Spring in Szeged - Part V

Well, as you can see, the Tisza River continues to rise. It's exciting to see; but not so exciting for the city workers as today, when I went for my walk to the river, they had boarded up the "entrances" to the river and put sandbags out...anticipating higher waters in the next days or weeks??? The picture on the left shows the river on April 10th. The picture on the right shows it today, April 12th. Wonder what it will be like tomorrow????

Post-Christian Hungary

Boy did I have a depressing day at work today! I decided that this year, in most of my classes, I would try to spark discussion about the Easter holiday by asking a fairly nebulous question: "What is the importance of Easter to you?" So, with my 11th grade bilinguals, (all 7 of them), and one of my four 10th grade special English classes (13 of them), I began the class by having them spend 4 minutes writing their responses to the above question. Then I had each student read out what he/she had written, and wrote some key words on the board. To give you a taste of what they said: "holiday from school"; "eating ham and hard-boiled eggs and horseradish" (traditional Hungarian Easter foods); "spending time with family"; "painting eggs"; "'sprinkling' the girls and getting chocolate or money in return"(another tradition taken from pagan celebrations).

Not ONE student, I repeat, not ONE student even mentioned the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whoops, I take that back; ONE student said, "For religious people, it's a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, but I'm not religious."

So we discussed all the "traditions" they mentioned and why these things are important to them. Then I asked if any of them thought that Easter was about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here are some responses: "To religious people, yes"; "Now that we are modern, we don't believe in that anymore"; "Well, we know more now, and we know that it's not really true, so it's not important."

Then, with my 10th graders, I asked them why they think that young people, or people in general have little or no interest in God? I told them that even though I am a believer, they could say anything without offending me. One bold young lady raised her hand and said, "Because church is boring!!!" Another student said, "Religion and faith are irrelevant and no longer needed because we have all that we need now."

Church is boring. Church is boring. Church is boring. I keep hearing this over and over and over again. I took a bold step and told them that when I read the Gospels, and I look at the person of Jesus Christ, I see that many people were RUNNING to Him, FLOCKING to Him, WANTING to be around Him. "How many of you have seen THAT picture of Jesus in church or lived out in someone's life?" No response. Then I told them that I go to a church where people dance, and wave flags, and sing "happy/upbeat" songs....their eyes widened in disbelief.

20 students; not ONE even hinted that God or faith had anything to do with their Easter celebration. Here's an entire generation, whose parents grew up under communism, that considers belief in God irrelevant and unnecessary.

Can you say I'm feeling a bit down today?

"I'm working to eat."

Yesterday, I called my "son" Laci to see how he "survived" his first week living in his flat. He's doing well, still has to get his room "in order" and to date, has not cooked himself a warm meal. Laci is going to school full-time and working part-time at a flour factory. He told me that he had the worst day at work, spending 10 hours without a break standing next to an assembly line pulling the "bad biscuits" off the conveyor belt. In his words, "It's so difficult knowing that I'm working just so I can eat. But a positive thing is that I don't have to buy bread because I get all the left-overs from here that I want, so I can save some money."

Laci didn't tell me, but I heard from another friend that he recently failed all his mid-term exams at college. I don't know if it was the stress of moving out of the children's home or what that kept him from being able to study sufficiently, but, this 22 year old is having a rough go of it on his own.

YET, he's going to school and working...and he knows the value of a job...and of education...sort of...thank the Lord for his perseverance in this time of "survival".

Pride and Humility

The word "humble" does not necessarily have a positive meaning in Hungarian. Maybe in some circles of English speakers it is also negative. However, biblically, it is one of the most positive words around. In both Hungarian and in English, the word "pride" has its positive and negative connotations. For the sake of this short discussion, let's use the negative meaning of pride. So, with these thoughts in mind, here's a thought I am passing along from a course I'm taking:

"You cannot offend a humble person; if you are offended, then you've lost your humility and pride has flown up in you and filled you up."

Your thoughts?

Spring in Szeged - Part IV

If you look two blogs down from this one, you will see a very similar picture; however, like that cartoon in the newspaper which asks you to find 6 differences between the two pictures, I ask you to find the ONE difference between the two pictures. I await your responses.

"Home Sweet Home!"

Last weekend and yesterday, I helped my 22-year old "son", Laci, from the children's home move out of the home and into an apartment (flat), which he will share with a classmate of his from college. With "guarded enthusiasm" I delighted and celebrated with him in this step toward independence..."guarded" because he truly has no idea how difficult it is going to be to live "on the outside". Yet yesterday, when we finished unloading the second and last car load of his things, he exclaimed, "I can finally say, 'Home Sweet Home!'" He is now the proud renter of one room in a flat and he is experiencing "freedom" for the first time since he was 12. Like any "mom", I am concerned for him...my prayer is that he comes to know the true Provider of all his needs.
I am extremely proud of him...he failed 10th grade once, fell into deep depression, and almost didn't graduate from high school. Yesterday, we were talking about how he "could have been my student" because he had been accepted at the high school where I teach...upon reflection, it's better this way....we are friends, which would have been much more difficult to develop had he been my student; and, the young man he's now sharing the flat with was a classmate of his in high school as well.
God's great tapestry. Lord, bring Laci to Your 'Home Sweet Home'...a relationship with Yourself!