Back on the Snow

One of the things I like about living in Eger is that we are relatively close to the Tatra mountains in Slovakia, which means we can be at decent ski areas in the High Tatras in 2 hours drive from our house.
For the first few years we lived in Eger I got a fair number of days in on the snow, but last year, with everything that happened with the pregnancy and Felicia, going snowboarding was not a priority.

Yesterday Balázs, Dani and I went to Jasná in the Low Tatras - for Balázs this was his first time snowboarding, for Dani and I it was our first time back on the snow in almost 2 years.

We had a good day, Balázs learned the basics with an instructor, and Dani and I enjoyed good conditions.

Afterwards we stopped in the biggest little town in Eastern Europe: Liptovský Mikuláš, and ate some good Slovak food: pirohy and halušky.

I (heart) the Tatras!

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Persecution of Christians in the Middle East

Last week I wrote about the persecution of Christians.

It seems that not only is the persecution of Christians on the rise, but the media's acknowledgment and coverage of Christian persecution is also increasing.

I think it's about time that the mainstream media started reporting on the persecution of Christians in majority Muslim countries.

In the West we put so much effort into accomodating minorities and into fighting negative stereotypes about Muslims that the media has been quick to turn a blind eye to this trend, which is certainly something which is not only a recent developement.

Here are 2 videos from CNN and here is a link about Egyptian Christians in Canada who are being targeted by an Al-Qaeda affiliated group.

Big Brother

Nate was cute last night. He wanted to feed his sister.
Here are some pictures and a video:

Digital Nativity

What if social media had existed when Jesus was born?
Check this out:

Felicia - Neurology Check Up

Yesterday we were back in Budapest for another check up in the Developmental Neurology department. We had thought this would be our last visit, but it seems we will have one more once Felicia starts walking.
Tegnap újra fent voltunk Budapesten Felíciával egy újabb kontrol vizsgálaton a Margit kórház fejlődési neurológia reszlegén. Azt hittük, hogy ez lesz az utolsó alkalmunk, de úgy néz ki lesz még egy vizsgálat amikor Felícia elindul járni.

Whenever we go, Felicia gets tested by a specialist. This time the testing was to see how well she pays attention to things, how her coordination works. She did great.
As we expected, the doctor said that Felicia is doing exceptionally well - even as if nothing had ever happened to her.
Minden alkalommal, amikor megyünk, Felíciát egy egy szakorvos vizsgálja meg. Ezen az alkalmon azt vizsgálták, hogy milyen a figyelőképessége és milyen a koordinációja. Úgy ahogy elvártuk, az orvosnő azt mondta, hogy Felícia kiválóan fejlődik - olyan mint ha semmi nem történt volna.

We are so thankful for our little girl, and so humbled that God showed us grace by healing her. Thank you to those of you who pray for her.
Annyira hálásak vagyunk a kislányunkért, és annyira hálásak az Úrnak, hogy kegyelmet mutatott abban, hogy meggyógyította. Köszönjük mégegyszer mindannyiotoknak akik imádkoztok érte.

Here are some pictures from the check up yesterday:
Itt van néhány kép a tegnapi vizsgálatról:

More than a Hobby

Remember those [fellow believers] who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

(Hebrews 13:3 ESV)

The persecution of Christians is not a thing of the past, it is something which Christians around the world deal with in a very real way.
According to the Toronto Star, Christianity is arguably the most persecuted religion in the world.

I think for most of us in the West, the greatest amount of persecution we can imagine for following Christ is that people won't think we're cool, or some people will have condescending or negative attitudes towards us.
I don't think most of us can imagine what it really means for some people in the world to say: 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (Philippians 1:21) - knowing that choosing Christ probably does mean losing everything, perhaps even their own life.

This week I read about a teenage girl in Somalia who was shot to death for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Even CNN, although not exactly a great defender of Christianity, is reporting on a Christian pastor in Iran who has received a death sentence for "apostasy": Click here for article

You can follow the Canadian 'Voice of the Martyrs' on Twitter here: @VOMC

CNN also posted this video about Iraqi Christians who were the targets of persecution, where 53 Christians were killed when their attackers entered their church during service:


I don't know about you - but it seems to me that the faith and life that Jesus called us to was not intended to be a hobby, one amongst many other activities that we participate in halfheartedly in our free time...

