A Weekend in Hungary

I never dreamed I'd find my name on a flier in a small Hungarian town! But this past weekend, not only my name was there but I was as well (with my 3 teammates too)!

Haha, we do look a little lost. :)

We were asked to return to our beloved town of Litér to do a weekend English/Bible outreach hosted by the local school. It's only a 2 1/2 hour drive (and a beautiful one at that) and we were more than happy to make the trip and see the kids and friends that we'd made from the summer.

They were so excited to see us!


Jeff became a human jungle gym as usual. :)


On Saturday we each had a class of kids for 2 hours in the morning. I was with the 9-12 year old's along with the English teacher of the school and the local pastor. We took them through the story of the Good Samaritan in different ways, using both English and Hungarian. Then we put together a modern skit to present to the parents that afternoon!

Instead of "robbers," we had gangsters. :)

After presenting the skits, we had a sort of "family fun day" and played all sorts of relay race games among other things with the kids and their families. Quite a few turned out and it was so fun! At the end we roasted this traditional Hungarian bread coated with sugar on an open fire and Lindy gave her testimony. It was a good evening of connecting with the people.

I really enjoyed talking throughout the day to the English teacher who I worked with. She's in her 20's and is not a Christian. She said the kids have been talking about us ever since school started! They told her that I was very kind so she said she was excited to meet me. She had lots of questions and really wanted to meet again in the future. We're friends on facebook so be praying as I continue to connect with her! She's a neat lady. :)

On Sunday, I got to share my testimony in church. A lot of the town came because they heard the Americans were there. :) I got really nervous during church and felt out of practice in public speaking, and part way through my testimony I went blank! The translator was so kind and calm and I was able to pick back up and I think it turned out quite well. I'm glad the Hungarians got to see that I'm quite human too. :) A lot of them came up after wards and thanked me for sharing- I'm thankful for the opportunity!

After church, we were invited to one of our favorite family's houses (the Halmy family) for a huge feast! Many other families were there and we had a grand time of delicious Hungarian food and drinks and deserts and lots of great fellowship. Many of them speak good English, but for the others that don't we both get to practice our German (with lots of laughs!). They taught us a Hungarian song then they eagerly learned an English one as well. They are such incredible hosts and we love them so much!

Here's the Halmy family, waving to us goodbye. "Christmas?! New Years?!" They asked? :) We'll see when it is, but I do hope and think we'll get to see them again before we head back to the states. I'm so thankful God has given us a taste of truly connecting with a community and being so well received there! Pray for the town of Litér! God is awakening their hearts and has established a beautiful community there. I have learned so much from them!

Team Retreat in Croatia

I am now half-way through my internship! Our team took a week-long retreat to the shores of Croatia to debrief our first half and to prepare for the next half. Paul and Teresa Hartford, the Director of Global Internship and his wife, flew out to be with us.


We stayed at a cute pension, called "Tinka's," seen below:














In the mornings, we had some great times of devotions and worship and then had some classes concerning interpersonal relationships. We talked about living in community, conflict resolution, expectations and things of the like. It was so helpful! It was great to have our experiences articulated and to learn how to do things better in the future.

In the afternoons we enjoyed talking and hanging out at the beach and we spent a day exploring the town of Zadar, home to the awesome Sea Organs of Zadar! There's not much unusual about it to the eye, but under the strand by the water, there are organs below and as the waves crash against them they make the most marvelous sounds! I enjoyed sitting by them. :) We also had a great hike in the mountains!

Jeff and I got some time with just Paul and Teresa and it was good to share with them how our experience has been together and get their input and encouragement for our relationship. We're so thankful that we haven't had any big problems and that God has made a way for us to be together on this internship and to be in unity with one another and the team. We'd appreciate your prayers as we continue to grow in our relationship.

We had some fun with the team, taking pictures with the sunset. :)

I think we all left Croatia encouraged and ready to press in for these next 7 months. This is a fun time! We've worked hard to get established here in Austria and now that we are better connected here and to one another, I think we're set up to enjoy the rhythm God has prepared. Though I know challenges will come, I think we're better equipped to face them.

Traveling the Land... Almost over

What a wonderful two weeks of vacation I had with my parents and Jeff and his mom!

It was so refreshing and delightful to get some quality time with my parents and we enjoyed traveling throughout Vienna, Austria, France and Prague, Czech Republic. If you'd like to check out an album of pictures of our journey, go here.

We got to meet up with a past foreign exchange student, Emmanuelle and stay with her parents in a quaint town North of Paris. We got a true taste of French life, especially as Emmanuelle's mom was the president of tourism in the area!
Did you know that there is a piece of American land in France? I didn't! There's a monument remembering the American troops who came to help out France. Jeff and I were happy to be "home," if only for a moment. :)

I'm so thankful for the time to catch up with my parents. I was quite sad to see them go, though. It was a great break, though my feet are sure tired from all the walking!

