in a Tanoda, an afterschool program, tutoring students with English and math. The day I went, Matt had two students. Welcome to the my experience at the Budaörsi Tanoda :)

Pünkösd Hétfő

Today is Pünkösd Hétfő - Pentecost Monday - a national holiday here in Hungary. That means, of course, no work... and nothing to do, right? WRONG!

Yesterday, on the actual Pentecost day, there was church and lunch, normal Sunday tradition for me. After lunch, though, we headed to the Budapest Zoo.

I have only 4 weekends left in Budapest. The other weekends will be spent at the camp or traveling. Anyway, since the countdown has begun, so has the list of things we haven't seen but NEED to visit before leaving. The Zoo made the top of the list. Well, the zoo made the top of some peoples' lists and I just figured it sounded like fun. Honestly, though, a zoo is a zoo is a zoo, right? WRONG (again)!

I highly recommend the Budapest Zoo to any Budapest visitors. You could do the following if you wanted:
* reach out and pet a wolf
* stare into the eyes of a tiger, bear and/or leopard
* watch a leopard try to attack a baby (separated by merely 2 sheets of plexiglass)
* feed the hippos
* get slobbered on by camels
* steal a baby prairie dog
* see a Komodo Dragon
* check out the Raccoon exhibit
* wander through a horticultural zoo
* watch elephants dance
* pet a rhino on their way to the feeding pen
* see ducks mating
* have giraffes eat hay pellets out of your hand
* and so much more.



and that was all in the afternoon on Sunday.
Sunday evening turned out to be an American (and French) barbecue at the boys' flat. Taco flavored ground pork burgers and de-skinned hot dogs were the fare, complete with a real grill and ice tea. It was like being home :P only looking out at the sunset over the Buda Hills.



I hope you all had a BLESSED Pentecost and may you truly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit each and every day!

*~*~*

There is a group of musicians who have a good relationship with my hosting organization here (the leader of the band is married to the leader of the organization). Because of this, we were all basically brought on board as the super international fan-base that any good band needs.

The band consists (on this day) of 4 Hungarian girls, 1 Ohio guy (Matt - ELCA YAGM), 1 Canadian guy (doing an independent study on Roma music here for a few months), and Gyüri, the leader. They perform Roma songs from many different countries, as well as some Hungarian folk music.

This particular performance was held on May 1st, Labor Day here in Hungary, which is a great celebration of all the workers and encourages people to take a day off and have fun - funny, because they provide a huge carnival in the park and SOMEONE has to work it, right? :P Anyway, this was in the political corner, an area we would have normally tried to avoid.


Even some of the crowd watching danced along and sang songs.


At one point, I looked around. The crowd was filled with an RGDTS dream - Roma AND Gadje (non-Roma). MLK Jr would be proud :)


*~*~*

There are days when I am disappointed in the amount of folk culture I get because I'm here in the city. However, I am getting a fairly good dose of "sophisticated," city culture. Silvia and I went to the Opera to see the ballet of "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" in April. However, since we paid only 400ft (less than $2), we got to sit in the "ghetto" of the Opera House. There are no bad seats, really, because the place is magnificent... just less beautiful seats.

This is our view looking straight from our seats.


No red carpet stairs for us! :P

Istenünk nagyon jó!

God is so very good!

I stood on my balcony the other night, enjoying the storm coming through Budapest. As I stood there, a thought came across my mind: "I have $1500 left to raise... what happens if I don't raise that money before I return?"

I sent out the email that I send out each time I'm getting ready to write my newsletter asking if there had been any changes to my account in the last month.

The email response I received was NOT what I expected...

(drum roll please)

I have gone over the $12,000 mark!

I received $1080 in the last month because God moved in the hearts of some people. Because God hasn't lost faith in this work, why oh why did I lose faith that this money wouldn't come through?!

I still have $371 left to raise and about 2 months to raise it, but come on! That's pebbles compared to $12,095!

Celebrate God's goodness today with me and praise God for all the plans that He's laid out and PROVIDED for along the way.

:D

*~*~*

A random excursion to the beautiful city of Eger with my roommate, Silke.
One Saturday, Silke and I had nothing to do and Eger was on both of our lists of things to see and do. We headed out in the morning and arrived near midday and prepared ourselves for an adventure! Check out what we saw!

The Basilica was built between 1831 and 1836 and is the second largest church in Hungary (after St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest). Silke and I spent a few moments translating the Latin and we THINK we know what it means - any guesses from you?


The Fazola Gate


The Minaret is the northernmost building from the Turkish Empire in all of Europe.


A view of the castle wall and Minorita Church, one of the most beautiful Baroque churches in Central Europe.


Calvary within the castle...


Just some pretty views of parts of the city... isn't it so romantic?

Mark 8:36

"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"



'nuf said.

