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Yesterday up in Vac, (see trip blog) I was having a conversation with a young friend about American news and it struck me, American news is JUST LIKE American foreign policy: it is only about America. It’s no wonder Americans are among the most (if not the most) ignorant people about the rest of the world. Watch the national news, there’s more about Paris in jail than about Sudan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! okay, now I’ve got that off my chest.

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…

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!!!

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?

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.

I’m outta the USA tomorrow… headed to Hungary, Croatia (via Serbia) Poland to experience Aouscwitz again with students, then to Ukraine alone, then to Praha (Prague) with Jo to see Mark and Joanna and Sasha (we hope)… so I’m thinking much or all of my blogging will be over on the trip blog. Though I’m guessing that I will be posting brief thoughts and links to that blog along the way… over on the trip blog are some thoughts about the busy-ness of getting ready (and about the faithfullness of God!!!)

I gave two books to good friends with whom I have travelled and had GREAT conversations… these two friends are moving from the ‘ville to pursue life in different places in the USA…

Anne, I got The Way of the Heart, last year for my birthday. It is a call indeed to the heart! I pray it is to you too. Godspeed!

Liz, I hope you enjoy Volf, I went and got it and started it, so lets email!

check out the trip blog

Okay, that’s it, I gotta go pack, Peace from Grace!