Budapest - What To Do With A Tuesday Morning

Last night, around midnight, the party was still going.... There were still about 5 of us eating pie and laughing.  Liz, an American who is doing a Stint (a 2 year program) with Campus Crusade, looked at me and said, "what are you doing tomorrow morning?"  I said "nothing" and before I knew it, I was signed up to work at a homeless kitchen in Budapest.

Turns out - it was hard to get up this morning, but it was worth it.   It was Liz (the front in the pict) and Judit (You-dit), a freshman at the university who is a new believer, and myself.  We helped prepare and serve Sour Cabbage and Meatball type things.  We worked about 3 hours and served about 100 homeless men and women.  

The kitchen is with Golgota, which is Calvary Chapel, in Budapest.  I think they have about 4 of the kitchens around the city so we also helped pack up other meals to take to a few other sites and then we helped prep stuff for tomorrow lunch.  It was a great way to spend Tuesday morning and, on top of that, I got to know Judit a little better.

I'll do a little catch up now as I've finished cleaning up from yesterday and I have a few hours until I go to the Campus staff Bible Study....

SATURDAY - wasn't able to get on-line so couldn't update....

Saturday was the "Tour Day" for the BHHP group.  Unfortunately, they usually always do the same basic tour every year and, after 5 years, I was a little tapped out on the House of Terror so I passed on it and decided to get a head start on my Thanksgiving day shopping.  Because Leslie had been three times as well, she opted not to go on the House of Terror tour and so she came shopping with me.  It was fun and nice to have company!  We went to the market-market where all the real Budapest people go.  Its this big hall in Allee, a mall kind of place - its packed with fruit and veg kiosks and poultry places.  Its where I picked my turkey(s) up.  In Hungary, they don't eat turkey a lot, especially not whole ones, so you have to special order them.  Jodi orderd mine for me a few weeks ago.  She asked for a 19 lb turkey.  I even had to put money down on it at the beginning of the week.  When I got there on Saturday, they handed me a 9 lb turkey and said that was as big as they had.... Augh.... SO, I ended up buying two 9 lb. turkeys and hoping for the best.... Hence came the "loaves and fishes" prayer.

 After we shopped and dropped things at Jodi's, I met up with Andi from last year.  Leslie came with as well and we all sat at McDonalds and talked for a little over an hour.  Andi is a sweetie and I'll be sad if she goes to Germany for university next year as she's planning to.

 Leslie and I the took the tram down to Andrassy and met up with our group to do a city bus tour.  Once on the bus, I had to snap a pict on Andrassy as we went past the apartment that mom, Melissa and I stayed in over Christmas vacation.  Those were good memories then :)

After the city bus tour - which didn't really stop so everyone just zoomed around the city with headphones on, trying to snap pictures as the bus whizzed past - we came back to the hotel and were included in one of the sessions for the educators' symposium.  They wanted us in this session as its the one where Gabor and Dave both tell their stories .  I've never really heard Gabor's before so it was really touching.

This was Gabor as a boy - isn't he adorable?!  His story was so sad -- basically, his mom got pregnant and his dad tried to get her to have an abortion and she wouldn't so, when he came to the hospital to see them he told his mom "why did you have such an ugly baby?" -- and from there it all went downhill.  His dad was extremely abusive, physically and mentally to Gabor.  When he was 7 or 8, his dad broke his leg so he was in the hospital for quite a while.  It was around that time that his parents decided to divorce.  So, the judge awarded full custody to the dad.  Crazy.... A lot more abuse happened and the mom kept on fighting to get Gabor - apparently the courts here never reconsider their decision - but she finally got them to reconsider and the judge talked to Gabor and he ended up seeing that Gabor was actually terrified of the dad and he ended up giving custody to the mom.

When Gabor was around college age, he heard about Christ.  Long and short, he ended up accepting Christ personally.  It took a while because he had had such a hard life he couldn't believe that GOd would actually care and love Gabor personally - he just wasn't used to it.  Almost right after he accepted Christ, he had a complete heart change and his fear and hatred of his father changed to the need to forgive him so he tried to meet with his father - he finally did, he forgave his father and his father basically had nothing but scorn for him.  Gabor's peace was that he had a heavenly Father that loved him more than his father ever would or could love him.  It was such an awesome story and I look at Gabor now and his family and am just amazed at what God has done in and through him.    He is just completely immersed in Christ.  I know that when he first became a believer he had this amazing passion that led him to actually be arrested once or twice for sharing his faith (during communism) and he still has the same passion years later.

The second story was Dave's story which was basically his abuse of drugs during high school and of his earthly and his heavenly father's forgiveness.