Today is the first day of our 3rd term! Time has flown by, especially with such a busy summer. We were supposed to have a week of class, however our teacher had a bike accident so is in the hospital. So I'll be spending some time at Mercy House of Prayer this week and gearing up for our team retreat in Croatia. The Director of Global Internship and his wife will be flying out to debrief our first half of internship with us.

Then... we're going back to Hungary for a weekend! The pastor from the first camp we went to requested us back for a weekend camp. What an awesome opportunity! So right after Croatia, Jake, Lindy, Jeff and I will drive over to help out with that. Then, Lord willing, we'll be in Austria! I'm looking forward to classes, time at MHOP, teaching English for some kids in Stockerau and helping out with the youth group at my local church... and many more God- appointments.

*love!

Last Two Weeks in Hungary

This is called the Bus for Life

It's a traveling library and evangelism tool that we parked in a town square of a town called Kishkunmasja. We helped a pastor named Attila with a big outreach to the community.


We got our faces painted and passed out fliers to invite the community to a kids program and to the services in the evenings.

These are my fellow clown friends :)

In the evenings we also got to do some drama presentations.



Then we got to eat an awesome Hungarian dinner that they provided.

And as a group we painted a backdrop for the stage!


Then we went to a famous lake called Balaton. There was a huge Christian conference there and we helped out a fairly famous Hungarian (famous in Christian circles :) named Danny Kish (he's one of 14 kids who are all following Jesus and making a big difference in Hungary!) with a beach outreach in the afternoons.

We pulled up the bus on the beach and unloaded games galore!


Cool parachute

slip n' slide!

And much more. :) Although it was challenging to talk to people because of the language, the kids who joined us had a lot of fun and thankfully there were also many Hungarian helpers who got to speak with the people.

We also got to see some of our friends from our first camp in Liter!

And now our time in Hungary is over.

I would say it was a time of inward transformation amidst a flexible frenzy of outreaches. :)

Lots of love given and received.

Lots of new perspectives.

Lots of love and peace in my heart as I return to Austria.

Lots of excitement in my heart as I wait to see my parents tomorrow!

Two week break, here I come. :)

Hungarian BBQ!

So the last day of our time in Cegled, we got to go to a traditional Hungarian BBQ in one of the church family's gardens.

You first get some fat, put it on a skewer and roast it over the fire, dripping the juice from the fat on your delicious Hungarian bread. You also roast an onion, and after you have patiently roasted, you throw it all on the bread along with some tomatoes for an incredibly tasty sandwhich, Hungarian style!

Here's our team roasting away.

We also got to eat some amazing fruit, freshly picked from their garden!
Lindy with the plumbs

Me with some grapes

Jake with a pear


To top off the evening, we got to go hear one of our student's parents play live music at a restaurant! We had a fun dance party. :)

It's been awesome getting to taste so much Hungarian culture!

I have a visa!!!

This is somewhat old news, but I realized I hadn't posted a blog about it yet!!! Myself and my whole team now have visas that will enable us to stay in Austria for the remainder of our time here. Praise God! Thanks so much for your prayers- they were powerful and effective. :) God has really used our visa situation for the good- He sent us to Hungary this summer for a win/win situation: OM Hungary needed more help to enable them to serve churches in their summer camps and we needed visas- both have been a success!



This past week we were in yet another Hungarian town serving a reformed church. We were English teachers for a week long English and Bible camp. I got to teach the older group of 13-16 year olds along with my teammate Jake. They were a really creative bunch so we got to do a lot of cool crafts and drawings!

There was a group of 4 teens that called me their own and were sure to save a place for me at every meal. They were full of smiles and eager to test out their bank of English questions (and just as eager to teach me Hungarian words). The week was a challenging one, as it was hard to teach effectively and to know how to share Jesus with the students and we were all quite tired, but when one of my male students cried on the last day, saying he would miss us teachers so much, I was thankful to see that God was able to communicate love through us after all.

I think my favorite part of the week was actually getting to interact with the cook for the camp. She was very sick and was the only one cooking when there were supposed to be other helpers (there were about 50 kids at the camp), and as Hungarians are sticklers to their snack times, she had a lot of meals to prepare! She was also having some difficulties with one of her sons. God really laid her on my heart so I prayed for her through the week and tried to encourage her, thank her, and help out as much as I could. When we left today she gave me a big hug and kiss on the cheek and with moist eyes said, "you're a good girl."

Thanks so much for your prayers! I'm so thankful that God is using us to serve His Body in Hungary, even in our weakness!

We have a few days of rest now. :) Praise the Lord. :)

Teachin' English in Erd

These are my students!

This is my evening class. I taught it along with my teammate Lindy and we had an awesome translator...


his name is zőlt! He is also the pastor of the church that hosts the English camp.


This is my morning class! They were a great bunch of students, eager to learn and they really enjoyed their time.

On Friday evening, our last day, we had a Square dance party! We made a lot of food and then taught them to dance! We had a great time.