Colorful

Its been pretty dark and rainy outside for the last 2 weeks, so Nate hasn't had much of a chance to get out of the house.
But the other day we went to a baby store that had an indoor play area, and he had a great time!

Gyöngyhalász

Sziasztok magyarok (illetve nem-magyar magyarul beszélők, mint én magam)!
Figyelmetekbe ajánlom a Gyöngyhalász című blogot - ami tulajdonképpen az egri gyülekezetünk online újságja.
Kissné Ági a szerkesztője. Eredetileg volt már egy gyülis újságunk papír formában, de mivel egyre kevesebb ember van aki tényleg olvas papírra leírt szöveget - gondoltuk hogy internetes formája is legyen az újságnak.
Ez azért is jó, mert így nem csak azok olvashatják a cikkeket akik járnak a gyülibe, hanem bárki a világon, aki csak a weblapra oda talál. És így reméljük hogy több ember számára is áldás lesz.
Ági úgy akarja, hogy minél többen a gyüliből írjanak az újságban, hogy színesebb legyen.
Ma, azokat a cíkkeket rakta fel, amik már szerepeltek a papír újságban. De rendszeresen lesznek újak is.
Itt a link: http://gyongyhalasz.wordpress.com/
Isten áldjon!

Bulgaria

We went to Bulgaria earlier this month to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary, Nathaniel's first birthday, and just to take it easy after a summer full of conferences, camps, and other activities.
I've been wanting to go to Bulgaria for quite some time now. I even wrote a blog about it way back in 2006.
We had a really great time, and we'd recommend it to anyone who is considering traveling there. The beaches were nice and the accommodations were affordable. We'll probably go back someday.

Here are some of our impressions of Bulgaria:

• Its really hot.
  
Hungary is hot too, but in a different way. The part of BG we were in, near the Black Sea, has a Mediterranean climate, and its very hot and very dry. On one hot day I asked a shop owner if the weather was normal, or especially hot - he said that they have blazing hot weather from June to September. But, I have to say, that everywhere we went in Bulgaria there was air-conditioning. Even in small little shops and restaurants. That was nice, because we needed it!
• It reminded us a lot of Mexico.
And I mean that in a good way. We like Mexico; we went on our honeymoon in Veracruz, Mexico. There were many things in Bulgaria that reminded us of Mexico, from the dry climate to the sandy beaches and warm sea, from the attitudes of the taxi drivers to the food.
There were even a lot of Mexican restaurants in Nessebar. There was one next to our hotel, even with a guy in a sombrero trying to talk people into coming inside. We were thinking pretty seriously about it, until the guy told us that they only serve pizza and spaghetti! But there were other restaurants there that served real Mexican food.

• Great food.
We really enjoyed the food in Bulgaria. Rosemary ate a lot of shopska salad, I ate a lot of grilled meat.
I especially ate a lot of kavarma - a stew kind of thing with tons of spices. I like spicy food, and Bulgarian food made me sweat - which in my book is a good thing.
They also, like Hungary, are a wine-growing nation, and they had grape vines everywhere. Living in Eger, we don't drink wine very often, but we have gotten to know a bit about wine, and what constitutes good wine - and I was really impressed with Bulgarian red wine, especially one called Thracian Gold.
• They shake their heads for yes, and nod for no. That's super confusing.
At least once a day we got confused by this. Like in a restaurant - you ask for bread and the waitress just shakes her head and walks away. You think for a second, "Man, that waitress is rude!", and by that time she puts the bread on the table. Or at one point I ended up in this small village, almost out of gas, and with no cash - and I was asking if there was a gas station, an ATM, and if I could pay with a card at the gas station. The girl just kept nodding and shaking her head, and I was just terribly confused for a few minutes until I got it straight!

These are just a few general impressions. I'll write a bit more later.
If you'd like to see our pictures from BG, then click here.

And here's a map of our route:

View Larger Map

Nate Dogg

Nathaniel has a lot of nicknames, and it would be quite embarrassing to reveal all of them to you, as you can imagine.
Lately we've been making a point of it to call him by his actual name, because for a while he only responded when we called him "Bunny" or other nicknames.
So, we've been making a concerted effort to call him "Nate" or "Nathaniel," but we still also like to call him "Nate Dogg" - which, in case you didn't know, is the name of a gangsta' rapper from the 90's.
And, even though its not true, I like to tell people that we named our baby after Rosemary's favorite hip-hop star.
By the way, Nate Dogg (the rapper) is the cousin of another famous hip-hop star: Snoop Dogg. Perhaps that information will help you guess what the name of our next child will be...