Baby Terror

Here is a video we made about Felicia today. Enjoy.

Mikulás and the Chocolate People

Unlike in the US, where Santa comes on Christmas Eve, in Hungary Mikulás comes on December 6th - Saint Nicholas Day - and leaves chocolate in the children's shoes, unless of course the children were bad... Whereas in the US, if kids are bad Santa leaves coal in their stocking, in Hungary the Krampusz - a devil - gives the bad kids virgács (wood sticks, kind of like kindling). Nothing says Merry Christmas like this lovely picture depicting Krampusz kidnapping some kids:


Saint Nicholas was a real man, a Christian pastor who was persecuted and imprisoned for his faith in Jesus Christ. Here is a good article about who the real Santa Claus was.

Santa brought Nate a Thomas backpack, which he really loves.

Nate likes to take his toys with him when he goes places, so this was a very practical idea on Santa's part, because now he doesn't have to carry them in his hands, but can put them in his backpack and take them with him! I have no idea how Santa could have known that Nate could use such a thing.

We went into town today for the Mikulás celebrations, where Nate was very excited to see Mikulás and get some Christmas candy (szalon cukor) from him.

Then - one of the highlights of my day - there was a concert for children in the main square. We stopped to listen, and I was a bit surprised by the words of the song that was being performed. Here are the words:

Csodás a csokibőrű Afrika,
A bőrük csokival van bevonva.
(Chocolate-skinned Africa is amazing.
The people's skin is coated in chocolate)

I'm pretty sure that this song would NOT be acceptable in the US! Here, it was the song they were teaching the children to sing in the main square of the city.

A lot of the Africans and Indians I have known in Hungary have told me that when they walked down the street in Hungary, kids would always point at them and yell "Csoki ember!" (Chocolate person!) Apparently they teach their kids this term...I just hope the kids learn to not do that by the time they get a little older.

Android 2.1 Review

A while back I wrote a blog post about my Android phone (click here to read that post).

Recently I got the update from Android 1.5 "Cupcake" to 2.1 "Eclair".
I had been waiting for this update for almost 6 months. During this time, as I was checking online, waiting for news of the release of the update, I realized that there was a whole community of people online talking about Android and the different updates.

Now that I've had the upgrade for a few weeks, here are a few thoughts about it:

• With this update, it is as if I have a whole new phone. The interface is much better.
• I now have the apps that I was missing before - Kindle reader and Tweetdeck, and I think Tweetdeck for Android is actually better than the one for iPhone/iPod.
  
• My phone is slower now. It seems that my phone doesn't have the resources to handle this new software very well. Lately it has been taking a really long time to access my contacts list, which can be a pain in a jam. If anyone has any suggestions about how to fix this, I would love to hear them.
• The battery life is shorter now, and some of the apps that I couldn't get on 1.5 use a lot of resources, as does the Android software itself. Also, because Android allows multitasking, when you have multiple apps running, it runs down the battery. One helpful thing though is that Android 2.1 has a task manager which you can use to turn off programs that run in the background, and also set programs to automatically turn off after a certain amount of time if they are running idly in the background.
  

All in all, I'm really satisfied with Android Eclair - and I have no plan to buy a new phone any time soon.

Horsing Around - A Legfontosabb Állat

I have realized a recurring theme in Hungarian colloquialisms: The horse seems to be the most important animal to the Hungarian people.
Rájöttem egy dologra a magyar közmondásokkal kapcsolatban: A ló a legfontosabb állat a magyar nép számára.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about:
Íme, néhány példa:

• Úgy izzad mint a ló (Sweat like a horse {a lot})
  
• Úgy zabál mint a ló (Chow down like a horse {to eat a lot, fast})
  
• Úgy röhög mint a ló (Laugh like a horse)
  
• Úgy dolgozik mint a ló (Work like a horse)
  
• Húzza a ló bőrt (Pulls the horse skin {to sleep})
  
• Úgy alszik mint a tej (Sleep like milk {sleep well})

Ok, I realize that last one didn't have anything to do with horses, but I think it is an interesting saying.
Tudom, hogy az utolsónak semmi köze nincs a lovakhoz - csak nekem tetszik ez a közmondás.

