more pics from Vukovar

Last evening we noted that Princess Lea had pushed aside her yogurt and gone to sleep at the table...

The team watched Harrison's Flowers yesterday afternoon... a hard, hard story... not recommended for casual viewing.

Today the team saw more of the town... here is a shot David took earlier today... a sight that is slowly becoming less and less the norm here...

here is a pic of me (again by David) on Keri and Laci's porch catching up on email...

Princess Lea of Vukovar

This is Laci and Keri's daughter, she is certainly the focus of much attention, can you tell why?

We're in Croatia and man its getting HOT!!

Forecast is for 39 celcius which I think is 102 degrees F. So we will be taking it easy tomorrow.

We are doing well, had a great lunch...

Friday night on the riverside

We had a great time on the riverside singing and sharing!

Thursday - Friday of week two

Last night we had a great time at worshipping the Lord and hearing from the Bible. Then we went for a prayer walk around the center of the city. This morning we had a great last day of school here is out annual camp picture on the front steps of the high school we have worked in...

tonight we will meet up with a bunch of these kids, share with them a bit of why we come to serve the Lord...

Tomorrow we head out on our third and final leg. At 0821 we will depart from Szaged train station for Subotica, Serbia and take a look around the city center and have lunch. At 2pm-ish we will catch a train to Sombor, Serbia where we will be met and driven by car to Vukovar, Croatia where we will serve the Agape church in Vukovar in word and song. Then Monday through Thursday we will teach an English camp for the church as an outreach and then on Friday morning next week we will head back to Hungary for debriefing and then the team leaves Hungary.

IMPORTANT NOTICE to families. The availability of internet may be quite limited for the next six days. If you do not hear from your student until next Friday afternoon, please DO NOT be alarmed. I hope to post here every couple of days, but who knows...

until next time... Grace from Peace

posted about concentration camp...

over on Kingdom Travelin'

a busy 24 hours

since I last posted the team has been REALLY busy... taking care of some team unity business, dining together, then heading across the river to what could be central park of Szeged to meet kids for softball, Laura was catcher for her team...










then back across the Tisza river for ice cream and then to the river side for singing... when Arden led us in Amazing Grace I told the kids about the writer of the hymn and the change God did in him. It's not what we do to change, its our willingness to let God change us... we are seeking opportunities to plant seeds...



then at 10pm, the old man went to catch his bus... the late night was met by an early morning session with the guys on Galatians at the best breakfast place in Syeged... Z Nagy cake and pastry shop... (yes Laci, I have been there EVEY morning since they opened on Tuesday!!!!!!)



Then to school for another day of teaching English lessons and connecting with kids. This afternoon everyone should be having a rest before we attend Arden's University Bible Study this evening...


Tomorrow should be a rather full day, with teaching, playing sports, gathering downtown with kids for ice cream and singing... may that time be a time of further seed planting!!!!! May the Lord of the harvest be glorified.

The weather is hot and a bit more humid than usual... we keep hearing about this cold front from western Europe that is supposed to cool things down, but not yet... the forecast is for cooler weather on Saturday! That will be great as we are headed for Croatia via Serbia on a couple of slow moving trains... more about that later...

busy times in Szeged: the half way mark

We are experiencing busy times in Szeged. teaching in the mornings until 1pm, then finding lunch, meeting people, or sports with kids (yesterday futball (soccer) right after English camp) until later in the afternoon. We squeeze in trips to the Internet cafe, the ice cream shop, a conversation with friends in the park, a well needed nap (it has been said that "Uncle Tom" takes lots of naps... I think "lots" is a stretch) here and there, washing clothes - well they should be washing clothes... ANYWAY, these are busy times. We have 59 students, each teach four or five classes, sing in song fest, and generally enjoy interacting with the kids from here in Szeged. last night some of the kids met for ice cream (Szeged has several amazing ice cream shops and cafes) and conversation. Tonight we are meeting in a huge park for baseball at 7 after it has begun to cool off. It is hot, it reaches the 90s daily but thanks to cloud cover it has stayed in the low 90s until today. Today it is HOT. So tonight, we will play a little baseball, get some more ice cream, and then sing some songs in the cool of the evening.

Tomorrow evening, we will attend a Bible study with our host Arden Campbell's university Bible study. Another evening singing time is planned by the river for Friday night and then our work in Szeged is done. We catch the 0821 train to Serbia on Saturday morning. We will then connect to another train that will take us close to Croatia where our friends from Vukovar, Laci and Keri Nemeth will pick up up. We will serve in their church on Sunday and teach a four day English camp at their church, but more on all that later.

Today is the half-way mark of our trip. I must say that for the amount of travelling and different things we have done, I am very proud of this team. They are great travellers and have proved themselves to be good servants. Oh, yeah, there are the usual issues that come up in ANY group that have to be worked through, but there are really good overall attitudes and correctable spirits. When I arrived in our teacher's room yesterday morning at 810 all six members of the team were sitting quietly reading their Bibles. A great group to work with indeed! At the half way mark, we are surely blessed. Ok, that's it for today... please keep pray for Melanie, Tom, Caroline, Laura, Ginny, David and me!

