Moving and bogracs’:

Home sweet home, yesterday we finally had a chance to properly un-pack and set up our new pad. We had moved in earlier in the week but were too busy to do anything but eat and sleep here. Our place is only about a 10 minute drive from the old, closer to the town center but further from the team office, but we are really liking it. Plus a new pool will be opening right across the street from our place. And speaking of streets, ours will soon be paved, well apparently they will be, we will see. A big step up in the world of Erd for us! And we even have a proper flush toilet here….anyone who visited us knows what we had before, it was more of a trickle of water (plus the assist of a bucket full of water helped!) Yah for modern technologies! Thursday and Friday we spent helping in Ofalu and Erchi. The local Christian high school had their service days so we were flooded with 40 teens. Half the group painted and worked on the ministry center in Ofalu and the other half we took to Erchi to work on the house project,(which is now at roof stage!) Part of the team in Erchi (the girls) painted a different house down the road, the girls all came back covered in bubble gum pink paint, apparently a popular colour here! We also did kids programs and finished the days off with a bogracs in Ofalu. Now your probably saying “that sounds interesting what’s that?” Well let me fill you in on a Hungarian tradition handed down from ancestor to ancestor and now to us Canadians! Basically a bogracs is a Hungarian cook out, and also the name of what you cook your meal in. If you look at the picture you will see Lynnette stirring the meal (goulash soup), for 80 people you need one big pot! Goulash is filled with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, meat, parsnip (or white carrot as they like to call it here), a whole lot of paprika, and a goulash paste. Well hopefully we got it right with the little Hungarian help we had, our team of Canadians, Brazilians and Americans did our best and it seemed to turn out, no complaints at least. We will have to try it out on you guys at home sometime when we get back!
Here are some pictures of our new pad, amazing how a new place can even make mopping exciting, hey Lynnette!?! And also a picture from outside… notice our wheels out front too, ok not our own wheels but a team mate, (Jill from England) has very generously lent us her car for the winter as she is going home on furlough. It will be so nice to have especially during the cold winter months. Thanks again so much Jill! We are having her over for Canadian thanksgiving on Tuesday so we will have so pictures to introduce her to u all! We will enjoy a Canadian tradition together, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and even some “stove top” stuffing sent from home! (thanks mom!) We figured since Canada is a commonwealth country of England then who better to enjoy thanksgiving with!  

today i am officialy hating the computer and technology! Blogger is not letting me post any pics and is taking FOREVER!!! and i cant get our prayer letter sent out...so i dont like hotmail today either! so hopefully we can get things together and make friends with the internet again! sorry for the delay in updates...its been a little CRAZY busy lately, but we will tell about that later!

Weekend with the youth: october has found us so quickly and we are back from our last OVM outreach of the year, we spent the weekend with youth from a town not far out of budapest at a youth camp, we joined them for their annual camp. The camps focus was on rock music and what we fill our minds with, the youth were all from the Lutheran church and had all been confirmed this year so our focus was really on getting them to think about what that means and to realize that their faith is a choice not something inherited from their parents. The pastor of this church as a real passion to see the youth break from traditionalism and take their relationship seriously. Of course it was a teens camp so it was filled with all the extra excitement, arguments and of course annoyed caretakers, pool staff and the such. But what camp goes with out it little quirks. Last night we both had a chance to share our testimonies and do a couple skits. Yes thats right we do drama now, I know it makes me crack up to, never know what you may find yourself doing here! Lynnette is a master actress, I have a tough time keeping a straight face while in role! Well in other news the weather is still like a early september day in vancouver, we fear that winter hits it will take us completely by surprise but until then we will continue to enjoy days in shorts t-shirts and sandals. Well since we keep delaying packing for our big move this week I guess I better get on it, ah maybe not theres not so much to pack! We don't exactly have much in the way of possessions. Yet somehow things tend to pile up, when I read how Jesus told the disciples to take on the sandals on their feet and then I look at what we have it kinda hits me to think about what I really need and what is just extra, not that we can't have stuff but just what do I see as essentails as what do I see as extras. Coming here with only a small portion of what we own has really opened my eyes to how much we really have and don't really use, some of the stuff I have packed at my parents is things I use maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Maybe I should just tell my parents to just have a big garage sale, or maybe not. I guess that means I'm still attached. I would be lying if I told you I am completely disconnected with possesions but I am just a little less reliant I guess, take the microwave for example, I have come to realize I can survive without it. But I do miss popcorn, although I faintly remember it being made in some sorta spining thing.

