Days 5 & 6 & 7 of Vision Trip

Sunday morning, after a wonderful breakfast and prayer time with the Novi Sad Theological Seminary president and his wife, Dan and I drove to Szeged, where I gave him the grand tour of the city and we enjoyed Hungarian goulash! We then boarded the train for Budapest and met up again with Mary Jill, who drove us to Diosjeno, a wonderful, quaint resort village 45 minutes north of Budapest, where she has a retreat house which has been and will, Lord willing, continue to be used for retreats, possible teams to do English camps in the village and conferences, with final renovations and “finishing off” construction.

We all enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep in the fresh country air, and on Monday morning, got the "grand tour" of Diosjeno, including the lake! I wish I could have stayed for a couple of days! Dan and I then boarded the really cool train from Diosjeno to Vac, and then the fast train from Vac to Budapest, followed by the long train from Budapest to Szeged, enjoying sitting in the dining car the whole way!
Dan attended my classes, gave them a taste of a TRUE southern accent, and he was able to experience an example of my daily life as a teacher, after which I put him back on a train to Budapest. There he met up again with Mary Jill to see the last of the major construction projects in Budapest.

God has been sooooooooo good in granting us FAVOR and safety in every aspect of this vision trip, along with HIS vision for His Kingdom building!

Day 4 of Vision Trip

After a good, but short, night's sleep in Novi Sad in the guest house of the president of Novi Sad Theological Seminary, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with the president and his wife, Dimitry and Sveta. They have been missionaries for years, having planted 22 churches in Macedonia and 15 house churches there as well. They've served the seminary in Novi Sad faithfully for 7 years now.

Their needs are great now as the entire roof of the building which houses all classrooms, offices, apartments and dorm rooms for the seminary needs to be completely replaced. In addition, the rooms on the top level which have been damaged by the rainwater need to be completely renovated. They are believing God to provide for both projects! In addition, the teachers and staff at the seminary are in need of financial support as their salaries are extremely minimal, largely due to the fact that they cannot charge the students a high tuition fee because the country itself is in such dire economic straits.

We got a tour of the seminary, then a tour of the famous fortress in Novi Sad, which boasts the longest wall around a fortress in Europe! A HUGE concert takes place in and around the fortress every summer with bands from around the world coming and thousands flocking there to "party". This could be an incredible opportunity for some professional Christian bands to "have their own stage" at this venue...I believe there will be 26 different stages this summer....and for teams to come and minister to those attending! This year, amongst the bands will be Beastie Boys.

We rested in the afternoon and then joined Laki again for church and afterwards dinner Saturday night, returning to our favorite restaurant from the night before! A full, very productive day!

Day 3 of Vision Trip

Day 3 was an adventurous day! After seeing some of the girls from the orphanage off to school, MJ, Dan and I drove to the nearby border between Ukraine and Hungary to return to Debrecen. Upon arriving, we saw a LOOOOONNNGGGG line of cars, stopped and apparently not moving. We called our friend who lives in Ukraine to find out info....there had been a huge shake-up in the country, gas prices had sky-rocketed overnight, and border crossings were "ify". While this is happening, we were being "entertained" by two gypsy musicians outside our car, who were wanting money for their music. We turned the car around and headed to another border crossing. As MJ navigated us skillfully over hill and dale and through villages which had probably never seen and American, we finally found a tiny, out of the way border crossing where we "sailed" through, only being asked if we had alcohol or cigarettes. More of God's favor.

We dropped MJ off in Debrecen and Dan and I drove another 5 hours to Novi Sad, Serbia where we met my friend Laki, who took our tired bodies to our accomodations and then out to dinner!

Day 2 Vision trip pictures

Ruslan and Karlos and Mary Jill in the bath house for the gypsy community.

Bible study and birthday party at the orphanage.

Day 2 - Missions Vision Trip

After a good night's sleep at the orphanage in Nagydobrony, Ukraine, I got to see some of the girls before they made their approximately 1 km walk to school. We enjoyed breakfast and then a wonderful meeting with Laci Bacsi, the orphanage director and Marta, our faithful friend and translator. We were given a tour of this working farm/orphanage... please have a look at my friend Mary Jill's blog: www.acertainwoman.blogspot.com for more details.

