BudapestAlive

Unexpected Ministry

All of our missionary friends warned us that our journey of becoming missionaries would be full of surprises. They weren’t trying to help us avoid oncoming danger. It was more of a warning that powerful and unexpected things would happen, many of them quite wonderful.

I’m realizing this week that there’s an unexpected ministry role that’s taking place. So far missionary life is a whirlwind of activity. But right in the middle of it I have found an unexpected ministry – being the catalyst for people to wrestle with their tensions about international cross-cultural missions.

Pretty much every conversation I have will either start or end discussing God calling my family to serve the Hungarian people. What happens (and I’ve been slow to recognize it) is that once people know you’re headed overseas as a missionary they begin to openly share their convictions and troubles about the idea. For most it’s a chance for them to express their own curiosities and desires for such work. For others, it’s a chance to speak about things that trouble them. It may be something as simple as “what about your children” (I say simple because it really is a very simple matter – ask me about it sometime). Or it may be something larger like, “there are so many lost people right here, I don’t understand why we need to go overseas anymore”.

So in the middle of hustle and bustle, when I’m thinking it’s so much about my family and how God’s going to send us to Hungary…some unexpected ministry arises and I step back in grateful amazement at how God is mercifully letting us be both a safe sounding board and a voice of biblical conviction about God’s unchanged heart for the nations.

I fought the law and the law won

(a post from Christina) Almost exactly 10 years ago my husband looked at me and said something like “what if we travel, do missions, maybe even go to Hungary since you speak the language?”. As a new Christian and newly married young woman I was already living my life outside the box enough, thank you very much, and didn’t need to do anything else. I grew up Catholic and knew very little about missionaries, but I could tell you bad things happened when people went out of the country, and oh yeah, have I mentioned I have a TERRIFYING fear of flying? So I looked at him and said “I’m pretty sure I will NEVER do that”. Never say never folks. Really. Don’t do it. Ever.

I had never been to Hungary. Growing up the only child of Hungarian immigrants, I tried to stay as far away from my roots as possible. I soon learned however that roots are a hard thing to escape. While my middle school mates had PB&J for lunch, I had hard boiled eggs and salami. My mother’s accent is so thick she has never been able to order a hamburger at a drive thru and be understood the first time, and above our fireplace was a GIANT oil canvas of the virgin Mary. There is a story told in our family that during the Hungarian Revolution, my mother, grandmother, great grandmother and 3 great aunts fled to Yugoslavia. They stayed there for almost 12 months waiting for the American Red Cross to clear their health papers for travel to the US. Initially they did not pass, and their papers were stamped for Sweden (think of what a cute, fair haired Swed I could have been). My grandmother could speak some English and persuaded the Americans to recheck the family. All declared healthy at that point, thanks to a lovely watch used as a bribe, my family boarded an Army cargo plane and headed for NY. Turns out the story is true. Go figure.

Fast forward and my husband and I are in our thirties. My grandmother passes away and my mother comes to live with us for 4 months. During that time there was a lot of fussing and fighting (we’re Hungarian!), but God used this time for His glory and late one night the hubs led her to faith. I think our desire for Hungarians to know and love the Lord started there. See growing up Hungarian you know who Jesus is, but you have no idea how that pertains to you; how much He loves you, and longs for you, His lost child. And I began to realize that although I see Hungarians as pessimistic and difficult at best, God sees them differently. God wants to draw all people to Himself, and if my Hungarian background helps God draw this very difficult people group, I will go. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL people to myself.” John 12:32

For years Terry and I prayed God would reveal his plans for us locally. My husband’s zeal for travel quickly faded as we had children. We barely even went down the street to the movies, much less to another part of the world. And travel with children? Ha, forgetaboutit. It took a while for God to open our eyes and show us that while all ministry is His – local and global – God has been specifically shaping and preparing us to serve in Hungary. Terry’s background in Technology and Bible teaching is much needed with the men of Hungary, while my language skill will help us bridge the WIDE gap between Hungarians and Americans. When we visited in May 2009, we found a country with buildings full of bullet holes still present from WWII. We found that an RN and a Hungarian Pastor / English tutor have a combined annual income of $12K (USD), while groceries cost about what they run here in the US. Prostitution is legal and an abortion costs $10 USD. We also realized that when Terry graduates from Seminary this Spring, he’ll be graduating with hundreds of others who will go to work locally. Nobody is beating down the door to get into Hungary. In fact believers and non-believers alike wondered what on earth would draw us to such a difficult place. After years of tyranny and communism, we believe God has a plan for Hungary, and we believe we are part of it! Won’t you join us in support and prayer?

The Prodigal City

No, it’s not a play on Keller’s book. I haven’t read it yet.

I was listening to “The Prodigal” on the new album Sons and Daughters by Sovereign Grace Music. It’s a great version. I was working on some video, looking at shots from our May trip and listening to that song when the thought occurred to me: Budapest could be a prodigal city.

