Our trip to Hungary

We are presently in Hungary, and want to tell you how we arrived here. It is always interesting to travel in Europe. Trains are usually dependable, cheap, but never “normal” for Americans. Our conductor spoke English, had cute hair and appeared to enjoy the many girls in our group – he was very courteous and attentive. He was Italian; spoke English, Italian (we assume), German, and Romanian.

We also met an American boy on the train. Jordan Martin from Bonney Lake Washington. Yes, we traveled more than half way around the world to meet a boy from home. He was a student in Germany who was traveling around Europe to meet all of his 34 European penpals. He was a writer and someday if you see a horror story by Jordan Martin, please don’t look for the strange meeting with a mixed nationality team to be referring to us. And Jordan, if you find this blog, please don’t use us in your book! But the book is bound to be very good. He is a good storyteller!

God was with us on this trip. The late train could have been a bad thing, but it gave us an hour to be who we are. Brandy, Claudia, and I began to sing (we were bored) and I only know one Romanian song. Din El, Prin El, Şi Pentru El (In Him, through Him, and for Him- the only way we can exist) and then they all continued to sing children’s songs. We were shortly surrounded by gypsy children who were supposed to be begging. Dana (from Romania) did a short children’s program for the children, Brandy gathered some food for them, and we got on our train knowing that Jesus was proclaimed and honored!

At the train station I met a couple who were traveling on their way home and shared Jesus with them. They wondered about our obviously multi-national group! As I shared what we do in Moldova I was able to share the heart of why we are there. Helping the poor is nice, but mostly we want to share our faith, our God and our peace.

It seems to me that there is no way to communicate well how things happen. I cannot believe they happen “by chance” it’s actually easier to realize that they happen by design. God planned for our children’s program, God planned that some unloved, dirty children would hear about love and grace, God planned that we would meet a boy from home who was hungry for someone to talk with and God planned that we would come to Hungary for a conference that would totally refresh us!

Now for the best thing about the late train? None of us took into account that there was the “fall back” time change and so we arrived on time in Hungary!

Here in Hungary we are staying in a beautiful town at a lovely conference center and at the church, where we have our classes and meals, there is a special gift from God. Wireless internet. Hence the wandering into the world of blogging. For those of you who moved away from dial up. . . sigh. Those of us from Moldova had forgotten that internet could be So FAST! We are the ones who come early and stay late.

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