just wanted to share an article for any that are interested. often people ask who are these gypsies you are working with, what defines a gypsy, and whats the background on this people group? this is an excellent article written by a OM worker basically giving a history of the people and talking about the work that OM is doing with gypsies throughout Europe. if you click here or on the link on the sidebar under articles of interest it should download. read and pray for gypsies... a people group that is so discriminated against here, that they would see that "all are equal in the eyes of God" and that they would continue to come to him!

winter has officially skipped us here..... personally i'm kinda disappointed, i was looking forward to some crisp snowy winter days but i know lynnette is celebrating, but then again maybe we are jumping ahead of ourselves and we might just get a late hit of snow?!

this last week ministry wise has been really good, we started meeting with new english students, one new girl on tuesday and two kids on friday, and all of them seem really fun and easy to teach which is of course a big plus, please pray that we would find ways to share the gospel through the english classes with those that attend, a friend in the czech. had some theme days where her english students brought friends to the center and dressed up as cowboys and had different events, so maybe something like that would be cool to do, anybody wanna send us some cowboy hats and horse shoes? also on mondays i shared that while lynnette meets with Olga and teaches her English I have been hanging out with some local kids playing soccer, so this last monday we also started to read through the gospel of John, we read through the first 15 verses. as we read through the word i pray that it really speaks to their hearts. on fridays we also meet with them and this last friday our team mate asked them how many have accepted Christ into their hearts and two of the boys that come on mondays said yes. praise the Lord that he has already been working in their lives. we really see hope in these boys and i pray that as they hit their mid teens they would make some positive decisions that would bring them out of the darkness and hopelessness that is around them. praise God that he promises a hope and a future for these boys! we've also been invited to teach baseball to the local elementary schools during their gym class so these last couple weeks have found us in a number of schools and this week we will visit 2 more. we've probably taught a couple hundred kids and invited them out to a baseball camp that we will be helping to put on at the end of march. this spring again we will also help to coach one of the kids team and the great thing is the field is right around the corner from our place here. it's always a good time teaching a kid who doesn't even know what hand to put his glove on and seeing them the next week celebrate their first hit (and then forget to run to 1st base!).

the ercesi flea market is a spot,well where you can find just about anything. we had read about this place a couple times and finally decided we better check it out. and well it didn't disappoint, a great place to find all sorts of old antiques, war memorabilia, old furniture and plenty of conversation with locals. we had no intentions of buying anything and left with just that but we had a great time looking at all sorts of things and talking with some of the shop keepers, our item of interest is these old irons they have, 150 years old, they use hot coals as the source of heat, kinda cool but i think a little to heavy to haul home. on this picture take a look at the canes, i had to stop lynnette she desperately wanted to buy the hoof one! yikes!

this last month has found us quite busy, trying to juggle helping with the missionary training course going on at our team center and also at the same time trying to keep up with our regular ministry, yesterday was the final day with everyone heading out to their countries. every sept and jan all new missionaries joining OM and heading to eastern europe first come here for a month of training, (we did this last year in jan.) this time around we had a german family heading to Albania, a american girl also going to Albania, 2 koreans going to Kosovo, one dutch girl going to Moldova. We also had Alba a Chilean going to Albania, please pray for her as she is still awaiting her visa to enter Albania. she is staying here in Hungary until then and it can be quite hard to see everyone else off while you have to wait. We had her over to dinner last night, i kinda had to laugh as i never thought I would say I'm having a chilean over for dinner who is going to albania in Hungary, the world is getting smaller these days! we had a great time as lynnette made us stuffed chicken with a feta, and roasted almond sauce in it, nagyon jo (very good)! and relaxed played cards together.

please also continue to pray for Miklos and Eva the gypsy family who we have been sharing about, i went out with some team mates to visit and miklos is doing quite bad and he and his wife are taking it really hard. the doctors have said he is beyond help and it's really difficult to see him and the family. pray for a miracle that his health would turn around and for his family that they would be comforted during this time.

here's latest edition of "whats with that translation." We found this at tesco, (big box grocery store) and just had to buy it, who every thought you could fight cellulite with a simple cup of tea. sorry if its not clear enough but yes at the bottom it does say "natural tightness", down with the artifical tightness.

Yesterday at the clothing bazaar in ofalu we met the lady who's kids are going to come to English club (remember from the last post, the 9&11 year old?) well she informed me that they are going to bring another kid along next week! they were supposed to come tomorrow but they cant, so all three of them will be there next week instead. its great to have more kids come out, but funny thing happened as i was preparing for this Friday. i was photocopying some worksheets for the 2 kids that i thought were coming, and i thought "i should do an extra one just in case" funny! God already knew there was going to be an extra kid coming. and also i talked to another lady who is going to come learn English 2x a month. its cool how God is bringing these people out, but please pray for us as we prepare lessons, since we aren't qualified English teachers in any way! but pray also that we can share God's love with these people some how through our very broken Hungarian.

