Monthly Archives: February 2012
sights from around Budapest today
Filed under culture, photos along the way, things Central European
tragedy in the freezing night
I left the big city tonight and tagged along with some people who go out and visit to girls who work in the sex trade. These are girls who have gotten caught up in prostitution. They come from poor backgrounds and get caught up in the culture that holds them in. I went out with team of four three women and one man (and me). My job was to observe, learn what I could, but more importantly pray. I prayed for God to protect the women who went out 2 at a time to talk to the girls. The girls paced on the side of this barren but lit two lane highway. Over the course of about a mile, there were twelve of them. Three of us sat in the car and prayed and kept a look out for trouble from the pimps. The women on the team took hot tea, offered a sandwich and a Bible or a book, but mainly just spoke to these girls with the respect all humans deserve. Save your judgement. These women need Godly love. That’s what these women offered. When the pimps approach, the man on the team engages these men in conversation. The culture behind this whole industry is pretty complicated. The thing I observed in this team I was allowed to be a part of, is this, they care for the people who are caught in the tragedy in the freezing night (9 degrees F). For a moment, these people who are caught in a web of lies were allowed to experience the warmth of Jesus. Please pray as I did and will continue, that the words and the deeds of these disciples of Jesus will be used by God to cause these women to want to leave this life the are caught in behind and embrace a life of living in God’s love.
Filed under culture, experience, seeking understanding
does God overload us?
So here is the crowd from the pizza dinner on Sunday night (thx for the pic Lea). Laci (bottom right) gave us a briefing on the work in Sarajevo. You’ll read and see(?) more from there when I get there in two weeks. [PIC: clockwise from Laci on bottom right, Petra, Keri, Lottie, Lea (like the princess), Seth, Joanna, Mark, Kirsten, Will, me (only grey head), Lea (as Lee), Dave and Doug]
On Monday I traveled through the frozen (it’s 18F and snowing again this morning) tundra here in Hungary to Vac and was pleased to meet with four families over the course of the day. During those conversations, and as I think about the life of God’s servants over here, I have begun to think about these questions that I share for your consideration:
Does God overload us?
Is doing other than what Good has given us wise?
Could doing really good things distract us from doing the right thing(s)?
These are questions for all of us to ponder.
Remember Chambers: “The job of the missionary is not to win souls or be useful; the job of the missionary is to do the will of God.”
OH! I slept all they way again last night, somebody’s praying!!!! I will hold off on the “Jet Lag is beaten!” statement for one more night.
February 7, 2012 · 08:39
what are you afraid of?
I asked the crowd at church “what are you afraid of” Yesterday was a great first full day, I taught at one of my favorite churches on the planet (admittedly, there are several of them) at South Budapest (click here to see their website) and had some good catch up conversations with folks there after which, Will and Joanna took me out to lunch and then a quiet afternoon. At 17:00, the whole northern Hungary gang gathered for pizza where I asked Laci to brief us on his trip to Bosnia. This made me pretty excited about my trip there in a couple of weeks and hopeful for deeper partnership there… even English teachers??? We’ll see. Now there’s a place where you might ought to fear talking about the Gospel out loud, but they are not. So the answer to our fear about “gospeling” (proclaiming the news about Jesus as coined by Scot McKnight in King Jesus Gospel.
This is a talk I am taking around with me that is a reminder about what the Gospel actually is and what we are to do with it, why we don’t and how to fix the why. So there is the question… as far as proclaiming the news about Jesus, what are you afraid of?
safe in snowy Budapest
This was what I awoke to (actually most of the snow had fallen or was falling when I arrived) this morning.
I was blessed by two main things yesterday: to have slept ALL the way from sitting on the plane in DC (which had a mechanical problem and was 1.hr delayed and I even slept through take off) to 20 minutes before landing in London. That made the rest of the travel excellent! Joanna and Will came down to meet me and Laci drove us to their place. Thanks Lazo! THEN second blessing, I got to see my Sweet Anna looking good at Becca’s house via Skype so we were all together – thanks be to God for the Internet.
Shortly I am off to preach at DelPest (South Budapest) Calvary Chapel. I will be taking folks through a reminder of the Gospel. More on that later. At 5 this afternoon we have a northern Hungary dinner with 6 families represented. That will be fun.
Please pray that the sleep through the flight and the great night’s sleep last night will beat jet-lag.
Filed under photos along the way
kingdom travelin' 