The past two weekends I have taken trips to visit friends. Very different trips with very different friends.
The first trip was to Pécs and Villány with my friends from Kiskunhalas. Every few months they organize a trip or party so that everyone can get together and catch up. Since everyone has more free time in the summer we were able to go to Pécs and the vineyard and wine village of Villány. There were eight of us total and we spent Saturday in Villány learning about wine and tasting different kinds in the cellars. If you have never been down in a wine cellar I highly recommend going sometime. All of the cellars are underground and rather damp. The walls become covered with mold after a few years. In every cellar they told us that the mold is good for the taste of the wine and should not be disturbed. In some of the cellars people had pressed various coins into the mold on the walls, disgusting and cool at the same time.
On Sunday we visited the TV tower in Pécs and discovered some very skinny and steep roads in the hills there. (Thank you GPS for finding the shortest route... not the usual one... the shortest one.) After that we went to the downtown area and visited a church that was originally a mosque. It has verz interesting architecture, but I really like it. While we were in there one of my friends, Tamas, asked if I would pray for them. I was totally surprised, but jumped at the chance. I felt awkward and happy at the same time.
After that we walked down a nice pedestrian street and bought some ice cream. The girl working was really funny. They had coke flavored ice cream and Tamas asked if it was any good. She answered that it was "szar." Tamas said "excuse me?" and she repeated it... basically she just told him that it was "sh*t". Very professional. The scoops were humongous and it made me think about getting ice cream at the Pickle Barrel. I really miss that place.
That was about the extent of our trip. After that Fenyo and I had to head back to BP.
The best part of that trip was having a heart to heart conversation with Fenyo. God provided a great opportunity for me to share about how much Jesus loves us all, and how I try to live my life to show that. Then Fenyo said that he prays the Lord's prayer every night. I said that that was a great start and that he should keep doing it. We talked about a number of different things, family, faith, love, etc. Toward the end I asked him if he would come to church with me sometime. He said yes. Please pray that God will continue to work in Fenyo's heart and that when he does come to church with me he will be open and ready to hear what he needs to hear.
My other trip was to Miskolc. I went to visit my friends there, Ruth and Ati, and got to stay with another member of their church, Szilvi. Ruth is the daughter of my former German professor Dr. Dowdey and her husband, Ati, is Hungarian. They have been missionaries/ministers in Miskolc for a few years now. Anyways... on Saturday when I arrived I was greeted by Szilvi and a teenage boy, Attila (different from Ati... so confusing at times...) We had lunch at Szilvi's then we left to go to the "Gyermekvaros" or children's town. Essentially this "children's town" is an orphanage for kids who are not really orphans. Most of these kids know who their parents are, but their parents can not or do not want to take care of them. Szilvi later told me that Attila is one of nine children, and all of them live there in the children's town. Szilvi also told me that the "house" that Attila is in has about ten-fifteen boys in it who are all teenagers. This "house" is alloted 2kg of bread each day, or by Hungarian standards one big loaf or two small ones. Definitely not enough food for that many teenage boys. Almost every weekend the members of the Miskolc church of Christ go to the orphanage to visit either one of the specific "houses" or to do a big group event where everyone is invited. This time it was everyone together. There were probably about twenty kids from age 3 to 16 who came down. We sang some fun camp songs in English like: If You Love Jesus, I'm Happy Today, etc. A lot of the kids were at the English Bible Camp that the church hosts every year so they already knew the songs and were begging to sing their favorites. After we sang Ati told a parable about leopard that was adopted by a family when it was little, but then turned on the family once it grew up. A wise man had warned them that this might happen. The kids were really good at figuring out that the wise man was God/Jesus and the leopard was sin: cute at first... deadly in the end. After that we shared some snacks and did some crafts and played a game. It was really fun. The whole time I was sad in my heart. I just wanted to hug them and take care of them... but I can't take care of all of them. I was able to get a look at one of the "houses" where they live. It was a girls "house." It actually did look like an apartment in many ways. It had four bigger bedrooms with four or so beds in each of them. There was a big kitchen, a dinning area and a living room. Everything was decorated nicely with drawings and other crafts. The bedrooms were tidy, every bed made, shoes all lined up in a row. In some ways it reminded me of camp... but these kids never leave. Their parents have abandoned them. My emotions were on a bit of a roller coaster while we were there. Please pray for the orphans in Hungary. There are quite a few, and adoption is not common here.
Sunday I was pleased to attend church in Miskolc. They have a very small church in number, but they are strong in their faith. They meet in an apartment that belongs to a member who got married and moved to Germany. She decided to keep ownership and allow the church to use it as they please. This Sunday was especially nice because Ancsa, a teen who went to the Bible camp for a few years, decided to commit her life to Christ and was baptised. Bathtub baptisms are always fun to watch, but the true joy came from watching Ancsa confess Jesus as her Lord and Savior. After church we shared lunch together, played some games, went out for ice cream, then headed home. Ancsa, Szilvi and I watched a movie, then went to Ruth and Ati's to watch antoher one. Yay for movies! It was great to spend time fellowshipping with the women of the church.
Today, Monday, I got to go to the "Barlangfurdo" or cave baths. I was pretty excited about this, even though I had to go by myself. The cool part about these baths is that they are built into this hill so that you are actually inside of a cave. Unfortunately it was a little chilly so I felt like the water was too cold in all the pools except for one. I still enjoyed it though, relaxed, got some sun in, etc. I will definitely miss going to the "strand" after Aug. 31. That is when all of the "stands" in Budpest close. Too soon. Hopefully I can get at least one more visit in before school starts.
In two days the new teachers will arrive. I am pretty excited about that... but I have a ton to do tomorrow as a result. We are also having a party tomorrow night for Jo and my students from last year. Hopefully a few of them will be able to come.
Please keep Jo, Mary, Emily and I in your prayers as we prepare for the school year.
Grace and peace-
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When you get to the end of all the light you know 