a little taste of home....sometimes we do get a little homesick, and after talking to my mom and sister yesterday i felt it again! they were telling me all about their fun "girls weekend" in seattle, and yes, i did get a little jealous. so i thought i would make some good 'ol chocolate chip cookies to make me feel better. i used your recipe mom, but they just dont turn out the same with the hungarian ingredients....but good enough! and thanks for the chocolate chips too mom!
but the cookies werent the only thing that made me feel better....it really was my amazing husband and his encouraging words. we talked a while last night and he reminded me that sometimes God asks us to sacrifice things in our lives...and at this time it means being away from family, friends, and the comforts of home. and at first didnt like that answer...but i thought about it and i know that God is teaching me total trust in him and just to rely on him for all my joy and strength! then kyle proceded to tell me (this was probably around 11:30pm) that if i wanted to talk more i could just wake him up at night...."because thats what friends are for lynnette" What a great husband i have..couldnt survive without him! just thought i would share my thoughts - lynnette

Your days are numbered.......

We took a stroll through Budapest on sunday and went by the parliament and site of the biggest riots last week. Infront of the parliament was a large demonstration and tent city and there we found this little "tribute", a pre-made coffin for the prime minister of Hungary. Now we are not trying to make light of the situation Hungary finds itself in but I just find it interesting that only a politican could head to work one morning to find his coffin already there waiting for him. I guess he is now reaping what he has sewn literally, oh thats pretty chessy isn't it, oh well guess i'm a little chessy. Also something we found interesting and unique to Hungary is this. Armyish looking contraption, what is it you ask, maybe a mobile chemical lab, maybe some sorta sprayer, no its a mobile kitchen. army issued mobile kitchen handy for all your protest needs!
Thankfully the riots have calmed down after 3 straight nights of trouble but pressure will stay on the government for reform. In other news we will be heading off for the weekend to help do a teens camp. The theme will be on rock music, so I'm sure this will lead to many good talks and challenges to the kids to really think about what they are filling their minds and hearts with. We will also be moving next week and tomorrow we will be making a trip to the moldovian embassy, I know weird info but how many times in your life do you get to say I'm making a trip to the moldovian embasy, gotta take advantage of these moments when they come up!

Riots in Budapest,
today we woke up to news of mass riots in budap
est, the riots were in response to a taped confession by the prime minister, here is the translated versions of what he said "We have not much choice. Because we have screwed it up. Not just a bit, big time. No country in Europe has ever done anything so impudent(boneheaded) as we have done.We have obviously lied over the past one and a half to two years. It was absolutely clear that what we were saying was not true... I almost died when I had to pretend for one and a half years as if we were governing. Instead we lied in the morning, we lied in the evening and at night."
We lied in the morning, we lied in the evening, we lied at night, now how would you react hearing the head of your country admit to such things. Now I am in no way saying rioting this way especially with the amount of violence is acceptable, (almost 115 police were injured by the crowd of over 10,ooo) but these statments are something to shock even the most un-political person (lynnette!). The taped admissions was geared towards his own party and not supposed to be for the public, but he is saying he really doesn't mind it being released.
Now I don't pretend to know all the reasons behind his statements but this is geared towards the "political elite" of the country. I agree with him that it is more than just a one party problem, and this is not just a problem in Hungary, as we saw in Canada with the 100 million dollar advertisment scandal only a couple years back. During the recent elections, promises were made to lower taxes here and recently it has been the complete opposite with taxes sky-rocketing, and now with this tape coming out Hungary is at a cross roads of were the future may lie. Now having the largest defiect in the EU and with this will cause the economy more damage there is un-certainty of what is next. Pray that God would use these days to open hungarians eyes, that man may fail us in trust and hope but God will never. Obviously these pictures were not taken by us but we will be in the city on sunday and since where these riots took place is on of favorite squares to just go and sit we may have to stroll by and see the damage, so we will keep you all up-dated.