Here are the English equivalents to those Hungarian colloquialisms:
Íme, úgyan azok a közmondások az angol nyelven:

• Sweat like a pig (Úgy izzad mint a disznó)
  
• Eat like a pig (Úgy zabál mint a disznó)
• Laugh like an idiot (Úgy röhög mint a hülye)
  
• Work like a dog (Úgy dolgozik mint kutya)
• Sawing logs (Fatörzsöket fűrészel {horkolni})
  
• Sleep like a log (Úgy alszik mint a fatörzs)

I don't know what is to be concluded from this...but it's interesting.
Nem tudom mit kellene ebből következtetni...de érdekes.

Do you know any more Hungarian sayings involving horses?
Tudtok-e más magyar közmondást ami lovakról szól?

Reminders

Whereas Hungary and other former Eastern Block countries have taken down and removed all reminders of the Communist period - Budapest and Prague having gathered statues and placed them outside of the city, as a tourist attraction - Ukraine is one of the countries that has kept, even polished theirs.

All over Kiev, we saw reminders and symbols of the Soviet Union, to which Ukraine belonged for almost 70 years. The hammer and sickle, the communist star, and even statues of Lenin can be found throughout the country.
I find these things intriguing, and I can understand in a way why they keep these things. The Soviet era is a part of Ukraine's history, and not something they feel a need to forget or pretend didn't happen.

Here are a few pictures I took while I was there:

Statue of Lenin in the main square of Zhytomyr:


Soviet tank on display in Kiev:

Hammer and sickle:

Star on the top:

Memorial to the Great Patriotic War:




Tanks:

Mother Motherland statue - with Hammer and Sickle on shield:

Leningrad:

Gate:

Happy Thanksgiving!

God is good. We have so much to be thankful for; we have experienced the grace of God in a special way this year, and we are grateful.

Have a good Thanksgiving holiday!

Leaving the Liberal Church

This video from CNN illustrates a trend amongst churches.
Many traditional or main-line protestant churches, especially the Episcopalian and some Methodist denominations, have moved towards a more liberal stance regarding issue like homosexuality and the role of women in the church.

Personally, I think that even more than the role of women in the church, the issue of homosexuality is the most pressing issue facing the church in the West now and in the near future. It is certainly not an issue that we should ignore. Part of God's mission is ministering to all people with the message of God's love, redemption and restoration - but the way in which we do that needs to be faithful to God's Word. Shunning people who are different or who do things we don't agree with is not what Jesus would have done, but yet he called those who followed Him to repent and submit their lives to God's will and standards. So, this is not a simple issue, and it is one that will be a main issue for the church for years to come.

Part of this trend I mentioned is that attendance in increasingly liberal main-line protestant denominations has been steadily declining whereas attendance of newer, but more conservative protestant churches has been increasing. This has been the case for many years, and something that is certainly troubling for main-line denominations. It isn't that church attendance is decreasing in the US and England - in fact there are reports that show that church attendance in the US has increased in recent years - it is just shifting.

It seems that in the attempt to conform to the expectations and norms of popular Western culture, these main-line churches are killing themselves.
I believe this reflects that most people who go to church are looking for people with living faith who really believe God's Word at face value, and are turned off by, rather than attracted by compromise and a soft view of the authority of God's Word.

Anyways - here is the video:

Dressing the Dog

Nate likes to dress his stuffed dog in his clothes. This time the dog even got his diaper changed!

Trip to Ukraine

Upon crossing the border back into Hungary, the Ukrainian border guard asked me: What were you thinking driving to Kiev with 2 little kids? I'm not quite sure what we were thinking either, but nonetheless, we had a good time - although we are all very glad to not be in the car any more!

Last summer I talked to George Markey about how we have a heart for Ukraine, and how we have started taking mission trips with our church to the region of Ukraine which borders Hungary. He suggested that we come to the pastors and leaders conference in Kiev, both so we could meet people, and so I could translate from English to Hungarian for Dankó József, the Hungarian pastor we work with in Beregovo, Ukraine (HU: Beregszász), who leads a Hungarian speaking church in that region.