*~*~*

Beautiful Woman Valley in Eger, Hungary

My roommate, Silke, and I set out on an adventure last weekend. The trip took us to Eger, a wine city in the east part of Hungary. We went for two reasons: the castle and the wine cellars. I'll tell you about the castle later, but the wine cellars were particularly amusing.
Picture a rather nice day suddenly darkening and turning to rain... downpouring rain. Picture Silke and I walking along with one umbrella between the two of us, trying to figure out where we're going. Picture us realizing that we had finally arrived and then not having any idea which wine cellar to go to. Now picture a lady sitting on a chair outside her wine cellar, waving us to come in and try HER wines. Of course, we couldn't pass up such a display of enthusiasm, so we went in. For the next half hour, as we sipped on her family's wine, she shared stories about her many visitors with us (in Hungarian) and even convinced us to buy some wine and take it home.

Here she is "pouring" my glass of wine.


Silke likes dry whites, I like semi-sweet reds


enjoying our cellar!


Empty. It was quite a walk for one glass of wine, but it seemed totally worth it.


oh, and I should probably make a note that will make wine connoisseurs jealous.
Silke and I each enjoyed a glass of wine for 300ft TOTAL. By today's conversion, that's $1.32 or $0.66 each. Cheaper than water.

At any point, it's weird to note that you don't see people going crazy with alcohol much in this village. It's touristic, but not a bunch of drunk people walking around. It was nice to realize that this is a highly respected thing, and by taking part in it, you are taking part in time-honored tradition, hard work and families' devotions and dreams.

My Summer Plans

Today, I met with Emese to discuss my summer plans.

Just like in youth ministry, when you're working with kids and ministry, summer can be very busy.
And, of course, with any change of course, I'm finding myself excited to explore new opportunities.

I have 6 working days left at the Children's House.
On June 1st, I move (unofficially for 3 weeks) to Balatonlelle, an area along the Balaton Lake, one of Europe's favorite vacation areas. I will be working there at setting up a camp organized by the Roma Self Government in Hungary.
On June 14th, I will be a volunteer staff person for the first week that the camp is open.
On June 21st, I will be attending my final ÖDÉ retreat/seminar.
In July, my focus will be on the group coming from Ohio to work at the day camp with St. Columba's Church. They will be in town until July 19th...

Before I know it, my time here will be finished. I'm realizing it very quickly... and it's a little bittersweet.

*~*~*

Pillow FIGHT! - Young people and pillows took over Clark Adam Tér in Budapest




*~*~*

Earth Hour! - People around the world turned out the lights for one hour to speak out against mistreatment of our world's resources.

Fire dancing without lights in the castle

Conjugating Verbs

"We mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do … forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in the fundamental verb, to Be."
- Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life



As someone who is working on learning a language, one of the first things I learned was conjugation. Okay, sorry - one of the first things I was taught. Conjugation still doesn't come simply. Even as I was learning Spanish, conjugations were often jumbled and incorrectly used when I was speaking.
Once we actually get the verb out, understanding comes and that's our primary concern, right?

I teach two English classes each week (which are the highlights of my week by far!) and the pre-intermediate group is working through past/present/future conjugations. It's tough stuff and I was never really taught it... it's just something we learned, right?

So, when I stumbled upon this quote, I quickly realized its relevance to my year.
To want: I want a lot of things. My little heart desires more than I ever care to admit, actually.
To have: I have a lot of things. I not only have material items, but I also have things that I take for granted - family, friends, USA citizenship, etc.
To do: It has been engraved in my mind to do more, do more, do more... not happy? do something. bored? do something. sad? do something. overjoyed? do something. why?

to be: stop. pause. breathe in. breathe out. be.

*~*~*

Buda Castle: from a different angle.

through a window looking at Gellert Hill, Citadella, the Statue of Liberty and the Danube...


"Attention! Danger of crumbling!" uh... okay. Can we go now?


Fisherman's Bastion: straight out of a fairytale


*~*~*

One of the joys I get on occasion is to go on an adventure with Emese (my country coordinator) and her husband, Gyuri. Gyuri drives a mini-bus, which he often refers to as "Gypsy car". It has seating like a limo, so that two seats face the back three seats. It makes for awkward riding, but it's perfect for group conversation.
This particular trip, as we head toward Ukraine, Matt and I decided to both face forward, which is way better for sight-seeing, and use the other seat as a footrest.


On our way home from Ukraine, we gained another person. Zoltán lives in a village near where we were in Ukraine, so he went home for the weekend knowing that he could catch a free ride back on Monday. This made our ride home more interesting with a backseat conversation in mixed Hungarian and English. In fact, our trip home basically consisted of a 2-3 hour English lesson.

Uplifting Words

today I was able to accomplish an amazing feat:
I got myself to and from George the dentist completely on my own.

Now, to those of you unfamiliar, this means that I got up at 4:45 to get on a 6:30a train (I had a ticket to travel for free on that specific train otherwise, I wouldn't have chosen it, believe me).
Travel three hours to Hidasnémeti.
Arrive in Hidasnémeti and find the bus going to Gönc.
Travel to Gönc and then find the dentist office...

and then do the whole thing in reverse.



it was nice to go somewhere away from everything that's been stressing me out. I managed to ALMOST read an entire book. I also did a lot of thinking and watching the scenery and reflecting.
In an attempt to lift myself up, I found these two things helpful. I pray they also are a blessing to you today.