well there is one more story that i can tell, since I've gotten over the embarrassment of it! on Saturday kyle and i finally had a day off to ourselves (first in about 3 weeks!) so we were excited to go into Budapest and check out this cool flea market that we had heard of and just enjoy walking about the city. so after a lovely pancake breakfast the kyle made (yup my husband is the best!) we ran to catch the next train to the city. once we were on the train for about 15 mins, i realized that i plugged in the iron but never unplugged it before we left....aghh! i was so mad at myself, but i thought i would call our landlords who live upstairs and ask them to go down and unplug it for us, simple! but they were out and both had left their phones at home! perfect, we had just arrived in the city (35 min ride) and just had to get back on the next one to go home and make sure our house wasn't burned down! well we were 2 stops away from home and of course our landlord calls and says "we are home now and turned your iron off, you can go back" right, perfect timing...so we got off and got back on another train back to Budapest....lots of train time that day! so ya, it was really irritating to me and i felt like i ruined our whole day, since we missed the market because it had closed. but we did end up enjoying the day walking around the whole city basically, it was a beautiful sunny day. above is a picture kyle took from up on the hill on the Buda side. you can see the palace in the distance. we love living so close to this cool city! cant wait for all those visitors (you know who you are!!) to come so we can show Budapest to you too!

don't judge a book by its cover.....

the rudas bath house is one of the oldest here in budapest and honestly from the outside it seems like a building that may do better torn down. buts it all about the inside here. a team mate invited me to experience the rudas last week with him and a couple visiting americans. the rudas was built in the 16th century by the turks it has this great feel of history in it, i couldn't help but think i was swimming in a archaeological site. the other unique side to the rudas is upon entering you are given a cloth, maybe the size of a dish towel with a string to tie it around you waist. yes no bathing suits required here!which side to put the towel on, well this is why it is wise to go to a place like this with a experienced friend. the pic of the inside wasn't taken by me, cameras obviously wouldn't be so welcome in a place like this. (it is mens only, just incase u were wondering) so as you can see from the 2 pics you really don't know what may be hidden inside some of these run down buildings. thanks matt for the great time and my now newest fav. spot in budapest. but one thing now concerns me as i read more on the rudas. it boasts that it is a "radio-active" hot spring, yikes.... but it will also help me with any bone decay, degenerative illnesses of joints, chronic and semi-acute arthritis cases, protruded intervertebral disc,
neuralgia. hungarians claim all sorts of health benefits of their many bath houses, i prefer to just claim the relaxation, great chats and atmosphere! click here if u wanna check out some hungarian bath house or see more pics.

in other news lynnette and i have 2 new english students, younger kids 9 and 11 but it should be good, and also when lynnette meets with olga on mondays, for the last couple weeks a couple of the local boys have been coming by to kick a soccer ball around or just see what we are up too, tomorrow i plan to sit down with them and start to read through one of the gospels, maybe a chapter or two a week, well see how it goes, pray for them and for me as we meet and talk, or at least try to talk. and one last pic for u of my other fav thing in budapest, the #49 tram, its super old, slow and loud, but i guess thats kinda why i like it soo much. they could probably sell these trams off to some north american city and pass them off as "retro"

update on miklos...
a couple of weeks ago we told you about how miklos' health was pretty bad. we hear that he is not doing any better. he went to see the doctor finally and the doctor told him that he needs to go to the hospital...but he refuses to go. we are hoping to go see him as soon as we can, we have been crazy busy lately with helping out with a training program here at the OM centre. please continue to pray with us for him and that he might come to accept christ before he passes away.

annoyed!

well today i (lynnette) went to the post office to buy a phone card for one of the students here at the training program...sounds simple right? should be, but not here. people here go to the post office to pay all their bills and to mail everything (they dont really use the mail boxes here) so its always quite busy there. anyways, i got there and only 8 people in front of me, should only take 10 mins, but no...i was there for 30 mins!!! and then when i got to the counter the lady told me they dont have anymore! i was so irritated, and she didnt even say sorry, or when/where i could get more! they dont really care for "customer service" here. its more like "too bad, not my problem"! and to top it off it was really HOT in there and i had to stand behind a not so nice smelling person! so i left without anything....not so successful! but i will have to try again soon, and will have to face that stupid long line-up next time i want to mail something! (once it was 15 people...i left and came back!) so now you know what it takes just to mail something...so be thankful when you get a letter from us! thats life here in hungary!

as February rolls around,....

maybe global warming isn't such a far fetched idea, last year at this time the river was frozen and we were searching all corners of the city for long-johns,(-15C') and today we went for a walk in the warm sunshine, a little chilly due to the wind but really it's so weird, maybe we skipped winter this year, or maybe it will hit late and stay until june or something.... the pic on the right was taken last year at this time cold and winter like, the pic on the left was taken this weekend there was a couple inches of water on top of the ice even, so strange.......so today we once again enjoyed some home made sushi...mmm so good and as you can see lynnette was very happy! but click on the pic and have a closer look, ya thats a rice kernel on her chin! hehe. i saw it and told her i wanted a picture of her excitement to eat sushi. as you can see she bought it and gave me a heroic pose, then i couldn't not laugh and had to show her the little friend. good laughs. lynnette made me promise to put a better pic of us on also so it wouldn't just be her alone looking like a goof! we enjoyed a nice meal out, something we hadn't done for a while, i even got a steak, something even more rare here. (lynnette says literally rare, but i thought it was quite good)