We weren't sure if we were going to be able to go, because I had some assignments due for school the same week of the conference - but I was able to finish them early, and on Wednesday we packed the car up and headed for Kiev. We decided to drive through the night to Kiev, so that it would be easier on the kids. We picked up Józsi in Beregszász and hit the road at 8:30pm.

Around 4am we arrived to Zhytomyr - the town that my grandfather's family was from before they moved to Canada. I've always wanted to visit this town, and so we drove through and took some pictures:


Greek Catholic Church:

My personal favorite: Statue of Lenin in the main square.


We got into Kiev at about 6am. The conference started in the afternoon, so we had a few hours to see the city and get some coffee.
I really liked Kiev, and wish I could have had more time to look around.





More pictures here.

The conference was a great blessing; it was good to meet people and visit with some people we already knew. God is doing a good work through Calvary Chapel in Ukraine, and it seems that they have a great fellowship amongst the pastors and leaders.

After the conference we decided not to drive straight back to Eger, but to stay the night in Ternopil - about half way between Eger and Kiev - where we stayed with a missionary friend of ours, Merilyn Gibbs. On Sunday morning I got to teach in the church in Ternopil, and after church we went out to eat, then packed up our things and got back on the road to Eger.

A few quick thoughts/fact about Ukraine:

• They sell Oreos there!
• They sell caviar flavored chips! How cool is that!
• Fuel is much cheaper in Ukraine than in Hungary. 95 octane benzine in Hungary is about 334 HUF/L (1.65 USD/L or $6.25/gallon). In Ukraine, the price is 191 HUF/L (0.94 USD/L or $3.56/gallon). I have a 50 liter tank in my car, which means that if I fill it in Ukraine I save 7150 ft/$35.39. That certainly helped make the trip a bit cheaper.

Here is a map of our route. According to Google, it was 2109 km (1311 mi).


View Larger Map

Sex, Drugs, Rock n' Roll and God?

As part of our outreach to the Eger college (www.ektf.hu) this fall, we will be doing a concert and a lecture this Wednesday on the college campus. Matt Edwards will be coming from Tatabánya to do the concert, and I will be giving the lecture.

Here is the poster, it was designed by Scott Fales, and I think it is a fine piece of work.


Please pray for this outreach to be effective!

Recent Photos of Our Family

There are a lot of things I would like to write about, and I have actually a few drafts waiting to be written - but as I am back in school now, blogging is not among my main priorities.

Nonetheless, here are some recent photos of our family:

Nate and his dad


With our friend Naveen and his new baby Hannah - she was only 2 weeks old when we got to meet her! Naveen's wife, Rani took the picture, so unfortunately you can't see her.


Felicia and her two front teeth


Balázs in Colorado - posing with a Mustang, at his request :)

Desynchronosis

We have arrived back in Hungary, and it seems we all have a case of desynchronosis, AKA 'jet lag'.

From Wikipedia:
When traveling across a number of time zones, the body clock will be out of synchronization with the destination time, as it experiences daylight and darkness contrary to the rhythms to which it has grown accustomed: the body's natural pattern is upset, as the rhythms that dictate times for eating, sleeping, hormone regulation and body temperature variations no longer correspond to the environment nor to each other in some cases. To the degree that the body cannot immediately realign these rhythms, it is jet lagged.

I used to be really good at not getting jet lag. I knew how to avoid it and when to go to sleep in order to prevent myself from getting my sleep rhythm messed up.
That all went out the window when we began traveling with little kids!

Although we were dreading the flight, the kids did much better on the long flight coming back to Europe than they did going to the States. The only thing was that they didn't sleep on the long flight - and crashed once we got on the plane from London to Budapest.
I think that all 4 of us are actually going to be on a different sleep rhythm, which should be interesting. Hopefully we get over it quickly!

Flood of Sludge in Hungary

This is sad. Please pray for all of those impacted by this disaster.