Dan, MJ and I then journeyed to a neighboring town where the largest gypsy camp in Europe exists. Over 10,000 people live in this camp where there is sporadic running water. We met a couple of the members of Amaro Del, a gypsy Christian band who will come to Szeged at the end of September! These young men have built a bath house for the gypsy community where people can come and have a shower! They have the space and the vision for a youth center...pray God provides the funds for them to be able to finish renovations for this amazing project!

We then returned to the orphanage to hang out with the girls and participate in a Bible study and the celebration of one of the girls' birthdays!

Pictures for Day 1

More pictures for Day 1 blog!

Missions Vision Trip - Day 1

Wednesday, May 23rd. Dan Chamberlain arrived in Budapest and was put on the train to Debrecen, where Mary Jill picked him up...as they were leaving the train station, I was pulling in to Debrecen, and we all pulled in to the McDonald's together. There we met with two pastors (and one wife of one pastor) and talked about ministry projects in Debrecen! At McDonald's, we got to enjoy watching a fitness class for employees outside. After that, MJ, Dan and I piled into my car and made the trip to Nagydobrony, Ukraine. We were shown INCREDIBLE favor at the border, very short lines, and a quick "pass through" with no problems! I continue to be extremely thankful that I speak Hungarian! As we drove into Nagydobrony, a group of young girls and their "leader" were walking home from church....it was our good friend Marta and some of the girls from the orphanage who were coming from a church service! "My" girl, Tini, was amongst them and RAN to hug me and greet me! Her first question was: "How long are you staying?" Sadly, only 2 nights. But it was soooooooo good to see the girls again and to talk about possible ministry opportunities at the orphanage for future teams! We stayed in a beautiful guest house and enjoyed a good night's sleep after a long day of travel!

Going abroad....

Wednesday this week, I'll be meeting a gentleman from Georgia, and the two of us will join a friend of mine in Debrecen to start a vision trip to Ukraine, Serbia and back to Hungary. I'm excited to see the doors God wants to open for future ministry. I'm excited to meet this brother in Christ and begin building a Kingdom partnership with him and the church he's from and those we will be ministering to. I'm excited because God is opening doors for His people to be His hands and feet in this part of the world in tangible ways. Keep us in your prayers as we do a lot of travelling in a short amount of time!

More thoughts on Love

Lots of thoughts on love these days....maybe because it's Spring, and there's lots of "love" in the air. But this is a challenging blog for me because I have some pretty "strong" thoughts about love.

My first example, obviously has to be Jesus and how He loved. His love was unconditional and completely sacrificial! We hardly ever hear Him speaking the words "I love you" or "I love him/her." We see Him loving His Father, by spending time with Him, and others by tangibly, practically, and sacrificially giving of Himself and His time to them. It was the love of the Father flowing through Him, but He let it flow.

We often hear people say, "I love you", or "I love him/her"....and sometimes there is no corresponding action. Are these then just empty words, spoken flippantly? Maybe in that person's heart there is the feeling of love for that other person or those people, but when actions don't follow, is it the love we see in the Scriptures? Ok, I realize we are human and fail miserably at loving others, and there are many factors which prohibit us from loving as Jesus loved, but I wonder if we shouldn't be more careful with those three little words?

I believe it is very difficult to love biblically. I believe it is easy to love or to say "I love you" when it doesn't cost me/us anything...time, energy, and other things. If someone tells me "Oh, I love her/him so much!" and there is no corresponding action, or any action at all, I have to wonder from where is that love flowing? Now I, on the other hand, when I am the recipient of those words without action, am called, biblically, to love unconditionally. It's kind of the "Judas kiss" love that Jesus had to extend to the one He loved deeply and unconditionally, but from whom He received betrayal. The only way He could do that was because He was plugged in to His Father's unconditional love. So, we're back to my previous blog.

Thoughts on LOVE!

I have two cats: Toby and Simon. I've had them since they were each 6 weeks old, and they are both turning 9 this year! Sweet boys, sometimes a headache when they wake me up at 3 a.m. to go out onto the balcony, but otherwise, great pets. They've taught me a LOT during the past 9 years, in fact, I even started writing a devotional book about what I've learned from them.

Well, today, as I was getting up, getting my coffee and breakfast, Toby came into the kitchen and began meowing loudly. After much "questioning", I realized that what he wanted from me was my love. If I would just take some time and give him some love and attention, he would be filled up and satisfied.

Toby and Simon know the ultimate SOURCE of love: me, their "master". They know that they can come and receive not only physical strokes, but in that, the comfort and love and attention they truly need. Speaking kind, loving words to them too seems to bring them great joy and satisfaction.