Psalm 4:6-8 (Message)
Why is everyone hungry for more? "More, more," they say.
"More, more."
I have God's more-than-enough,
More joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At day's end I'm ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together.



"God made me as I am,
part of creation's plan.
No one else can ever be
the part of God's plan that's me."
~Bernadette Farrell

*~*~*

Margit Island: Budapest's own "Central Park"
Located in the middle of the Danube is a beautiful island where Budapest natives chill and tourists take a moment to breathe. It's beautifully green right now and is a host to all sorts of fun activities.

you can hang out at the musical fountain...


sunbathe or throw a frisbee or play soccer/american football/badminton or even have a picnic in the open grassy areas...


and when you want to get rid of your sass, you can go taunt the peacocks until they open their feathers :)


*~*~*

Every Wednesday, I go to a home for disabled and elderly people. I am teaching the staff English. Also, this is my roommate's, Silvia's, placement. Last week, I was invited to their Mothers Day celebration and found it to be one of the cutest, most heartfelt programs I've ever seen. This is the group on the stage before beginning :)


"Erős Vár a Mi Istenünk" - (Strong Castle the us God of us)... or "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"... on the outside of a Lutheran church.
Amen.

another closed door?

So, this is starting to materialize as the way I'll remember my year: Closed Doors.

At the school, closed doors appeared because teachers didn't want us present in their rooms unless I was teaching. It was not only fear of their English lessons, but also a feeling like I would judge them. Observing and simply helping in the room weren't options.

At the tanoda, it was all good until funding issues came up and they closed their doors. I've been awaiting word that they reopened, but have yet to personally receive it, though a source has revealed that they might have. Still waiting for the director to email me and let me know for sure, but maybe this place will, in fact, have another opened door.

At the children's house, I have begun arriving, only to find no one there. The gates are locked and no one is inside. Closed doors mean that someone forgot to tell me that they're not open.



And yet... I'm supposed to remain positive. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this while still faced with the reality that it will likely all be repeated tomorrow.

*~*~*

Hungarian National Holiday - March 15th

The Hungarian National Anthem is being played by a band on the steps of Parliament... this is as close as we could get :P


a political demonstration (quite a popular day for them, actually, so we high-tailed it out before any got interesting)


oh, look! they decorated!


*~*~*

World War 2 Shoe Memorial along the Danube

"To the memory of the victims
shot into the Danube
by Arrow Cross Militiamen
in 1944-1945"

A letter...

I wrote a letter to one of my old students in Grand Rapids and thought I'd share it with you. Somehow, in the midst of the stresses of this last week, this happened. I'm not sure how or where it came from... it just took some quiet time on our 4th floor balcony.

It's not the entire letter, but a good chunk of it. Enjoy!

*~*~*

Hey buddy! Thanks for the card! How are you doing?

Life is going pretty well here. It's also going really fast. I can't believe that I'll be home in 3 months! I'm starting to realize the harsh reality that a few months from now, this entire experience will be in the past. It's really weird!

However, this year has been really good. God has shown Himself to me in ways I never imagined - He has also renewed a Spirit in me - a Spirit that longs to work with two people groups in order to bridge gaps that have formed. God's heart beats for ALL people, but especially those whom humans/society place on the fringes - those that are cast out and discriminated against.
What would our world look like if we didn't have these gaps? If we truly saw everyone as equal and offered them the same opportunities and, more importantly, the same LOVE?
What would the world be like if we all stopped thinking only about ourselves and started to think only about others? Just think about how many lives could change and how much better the world would be!

Sadly, this work will probably still need to be done ever after you and I leave the earth. The evil one will still rule in peoples' lives and he thrives on this stuff. It angers and saddens me, but this is true :(

*~*~*

Mukachevo (Munkács), Ukraine

This is a Hungarian church, which is actually quite modern comparatively. Note the booth on the right. Yes, preachers often will use this on special Sundays - so for all of you who have been used to deliver words to congregations, could you imagine teaching from such a place? I think I'd feel even MORE intimidated. Thanks, I'll stick to the floor (or maybe a small step because I'm short).


just your average street in downtown Munkács...


a river flows through every important city :) This is The Liatorytsia River.


coffee ok :)


The town square. In front of me, you can see Emese (my country coordinator) and her husband, Gyüri. In the middle of the picture, you can see the Ukrainian flag :) and a LOT of green. That was the one noticeable difference from Hungary to Ukraine - everything was SOOO green!


And an alley way... It's sad to see all of the beauty that is in the city and then walk past this. My heart broke. Only one block away was a busy town square with shops and coffeehouses and people bustling and buying things... and here we have families that are struggling just to get by. *sigh*