Meleg van!

This has been a pretty busy week, work-wise. One of our "co-workers" from another country came for medical care and she ended up staying with us for 3 days to rest. It was fun having her. Glenn was working on a big project for Member Care all week so she and I got to "play". Well, I prefer to say that I was "ministering" to her! How does that sound?



The ladies in Budapest got together one night to celebrate Kesha's birthday. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant, enjoyed the cake that Kristie made and and then went bowling. At first, the 6 of us ladies were the only ones in the restaurant until a tour bus of about 40-45 asian men and women joined us! The food at that Chinese restaurant must be authentic!


Birthday girl Kesha is on the right-


Cosmic bowling is the same everywhere

This week has been very hot with temperatures hovering between 85-90 degrees most of the days. Our house does not have air conditioning, neither does our car, so I love to go to the grocery store, especially the freezer aisle!


Creative way to beat the heat!

Everyone is suffering from the heat, especially this Hungarian man who came up with one way to beat the heat (I didn't say it was a good way!) We also saw a young girl about 10-12 years old skating down the street in her 2 piece bathing suit. We're just not Hungarian enough to walk through the neighborhood in our bathing suits yet!



We were told we would not be given a vehicle to use but when we arrived in January, we were greatly blessed to have this Opel Vectra (ever heard of it?) assigned to us. We still use public transportation for most of our daily trips or we walk, but it is nice to have the car when we need to go some places that are out of the way. One interesting thing: foreigners are all given license tags that start with the letter C. This way, if one of us "foreigners" do something wrong, they forgive us because we don't know what we're doing since we're "foreigners".

This picture is mainly for my Dad, my brother Jim, and my two sisters Karin and Elizabeth. Do you guys remember when we were younger and living in Germany and saw these ESSO signs for gas? Ah, brings back fond memories!

Last week I showed you a picture of the one, lone red cherry. Well, in a week's time, you can see the change! Our tree is loaded with cherries but they won't be ripe enough to eat for another couple of weeks, we think. I have really enjoyed walking in the neighborhood and seeing all the different kinds of fruit trees (and nibbling off the part that hangs over the sidewalk). Almost everybody has at least one fruit tree of some kind in their yard!

I went to a friend's house today and in their yard were about 10 fruit trees! Cherries, plums, peaches, pears, apricots, and apples, and grape vines. Since our cherry tree isn't ripe yet, Abby picked me a bag full of cherries to enjoy until ours ripen. Thank you, Abby!

On Monday Glenn and I are going to Prague (Czech Republic) for a meeting with the regional leadership team and a seminar on mentoring. While there, we will also attend a graduation reception in honor of one of our MK's who has been homeschooled on the mission field all his life and will be going to college in the fall in the US. It is a business trip, but I hope we get to see a little of the city. I hear Prague is as beautiful as Budapest, but I doubt it. We will return on Friday, and will spend some time on Saturday with my Aunt Billie who is on a 3-city tour of Europe: Budapest, Vienna and Prague. I'm so glad I get to see her while she is in our neck of the woods!

Continue to pray for someone to come run the guesthouse and manage medical appointments during the Doyles' stateside assignment!

More beautiful flowers!

!sdrawkcab era serutciP

I've been doing this blog thing for almost a year now and I still occasionally forget to upload my pictures in reverse order. Rats! Lest you think the title of today's entry is in Hungarian, it's not, and if you're lysdexic, I mean, dyslexic, you will be able to read it and know that my pictures are backwards; instead of starting with last Sunday and going through the week, they are from today to last Sunday. Sorry!


Budafok Baptist Church

Thought you might like to see what our church looks like on the inside. Pretty much like an American church! Our worship services are like worship services in America except once every month we have testimony time where about 4-5 people will share what God has been saying to them or doing in their life recently, and we have a time of prayer where we gather to pray in groups of 2-3. Our music is caught in a time warp as we sing out of hymnals with pages yellowed with age and another song book of more "modern" American tunes translated into Hungarian from the 70's & 80's. (You know, songs like "It Only Takes a Spark" and "Majesty".)

