Back Home in Budapest...

One of the things I'm beginning to see as a pattern once we return home from weeks of travels, is that about four or five days in, I go into a bit of a letdown. The anticlimax comes after constant people time. It's short-lived, but a reality that I'm aware of.

Granted, I need my space within those extended times of travel, whether in the states or in Europe, to pull away to replenish my being, but I do enjoy the interaction, the investment, the experience of giving and receiving encouragement, and just plain getting to know people. In essence it's all about community. Certainly I'm developing community here in Budapest, but that all takes time and with the realities of the language barrier it takes even longer.

Just like clock-work, that day hit last Wednesday, five days in from our arrival in Budapest.

That day we decided to go to our "second office" (Costa Coffee) to just get out of the flat. I personally like the peripheral noise of the coffee shop that takes up some of my brain's humming, actually enabling me to concentrate better :).

Dennis and I were working, among other things, on downloading a software program on my computer that would give me access to some nice benefits when traveling on Outlook and for working with our data base, but typical for us, we had some glitches to work out. And, Costa's internet was down. Of course. It was just one of those days.

Dennis made his way up to the third story of the mall to catch the internet available at the food court. I opted to stay at the coffee shop to work on things that didn't require internet. I had placed my Bible and journal in my bag, something I always try to have with me just in case I have time to read or journal on a long public transport or whenever. I pulled out my Bible and began to read where I had last left off - 2 Corinthians 7 - where Paul is writing about his arrival with Timothy in Macedonia. Upon their arrival Paul writes - out of obvious discouragement - how they felt pressure from every which way.

The sentence that caught my attention was this - But God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus. I read through the rest of the paragraph of Paul's joy in seeing Titus, closed my Bible, and quietly under my breath prayed, God, would you encourage me today?

That evening I received a facebook message from one of our Czech friends. "Well, it's official. We're headed your way Friday afternoon... We don't have any big plans. We definitely want to hit up Costa Coffee! ... it might be fun to stop by at some point and see your place. HOWEVER, we all understand what it's like to just get home and need time to just "be" so there's no pressure on that notion."

She and three other gals were coming to Budapest and I was feeling pretty giddy by now.

I returned the message with "I don't know what you intended this time to look like, but I would be thrilled to hang out beyond a stop over at our flat (which we would welcome... no pressure at all... are you kidding me). Even beyond "just coffee." Can you tell I'm in need of community! But, let me say my HOWEVER, I don't want to impose, so any time I get, will be such an encouragement to me."

Our "HOWEVERS" were soon put aside as we made more specific plans for the weekend. They were staying at an apartment offered free for the weekend by one of the gal's brother, so we compared notes on our address and where they would be staying, and from there we began to set plans as to where we would meet on the metro. 

Well, they all ended up coming over for an enchilada dinner on Friday night (thanks to Dennis:), which was special for our Czech friend who had never had enchilada's before. I met up with them on Saturday and we had a girls day out starting out at Costa for coffee and breakfast, sightseeing at St. Istavan's, the Dohány St. Synagogue, the Grand Market, lunch at our favorite Thai place, took the #2 tram along the river where we could see the Buda castle side and stop to see the Jewish shoe memorial, ending at the Széchenyi Thermal Bath where we enjoyed bath-like water in freezing temperatures by the light of the moon. We laughed and joked and shared and enjoyed the entire day together. I didn't get home until midnight because we found a TGIFriday's in the city and ended our evening with an American dinner!

I thought about my simple, yet heartfelt prayer on the Wednesday before. God had indeed encouraged me with the kind of weekend that I haven't had in a long time. I find that whenever I ask God to encourage me, He does. I could fill in Paul's sentence like this: But God, the God who encourages the discouraged, encouraged me with the arrival of my friends from Czech.

I thought of how on those days that might best be described as "some days are like that," we simply ask the God who encourages the discouraged to encourage us, and then watch to see how He fills in the blank. It's a verse that I won't soon forget, and I'll have four beautiful faces to remind me of a special day that meant the world to me. 

Lifelong Learning...

I don't know what it is about college campuses, but they inspire and energize me.

Dennis and I are finishing up our last day at Bethany Bible College (New Brunswick, Canada) where we have enjoyed engaging in all sorts of venues with the student body. From Dennis speaking in chapel to classroom teaching to one-on-one sharing, we have certainly found our days here to be fulfilling in many ways.

Perhaps it's not the campus, as much as it is the students and faculty, that send bursts of energy into my being. I love the atmosphere that a college campus creates, and I love the stage of 20-somethings. They are in a learning mode, growing toward maturity, and asking questions of life. I love being a part of that.

I was in the bookstore the first day I was here and wanted to buy so many books, and wished I could take the classes the books represented. I want to be a lifelong learner. Always discovering, keeping my mind stimulated and growing, whether in a formal or informal setting.

If you know my life story you would understand how significant it is for me to call myself a lifelong learner. Stepping out to attend college at the age of 20 was a step of faith that jumped huge hurdles of self-doubt and insecurities in my academic abilities. What a joy it was today to share with a class of Bethany students how God has worked in my life to bring a competency and confidence that I never could have imagined as a high school student.

Thanking God for the opportunity we have had over the past three days to invest in the students at Bethany, and we hope to see some of them on the Europe fields in the months and years to come!

Thoughts from 35,000 feet

I remember the first time I flew in a plane. I was 19 years old. Flying from Miami to Manaus, Brazil. I remember gazing out the window in awe of the puffy clouds that summer day in 1975. It was my first mission trip with a group of teens from all over the country. I only knew the friend that signed up with me. We were both disillusioned with our current jobs and ready for some adventure. We came upon the Teen Missions pamphlet in a local bookstore and picked it up as we paid for our purchases. We had three choices out of the many opportunities to serve in missions around the world. Guess enough others wanted our first two choices, so those being filled up, our third choice became our adventure - building an airplane hangar on the Manicore River in the Amazon region of Brazil for the Wycliffe missionaries. It was a summer that changed my life.

But the thing that takes me back to that adventure more than anything else is when I'm 35,000 feet high looking out an airplane window.

I remember realizing the minuteness of man as I looked down on the monopoly size houses and streets below. Who is man that you are mindful of him?

I was struck with the awesomeness of a sovereign God, Creator of the universe, as I looked out over the vast, unending stretch of cosmos before me. I can never escape your Spirit! I can never get away from your Presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there. . . If I ride the wings of the morning, If I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

With kids and grandkids living here, there, and everywhere, plus our role in Europe, I have had opportunities to gaze out an airplane window more than I could have ever imagined since that first flight in 1975. In fact, I haven't counted, but I would venture to say I've had over 30 literal windows of opportunity to consider such thoughts since our move to Budapest a year ago come the 13th of this month.

And, I still get the same sense of awesomeness when I look down on earth in all it's majesty - the barren desert of California, the juts and cliffs of the Rockies, the snow-capped Alps, the Danube winding its way through eastern Europe. I often wonder as we cross the expanse of cities, small towns, and rural life about the people below. Life. Needs. Desires. Relationships. And, again I'm reminded of the minuteness of man.

From 35,000 feet up man appears insignificant, yet we have a Creator who sees us as significant in every way.