Lecso and more:

I know you are all craving some real hungarian cuisine so here is installment one of our favorites, lecso is a very simple dish made onions, hungarian peppers, tomatoes,hungarian sweet paprika and some sauasge, we would write out the whole recipe but you can get it the same place we got it, matt and melinda edwards blog, see link on sidebar, we wouldn't want to seem like this was our idea and plus then you can see their new baby boy, congrats and thanks for the recipe. As you may not be able to find all indregients back in the homeland, mix and match as you see fit and its great with a little extra kick of hot sauce. Plus as a added bonus, heres a pic taken today up in the buda hills, we headed up after church for a little hike, super nice woods area just outside of budapest, was nice to go for a walk away from cars and dirt roads, so there you have it, nothing too exciting but good food is always worth sharing.  

A glimmer of hope...
today we were in a store and started up a conversation with the girl that was working there....and we had a whole conversation in HUNGARIAN for probably 10-15 mins!!! i know, not long, and at some points we didnt understand what eachother were saying...but its progress for us, and we felt very encouraged after walking out of that store! so all that studying IS doing something! we tried to explain to her what we were doing here in hungary...i think she got it, or she thinks we are crazy for learning her language for living here for only 2 years! oh well, we might go back and visit her when we can tell her more! 

 

Sunsets in Croatia

One of the perks of living in Hungary is its only a 8 hour drive to the Croatian coast, so this last week thats exactly what we did. Yes missionaries take holidays too, sorry if this dissillusions any one out there! But hey we get tired out too and just need some beach sitting time. Well ok not just beach sitting, dont want to make us sound too lazy. Our team mates Joska and Sandi were also heading for the coast so they very kindly offered to let us car pool with them, so they dropped us off on their way. We found this super cool town just south of Split and we weren't dissapointed, crystal clear water, nice sandy beachs and a old pirate town within a short walk. Ómis is a place full of character, a place where the town goes right up to shear cliffs, where the crystal clear sea is met by a kool-aid blue river and did i mention it was a old pirate town? i couldn't help but imagine as we sat, ate pizza and seafood... pirates running through the streets and women hanging out the windows, basically like the pirates of the caribbean ride! i know it was probably much different but whatever let me live in my dream. i didn't spot any parrots, wodden legs or patchs, oh well too bad.
One of the days we took a trip to visit the OM Logos Hope, a real pirate ship, ok just kidding the organization we work with has two ships and they are currently re-building a ship to replace one of them. the old one is actually the oldest sea going vessel in the world, so as you can imagine its high time for replacment. The ship is a former ferry from the Farrow Islands, (find that on a map) and is being re-fitted in Croatia. We went up and had a tour of the ship and then had lunch with the workers. Its simply put a huge project, amazing to see. The ship will be able to have 500 crew aboard, it has a ampheditre to hold meetings for 300-400 people and a huge area for the books, which is the main ministry of the ships. The project should be finished in the coming year and hopefully it'll be out floating soon and touring the world, but as we saw there is a whole lot more work to be done as you can imagine! The town that all this is being done is called Trogir just north of Split. we enjoyed walking the old town center which had a real venice feel to it, as in the look of the buildings, minus the streets of water. I love just getting lost in the little narrow cobblestone streets, and finding little hidden corners were you really get a feel for what these towns where like hundreads of years ago. On the drive back home from Croatia we had a one night stop of at a national park in Croatia, what an amazing place it was. In the park was 10 or so lakes that we all connected by waterfalls, the water was this amazing almost neon blue, almost like a glacier feed lake but these were not. All these lakes were connected by these cool walkways that hugged the cliffs and waters edge, it was really a surreal place, the pictures hardly do the place justice, so as you get the idea we loved croatia, the vacation was relaxing, refreshing, enjoyable and seeing the ship was a really good experience as well. So now its back to buisness, well work, ok ministry I guess thats the only real way to explain what we are back to. Tomorrow I (kyle) are off to the Erchi house project to help pour the floor, hopefully we can have the family in by next week and Lynnette is babysitting some team mates little girl, they are leading a training school for a couple weeks so we are helping were we can, now you see why I can only call it ministry because its a very all encompassing term that basically says, take each day as it comes and expect to be doing a whole variety of things, and thats exactly the way we want it to be!