Budapest, Here I Come!

I started off the week still in Virginia but I needed a little pick-me-upper to get me through the week. I missed Glenn so much that I just had to go get something to bring me out of my depression!



And the Krispy Kreme sugar high did it!



During the conference for education consultants, I found out that some of the ladies from other parts of the world have Krispy Kremes where they live! Anyone want to open one here in Budapest????



This is Marlene. She works at the International Learning Center in the preschool department. Marlene and I share a mutual friend, Kim Harris, who is from my church (West Cobb Baptist) in Marietta. Marlene was attending the conference also, and as we got to talking, it turns out that she was in Poland at our AGM in early April as a volunteer in the children's department this year and last year but our paths never crossed! Small world, isn't it?



We took a night off from eating the cafeteria food at ILC and were treated to pizza at Bottoms Up! It was good to get off campus and to have some time just to sit and talk. It was also good to eat pizza!

Staff, Teachers and Consultants attending the conference

It was a good conference and I learned a lot from the staff and the other consultants as they shared about their work in the other regions. There was sweet fellowship and a time for encouraging one another. By time the conference was over on Friday evening though, I was ready to go home!

Ephesians 5:33

I left ILC on Saturday at noon and arrived at the Budapest airport on Sunday at noon. I was sooooo glad to see Glenn again and to be home!

On the plane trip home, I read the book Love and Respect, which identifies that a wife has one driving need-to feel loved, and a husband-to feel respected. The book (I want you to read it though!) reveals why spouses react negatively to each other, and how they can deal with such conflict quickly, easily and biblically. The Bible very clearly tells us in Ephesians 5:33 what we must do to stop the cycle of defeat. Really, you need to read it! I was convicted that I need to apologize to Glenn and make some changes in the way I act and react to him to be obedient to God's Word.

Snow-capped mountains in Germany

Grape arbor

While I was in Virginia all of our fruit trees lost their blossoms and fruit appeared! We have grapes growing next to the carport, and a peach tree, 2 almond trees and a cherry tree growing in the yard.

Two Almond trees

The cherry tree is loaded!!!

A beautiful peach tree too!

This week will mark the end of our required "official" language study and the beginning of our "real" work. However, we will continue in unofficial language study for a while longer since we still have a lot to learn! Continue to pray for us, please!

Virginia is for lovers, so where is Glenn????

Greetings from America!


In the JFK airport in New York

I arrived in the US on Tuesday after a longggg flight from Budapest to Paris to New York to Richmond (VA). I had left my house in Budapest at 5:30 am, and arrived at the International Learning Center 20 miles outside Richmond at midnight (which was 6:00 am the next day in Budapest.) I had been traveling for 24 hours. The trip should not have taken so long except that I got caught in all the cancelled and delayed flights at JFK due to the bad weather the day before! After a 3 hour delay, we boarded our 35 seater plane in New York to go to Richmond, only to sit on the tarmac for 3 hours. IN A TINY PLANE! They finally felt sorry for us and let us unload and go back into the terminal which was very, very crowded with angry people. Once they were really ready for us, we still ended up sitting on the tarmac for another 30 minutes before we finally took off. When I got to ILC, I was rather tired but fortunately I had Wednesday to recover before the conference began on Thursday. Because most of the attendees of the conference were coming in from places all over the world, they have us come in one day early to rest up and recover from jet lag. Good idea!


International Learning Center

The conference is on MK education (MK=missionary kid). This past week we learned about testing for special needs children and were trained on how to administer the Brigance test. This next week we will discuss policies and practices in the various regions around the world that pertain to children's education on the mission field. We will share ideas with one another. Well, they will share and I will glean. I'm so new on the field that I don't really have anything to share!


Such peacefulness!

This weekend the campus is empty except for about 20 people so things are very calm and quiet. I have enjoyed the slow pace after all the traveling Glenn and I have been doing this past month. The campus is located out in the country. There are cows grazing in the fields that line the .7 mile driveway down to the entrance gate, and I have walked it every day since arriving and jogged it twice! I've got to burn some of these oreo's that I'm eating!

I want to buy something special for Glenn since he couldn't come on this trip. Do you think he would like this outfit???

I came to the US with a small (understatement) list of things I wanted to buy while here. (Please notice that I did NOT say "need".) One of the other ladies rented a car when she got into the country so we have been able to catch rides with her into Richmond to go shopping in the evenings. Karen, a friend who lives in Richmond, took me shopping on Saturday. We shopped from 10 am until 4:30 pm and I was able to finish most of my list, but the best part was eating lunch at a mexican restaurant!

