Concerts, Christmas, packing, moving, organizing, unpacking, New Years, Austria, Budapest (again)....let’s just say that while an update has been on my to-do list for awhile...I just somehow couldn’t get there! I’m not always good with the small frequent updates....so this is going to be a bit of a long series of mini-update-catch-ups. Feel free to digest it in chapters over time like a book, for that may be how long it is when I finish.
Where do I start? How about with the week before Christmas...
A GUITAR FUNDRAISER TAKES US TO VIENNA
For those who have watched the video of our Advent concert, you may recall the notable talents of one Tibor Balogh.
Söndi, having a similar background to Tibor as an orphan with a difficult childhood, had a burden to make this Christmas extra special for Tibor (as he has no family), as well as encourage him in his ministry and musical gifting.
We knew that he didn’t have a guitar, but really wanted to have one so he could write songs.
Unbeknownst to Tibor, Söndi and I sent word out to some of our contacts (many of you) to raise funds to buy a professional guitar for Tibor.
We were blown away and completely touched by the warm response. We raised more than enough funds to buy the guitar in just a few days.
But there was a problem: the guitar on order was stuck in customs because of the type of wood it was made from (rosewood I think). So we had to begin searching for music stores with this guitar in other countries. Söndi asked if I wanted to drive (by myself) to Czechoslovakia.
I did not.
But Shaun suggested Austria, which is about a two and a half hour drive. We made some phone calls and they had the guitar we wanted. So, in the middle of the week, I drove Söndi and myself in their Ford minivan to Vienna.
You’d think it would be pretty straightforward, but we are also talking about me here. I once got lost for an hour and had to be rescued, after trying to
drive across the street to my mechanics class in college.
Anyway...I had every turn of my course planned out very well. But we had to stop, as I had placed the highway toll sticker on the wrong side of the windshield. It had to be removed and replaced with another. Coming out of the gas station parking lot, there was only one exit that we could see back onto the highway. It was at least ten minutes before we realized that we were going down the highway in the wrong direction, back to Hungary. Getting turned around again was a little interesting, but turn around we did. From there we found our way into the capital city into our parking garage, which, I might add, was not built for minivans. We finally found one empty parking place on the third floor - between two very shiny and expensive BMW’s. Navigating that minivan to fit between them may have been the most stressful moment of the entire journey. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the majority of the time, as we inched forward and backward for what felt like forever, there was less than an inch between the back left corner of our van and the car on my left. And, even when we were parked finally...there was barely enough room to open the door on either side. I had to get out on the passenger side. After parking, we took the metro to the Shönbrunn Palace, where the Christmas market was. There we met up (on purpose) with Söndi’s American roommate Laura, from 15 years ago whom she hadn’t seen since then. Laura and her husband Steve are missionaries in Indonesia, and were in Austria to renew their passports. So we spent the evening with them at the market, after which they showed us the way to the music store as they had scouted it out for us earlier.
At the music store we were met with excellent customer service (we communicated in English if anyone is wondering). After trying out guitars and deciding on the one we wanted, we made our way back on the metro to our van. God was with us because neither
Söndi nor I could think clearly anymore as we were both tired, and it was as if at every moment where we took a wrong turn or got on the metro going the wrong way (some things never change), someone would randomly sense it and send us in the right direction, even when we didn’t ask.
Now...one problem I have when going to places I haven’t been before is that I always take care to plan my route in, but rarely do I remember to plan my route out. One would think it is as simple as backtracking, but apparently not. The fact that most streets were one-way didn’t help. So in moments we were lost without a map or GPS. But not without connections. Söndi had another friend who works in Austria. We called and she found us and led us back onto the highway. This was no picnic either and ranked second most stressful moment. The speed limit was 130km/hr, but everyone else was doing at least ten kilometers over that, and when you are trying to follow someone in the dark and you don’t know where you are going...and when your co-pilot is too tired to shout directions in English...and you are too tired to remember if “jobbra” means left or right, well, let’s just keep the miracles coming Lord...please let us make it home alive.
PS - we did.
SURPRISE. HERE’S A GUITAR.
Alive and guitar in hand, We (Lindsey, myself, and the Carlaw family) made our way up to Budapest that following Saturday to do another Christmas concert the night before Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve Eve? Sure). Minus Matthew and Rose, we were the same group as our first concert.
We wanted to find a good place and time to give Tibor his guitar, so we asked him if we could see his art studio afterwards. he readily agreed. We had some tea and cookies while Tibor gave a short and intriguing lecture on some art concepts and techniques he uses, along with some life-lessons we can learn from art. We were able to present the guitar to Tibor afterwards, and he was of course, very shocked and touched. It made our Christmas, and I’m sure it made his, so thank you again to everyone who made it happen!
