Seniors and serenading

One of the neatest high school traditions here is the senior serenade. Each spring, every senior class (about 30-35 students in each "group") take two evenings to travel around to all their teachers' homes to "serenade" them from the street! Then the teacher invites them in to his/her home for something light to eat, cookies or salty snacks and soft-drinks. It's a precious time for them to be together and for them to sit and visit in the "personal space" of each teacher. Pictured above is my 12b class, a group of 17 students whom I taught for four years...the first two years were kind of "rocky" but the last two have been sweet! They were able to devour two batches of chocolate chip cookies! Guess I'll be baking a lot in the next week!

Spring

I love spring in Szeged! I especially love the flowers in the city-center and near most every fountain around the city! Life abounds, fresh, new beginnings and fragrances fill the air! That should be us who are followers of Jesus, huh?

Retreat of Silence

I'm finishing up 3 days of being silent before the Lord...in those three days I've had a few distractions, like two days of teaching, but outside of that, and the occasional neighbor interruption, I've stayed in silence before my Lord. He's spoken. It's been good. Part of my time was spent on this beach on the Tisza River where resting in His presence was so very sweet. I encourage anyone who can, to take a day, or if you can, longer, to sit silently before the Lord and allow Him to minister to the depths of your spirit.

Yellow are the fields for harvest....

Ok, I'm definitely taking liberty with Scripture here. But the meaning is the same. Jesus stated that the harvest fields are ripe for harvest....people are ready to hear about the Kingdom of God...then He said to pray to the Father that He would send workers into the fields.

Wherever we are, whether in the U.S., Nigeria, Germany, Mongolia or Hungary, the harvest fields are ready! Let us pray that God would send His workers and let us also declare, "Here I am, Lord, send me!"

This picture was taken on our drive home from Debrecen to Szeged, Hungary. Fields are ablaze with these yellow flowers which are harvested, I think, for some sort of oil. These fields seem to "light up" the surrounding countryside; may we be His light wherever we are!

Spring Break in Ukraine!

I wonder how many people can say they spent their spring break in Nagydobrony, Ukraine? This is a small village of about 6000 people just across the border from Hungary, which still keeps Hungarian time (Ukraine is one hour later than Hungary) and where everyone still speaks Hungarian! There is where the orphanage is located that I first visited with other missionary friends in February.

Irgalmas Samaritanus Gyermekotthon was started by the Danish Reformed Church and has been in existence for over 10 years. It houses 67 girls from ages 4-21, most of whom are handicapped in some way. However, there are a handful of girls who are "perfectly normal" but who have no families at all or who are from extremely abusive homes. I wanted to return to visit a little girl there who captured my heart in February....Valentina.

My 3 days there were full of laughter, playing soccer, holding little girls' hands, giving hugs, hearing "I love you, Arden! Please don't go! Please take me with you!", playing guitar and singing, walking, walking, and walking everywhere, celebrating Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, and taking in everything I could about life in this little corner of the world.

As God would have it, "my" little girl, Valentina, celebrated her 14th birthday while I was there, so I got to take her out on a special "date" to the local (and only) ice cream shop in town! She was thrilled to eat 4 scoops of ice cream, chips, drink a coke and get a lollipop for later. Walking the one kilometer to and from the ice cream shop was pure joy for both of us.

In addition, I fell in love with another little one, Zsuzsa, (Susan) who is 12, and a real sweetheart! She is excellent in learning English words and has great pronunciation! Valentina and Zsuzsa accompanied me to the train station to say goodbye when I left on Sunday afternoon. Please pray for these little girls, and all the girls in this orphanage...they all need to know the LIVING GOD and allow Him to transform their little orphaned hearts into hearts that KNOW AND BELIEVE they are deeply loved and accepted by the God who lived, died and rose again for them!

"You are Enough"

I just bought a new CD which is blowing me away, and I will recommend it to anyone who loves live worship! It's called "Grace in the Wilderness" by Eoghan Heaslip and the song "You are Enough", written by Eoghan and his wife, Becky, is below. Let these words minister deeply to your heart.

Through the testing through the fire
Through the storms of life and darkest hour
In our suffering and many trials

You have remained
Yes you have remained faithful so faithful

You are enough, Jesus, you are enough
Lord it's your love that carries us
You are enough, Jesus, always enough
Lord it's your love that satisfies, You satisfy

Now with thankful and grateful hearts
We sing of all you've done for us
Power made perfect when we're weak.

Copyright 2004 Vertical Worship Songs/ASCAP