I say could be because it has not returned to the Father, not yet anyway. Normally you wouldn’t hope to be the prodigal. But if you’re already in the place of despair, then the prodigal becomes a position to aspire to. You may think to yourself, “If the Father took him back, perhaps he would take me back too.” That hits on our hope for Budapest. If they will run to him, the Father will take them back. Perhaps, just maybe, Budapest will be a prodigal city.

When Tech is Your Friend

While a lot of tech only serves our desires to be entertained and distracted, sometimes it comes through with a helping hand. Such is the case with a couple of great extensions for the Firefox web browser.

One of Firefox’s greatest advantages is the huge list of add-ons. There’s something for just about everything you do online. There are two that make sense for me to post on this site. The first is the ESV (English Standard Version) search engine. With a quick download and install you can add this additional search engine to the standard one’s that come with Firefox. Now you can search the ESV (words, passages, restrictions included) . If your shortcuts are working, you can just click Command+K (CTRL+K on a PC) and type. I’ve found it very useful for study and also teaching. I can have the text up on a projected screen and quick search to any verse/passage. If you don’t have Bible software (Logos, Bibleworks etc), it’s a great option.

The second one I just ran across today. It’s a toolbar for Biblegateway.com. Same function as the ESV search engine – but it also includes the option of parallel searches…including other languages. With this toolbar I can read common English translations alongside the Hungarian translation. Well…I wouldn’t say I’m “reading” the Hungarian yet…but working on it!

Margin Anyone?

I’m finishing up a great little book by Richard Swenson called Margin. You may have read it. It’s a super mega jumbo seller sort of book. It’s part of our prep with WorldVenture (yes…we get homework from the mission).

Swenson, a medical doctor, gives an insightful look at the emotional, physical, relational, and spiritual damage going on today in relationship to how overloaded we are.

In one sense this is not a new observation. But there is one axiom he offers that I found quite challenging. He says that all progress moves towards complexity.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom which views progress as only bringing about advancements with no downside. In Swenson’s view, progress, for all the truly helpful things that it brings, also packs a huge downside: left unchecked it will overrun our created limits. We can only handle so much. Progress has no regard for our emotional, physical, relational, or spiritual health. It is only concerned with more, faster, better, now.

It’s been a great read so far, causing me to think about where my margins are now, and how I will protect them on the international mission field, a place where both vitality and burnout seem to loom large.

Taking Yourself Seriously…in the Right Ways.

As people we can be a complex set of walking contradictions. One of those contradictions that struck me today was how it’s culturally ‘right’ to not take ourselves too seriously (i.e., be able to poke fun at yourself etc). Yet, it’s also culturally ‘right’ to place ourselves at the center of the universe (i.e., it’s good to pursue fulfilling our desires at the expense of everyone else). So, according to our culture, we should both devalue ourselves and at the same time be supreme.

One way I struggle with this is taking rest. Not just being blessed by practicing the Sabbath rest, but giving myself appropriate rest throughout the weeks, months, and years. I once worked for five years straight without taking a vacation. I’m not boasting…I was foolish and short sighted. I’m a driven person and love to work hard, but the downside is that it’s easy for me to skip meaningful rest. Christina is the same way. On one hand we take ourselves so serious we’ll work like crazy…and on the other hand we devalue ourselves so much that we fail to take care of the one body we get in this life.

When we were in training with WorldVenture, one of the things they emphasized was our need to rest. These folks know better than we do the pressure of preparing for, and serving in long-term missions (almost everyone we met had at least 10 years overseas missions experience). So we’re taking to heart something we gathered from Wayne Cordeiro – schedule your rest first. Before anything else gets on your calendar, put down when, how, and where you will rest (individually or as a couple if married). As we’re doing this I’m finding it really reduces the anxiety caused by the task before us. Knowing that we have a plan to rest makes the diligent, hard work more joyful.

What is God up to? (part 2)

There are many things that we Christians might say to the question of what God is up to in this world. We might say, “He’s saving people.” Or perhaps, “He’s magnifying his glory.” Something along those lines. Those things are true, but they don’t sufficiently answer the question, “What is God up to?”

It seems to me the answer lies further back, seen better from a high vantage point. There is a purpose behind God’s working in this world. It’s one that he not only makes plain to all, but one that he has desired for all people everywhere, of all times, to know intimately. He first spoke it to Adam and Eve. He promised it to (and through) the patriarchs. His prophets yearned for it and chided Israel for their blindness to it. His Son came and established it. The church is now tasked with the glorious work of proclaiming it.

Is it salvation? No. Life through Jesus, being renewed spiritually and adopted by God, is a huge part of it, but it is not completely it. I believe that what God is up to in this world is the same thing he’s been up to since our inaugural forebears.

Yahweh is wholeheartedly about the business of giving his grace to all peoples. He has always desired that his boundless, joy-filled, grace would be known by all of his creation, and by all humans in particular. The patriarchs and Israel were supposed to be a means to deliver that grace to the world. They failed in that role. The church (all-Jew or not-who by faith trust Jesus for redemption) now carry that mantle. We, according to Scripture, are the last instrument of God’s favor to this world. He has, with infathomable glory, blessed we, Christians, to be a blessing to all nations as preachers of the greatest news broken humans have ever heard.

He is, and has been, sending his grace to the nations.