We Passed!

This has been a very stressful week, but because it was also my birthday, I had WMU ladies around the world praying for me, and God was faithful to give us what we needed to make it through! We had several Member Care issues to deal with in addition to our language evaluation, which we passed. Other than those two biggies, it was a great week!



The week started off wonderfully with a care package from my great friend, Kristin, who I worked with at NCCS for 3 years. We went through a lot together and I have missed her very much. For my birthday, she sent me the ingredients to one of my very favorite desserts, American chocolate eclairs, because she remembered how much I loved it!


Thanks, Kristin!



For exercise here in Budapest (so I can eat desserts like American Chocolate Eclairs!), I walk 3 mornings a week with friend and co-worker Kristie. She and two other friends here, Kesha and Karen (hey, all my friends' names begin with K!) threw me a surprise breakfast after we walked on Wednesday morning. They had prepared waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, bacon, petite quiche, potato cakes and fresh cherries. I ate until I was stuffed; it was sooooo good. Usually, I jog home from Kristie's house to mine, but NOT this particular morning. Thank you ladies. You made my birthday special!



And then, because I enjoyed the waffles the ladies fixed for me so much, I went to the mall and with my birthday money from Marietta friend, Anne Q., I bought my own waffle maker! Thank you, Anne! It works great and we will think of you each time we eat waffles!!!

Gorging on Greek food!

Our supervisor and his wife, Lynn and Glenda, came back down from Prague for business in Budapest, and took the Doyles and us out for dinner on Tuesday night at a Greek restaurant with a wonderful reputation. The amount of food was incredible, and it was delicious too! Not having to cook dinner on my birthday was a real treat! Thanks, Lynn and Glenda!

Glenn picks cherries for our neighbor

Our landlord's parents live in the house behind us, and they have a huge sour cherry tree that partially hangs over the fence into our yard. Not knowing if it was politically correct to eat the cherries that were in our yard, Glenn offered to pick the cherries in their yard since they couldn't climb the tree or the ladder. They then turned around and gave us the cherries he'd picked since they had cherries up to their ears and told us to eat the ones that were on our side of the fence. Nagyszeru! So, I've been freezing cherries today and will have them coming out of my ears soon! (By the way, we love our neighbors because they remind us of our dear neighbors in Marietta, Ed and Jo Chupp!)

Glenn and a friend begin harvesting our cherries

And this is OUR cherry tree that is just now getting ripe with sweet cherries. Fortunately, we bought a deep freezer a couple of weeks ago so we could freeze lots of fresh fruits. Unfortunately, it is almost full already!!!! Kari had said she would like to cook some desserts with cherries when she comes. I think she will be able to cook a different cherry dessert every night she is here and we'd still have cherries left over.

And this is my birthday present from Glenn, an apple tree. Or, as I told my language evaluator, "Ez az alma fa.

Saturday evening we had a cook-out at Kristie and Mark's house to celebrate the high school graduation of one of our MK's. Robert graduated from the International Christian School of Budapest, or ICSB, and is now headed to the US for college in the fall. His family flew to the US TODAY to begin their year of "stateside assignment" or rather, furlough.

Teri, Karen, Kesha, Kristie and kids

God has blessed us with some good friends here in Budapest for which we are very thankful. This job could be lonesome because of all the jokes about Member Care, but these folks have welcomed us into their fellowship and homes, and we enjoy their friendship.

Glenn "enjoys" a serious conversation with Brad

We are so glad to have Americans as friends, but we have been praying for relationships to develop with Hungarians, and have been "challenged" in this area because of the language barrier. We finally received our first invitation into a Hungarian home! We were thrilled (and a little nervous!) to be invited to our landlord's house today for a cook-out.

We arrived at 3:00 pm and left there at 8:30 pm. Even though our landlord doesn't speak English and we don't speak (much) Hungarian, we were able to communicate through the other guests they wisely invited! They invited Istvan ("Steve" in English, and who is the Hungarian man that Glenn jogs with each Saturday) and a couple who live 3 doors down from our house. The husband doesn't speak any English, but his wife does, so with help from her and Istvan, the 7 of us could carry a conversation.

It really was a lot of fun trying to see how much we could understand of what was being said before it was translated. Between facial expressions, hand gestures and a few words here and there, Glenn and I could usually follow the gist of the conversation. We look forward to the day when we can understand what is being said without all the other clues!!!

We ask you to pray for us often this week as our co-workers, Alvin and Mary, are on vacation and we are covering the guesthouse and medical appointments during their absence. Pray that we will not be overwhelmed by the responsibilites and work load, and that we will be able to serve with joy in our hearts and smiles on our faces! Have a great week!