What is normal?

It has been interesting to look back over our past 2 1/2 years here and see how much things have changed in our work and daily schedule. The first 2 months we were heavy in language study and I spent a good portion of my free time trying to keep up with personal emails from America. I remember spending whole weekends trying to respond to 50+ emails in my in-box and rejoicing that I had written 30. (I won't tell you how many emails I have in my in-box at this time because that will just give my friends and family members an excuse not to write me! Let's just say in the past year my work load has increased and I now have work emails waiting on me also!)

Six months after arriving in Budapest, I took over the Eden House ministry and Glenn took over medical coordination when the Doyles left on their stateside assignment. During this time, we got to know a lot of our personnel when they came to stay at the Eden House for medical care. My days were spent managing the "reservations" for the Eden House, taking families to the grocery store upon their arrival, making sure the rooms were ready (and cleaning a few myself), and visiting with the families during their time with us. It was a lot of fun for me, ever the extrovert, and enough people for a party!

The Stephens' arrived in the spring of 2008 and took over as host/hostess of the Eden House in June, and with the Doyles back in Budapest and doing medical coordination, Glenn and I began traveling to visit our personnel across central and eastern Europe. Summer of 2008 was when we were finally able to do what we envisioned doing in member care. Of course, we did member care before this point, but most of it was via email or by phone, rather than in person.

If you've followed our blog for the past year, you know we've done a good bit of traveling across our 26 countries in 12 time zones, and met some wonderful people who are living in some pretty rough situations. We have truly been blessed by getting to know them, hearing their stories, and growing to love them as fellow believers. We are humbled to be able to serve in such an awesome ministry and don't ever want to think that we have anything to offer in and of ourselves other than what God chooses to do or say through us. If there is anything good that we do, it is only because of the Holy Spirit who lives in us and speaks through us. To God be the glory for all He has done!

Today I want to share with you another aspect of our ministry.

Sometimes in talking with families, we feel it is best if they come to Budapest for some focused time with us or for medical care in addition to the counseling we do. We will generally meet with the families in the morning and evening each day, and they have the afternoons free to do some assigned work or to reflect on what God is saying to them. Occasionally, they have a large enough block of time off to go into town to do some sightseeing, taking advantage of being in our beautiful city.

And if it happens to be a female by herself, I enjoy being her tour guide for the day, which happened this past week!


Moat around the Castle in City Park

We set off for a few hours in town. We started with lunch at Arriba, a Mexican burrito fast food place, and then headed to Heroes Square and City Park. (Yes, two weeks in a row as tour guide. Good thing we love our city.)


Balloon reads: Eredeti GPS

Lots of folks in the park strolling. I guess this man's wife was afraid he'd get lost and sent him with a GPS!


Church on the castle grounds

I've probably shown you this church in the park that is located inside the fake castle. We call it a fake castle because, well, the castle was never really a castle. It was built for an exhibition showcasing the many different architectural styles across Hungary through the ages and no king ever lived in it. There was a wedding ceremony taking place when we walked past so we peeked in the amber windows...




...and this is what we saw. How cool!

Men playing chess

Where are their wives? At home canning vegetables?

The tourists are here! The tourists are here!

The tourists were out in swarms. The more tourists, the more booths. This particular booth is located across the street from the Szechenyi thermal baths and sells womens bikini bathing suits and men's Speedo's in plastic bags hanging from the racks. I wonder how many people actually come to Budapest without a bathing suit and after seeing the bath houses decide, "Oh, I want to try out the thermal pools, but I don't have a bathing suit. Where can I buy one?" Evidently enough to merit selling them!

Loved the roasted corn display!

We got a cold drink (Coke Zero for me) and sat on a blanket on the bank of the moat that went around the castle and talked. It didn't really matter that there was no water in our part of the moat.

It was just nice to sit, listen and share. And that is another aspect of what member care does.

Practice Hospitality. Romans 12:13b

This has been an incredibly busy week but a great one! I might not be successful at doing all the things the Bible tells me to do but there is one thing I have definitely done this week, and that is to practice hospitality!


Happy Birthday, Mark!

We've had someone staying in our home with us for the past week who left on Tuesday. Tuesday evening we hosted a party at our house with cake and homemade ice cream to celebrate the 40th birthday of one of our Eden House guests. There were 13 of us.

On Friday, I made a birthday cake for one of my friends who is fairly new to Budapest who was celebrating her first birthday out of the U.S. It is always hard to be away from family and friends on special days such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays, but especially during your first year away from home.


Brad, Karen, Abby and Chloe with Glenn and me

We had the Pollard family over for dinner on Saturday night to say good-bye to them. They are dear friends who are going back to the U.S. for their six months stateside assignment. We will really miss them. They will be staying in Maryville, Tennessee, which is from where Chris (our son) and Kate just moved. An interesting side note: Karen's father was on staff at the church that is across the street from Chris and Kate's old house! Small world.