UN-CHRISTMAS IN HUNGARY
I had determined beforehand that I would accept Christmas at face-value and not try to get all the Christmas feels. I think it was a wise move. This was my first Christmas apart from my family, and without them, it wasn’t Christmas for me...but the dinners and times with friends were still lovely. Plus, Skype is a blessed piece of technology for those of us living abroad, so I did get to enjoy some virtual Christmas moments with my kin.
I spent Christmas Eve at my friend Szilvi’s home with her extended family.
I spent Christmas Day doing something I have never done on Christmas Day, and that was lying on the long dry grass in the warm sunshine. I was out in Hegyesd at Shaun and Söndi’s and it was 15 degrees with blue skies. I had a nice Christmas dinner with their family, as well as with Lindsey and her mom and fiancé who joined us.
In Hungary, there are three days of Christmas. The 26th is the third day of Christmas, and unlike the Black Friday reruns we do on Boxing Day, in Hungary the stores are closed. All of them.
I was invited to spend Christmas-Day-Three dinner with the family of one of our camp kids. Twelve-year-old Dávid and I have been buddies for some years now. They also come to our Sunday morning meetings as well, and Dávid is in my Sunday school class.
I think this was my favourite of the three days of Christmas. I got to speak only Hungarian for the first two hours. Then after it wore me out (as speaking your second language tends to do), Dávid was compelled to put his English to good use. We had an incredible duck dinner, went for a walk, watched Scooby-Doo and Wacky Races, played games, made grilled cheese sandwiches together for dinner...watched more cartoons...played more games, and then an exhausted Lydia went back to Shaun and Söndi’s and crashed. Christmas over. Now it was time to get back to business and prepare for the big move.
THE BIG MOVE
Now, I say “big" move not so much because it was such a big move (though I won’t deny that I had accumulated a lot more stuff than I thought I had). I say “big move” because it was kind of a big deal. This move meant that our ministry as we have known it for the past five years was now coming to an abrupt end with three weeks notice. Our work here was about to be thrown into the realm of “what now?”
It was declared that New Years Eve was to be our last night in the house, and the next three days were to be set aside for cleaning.
Lindsey went back to the apartment provided by the school, and I, now without a home in Tapolca, moved to Hegyesd to live with Shaun and Söndi to wait on God and further developments.
[Pictured right is the group that gathered for our last church service in the house. The balloons have things written on them for which we were thankful for in 2017]
TWO WEEKS IN HEGYESD
I like Hegyesd a lot. I especially love it in the sunshine. It is a small village in the countryside ten kilometres out of Tapolca. The walk into the village from Shaun and Söndi’s house is almost flat, so I took advantage of the location and fine weather for frequent morning walks. Hegyesd definitely feels more like home than Tapolca for two reasons. One, I grew up in rural areas, and two, Hegyesd was where I spent my first two weeks in Hungary, at English camp.
I spent the time enjoying some closer time with the Carlaw family. I was able to get my “organizing fix” by tackling the sorting and organizing of the camp storage room where five years of camp supplies needed to be sorted, as the summers are usually too busy to allow time for it. That was exciting. Plus it was mostly craft supplies so opening all the mysterious boxes was a little like Christmas.
MEANWHILE IN TAPOLCA...
My friends did not sit idle. While I was living in Hegyesd, my faithful friend Szilvi was trying to find some options for me. A couple apartments looked hopeful but then fell through. One day I got a message that she would be shutting down the hotel she owns for two months, and she said I could have my pick of the rooms. SO AWESOME! THANK YOU SZILVI! There is a two bedroom apartment inside the hotel and this was perfect for me. And so, that’s where you would find me if you came to Hungary today (unless I’m out somewhere, then you wouldn’t find me there).
SO, WHAT NOW?
Well, as I said, it appears that the ministry as we know it has been put on hold. We do not have a ministry building and rental costs in Tapolca have tripled over the past five years. So possibilities of simply renting another building at this point are looking bleak. It’s been one closed door after another. We know it means something, but what it means, we don’t know.
It's a great opportunity to trust God and think outside the box.
Right now we are still having Church on Sundays and Ladies Bible Study on Tuesdays. I still volunteer on Tuesdays in a school in Szigliget, about twenty kilometers east of Tapolca on the lake, and recently I have also started some private tutoring out there as well. Thursday’s I take Hungarian lessons, and Friday’s I help Lindsey with her classes.
I am currently considering and praying about starting my own kids club in Szigliget, which is both exciting and slightly frightening! Prayer appreciated!
But most importantly please pray for Shaun and Söndi as they are in a difficult situation that came quite unexpectedly and they are in some desperate need of direction.