BudapestAlive

Prayer Newsletter

We just sent out a prayer newsletter asking folks to pray with us as we consider long term service in Hungary.

See it here (PDF).

Communism and the Catholic Church

I read an intriguing post by a Hungarian man who left the country when the communists took over. He emigrated to Canada and went on to complete his education at Yale.

He wrote a post late last year which addressed, in part, the role that Catholic church leaders played in assisting the Hungarian secret service which was part of the communist rule. I don’t know if his claims are substantiated, but it doesn’t sound far fetched given the typical modus operandi of communist governments throughout history.

Anyway, he states that during the communist years the Catholic leadership gave “unfailing support” to the secret service.  Again, it’s not all that surprising. But it does cause me to wonder how such a relationship has impacted the culture. Hungarians are apparently known for being cynical. I certainly read it in many of the blogs I follow. I wonder how many parents from one generation ago were hardened against the church (and, by proxy, Jesus) because of the sins of those who were supposed to be trustworthy shepherds.

I also wonder how much of that distrust now lives in the 20 and 30-something Hungarians. The post also mentions a “theologian and staunch apologist for the Catholic Church” who is in the public light present-day. No problem there,except that the author also mentions a book on the Hungarian secret service which names this same man as “was working for the Hungarian secret service under the cover name ‘Lukács’”.

I try to imagine what it would be like to survive life under communism, only to see people who were collaborating with the secret service now operating as public figures and still striving for power and influence. It’s getting easier to see perhaps, why Hungarians are so cynical and pessimistic.

This gives me hope though, because the gospel is able to withstand the most critical and cynical minds. Truly, it has done so since it was first proclaimed. It’s what the cynic desires most, something genuine, true, and trustworthy. It’s what the pessimist secretly hopes for, something that doesn’t disappoint, something that can redeem a person out of the mire of this world and make them whole.

Art, Toys, and Charity

I’m not much of a techie, which is ironic because I’m employed as a web developer.  But, I wanted to pick up something for video while we’re in Budapest and my buddy Jason told me about the Flip Mino camcorder. It was relatively cheap, the small size makes it great for travel, and the coolest part is you can upload your own graphic for it.

So I scanned a painting that my daughter Grace created when she was 5. It came out pretty cool…but of course I’m quite biased.

The cool part was that while I was checking out I was presented the option of donating the digital pic of the artwork to Flip. For every 15 custom skins sold the donate camcorders to needy kids. Grace’s design is below:

Resurrection

“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Matthew 16:21

And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” Luke 18:31-33

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-7

“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:9-11

Glorious resurrection day.

Microsoft CEO Egged by Hungarian Man

This is from about six months ago, but I just dug it up. During a lecture in Hungary, Microshaft CEO Steve Ballmer gets egged by a Hungarian man. The man claims that a Magyar-Microsoft deal cost Hungarians 25 billion (in forits I think…but it’s hard to understand the audio).

I’m all for non-violent protest, but egging a MS CEO does endear the country to me all the more…