Shopping for souvenirs on the Chain Bridge

Co-workers from Prague came to Budapest to see some friends of theirs from America who are passing through for a few days of sightseeing on their way back to the States after a mission trip elsewhere in Europe. They are staying with us, and when they are not with their friends from America, we've shown them around town.

Dalese and I have done a little playing and a lot of talking. I have really enjoyed getting to know her and I think I needed to feel a connection with someone (other than Glenn). Maybe she was an answer to a prayer I didn't realize I needed to pray. Glenn has enjoyed talking with Mick and they seem to still have plenty of things to discuss!


Mispelled sign

While walking through downtown Budapest, I was tickled when I saw this sandwich board sign outside their cafe. It appears that someone caught their mistake in the word Hungarian but didn't catch their other mistake in the word typical. Or is that the British way to spell it????



Big and beautiful buildings

While Mick and Dalese were visiting with their friends, Glenn and I walked around downtown and took a few photos for your viewing pleasure and for our photo album. Even though I have lived here now for 2 1/2 years, I am still awed by the beautiful buildings and the intricate detail in the stonework!




Watch out below!

OSHA would not be pleased with these two guys hanging from the 5th story by ropes and pullies while chipping off the loose stucco layer in preparation for a fresh coat of paint. No nets, no scaffolding. Just ropes and pullies. Oh, there was a third guy on the ground helping them too. I think his main job was to keep pedestrians from walking underneath, to keep the falling concrete from landing on them, and to call 911 in case their ropes broke.



A perfect day for a stroll in the park

We discovered a gorgeous tree-covered park today. Sidewalk cafes lined both sides of the park, one after another, for two blocks. Very picturesque.


Entering an architectural hodgepodge castle

We visited Heroes Square and the City Park, including the Castle of Vajdahunyad. Walked across the Chain Bridge to browse among the many booths selling a wide variety of traditional Hungarian-made crafts. Ate sausage and potatoes and had langos for dessert.


Dancin' in the street

We stopped to watch some young folks showcasing traditional Hungarian folk dancing. The weather was perfect today, mid-70's, but they were wearing their winter dancing outfits and had to be hot!



So, as you can see, we have practiced hospitality a lot this week and ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! Of course, we need to sit a spell and catch our breath so we can do more of it this coming week.

Have a good week!

P.S.
Did the editioner catch my "mistake"?

Brrrr! It's cold here!

The first couple of days of the week were very quiet. Glenn left on Monday (the same day Barbara returned to the U.S.) for a 3 day/2 night bike ride around Lake Balaton with his friend, Istvan. I love Glenn and I missed him, but I admit the 3 days by myself were nice. I still had to hold down the fort and respond to calls and emails, but just being able to eat when (and what!) I wanted was nice. I didn't get any projects done and I didn't get as many emails written as I'd hoped, but I did allow myself to watch a couple of movies in the evenings. I walked and read a good book. It was fun and relaxing.



Glenn enjoyed his bike ride and his body handled it pretty well, but his hands have been giving him some problems. The last two fingers on each hand have been numb and he is having trouble gripping things, but they are getting better. His bike held up pretty well too, except at the very end! He biked all the way around the lake without any problems, rode the train back to Budapest with his bike stashed to the side, but when he got off the train in BP, the gear mechanism just dropped off his bike! He had to call me to come pick him up! I'm glad it was on the very end of his trip!



I always get amused at Glenn as he carries on conversations with our neighbors, the elderly couple who are the parents of our landlord. He amazes me! Somehow, he is able to communicate what he wants to say! This week Glenn noticed our neighbor had someone over who was working with sheets of steel so Glenn asked him to come over and look at our grill. Glenn hired the friend of the neighbor to make us a cover for the grill! Amazing!



We have a guest staying with us this week because the Eden House is full and overflowing. One afternoon we took her into town to do a little sightseeing, and it was so cold I had to wear a long sleeve shirt and a light jacket! And this is mid-July! I remember 2 summers ago when Budapest hit record highs of 111 degrees. It was 20 degrees celcius (72 degrees fahrenheit). It was beautiful weather and perfect for walking through town.



The above picture was in last week's blog update, but I wanted to show you the difference a week can make in the flood level here! See the photo below, taken this week.

Just the week before, this road was under water!

While we were in town with our guest, we saw all the tourists and locals enjoying the beautiful sunshine and soft breeze in the cafe' lined streets. Perfect day.

Every weekend in July and August the Szabadsag Hid (Liberty Bridge) is closed to cars and opened for pedestrians. Booths are set up across the bridge where folks sell local arts and crafts and traditional Hungarian foods. This weekend the French living in Hungary celebrated one of their national holidays by setting up booths and selling French products, such as cheeses, wine, breads and pastries.

They also had places where kids, teens, and young adults could play various sports (thanks to sporting goods store Decathalon). These children are enjoying playing Boules.

