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!