Budapest to Szeged via Krakow

We had an interesting day on Thursday getting some rest and thinking about lessons for Szeged. Tom David and I went to the Roman ruins at Aquincum in northern Budapest. It was amazing. More to come about Roman Budapest in the weeks to come over on Kingdom Travelin'. That afternoon six of us boarded an overnight train to Krakow, Poland. It was a meaningful trip. I think the kids are still processing the whole thing. After the trip to Auschwitz, some words they used during a debriefing session were "I understood forgiveness" and "I understood why they hate" and I saw the evil that man is capable of." More on that later. After an EXHAUSTING day we were glad to get in our beds on the train. I slept 9 hours almost non-stop. Back in Budapest we cleaned up, finished packing and straightening where we had been living (didn't we girls?) and had a cookout with the Newells. Then while Uncle Tom napped the kids picked BUCKETS of (sour) cherrys. Then we headed to my fav train station and rode the train to Szeged. We got everyone fairly settled in their quarters and then crashed once again *at least I did, whew)

Yesterday was a day of seeking the LORD and worshipping. We met and travelled out to Calvary Chapel of Szeged and were encouraged and challenged in church. Then a traditional Hungarian lunch of Guyas soup we went to the Synagogue of Szeged. We prayer walked the Synagogue after talking a bit about the Szeged ghetto. I was reminded that there were more Hungarian Jews killed at Auschwitz than any other group. I need to post about prayer walking... but not now. Then to learn about Szeged buses and ice cream. Pallank RULES!!!!! Next, to Deak where we prayer walked and sang and asked God to bless our week of camp with the kids. Then everyone was encouraged to get some rest and get ready for the big day today.

This morning we began early (0755) with more prayer and preparation of rooms. Then we began our day of meeting, evaluating the English of, and teaching the kids... It was REALLY hectic with this small team, but they did an amazing job. This team is really awesome. We had a debriefing session at lunch afterward and made some plans which I will save for the next post... thanks for praying... please keep it up!!!

back on line after some hectic days...

I just posted a poem I wrote at Auschwitz over on Kingdom Travelin

Tuesday, Wednesday and beyond

On Tuesday we returned to Vac for more ministry with the Coppages. On the way up on the train we talked about our own spiritual selves and the fact that each of us as followers of Jesus need to get our strength from Him. We need to be as disciplined as an athlete in developing our spiritual life through regular reading of Scripture and prayer. It is hard to serve when our tank is running on empty because we have neglected the LORD. We had three objectives for the day: to once again invest time with the children at the Deaf school, learn about and get coaching on prayer walking and then do some prayer walking in Vac, then invest the evening in lessons plans for next week. All of these were accomplished. I'm especially glad about the emphasis on prayer walking. We will be using that in the weeks to come. It was a good day. This is an important reminder for us all.

Today we began with a team breakfast of crepes and a devotion about the greatest commandment and its application to the work of missions. We talked about how the greatest commandment tells us to follow God with our heart soul and mind. From this, we emphasized the imperative of reaching the heart of a people before using apologetics to speak to their brain. After breakfast, we headed to see a couple of places in Budapest. At Hero's Square we learned about the many invasions that have happened here in Hungary and the impact that has had on the mind set of the Hungarian. Then we went to St. Istvan's Basilica and did some prayer walking. After our prayer walk in the cathedral, we had a good discussion of our prayers for the people who frequent the masses, the tourist spots and that they would know the reality of that which is emblazoned on the front of the building: "I am the way the truth and the life." From there we had an interesting tour of Parliament and had a conversation there with a friend who talked with us about the Hungarian. In our conversation, he made a statement which really struck me, he said "they are lost in the rush of the day." This was profound. Tonight the team is up at Mark and Laura's having dinner and baby sitting the boys! I'm getting some needed work done here on the computer. So, the day is drawing to a close.

Tomorrow we will invest some time on lesson plans, take care of some last minute details for the next leg of the trip, and have lunch with Mark and converse with him about ministry here in Budapest, then to support his and Laura's ministry by hanging out at a music recital at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Tomorrow night we train north to Krakow. We will visit Auschwitz on Friday morning and spend Friday afternoon on Krakow, catching another overnight train back arriving in Budapest on Saturday. After some cleaning up and a cookout with Mark, Laura and the boys we will head to Szeged to prepare for a week of English camp and connecting with students there. I expect this will be my last post for a couple of days whilst travelin...