Teens and young adults enjoyed Ping-pong. We didn't play anything, but we enjoyed hearing all the beautiful French! It is so weird to be able to hear a foreign language and understand it! Beautiful but weird.

And one more photo of Parliment. :) I can't wait until all the scaffolding is off the building and I can get a perfect photo!!

In other news, our son Chris and wife Kate closed on their house this past week and will be moving to New Jersey on July 17th where Chris will start studying to become a physician's assistant. Our son-in-law Jonathan finished his fifth year of osteopathy school and will start the final year this fall. Kari stays busy as editor of a French magazine and doing voice recordings for television and radio. Glenn and I are definitely blessed by our children and their spouses!

Happy 4th of July!

We wish you a happy 4th of July! Today, a few of our families gathered at our house to celebrate the freedoms we have as Americans and to enjoy burgers and homemade ice cream together. We also wished our Hungarian friend Istvan (center, kneeling) happy birthday as he turned 50 today.



Believe it or not, the flag belongs to Istvan!!! He used to live in the U.S. and brought it back to Hungary when he returned 3 years ago. It was a nice addition to our decorations!


Danube River overflows

While we were in Greece, Budapest was deluged with much needed rain but it was heavier than we've ever seen here before. Gravel from our yard was washed out into the street and there was standing water everywhere in town.



In addition to the rain, the Danube River also received water from countries to the north causing the water to overflow its' banks, covering the road that runs along the river. The cruise ships that line the river bank one after another have been closed for business for over a week because the water is covering their walkways!

We've had a busy week entertaining Barbara and walking off all the homemade ice cream we've been making. On Wednesday, we went into town to do some sightseeing and Barbara wore her pedometer to see how far we walked. The grand total was 11.66 miles!



One day this week while Glenn was bike riding with Istvan (in training for a longer bike ride this coming week-more about that later), Barbara and I went into town to Margaret Island to get some fun exercise. We decided to exercise some other muscles and ride across the island. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to get off our feet for a change!

Goofin' off in the guard's room

On Thursday we took the train to Vienna for the day. Vienna is only 2 1/2 hours away so we decided it would be a shame for Barbara to be so close to Vienna and not get to see it. We caught the 8 pm train back to Budapest, and we were so exhausted that it was all we could do to crawl into our beds that night!

We went to Schonbrunn Palace early in the day and spent a large portion of our time there because it is soooooo HUGE! This is only part of the palace as you walk into the front gated area.

As you walk around to the back of the Palace, this is the view you see of the "backyard". The concrete you see in the middle of the picture is a large water fountain. If you are a faithful follower of our blog, you may recall a picture of me standing in front of the fountain where I was spouting water.

This is the view looking back at the Palace from on top of the hill in the backyard. It was quite a hike up the hill and it was pretty hot, but the view was well worth it! What an awesome flower garden too!

Glenn gets hot and takes off his pants (legs)

Dried fruits and candies in the market

We strolled through the open-air market and Glenn bought some wasabi peanuts to snack on. We ate lunch in the market at a little cafe. Glenn and I had wiener schnitzel (fried veal patty) and french fries with a side salad, and Barbara had sausage and sour kraut. Both meals were typically Austrian and very delicious.

The fruit looked so succulent but we didn't want to have to carry it around all day in our backpacks.

The tourists were out en masse

I enjoy the street artists

Some are goofier than others

Barbara enjoys talking with the men selling tickets to concerts

Happy Birthday, Karen!

On Friday we celebrated Karen's birthday, which was actually 2 weeks ago, but with AGM and all that is required to be ready to go, we postponed the celebration until this week. A couple of the ladies on this side of town met for lunch at a Hungarian restaurant in the suburb of Diosd, not far from our house. Barbara and I had cold fruit soup and a salad, and we enjoyed both of them very much!

Barbara leaves on Monday to return to the States and Glenn leaves the same day to go on a biking/camping trip with Istvan for 2-3 days. They are going to ride bikes around Lake Balaton which is 210 miles. Glenn has been training for the past couple of days by riding with Istvan 2-3 hours at a time. Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Europe and is a major resort area for Hungarians and Europeans alike. Glenn recently bought a bike from Istvan's sister for $20, but it needed a spare inner tube, a better seat, new handle bars, grips for the handle bars, a water bottle, streamers, flappers for the spokes, and saddle bags for carrying his camping equipment which included buying a new tent, an inflatable pillow, and a new sleeping bag. I think he will have a good time and I know I will too! I have a thousand emails that need to be written, including our newsletter so I will be busy myself.

In other news, our son Chris and his wife Kate are closing on their house this Thursday so we would appreciate your prayers for them, that all will go smoothly and without mishap. They are busy tieing up loose ends and saying good-bye to friends and family, and will be arriving in New Jersey on Saturday, July 18th. They will be living with Kate's grandmother while he goes to school to become a physician's assistant.

Hope your summer is going well!