Different

There is a young guy in our church named Dani. He's a great guy - even recently he began teaching every now and then for our Wednesday night Bible study, and he's begun leading worship as well.
Dani repented on New Year's Eve, 2006, and started coming to our church in January 2007. When he first started coming to the church, he had short hair and I couldn't help but notice his army boots and bomber jacket - as these are the typical outfit of skinheads in Hungary, of which there are more than a few. But we were just happy to have him in the church.

In the beginning, Dani didn't talk very much; he just showed up for church and left afterwards. But one day before church, I had been talking with some of the church members about the Hungarian rock band Kárpátia - a group that plays "Nemzeti Rock" or Nationalistic Rock music - and Dani came in, and we started talking about it, and I found out that before giving his life to the Lord, he had in fact been a skinhead.

This picture on the right is a picture of Dani in 2006, in full-on skinhead style.

Anyways, after committing himself to the Lord, I guess he reacted a bit against the whole skinhead thing, by growing his hair out. So for almost 2 yrs, Dani didn't cut his hair - and it got long - and sometimes he couldn't hang out, because he had to stay home to wash his hair, or brush it, or whatever you do to long hair.
Well, in the last week of August, the time came when Dani decided that enough was enough, so another guy and I took him to the hairdresser in the mall here, and they cut it off.

Now Dani looks fairly "normal," although I think he really enjoyed not looking "normal" for a time, which I can totally respect, since part of being a Christian is being willing to not be "normal" in the eyes of some people. A willingness to be "different" is a major asset in the life of a person who wants to follow Jesus, and take the road less traveled - the straight and narrow path of walking in the Lord's ways rather than simply conforming to whatever the culture around us deems "normal." Often times what the world calls "normal" isn't what God has deemed normal and healthy.

God has done a good work in Dani's life. He has a great family, most of whom are also believers. He will also be among those who get baptized next weekend.

Here's a slideshow of the pictures of the haircut:

Disturbing

Right after we got back home from Bulgaria, I got a phone call that disturbed me.
It was the mom of one of the girls who had come to know the Lord at English Camp, and who had asked to be baptized at the baptism will we have in 2 weeks at a lake outside of Eger. She was calling to tell me that she had forbidden her 18 yr old daughter from coming to our church.
I asked her why, and she said it was because we are a sect (actually she thought we were Methodists - and that Methodists are a sect). Then I explained to her that we belong to the Hungarian Evangelical Alliance, a group which validates that we hold orthodox protestant Christian beliefs. Then she told me it was because I wasn't Hungarian. I explained that I speak Hungarian and even teach the Bible in Hungarian (we were talking in Hungarian). Then she said it was because my wife wasn't Hungarian...
She went on to give me many other reasons, none of which held much weight. In other words, these weren't the real reason she was forbidding her daughter from attending our church.
She eventually told me that she simply doesn't think that becoming a Christian is a good choice for her daughter to make, because it will drive her away from her family and make her a social outcast.

Needless to say, this call was disturbing. And whats more disturbing to me is that this isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened.
Here in Hungary - especially more in Eger than in Debrecen, this kind of attitude is something we have had to deal with.
Perhaps its hard in this area because there isn't really any other church like us - a young, modern, protestant church - but I also know that the other churches in town struggle with the same thing. I think another possible reason is that the older generation of Hungarians who were raised under Communism view religion in all forms as a negative thing - as detrimental and unenlightened.
Another issue here is that many Hungarian families are very tightly knit, and the parents are somewhat controlling. They often view the church as something which takes away their influence and control over their kids, in spite of the fact that we would never encourage kids to disobey or rebel against their parents.
People say that Europe is a "post-Christian" place, and I think there is much truth to that. We have had people in the church before, whose parents encouraged them to practice Eastern Religion or the New Age - but were not happy at all that their child (although already legally an adult) wanted to be a Christian. In America, even if a family does not consider themselves Christians or go to church, they still often view church as a good thing.
* Hungarians - what do you think about this? Am I getting this right, or am I way off?

I find it disturbing that in this part of "Christendom" being a follower of Jesus and studying the Bible is viewed by many as a bad thing.
One friend of mine in another town in Hungary leads a youth group, and they had the problem that their kids had stopped partying and their parents were upset by it, and started telling their kids - You need to leave that church! What they are teaching you is unhealthy! You are teenagers; you need to be going out and partying and having sex! That's the normal, healthy thing to do!
I have a catch-phrase that I always tell our church: Jesus makes you normal. And I really believe that to be true. The view of many people in the world of what is normal and healthy has been skewed so badly, that they call good what is evil and evil what is good.
When studying the Bible and being a follower of Jesus is called a bad thing, but premarital/extramarital sex is considered a good thing - something is wrong.