Well, it's been a good week, a fun weekend, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the conference, but I am ready to go home. I will fly out of the Richmond airport on Saturday afternoon, and will arrive in Budapest on Sunday afternoon. It will be good to see Glenn again! I have missed him and our walks together. I know he has missed the cafeteria food here too. (Another understatement) While I have been gone, he has done all kinds of projects at the house and I can't wait to see the flowers he has planted in our yard! Maybe I'll put some pictures of the yard on next Sundays' blog. Bet you can't wait!

Whirlwind month! Off again!

Kari and Jonathan left on Tuesday morning to return to France. It was so sad to see them go! After Glenn dropped them off at the airport, he left for a regional leaders retreat in the Czech Republic, and I left for a retreat about 1 1/2 hours outside of Budapest for all the ladies that are in the Central Europe field, which includes Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romania. Because I am the one that took the camera, and I am the one who updates the blog, you'll hear about the ladies retreat instead of Glenn's regional retreat!

FBC, Jacksonville, Florida sent ladies to host the most wonderful time of worship, fellowship and encouragement for 50 female missionaries!



One of the best parts of the retreat was the worship time! I have really missed singing praises in English!! We had worship and small group Bible studies in the mornings and evenings, and the afternoons were free.



In the afternoons during free time, the volunteers from FBC gave all of us haircuts (much needed; I had trimmed my own hair twice since arriving), manicures and pedicures, and brought supplies for several craft projects that they taught us to do. We also could have massages (I had two!) and walk out in the country (which I did every day) or ride in the hotel's horsedrawn carrage across the countryside, which was beautiful! After the evening worship, we had fellowship time.


"Chubby Bunny"

Have you ever had to see how many marshmallows you could stuff in your mouth and still be able to say, "chubby bunny"? I think these two ladies were able to get 15 in each of their mouths before gagging!



We also had game night, a pajama party (and the ladies from FBC brought all of us new pj's!), roasted (or burned) marshmallows and made good ole American s'mores, and on our final evening there was a fashion show. The ladies brought each of us a tote bag full of American goodies such as Bath and Body Works lotions, books, CD's, snack foods, Mary Kay cosmetics, Oreos, and M & M's and much more! We were pampered and refreshed!



FBC ladies put on quite a fashion show!

But then, Sunday I had to go home and unpack, do laundry, and repack for my trip to the US on Tuesday.

Before the retreat, we received word that there were two packages on the way to us from friends at our church in Marietta, and they should arrive while Glenn and I were on the retreats. When we checked our mail, there was no notice of an attempt to deliver them, so on Monday morning a bilingual friend called the Post Office for us to check on the packages. They were delivered to our house shortly afterward! Evidently, the postman had noticed that the shutters were closed and the car gone, and figured we were out of town, so he held on to our packages for us.

Christmas in April????

Goodies from our friends in our Sunday School class

There were cake mixes, tubs of frosting, pasta sides and salads, lifesavers, ziploc bags, bacon bits, Jiffy mixes, Kraft macaroni and cheese, stuffing mixes, Kool-aid, dressing packets, toffee bits, cream of tartare....

Glenn's favorite color!

but Glenn especially liked the nail supplies sent by Tassie to "Glenn and Cile".

I think we will have enough lifesavers! 3 lb bag!

The second package was from a young friend, Adam Doughty, that I knew from NCCS and WCBC. Adam is very special to me, and is one of my prayer warriors. (His mom, Pam, is a good friend too!) Their package included Brownie mixes, lifesavers, tons of licorice (that I will share with my favorite son-in-law, if he is nice to me.), pasta sides, Kool-aid, candy bars, and 3 different kinds of chips (mint, peppermint and toffee).

Included in Adam's package were wonderful Easter cards from some young children at WCBC that I enjoyed reading! Thank you!

We feel really spoiled and will not have to buy groceries for the next year! There were so many things from our Wish List that I had to go in and delete most of the list! We are so blessed to have friends that would go to the trouble and expense (it costs an arm and TWO legs to mail the packages!) to do this for us, and we are not sure how we can adequately express our love and appreciation for them. It really means a lot to us, and your love in action is such an encouragement to us. May God bless you as you blessed us.

As I said earlier in this blog, I leave for the US tomorrow (Tuesday) to go to a conference on MK Education (MK=missionary kid) at the International Learning Center in Virginia, which is where we were from October through December. I will return on April 28th. While I am there, Glenn will hold down the fort. Please pray for him as he handles everything that comes our way while I am in the States. Pray that I will be able to learn at the conference what I will need in order to help our missionary moms that homeschool. And while you're praying, pray for our language skills! We have missed language class for the past two weeks while we were at AGM and the retreats, and it has really shocked us at how much we have forgotten! Thanks!

Time flies!

