Today was my first full day in Budapest. It was actually nice coming in and hanging out with Jodi last night and then going to bed and getting up and just starting into the project. I usually have all the training and all so it was nice to be able to miss it this year and just jump right into things.
I have three people on my team and we joined up with another 3 person team (most all of the team members are American, but one of the women is from Moldova, I'll elaborate on that later) and we went to one of the newer high schools which is a Lutheran high school. We did 12 classes between our two teams so that meant we did 6 classes each. It really depends on the level of the English what we do with the class, whether we do discussion times completely or do games before, we had a few classes that we excelled English and were 12th year so we had almost a 30 minute discussion time with them. I think thats when my brain started to shut down a little. I had gone to bed around midnight last night and then got up around 7 this morning so, it was just not having slept at all in the past day. Conversation started being a little labored after about the 3rd class. You just kind of pray and keep on going though and I did fine.
One of the classes, Brian, a guy from Texas, had questions thrown at him about his "religion" and then when he explained that his faith wasn't his "religion", it provided a whole time of conversation which he was extremely excited about. Its always pretty cool when God throws those opportunities in your lap and then gives you the words to say to keep them asking questions.
Every class was thoroughly briefed about FEK which is the student organization that Campus Crusade has with the high school. They're also introduced to Speak Out summer camp and encouraged to come. Its the time we identify who we are and why we're here and then give them opportunities to find out more AND practice their English! They love it and we love it!
So - the woman that I mentioned from Moldova is part of a group of Campus Crusade missionaries from several different countries. The ministry here in Budapest is such an amazing and effective one that tons of area countries and countries that have been under communism are seeing the results and are reaching out to FEK to learn more. There is a group from Moldova, Slovakia and I believe Croatia who are with Campus Crusade but here seeing how the FEK ministry works so they better can understand and implement it into their work. I think thats an amazing testimony to the creative genius and boldness that He gave Gabor Gresz and Dave Robinson when they started this ministry back in the early days after the fall of communism. I was telling Edina, Gabor's wife, that she should be proud of Gabor, not really for what he's done, but for how God has used his creativity and boldness to effectively form a program that reaches out to so many and really yields fruit that continues to grow. It is totally God, but I know that Gabor has this huge heart for the ministry here and he really allows himself to be used in creative ways. It just is really an amazing ministry!
I met up with two of my girls this afternoon, Hajni and Zsu, and we had coffee and then walked down to "my pulyka guy", as I like to call him, to put a downpayment down on the turkey that I've ordered for THANKSGIVING on OCTOBER 10th! FYI - practice your Hungarian, "pulyka" is "turkey" in Hungarian. The girls are all so excited and I'm nervous still :( But I know God will pull it off for me.
This evening, we had a special dorm event that turned out kind of small as there was another dorm event going on on some of the floors. We did have a good time though.
We started off breaking into teams and then doing a city scavenger hunt where they had to find things and then take pictures. It was a great way to get to know some of the students and have some fun....
After the scavenger hunt we came back for a concert from the FEK band and then they did a drama that was pretty good - apparently its on YouTube or something. After the drama which was kind of a pantomime thing about how money and alcohol and looks and all will not satisfy you and will, in fact, lead you the opposite way but only God can make you content and happy in who you are, without anything else. After the drama, one of the FEK student leaders did a little talk on what the drama meant.
We then, thankfully, got to go back early enough that we were at the hotel before 9 pm. Unbelievable as that doesn't usually happen!
Pray for tomorrow as we go back to high schools for classes. Pray for the big University event tomorrow night at the AfriCafe (its their weekly student outreach meeting). And also pray for me as I meet up with Hajni and Zsu again tomorrow for lunch. I'm still trying to get in touch with Andi and I'm thinking about taking the bus out to Debrecen next week so I can meet up with Ildi who was not able to come back to Budapest this semester.
I close with a lovely rendering of my "map" of the United States that we use when we give our high school intro about where we're from. This was the 6th class, every class, the map just declined until it became this unrecognizable blob of white board destruction. Enjoy a laugh :)
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