serving in Vac

Yesterday was a great day of serving in Vac. We worked with Doug and Lea and Karen supporting their ministry in this beautiful city in northern Hungary. It is just 30 min by fast train north of Budapest. Part of their ministry is volunteering at a Deaf school. Doug is a great teacher and gave us a briefing on the status of the school and how the population of the school is no longer just Deaf kids but now there are other children with mental handicaps as well. After our briefing, we had lunch and then went with baseballs, gloves, bats, bases and caps to the school yard. First things first and Doug invested time in our team members who didn't know baseball. And games of catch ensued to give our team a chance to develop a new sports skill. For others of us, it was just fun to play catch. After a little while the school students came outside after their lunch and some got gloves and played catch with us while others drew pictures and plated hair with some of our girls. It was a time of getting to know one another. I have three images in mind from that afternoon: Tom helping kids with their stance when it was their turn to bat, Caroline and Ginny getting their hair braided and the little boy who came to me to play catch. He was a blond haired boy who was deaf, his eyes were such that they pointed in two different directions and his hair was in splotches. But he was excited to play catch! I found my self being very excited with him as he caught the ball eleven times!!!! He worked very hard and would NOT be discouraged. I look forward to playing catch with him again this afternoon, if possible. After their recess was over it was off to study hall for them and off to errands for us.

After a walk around the town for ice cream, Karen took the team down to a park next to the Danube and hung out for a while while Doug and I ran a couple of errands. The we all headed to the Calvary Chapel they attend to have pizza with and connect with their youth. That was a great deal of fun, we got to know one another, sang a few songs (a couple of the members of this team want to sing all the time) and ate some GREAT pizza... the best of our many choices being the Magyaros pizza (HUngarian style with HU sausage paprika and onions)... then the youth told us 14 or 15 things they think we must do while in Hungary, it was a fun time which ended too soon but we had to rush to catch the 8:22 back to Budapest, we sang songs all the way back!

The final highlight of the day was that the hot water heater had been fixed, sort of, and there was warm water for the first warm shower for me of the trip! They guys got kinda warm showers in the AM since they were still here when the repair man came. Now, it we could just find that thermostat... hmmmmm... our prayer should be that our spiritual thermostat would be turned up on this trip to awaken us to a deeper understanding of God and desire to worship Him with our lives... lukewarm is not what the Lord wants from us!!!

wow, that was a long post, I need to get to work!!!

first "full" day of serving

We make the long public transit journey this morning to Vac... the guys one tram ride to catch a train (we're in the center of the city) the girls come from the nearby suburbs and will take a bus to a light rail, to a tram to a train (I go get the girls so I get twice as much!!!)... total time: about an hour and a half each way... but very green... we will have NO impact on the amount of cars on the road... we will be using existing transport!
we're headed to Vac to learn about ministry to the Deaf. We will "play" baseball with kids from a deaf school and then have a pizza dinner with some Hungarian kids from a church in Vac... pray for our travels and our relationships! Thank God for his provisions.
As soon as I get a photo software that will reduce pix, I'll be posting some pics for you. Any suggestions out there?

the first theme of the trip: baggage

I want to post some pix from the first days, but not yet... sorry. Our travels over went well... we sat in the plane at Dulles for a while, were two hours late into Heathrow and so our bags didn't make it till today... but all is well. We begin our work tomorrow in Vac.

Please pray for our interactions with Hungarians to be fruitful and please pray for our hearts as we serve.

Please note that posting times are eastern standard time.

tomorrow the adventure begins

we leave tomorrow! its been a CRAZY week, filled with the business of making sure everything at home is taken care of, getting cars serviced, paying bills... hey Tristan, don't forget the grass, okay??? checking the post office for donations...
until today, we were STILL short of funds for our "bare bones budget"... BUT today, thanks be to God working through His people, we have met our "bare bones" budget! We will go to Krakow and the concentration camp... Today I got a great plan from Lea for our first two or three days days of ministry... Hey team, bring rain gear, we may play baseball in the rain!!!! Mark's stuff came, I got a toy for the boys, got my guitar tuned up so I can drive people CRAZY - YEAH!!!!! worship books printed, now I gotta pack Jo's and my stuff... tomorrow will match the week... final errands around town, at Covenant in the AM, then lunch with Anna and on the raod to DC, dinner with Becca, then to Dulles... I sure hope the kids eat on the way like I asked and then sleep on the plane... Well, this is the first real trip post... it may be apparant that I'm pretty excited about this journey with a great team, pray for us will ya???
Melanie, Tom Caroline, Laura, Ginny, and David... oh, me too - Tomislav
keep checkin the blog for updates... oh, I wouldn't not expect to have time to post again until Sunday, but, who knows????

COUNTDOWN!!!!

6 days and counting!!!!

financial percentage update

Our financial picture is a little better today because of some more budget tightening (thanks Mark!) and promise of funds from a church.

With the Aouscwitz trip we are at 79.74% of our need.

If we drop the Aouscwitz trip we are at 85.72% of our need.

We simply need to pray and have faith in our God.

I believe our God of justice is going to provide because He knows how much our hearts can be impacted on the Krakow portion of this trip.