Our time with Jonathan and Kari is coming to a close. They leave this morning to fly back to Lyon. We're also headed out, but in different directions. Glenn is going to a retreat near Prague and I'm going to a women's retreat a few hours from here. We're looking forward to the retreats, but are sad to see Jonathan and Kari go!

So what has happened since the last post? Well...


An afternoon at Margit Island


Glenn bought a big cotton candy at Margit Island


He did share with me


Kari and I had ice cream


Enjoying each other


We walked the length of the island, then took a break!


The family that blogs together...gets photographed together!


A sample of the language we're learning


Deciphering advertisements in Hungarian


Dinner with Kesha, Darin, Alvin and Mary


Happy birthday to Glenn! Happy birthday to Glenn!


In Hungary, all cars belonging to foreigners are marked with a C on the tag. This is our car, so of course it has the C.


Statue Park, near our house, is a collection of statues from days of communism


Kari posing with the statues


Walking through the statues


Statue Park


Monument


We enjoyed Pizza Hut pizzas, a treat for Jonathan and Kari


Hungary is known for their sausages...but it's too bad they don't have many choices ;)


Kari got a good deal on this one at our mall!


Glenn and me riding the tram


We put Jonathan to work in the yard this afternoon :)

Ghost written by: ????

Kari and Jonathan are here!

Sorry folks. We've had a hard time keeping in touch while we were in Poland because there was only one hallway that had a hotspot, and there was only one working wall outlet for our computer battery! Not to mention that our time was much more limited this year than last because we were no longer volunteers who could skip some of the sessions!


Glenn gets a time at the only working wall plug!

The week flew by! We had counseling sessions 5 times a day, during the breaks in the morning and afternoon, and at meal times. Occasionally there were optional meetings in the evenings, but we usually opted out of these because of needing a break!! We did manage to walk into town and eat at the local pizza place and do a little window shopping on our last day there!

The highlight of our week was the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. We raised $38,000! The other half of the missionaries in central and eastern Europe will have their auction in June in Greece. I anticipate a little healthy competition as they will try to raise more than this group did!



Friday morning we left the Hotel Gotebiewski and traveled by bus back to Warsaw (4 hours) in order to catch a 1:15 pm flight back to Budapest. Unfortunately, there was a baggage handlers strike going on in Budapest, so our flight was delayed two hours. Now, this wouldn't be so bad in Atlanta because the airport is big enough to walk around, but the Warsaw airport is about the size of our church in Marietta!


Glenn entertains on the strumstick while waiting for our flight.


Don't you just love pink?

When we were picked up at the airport at 5 pm in Budapest by Darrin, he told us that the two earlier flights from Milan, Italy had been CANCELLED due to the baggage strike in Budapest. This was bad news to us because Kari and Jonathan were due to arrive that night via Milan. But God is good! Kari and Jonathan made it that evening without a hitch. The only thing we can figure is that they were leaving late in the evening and that there weren't a lot of other flights coming into Budapest at that time, that the folks taking care of the bags could handle their flight. Whatever the reason, we were sooooo glad to see them!



After a good nights' rest, we were up and out on the town! We bought a weeks transportation pass and spent the day sightseeing.



We started the day with 2 hours bus tour of the city to be able to see the highlights of famous spots and to get a good overview of the city. Did you know that Budapest was originally two cities, Buda and Pest, with the Danube River flowing between them?


Do you see the pug, Dad?

There are 7 bridges that connect the two sides of the city.


Warning: bicycles and/or old men with children crossing here.


Our TGI Fridays restaurant downtown


They were very excited about Burger King since there aren't any in Lyon!


The very first metro in Europe, right here in Budapest


The Parliament building


The Danube River, which runs through Budapest




Taking a break from sightseeing (he's such a good sport to let me post this picture!)






Enjoying a special treat: Dr Peppers!


"Can you see anything, Glenn?"




Standing in Buda, looking over Pest


View from the Citadel


Saint Stephen's Basilica


Crossing one of the seven city bridges


Tram crossing in front of the Parliament building on the other bank of the Danube River


"Szia! May I speak with Chris or Kate?"


Tram line, one of the seven city bridges, and Saint Stephen's Basilica


The indoor market


Goulash and "Hungarian sample platter" on Vaci Street


Isn't Kari beautiful? And the flowers too.


Budapest was originally two cities: Buda and Pest


Jonathan makes a Hungarian friend


Cile getting friendly with the locals


Kari telling him her side of the story


1000 Hungarian forints...actually only about $5

It is now Monday and we are headed back into town to go to Margaret Island. We will post more pictures of Kari and Jonathan's visit since Kari is so fast at this blog thing, so check us out again in the next day or two! We hope you had a wonderful Easter and are rejoicing that Jesus is risen!