Törvényjavaslat - Proposed Law in Hungary

A múlt héten egy olyan törvényjavaslat látott napvilágot (a 1990. évi IV. törvényt, a lelkiismereti és vallásszabadságról, valamint az egyházakról), ami súlyos következményekkel járhatná a magyarországi Golgota Keresztény Gyülekezet egyházra és több kisebb egyházra vonatkozóan.
Last week a proposal was made to change a law in Hungary (Act IV. of 1990. regarding the freedom of conscience, religion, and churches), which if it is passed would have major implications for Calvary Chapel in Hungary as well as other evangelical groups.

Ez a törvényváltozás kényszerítene minden magyarországi egyházat arra, hogy újra regisztráljon, de csak a 10.000 tagnál nagyobb, vagy a történelmi jellegű egyházak maradhatnának ezek után egyházak. Mivel a jelenlegi kormány koaliciónak kétharmados többsége van, a minősített többséget igénylő törvényeket is (így az egyházakról szóló törvényt is) meg tudják úgy változtatni ahogy az nekik (és a támogatóiknak) leginkább megfelel.
The law would require all religious organizations to re-register, and only those groups or denominations with more than 10,000 members would be allowed to retain their legal status as churches. Since the current government coalition has two-thirds majority, they are able to even change laws that require a qualified majority, so basically they can change things the way it suits their (and their supporters') best interest.

Ez jelenleg azt jeletni, hogy valószinűleg 6-7 jelenlegi magyarországi egyház maradhatna egyház a jövőben, és a Golgota Keresztény Gyülekezet elveszitene az egyházi státuszát, és így, nem tudná többé intézményt fentartani, ami komoly következményekkel járhat a vajtai Golgota Teológiai Fősikolával kapcsolatban, ami tavaly kapott akkreditációt, mint egy felsőoktatási intézmény.
Currently this would mean that only 6 or 7 churches in Hungary would be able to retain their legal status as churches. This would mean that Calvary Chapel would lose its status as a legal church, meaning, among other things, that Calvary Chapel could no longer offer education of any kind, accept tax-deductible donations, or attain visas for foreign missionaries or students. This would have serious consequences for the Bible college in Vajta, which just received accreditation last year as a religious school of higher education.

Az az érvelés, hogy így lehetne eltörölni azokat az "egyházakat" amelyek nem is igazán egyházak, és igazságtalan módon kapják a SZJA 1%-ot. Ez amúgy jó dolog lenne - de gyakorlatilag ez a törvényváltozás arra is jogosítaná fel a kormányt, hogy elszüntesse azokat a csoportokat amik nem szimpatikusak nekik vagy a támogatóinak.
The reasoning given for this proposed change to the law is that it would get rid of tax shelters and those "churches" which aren't churches at all. That would be a good thing - but practically, this law would give the government power to dissolve any religious groups and denominations which they and their supporters do not like.

Ha azt gondolja valaki, hogy ez a törvényjavaslat tényleg csak azért van, hogy takarítson pénzt az államnak, nézd meg a számokat: A tavalyi adózási adatok alapján az állam közel 353 millió forintot takarítana meg évente (azaz 35 forintot állampolgáronként egy évben) azzal, hogy megvonná a kisebb gyülekezetek egyházi státuszát, miközben a legnagyobbaknak összesen 4 milliárd 850 millió forintot fizetett ki (ebből a Magyar Katolikus Egyház 3 milliárdot, a Magyarországi Református Egyház pedig 1 milliárdot kapott).
Így, úgy tűnik hogy ez a törvényváltozás, bár elszüntetne azokat a csoportokat akik igazságtalanul kihasználják az egyházi státuszt, komolyan kockáztatja a vallási szabadságot Magyarországon. Ha kineveznek egy személyt vagy tanácsot aki megmondja, melyik csoportok lehetnek hiteles egyházak és megtarthatják azokat a jogokat amik eddig biztosítva voltak a rendszerváltozás és az új alkotmány írása óta.
If you think this proposed change to the law is only for the purpose of saving money, then check out the numbers: Based on last year's tax data, the state would save 353 million forints in a year (or 35 forints per citizen annually) if they deny giving the status of a church to smaller congregations. All the while a total of almost 5 billion forints were paid out to the largest churches (the Hungarian Catholic Church received 3 billion forints, the Reformed Church of Hungary received 1 billion forints).
So, it seems that while this proposed law would put an end to groups taking advantage of church status to get illegitimate tax exemption, it would put religious freedom in Hungary at great risk by appointing a person or group with the authority to determine which groups have the right to exist as religious organizations and keep the rights which have been guaranteed since the end of Communism and the writing of the new constitution in 1990.