One RED cherry on our tree

One thing I really enjoy is walking through the neighborhood and looking at all the flowers and fruit trees in everyone's yards. Almost everyone has at least one fruit or nut tree! We see apples, peaches, walnuts, almonds, cherries (sweet and sour), and fig trees everywhere. The sweet cherries are in right now. Our cherry tree is a sour cherry and they will be ripe in a few more weeks. This picture is of the only red cherry on our whole tree! I talked Glenn into buying my birthday present earlyand getting it into the ground asap: a Golden Delicious apple tree with 15 tiny apples. They should be ripe and ready for picking when my Dad comes out this fall!


Hannah, Cody and Ryan

We did something we haven't done in a few years this past week! We kept 3 children overnight so their parents could go to Vienna for a little R & R. Hannah is 5, Cody is 3 and Ryan is 1 1/2. We had a great time and the kids were wonderful, but I don't miss those days of not getting anything else done and the house being a wreck!


Glenn occupies the kids while I cook.

Cile talking with Kari and Jonathan on Mother's Day

Glenn talks with his mother on Mother's Day

I told you the "Pictures are backward!"

This week we will be having several folks over for meals that are here in Budapest for medical reasons, and on Friday Glenn and I will take our first language test (oral) to see how we are doing. They told us we would have about 10 minutes with the "testor" in which we will converse so that she can determine our level. I think we will only need about 3 minutes and I can tell her I'm in the lowest level. Anyway, we would appreciate your prayers on Thursday. (If you pray for us on Friday, we will already be finished with the test before you even start your prayer time!)

As the summer shapes up, it appears Glenn and I will not be lonesome. My Aunt Billie is coming through Budapest in June on her trip through Europe. Two of Kari's friends (one from middle school and one from college) are coming, and we hope to get to see both of them too. Kari and Jonathan are coming back. My sister Karin and her family are coming for a week in July. Also, a volunteer counselor who helps us at our annual general meetings is coming with his wife to Budapest and will be staying with us for a few days. It should be a great summer!!!

Glenn and I head to Prague (Czech Republic) next Monday for a few days of meetings and then June 23-30 we will be in Greece for a meeting. In mid-July our co-workers here in Budapest that run the guesthouse ministry will be going to the US for their 6 month stateside assignment (now called "stas", formerly known as "furlough") so please pray that God would provide someone to run the ministry in their absence (other than us!).

As I close, I want to wish my sister Karin a happy birthday. She turns "negyvenkilenc" on May 26th. Boldog szuletesnap, Karin!

Summer is not yet here but the tourists are!

What a week we have had! First, let me back up to the previous week and just mention one thing that Glenn and I had that was a special treat.

Of all the "stuff" I bought while in the U.S. for the education conference, one of the most treasured was this bag of Fritos. I wanted to protect it, so I carried it back in my carry-on to make sure it made it and to make sure it didn't get crushed. We thoroughly enjoyed having Taco Salad or as my family calls it, Round Robin. Glenn's family calls it Beef Ole'. What ever you want to call it, it was yummy!


The Lord's Supper

The second thing I want to mention is that we had the Lord's Supper last Sunday at Church. I was struck by how similar the pastor at our church carried out the ordinance as our pastors in the U.S. do, even down to the little plastic cups. It was so close to the way we do it in America that I wondered if the Hungarian pastor had gone to America and participated in the Lord's Supper there! The only difference is that we use real wine here, and it burns as it goes down.


A Meeting of the Geeks

Our supervisor and his wife, Lynn and Glenda, arrived from the Czech Republic on Sunday night and stayed with us until Wednesday morning. It was great to have them, get to know them and learn more about our jobs! Mainly, Glenn and Lynn talked business while Glenda and I talked and shopped!


It's either Greek or Hungarian to me!

Many of you are asking about our language learning. Well, let's just say we're not there yet, and it may be awhile. I know you don't believe me when I say Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages to learn. I can hear your thoughts: "Yeah, yeah, they're just not studying hard enough..." Well, this sign is just way beyond our language abilities! They add prefixes and suffixes to their root words to make a new word or thought, and there are sooooo many exceptions that you might as well not learn the rule! You just have to memorize the list of exceptions! So, you can keep praying for our language skills!