After both stories were shared, they presented a really simple message of the gospel and told people that they too could have that peace and the love of God simply by asking.  They then handed out response cards basically like we give at university that asks for contact info and if they are interested in hearing more about the gospel.

Here's the amazing thing - out of about 200 teachers,

• 44 said that they wanted to talk more 
• 4 indicated that they wanted to make a decision
• 1 actually made a decision to follow Christ

This picture below is a picture of the woman who accepted Christ (in the blue plaid shirt).  She's been restless in her soul for a long time.  Her mother was abusive to her and now,  she finds that she's having to care for her mother.  So everyday, she struggles and is bitter and is hurt more and when she heard Gabor's story, it clicked that she could actually move past the past but she knew she couldn't do it on her own accord as there was so much hurt.  She accepted Christ while Gabor was talking about knowing Christ and she said she felt immediate peace but she still doesn't know how to move forward.  They talked to her about living in the spirit and connecting with an area church and reading her Bible so God could speak to her.  She left that evening feeling complete peace and a new life.  It was so exciting to hear that story.

 What a contrast - after what Gabor had in his life, this is Gabor and his youngest son Gagu who is totally adorable!

 This is the Gresz (Grace) family.  Rahel, Gagu, Renato, Gabor and Edina.  What a great family!

SUNDAY

 SWEET POTATOS!

This is what they're called in Budapest -- Adash-bur-yonia...  I have to remember that for last year as I roam all around the market and then end up having to go to the big Spahr supermarket for them.

The morning had me and another gentleman (whose wife actually came last year) being toted off to church by two new Hungarian staff members, Adi (Adam) and Keshun (Keshone).  They are both newly graduated university students as of a year or two ago and have just finished raising support (they're each single) and coming to Budapest to work.  They took us to Golgota (Calvary Chapel - this is about my 3rd or 4th time there) and then we went out to lunch at a great Hungarian place near Andrassy.  I had my favorite - chicken paprika! :)

After they dropped us off back at the hotel, I decided to finish my shopping and transport all my belongings to Jodi's apartment before I had to be back for the end of the week "banquet".

 I brought along my little roller duffle so I could tote everything back to Jodi's apartment which is about 3 blocks from the Spahr store.  The water was the hardest thing to carry.

 Gabor drove me and Philip and Todd (from Memphis) to the restaurant.  Of course, we were with Gabor so we had a blast!

This is with Michelle (from Atlanta - she came with Leslie, the repeat BHHPer) and Rebecca from CA who had left behind her two little boys and husband and was celebrating her 24th birthday in Budapest on Friday.  The three of us hung out more towards the end of the week and I found my new BHHP friends in them.  We had a blast together and even took Rebecca out on the evening of her birthday - we were out until the restaurant closed at midnight :)

MONDAY - THANKSGIVING!

 I started baking pies around 8 a.m. and finished them up around 11.  The small size of the oven prohibited me from doing more than one pie at a time so I it took a little longer than it would have at home.  Unfortunately, as well, one of the apples was up a little too high and the sugar on the top ended up burning.  I figured everything underneath should be good though....

 My angel, Flora, came over to help me all day.  That was my biggest panic was doing it alone.  Flora was an extra pair of hands and kept me company all day.

 The kitchen counters didn't permit everything plus the turkeys....

 I never make sweet potatos at home but its a regular here as they just don't really eat them in Hungary.

 This did get pretty messy but it worked.... this is the time where I wish I could have packed a brother or brother in law to cut the stupid turkey - I have NO clue what I'm doing....

 There are 13 of us in the picture, but 2 or 3 others came a little later so we had about 16 total.

The girl at the far left of the picture, but Zsu, is Zsu's cousin from America.  She actually was born in Transylvania which was Hungary but now is Romania.  She left when she was about 2 and grew up in New York.  She's now back in Hungary studying at the university here to go into medicine and then she'll go back to the states to practice and to specialize.  She was really sweet and was so happy to be invited as she hasn't been home in a few years and hasn't been able to really celebrate American holidays.

We had a great time and I was able to talk a little about what I wanted.  However, people were going and coming all night so it was really hard to continue things and it wound up a little disconjointed.  But I believe I shared what God would have me share and I was happy that everyone came and stayed and just enjoyed things.  I love seeing and hearing them together at this time every year.  They all just love Thanksgiving and I'm glad that I'm able to bring it to Hungary :)

Tomorrow, I'm having Hajni and her boyfriend, David, and Flora and her boyfriend, Atti, over for lunch.  Pray for our time together.  I think I'm doing Thanksgiving leftovers :)