Ez Az a Nap Mit Az Ur Szerzett
(translated: This is the day that the Lord has Made, from Psalm 118:24)
It’s a strange time. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with sadness that my time is more than half over, sometimes I feel like there’s no way I will be ready to come back to the states in the middle of September. But there are other times when the cultural differences, or the language barrier, or the physical exhaustion of being constantly on the road is so difficult for me and I stop and think, ‘oh my gosh, I still have 3 MONTHS OF THIS! I CAN’T HANDLE IT!’ But I have so much still to look forward to… my mom will arrive in less than 3 weeks. We will travel to Austria and germany, and we look forward to our first travel-by-train-through-europe experience. I am most excited to share with her a bit of my life here! I can’t wait for her to participate in one of the English camps I will be working at, she will have the chance to see what it is actually like to live in a world of Hungarian for an English speaker. She will get to see the places and faces I have come to love so much! In addition, my best friend Timme is busy figuring out the final plans for HIS adventure to Europe… God has a plan, and we don’t quite know what it looks like yet, but Timme is planning to come and help with OM for 5 days, helping at a missions expo, and ministering to other missionaries and teens interested in possibly joining missions. Please keep Timme in your prayers as he arranges his trip here, and finds supporters for prayer and finances during his time serving with Operation Mobilization, Hungary.
I have had an exciting past 2 weeks…. I took my first trip to Slovakia. I worked with Alex, a former ‘bible smuggler’ during the time of communism. Now that the iron curtain has fallen, his ministry is traveling throughout Slovakia selling and distributing Christian literature… in the open. In addition Alex is responsible for MANY translations from English to Slovakian. I met the guy who translated all the Lee Strobel (Case for Christ, etc.) and Josh McDowell (More Than a Carpenter) books into Slovak. I was pretty excited. It’s exciting for me because many of these books have been so interesting and helpful for me in MY journey… it’s great to see the books made available all over the world). We brought the ‘book bus’ to a Catholic music festival (one aspect of alex’s ministry that I’m in love with is his heart for denominational reconciliation… partnering with catholics, protestants, orthodox, etc. there definitely needs to be more of this ALL OVER THE WORLD. This is something I feel strongly about… just read 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%201:10-17;&version=31; hope I’m not taking it out of context…. but anyways, that’s a whole other tangent I won’t get started on)
This music festival was great. Before I went, I checked out to see if there would be any bands that might sing in English… and lo and behold, I found out that Thrid Day was the headliner, as well as the worship team from Hillsong (Kiev). I was thrilled. My goal was to ‘meet the band,’ since I was technically on staff. I wasn’t able to meet third day, but I did manage to meet Hillsong (Kiev) and find out more abou their church in Ukraine. So I call it a success ;)
I was blessed to spend my 25th birthday here in Hungary (today actually). And I want to take a minute and thank my WONDERFUL family and friends for their amazing birthday wishes. Timme, my best friend back home organized an AMAZING present for me… he took apart a birthday banner that spelled out “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” and sent each letter individually in the mail, signed with love from the people who mean the most to me. I cried so much when I opened the first piece of mail and figured out what it was. I opened up one piece of mail every day up until my birthday, and then opened the remaining 5 letters ON my birthday. It was one of the kindest and most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me. i have all the letters taped to my wall… so it’s the first thing I see when I enter my apartment. The words of encouragement from my friends who signed the letters meant so much to me. seriously. Words can’t begin to express it. I told Timme, “I haven’t felt this loved in the longest time (by humans).” Thank you.
Also, my friends here were SO WONDERFUL! It started at 12:04 AM with an SMS (text message) from my dear friend sergiu… determined to be the FIRST one to wish me happy birthday, then I was allowed to ‘skip’ a meeting (entirely in Hungarian) that started at 7:00… then my team brought me breakfast in bed (seriously a PERFECT hungarian breakfast for me- kolacs and jam, bread and patte, and a nice big cup of COFFEE), then my parents surprised me by figuring out how to call me on my cell phone with skype (it was so nice to hear their voices on this special day!), then the kids I’ve been working with learned the ‘happy birthday’ song in English and sang it to me, then I spent the rest of the day laughing, smiling and singing with the kids from the boarding school I’m staying at, then I got to play guitar at nursing home, and had the opportunity learn about what life is like here for the elderly, then my team surprised me with a night of fellowship in the garden by candlelight (they all went around and shared their wishes for me and my life, and what they appreciate about me…. I totally couldn’t keep from crying!), then we spent time singing, laughing, talking, eating, and then we ended the evening with my team praying for me and thanking God for my parents who brought me into this world and the wonderful things God is doing with my life. *siiiiiigh* this was a birthday I will certainly NEVER forget. Wow. Looking back at a year ago, my 24th birthday, spent at Lucielle’s, I NEVER would have imagined that this is where and how I would have spent my 25th birthday. More proof that God’s plan for me is way better than my own! Thank you again friends and family for your continued love and support…
