A Day Without Strudel Is Like A Day Without Sunshine

Quoting a great man who once visited eastern europe and then got hooked on it... "A day without strudel is like a day without sunshine". And so Mark Putman, aka strudel officianado, was heard to remark on the way home from our evening event. Quickly, promises of Tuesday holding opportunities for Covered Market strudel were given by our eager to please host, Jodi.

And so our day was, indeed without actual sunshine, but for some of us - not without strudel .... and the sunshine of friendly Hungarian students' smiles....

Our day started out with devotions by Gabor and then some more detail of our "duties" by Laci (DO NOT call him Lacey -- his name is Lotzi :)) as well as walking through evangelism and how to do it with Hungarian students. We then spent some time in prayer as a group and as small groups.

Something new and cool this year are these bracelets. They have the gospel on those little block pictures -- its pretty short and sweet and then the web site for FEK on the back. You also give out these handouts with the bands that gives these clues on deciphering the "message" aka the gospel and if students' are wearing their bands for the next two weeks, members of FEK will be looking for those bands on campus and when they spot them, they'll give out movie tickets. Its kind of a cool marketing thing that really gets the image out and the name of FEK and the ministry. The handout also invites the students to the special meeting this week, Wednesday night, where they'll be talking about "Naked" (hence the naked chicken...) -- about being naked with your emotions, etc and tying into the gospel.

Crossroads' power activate -- shape of -- an evangelist? Whatever...

Zsu, Hajni and I were at lunch together for about 3 hours. We also plan to do dinner on Wednesday night before the meeting. Please pray for those meetings as well.

Meeting up at Corvinus University where Mark, Jayne and Tammie had all been doing random evangelism for the afternoon. They all talked to a number of students. Mark ended up talking to four, one of them believed in God and the others were atheists but were very friendly and open to hearing what Mark had to say and answer questions. Tammie also had a very friendly conversation with a girl and may try to e-mail her to meet up with her for coffee. Please pray that that opportunity works out as well.

Our cozy ride around town and an hour out to the dorm.... in Jodi's two door Honda Civic. We actually are getting use to the closeness...

We stopped at McDonalds for a coffee and some drinks. Mark has been desperately searching for ice -- of which there is no understanding or translation.... When he begged the McDonalds people to please fill his cup to the top with ice, they nodded knowingly and -- this is what he got....

The Economics Univeristy freshman dorm which is about an hour outside the city and from the university -- this is the one I went to my first year. Memories....

Tuleluscamogs.... the Students Survival Kits that we spent the evening handing out...

We have to take public transportation tomorrow and its a little bit of a commute. We have to take a few different means and walk some... Mark likes to think that we have to take "Two trams and a donkey..." I think we found the donkey....

There was a fuoss ball championship between us and the students. Bryan from Dallas seems to have all the fuoss ball moves.

Jayne and Liz who is a "Stinter" with Crusade for the next year here in Budapest.

Filling out the student surveys ....

Waiting for the meeting to begin...

The sheets - aka - pizzas arrive!

The hoards attack.... We had like 20 of those huge pizzas and I looked once, turned around and then when I looked back - they were GONE!

Mark enjoying "Hawaiin" pizza with pineapples and mushrooms and corn....

Jayne with a spicy meat pizza

Liz with cucumbers and goat cheese

This is great -- its arugula pizza! We never did get my favorite (not) -- pizza with eggs.

Talking after the meeting -- a chance to share the gospel and to see what students think about God.

Kyle and I had a great conversation with Esther and Andras regarding how you have to find out what you believe on your own. You can't do what your family or what your friends tell you as you have to make your own decisions about what and who you believe in. They said they were planning to be there on Wednesday evening -- pray that they will come.

Tomorrow - we teach about six English classes in the university and then we go out to the dorm for the evening program. Pray for strength to be on top of it all day... It can get long.