Of course Toby and Simon love being on the balcony outside, and they rub up against the iron railing, or they roll over on the tile and rub their backs, or they may even get some scratching and rubbing from my neighbors as they pass by. But these "sources", while good, are simply not the same as receiving from the MAIN SOURCE of love: ME!

It hit me hard this morning that we people are very similar to Toby and Simon...we can look to other things, or even other people to give us strokes, words of encouragement, love and comfort, and they can provide a certain amount; however, the ULTIMATE source of love, the one that will fill us completely to overflowing is the MASTER HIMSELF: God. It's only when we come running to Him, cry out to Him for His perfect love to fill us up can we be fully satisfied. Those other sources, if looked to as substitutes for time spent with God, will only disappoint, because they don't KNOW us like God knows us; they can't love us like God loves us; they cannot satisfy as only God can satisfy. I love my cats for giving me these tangible spiritual lessons and reminders!!!

Water

I'm supposed to drink 3 litres of water per day, minimum. Do you realize just how much that is? It's nearly a gallon of water! However, I cannot complain...by drinking that much, I passed a 4mm kidney stone last week with little or no pain.

Water. Rivers of flowing water. Life giving. Healing. Restoring. God's river of life flowing through us, providing us with all that we could ever want or need. And when we are tapped into HIS water source, the things that should cause us tremendous pain and agony as we "pass through" life, may be "eased" by His healing, comforting waters, flowing through us. Drink deeply from His deep well!

Cabin Fever

Typically, one gets cabin fever in the long, cold winter months, when staying inside is the wiser thing to do rather than subjecting oneself to the frigid, frost-biting temps that can be typical in some areas of the world. I, on the other hand, have cabin fever big time as a result of having to stay home and rest to get rid of a bad UTI. Yes, I've gone outside, and yes I've taken some short walks, but overall, "these four walls" have been my 'life-setting' for nearly 2 weeks now.

I think of the Apostle Paul, who spent many, many days inside cold, dark prison cells; I'm sure he experienced a type of cabin fever, but much worse than anything I have, or hopefully will ever, experience! What did Paul do during those times? He praised the Lord! He worshipped! He sang out His Redeemer's praise, lifting His name high! He rested in the palm of His Father's hand.

At times in our lives, we all have our "cabins" where we find ourselves...and we may get "cabin fever"...may we see Paul as our model of what we are to do and be during those times: worshippers of the Living God, who in His grace, has given us a time of "seclusion" for us to seek His face more intently, without the outside distractions, and rest in His comforting presence.

Recovery time

I'm learning a great deal about illness, recovery time, the impact fever has on our bodies, and rest. I was in hospital with a bad infection, fever for 3 days, and in hospital for 4 1/2 days. Of course I thought after 4 1/2 days of rest AFTER my hospital stay I would be fine to return to work. HA! I learned my lesson the hard way; feeling pretty well, I returned, only to find that I became EXHAUSTED...which is exactly what my doctor said would happen.

Who am I listening to? I'm not saying that doctors are always right. More importantly, WHO is my ultimate authority? Am I listening to my Father in heaven, who can use broken vessels, like doctors, to give His words of wisdom to His sometimes very stubborn children...i.e. me?

REST....what a good thing......God created it......we need it.....let's take it as He gives and declares because it's for His glory!

Movie nite/sleepover

Girls and guys enjoyed a LONG movie night....3 films....and the girls enjoyed a sleepover at my flat! Those who came are part of the high school/university Bible study I've had in my home for 6 years now. God has grown us in numbers and nationalities, and it was fun to look around the room on movie night and count 5 different nationalities represented!

One young lady who has recently joined our group is named "Rudy"...that's her "anglicized" name. Rudy was born in a "closed country in the middle east", but is a Norwegian citizen. She shared with me her parents' "story" of "escaping" their home country many years ago. They made their way to another country nearby, where Presbyterian missionaries shared Jesus with them and they both became followers of Jesus! Later, Rudy too gave her life to Jesus! Eventually, they made their way to Norway where they now live. Rudy is pictured on the far left in the top picture.

Rudy is a medical student who loves Jesus and just "found out" about our group about a month ago. She has one more year here at the medical university and is thrilled to have a fellowship in English where she can grow and serve! We are thrilled to have her join our little community!