I'm thankful for ...

... so many things that it is impossible to list them here but let me give you a few. I am most grateful for the love that God has for me and am awed by how He gives and gives while I take and take, and yet He never stops loving me. My favorite word in the Bible is lavished, found in 1 John 3: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! It is such an exuberant word, over the top, rich and exquisite! God truly has lavished His blessings on us and we are very, very thankful for each and every one of them!

We are thankful for friends with whom we can fellowship around the table-not only on holidays but every day!

On Thanksgiving day we joined in the festivities at the Eden House with our personnel who serve throughout Hungary. We had turkey and all the trimmings, plus some! Macy's Thanksgiving parade was playing on the TV in the background. Several of us were watching the winter storm warnings with concern as they rolled across the bottom of the screen to make sure it wasn't going to hit where our families were living, not realizing it was a DVD of last year's parade that someone had brought to add ambiance to the festivities! The only thing missing was that there were no football games for the men to watch and not enough couches for everyone to lay on after having eaten too much.

I'm thankful for a husband who takes such good care of me, who is good with his hands (ahem-this blog is rated G) and spoils me rotten. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Glenn put new curtain rods up for me in the guest room so that I could finally finish redoing the room!!

On Friday, we went into downtown to browse through the Christmas Market (and I can't believe I didn't take a single picture of it!) to start officially the Christmas season. It was a dismally gray and cold day as we headed into town.

And it stayed that way alllllllllll day and throughout the whole weekend. It was so cold that we didn't stay long (and I didn't buy a thing!)

We had to step inside a few stores occasionally to thaw out! Sleds are for sale everywhere in anticipation of the snow that, according to our taxi driver/friend Zoli, should arrive this week!

I am always surprised to see that the sleds found here in Hungary are the old-fashion style that we find only on Currier & Ives cards in America. I'm just surprised that the style has not changed here in the past 50 years! I am thankful though for the walk down memory lane that I get to take each winter when I see these sleds for sale.

And I was VERY thankful for a warm house to come home to, a couple of Swiss Miss cocoa packets, a fleece blanket and a couch 6-8 feet from a TV! I was sooooo cold!

I read an article last night that said beginning December 1, landlord's in Hungary cannot evict tenants during the winter months for non-payment of rent fees. The article said that landlords are in high gear calling on the bailiffs to evict their tenants BEFORE the December 1 deadline and that in the past 7 weeks 3 people have committed suicide because of being evicted with no where to go. As the authorities were at her front door to evict her, one lady sent her daughter an SMS to say good-bye and then jumped off of her 9th floor apartment balcony to her death.

Hungary has an extremely high rate of unemployment, alcoholism, homelessness and suicide. It breaks my heart to see men, women and children wandering the streets, particularly when it is sooooo cold here. I am thankful for a warm house, warm bed, warm clothes and warm food.

And we are thankful for unexpected blessings that God brings our way! We were sitting in front of this couple in church this morning when they introduced themselves as Wally and Jeannette, here in Budapest for 2 weeks on vacation. We invited them to go out for lunch with us and found out that Wally and Jeannette are one of ours! That is, he pastors a Southern Baptist church in Texas, and it is because of many churches like his that we are able to minister as we do. Thank you Wally and Jeannette for such an enjoyable afternoon! It was a really nice ending to a great week in which we were reminded of so many blessings that we have received!

Hope you had a great week too!

What a weak, I mean week!

I have always had a secret desire to take a week off and just hang around the house, watch a lot of movies, read as many books as I can, piddle on a few projects (I heard you laugh, Kari!), and basically see if I could ever come to a point of boredom. Of course, we'd rather spend our vacations with our families so I've never taken THAT week off, but when we got back from Turkey, I fell sick and had to take THIS week off!

While I was on the couch all week I couldn't take care of company we had from America. Erin was a former Journeyman with us here in Europe who, after she finished her two year term, went home and married her college sweetheart, Brad. They work for a university in America and were here in Budapest for the college fair at our local Christian school so stayed with us for 4 days.

But unfortunately, I didn't feel up to watching a bunch of movies, read or work on any projects. I'll have to save that for another week I guess.

After being housebound for 5 days, I was about to go crazy so Glenn took me to a movie. I didn't have a lot of energy so it was a perfect outing. When we got there, we found that the movie theatre has been sold to another company who had UPSIZED everything, including the price! The drinks and popcorn used to be reasonable sizes and reasonable prices but now they are as outrageous as in America!

By the way, this was the first movie we've seen in a theatre since we returned from our stateside assignment.

On the way home we stopped by Tesco to pick up some milk and I found a new product! English muffins! It seems that more and more "American" products are finding their way to Hungary! Wonder how many more years until Pop-tarts show up on our shelves???

We were supposed to leave for 10 days in Ukraine this past Friday but obviously we had to cancel. Hmmmm, what will I do with those 10 extra days???? Check here next week to find out!

Turkey Time

Before we left for a cluster meeting in Turkey, I took a walk through our yard which was really suffering from lack of neglect and cold weather. The only thing in bloom were these humongous, gorgeous Chrysanthemums.

The flowers are so colorful and I have enjoyed them so much each time we pass by them on our way out the gate.

We arrived in Antalya, Turkey last Friday, 10 days ago. Above are our visas for entering the country, for which we paid $20 each. This was our 4th trip to Antalya, our 6th to Turkey.

Again, because we go to Turkey during the off season, we can stay in nice hotels for a pittance. Some of the hotels close for the off-season, some try to stay open. Those that stay open want to keep their staff year-round so that they don't have to keep hiring and training new folks every year so therefore they drop the prices extremely low in order to keep the hotel semi-full. And that is how we get to stay in these nice hotels :-)

And that is how we get to see some of the most fantastic views!

At these cluster meetings, there isn't a lot of free time, but I managed to get out and peruse the tourist shops which lined the main street that passed in front of the hotel.

We peeked over one of the walled yards and saw these young children playing in their school uniforms. It was sweet and reminded me of when our children were little and attending the local French school; they had cute little uniforms too!

And one last picture to give you a good laugh! We found this one store that advertises tattoos, only they spelled it wrnog.

On another note, we have company with us for this week that we are back in town. Erin used to be one of our Journeymen, having served for 2 years in Ukraine but our connection with her goes back to when our daughter Kari was a Journeyman in Senegal. Erin worked with Kari for two summers so when Erin came to Europe, we already felt we had a special relationship with her. She and her husband are here in town for a few days representing a university in Tennessee at the college fair at the local Christian school.

Next trip? Ukraine! More on that trip next week!