Kérlek, imádkozzatok ezért a helyzetért, hogy Isten akarata legyen meg, és hogy az Ő neve dicsőüljön meg a Golgota Keresztény Gyülekezet szolgálata által.
Please keep this situation in prayer, that God's will would be done and that His name would be glorified greatly through the ministry of Calvary Chapel in Hungary.

Miracle

We have been very busy for the last 3 weeks that we have been in the States. There are many stories that I would like to tell - and hope to post a few up here when I have more time, but I wanted to share something noteworthy that happened yesterday.

I believe that stories of the great things that God does should be told over and over. They give glory to God and they strengthen the faith of those who hear them or read them. Here's one of those stories:

My parents have a friend in their neighborhood named Jeanie. Jeanie has a benign tumor in her brain, which she had surgery on last year. Since then, the tumor grew again very quickly and was putting pressure on her brain, causing her pain and becoming so dangerous that doctors told her in the summer that if she did not have surgery to remove it, she would die within 6 months.
She was scheduled for surgery, which was postponed twice because her brain surgeon suffered an eye injury. Finally, Monday she went in to have the surgery.

We had been praying for Jeanie ever since my mom told us about the situation, and on Sunday I felt that God would want me to go over to her house to pray for her in person. Jeanie is also a member of a local church here in Colorado, and many people there have been praying for her as well.
On Monday when she went in for the surgery, after she had the MRI, gotten her head shaved, and was about to receive the anesthesia, the surgeon came in the operating room and told the anesthesiologist to stop, because he needed to talk to Jeanie about what he had seen on the MRI. The MRI showed that her tumor had shrunk to 2cm, and thus she didn't need to have surgery. Previously this same surgeon had told Jeanie many times that this kind of tumor does not shrink.

After praying for Jeanie on Sunday evening, I hadn't expected to see her again before leaving Colorado, but this morning she came over to bring us some scones!
God is good, and we believe that He caused this tumor to shrink.

It has been such an incredibly faith-building experience to see God heal Felicia, and it was so good to see him answer our prayers for Jeanie. Please continue to pray for Jeanie, that the tumor would go away completely.

Don't believe in prayer - believe in God. Don't talk about the 'power of prayer' - talk about the power of the God of the Bible who creates and heals. The glory is all His.

Nate and the Giant Mouse

We took Nate to Chuck E. Cheese yesterday for a birthday party. Some of my cousins and family friends came with their kids, and Nate had a great time - until he saw the 2 meter tall mouse...

Nate had a great time for about 2 hrs, playing skeeball and sitting in the photo booth - but when it came time for food and cake some girls from another party started screaming and the guy in the giant mouse costume came and tried to hug Nate. After that he was done. He started telling my dad, "I want to put on shoes and go in the car and go to grandma's house!" Then after a while, he started telling me: "I want to go on the airplane and go home!"

So, we won't be going back to Chuck E. Cheese for a while - and that is probably not a bad thing. I hadn't been to Chuck E. Cheese in like 20 years until last night. Turns out that what's cool and fun when you are 7 years old is terribly annoying when you are 27 years old.

Nonetheless, the party was fun, and Nate did have a good time, and it was good to see everyone who came out.

Survival

We made it to Colorado and are at my parents' house now. There were times today, however, when it was hard to believe this moment would ever come.
I used to really like long distance flights; I saw them as a great opportunity to relax, think, read, etc. I liked taking those flights with Rosemary before we had kids. Then Nate came along and those flights became a lot of work - although because we could tag-team it wasn't too bad. But traveling with 2 little ones was pretty rough...

We had expected that Nate would be the difficult one, but actually he was very well behaved. He was so excited about being on the airplane. Felicia had a hard time and was more work for us than we had expected.
By the time we forget how rough it actually was today, it will be time to do it all over and head back to Hungary!

On a side note: I overheard Nate talking to himself today; he said: 'Time is money. Nate's time is money!'
I wonder where he got that one from.

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