What is this supposed to mean?

Not only do we have trouble with their written words, but we have trouble understanding their signs too! What does this mean? No old men with young children allowed here? Don't hold children's hands as they are walking? This is not an area for walking young children? Your guess is as good as ours!

Glenn, Cile, Abby and Chloe

Today is Mother's Day in America. I heard from both of my children, which was really nice. Chris sent me a really neat card that had a picture of a mom driving a mini van with a couple of children in it, and the mini van had flames on the front hood! It really brought back wonderful memories of Chris and all his cars parked in our yard, and all the flames he painted on his cars, motorcycle helmets, and even his uncle's lawn mower!! I also talked with him today too. Kari and I talked Saturday because she was going to be away from their house most of today, but she skyped me her Mother's Day wishes this morning before church.

After church today, we went into downtown Budapest with some friends of ours, Brad and Karen, and their two little girls, Abby and Chloe. We made a day of it. We ate lunch on Vaci Utca (Vaci Street) and then walked through the City Park.

Vaci Street-famous pedestrian street

And his mother told him not to play at the table!

The weather is beautiful and the tourists are out in full swing! I can't imagine how crowded it will be when tourist season is in full swing!

Ice cream AND cotton candy????

Lest you think all we do is party and go into town, Glenn has been working on a survey about member care needs that has now been distributed to all of our missionaries (Brad helped him with the technical side of it) and I have been gathering information about education in our part of the world from our missionaries and am going to be making a proposal to our regional leadership team. A good portion of our work this past week has been on the computer, which, fortunately, seems to be working 95 % of the time! We are also working on some details that pertain to our next annual meeting for the other half of our missionaries that will place the end of June. Busy, busy, busy, but we love it!

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I know where the flowers is!

Oh! Flowers are everywhere (well, except for our yard) and it is so beautiful that it's hard to remember the cold, dreary winter.

Tuesday was a holiday so Glenn and I went to a nearby village called Szentendre with our co-workers, Mary and Alvin, for the day. It was definitely set up for tourists with it's gift shops, cafe's on the streets, ice cream stands and such.


Standing on the side of the Danube River in Szentendre


Strolling down the quaint cobblestone streets


Hungary is known for it's paprika!

We enjoyed the day but didn't buy anything except lunch and an ice cream cone. The weather was perfect and the tourists were abundant but pleasant.

Sidewalk artists-pictures made with yarn!

The holiday was actually Tuesday, but most Hungarians work the Saturday before the holiday in order to take Monday off too, giving them Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off. The French call this "faire le pont" (make the bridge). On Monday, the day before we went to Szentendre, Glenn and I worked a little around the house and in the yard.

When Kari and Jonathan were here a couple of weeks ago, Jonathan planted about 200 bulbs for us in several areas of our yard. The flowers are just beginning to sprout, and each day brings a new one! We also bought some flowering plants at the local nursery and Glenn planted them today. Our landlord spread grass seed for us a week or two ago and it is starting to come up too so our yard is beginning to look like a yard.

This morning (Sunday) on our way to our church we saw a bunch of trailers parked in the middle of a square one block from our church. We mistakenly assumed they belonged to gypsies which are found all over Europe, but on closer inspection we found out that the trailers and buses are part of a filming crews' lodging, dressing rooms and dining halls! We didn't see any famous actors or actresses; only a couple of men dressed up like Hungarians.

Watch for a #1 Hungarian movie at a theatre near you!

Glenn and I were walking in our neighborhood and found this beautiful rose bush that was about 10 feet tall. One day our yard will have roses like this! Of course, it will probably take 8-10 years to get this huge!

Later this week, we came across another huge rose bush down the other end of our street! Aren't they gorgeous?

Well, I better close here. Our boss/supervisor and his wife have just arrived from Prague (Czech Republic) and will spend a few days with us. Glenn and I are glad to have this time with them to get to know them better and to learn more about our job! Have a great week!