On Sundays right now we are studying through the Acts of the Apostles, and one of my favorite verses in the book is when it says in Ch 17:8, that in Thessalonica they people dragged some Christians before the city counsel and said: These who have turned the whole world upside down have come here too. My prayer is that God would use us here in Eger to turn this city "upside down" with the Gospel. If things are already upside down - where right is called wrong and wrong is called right - then turning it upside down again would be like turning it right-side up. Again, "Jesus makes you normal."
One thing I love about the book of Acts is that you see that through very small groups of people, God changed the history of Europe - and really the history of the whole world. I love that, because I know that God can use us to change our city - and I pray that He will.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Last Monday, September 1, was Nathaniel's first birthday!
One year ago we first saw Nate-dogg's little face and held him in our hands for the first time.
His name means "Gift of God," and thats truly what he is!
Over the last year we've been blessed to watch this little gift grow from a tiny baby into a little boy, who is now trying to walk and talk and do other big boy stuff.
We celebrated Nate's first birthday in Slanchev Bryag (Sunny Beach), Bulgaria.
We had a lot of "firsts" last week in Bulgaria - Nate's first birthday, his first piece of cake, his first time at the beach, and his first time swimming in the sea.
Indecently, it wasn't Nate's first time abroad or even on an airplane. He's already been to the USA, Germany, Slovakia - and now Bulgaria. He's already traveled more than most people I know!
He had a great time at the beach, digging in the sand, and got super excited by the waves, when we took him in the water.
Here are some pictures of Nate's first birthday:

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Last week I got to do something that I haven't done since I left Colorado - go camping.
Not the kind of camping that you do at some fenced-in place with paved parking spots and bathrooms with hot water - real camping, in the middle of nowhere, where you just walk until you decide that you've found a good place for your tent, where you have to do your business in the forest, and you have to bathe in a creek. Now that's good stuff!
In order to do this kind of camping, we went to Romania, since "wild camping" is not permitted in Hungary or Slovakia. And "wild camping" is a good term to use about Romania, which is one of the few places I've been in Europe where you can still get the feeling that you are in the wild.
We went to the Bihor/Bihar Mountains, to a place called Padiş/Pádis (everything has a Romanian, Hungarian, and often German name in Transylvania), which is like a high plateau, close to many cool places to hike and things to see.
Getting up there was no easy task. There are 2 roads that lead to Padis - one from the north and one from the south. Because of picking up John, we took the road from the north on the way there. This was one of the worst roads I've ever been on. I don't even thing this should be called a road - it was more of a series of pointy rocks and car-sized puddles. We went 20 km in a matter of 1.5-2 hrs. A lot of the time, everyone had to get out of the car and run alongside to help me not to bottom out on the pointy rocks.
At one point I saw a line of oil running down the road, and it took me a moment before I realized it wasn't from my car, but from the guy in the Dacia who had come the other way going about 40 km/hr. In one of the travel books someone had for the region, it said that you should only take the northern road to Padis if you are driving an SUV or a Dacia! Our Peugeot did a good job though, even though it wasn't a Dacia. Go Dacia!
On the way back home, we took the southern route, and left John in Oradea/Nagyvárad. Praise the Lord, that way was a great road and totally uneventful.
This was originally planned as a church camping trip, done together with Calvary Chapel Cluj, but both of us had almost everyone back out at the last minute, so in the end it was just me, 3 people from our church in Eger, and John - the pastor of the Cluj church.
It was a great time. The mountains there are karst, so they are full of caves to explore. The people from our church kept asking if it reminded me of Colorado, but I had to explain that although the Bihar Mountains are beautiful, they are a completely different kind of mountain than what I grew up with. But, that said - I really liked Pádis, and it was my first time climbing around in caves like that.
It was good to get back home to Rosemary and Nate, and I'm looking forward to going back, and looking forward to when Nathaniel will be a bit bigger and I can take him out camping and doing man stuff like starting fires and peeing outside. I guess I could always teach him to do that stuff here in Eger too, but my neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate it very much!
If you're interested in seeing pictures of the whole trip - shepherds, caves, horses, etc..., you can click here, or just watch this slideshow.

Thoughts on Calvin

This one goes out to all my Calvinist friends out there:I've had a few posts recently about John Calvin - mostly because of our church moving to a building called the Kálvin Ház in Eger, and every Sunday,there is this picture of John Calvin hanging over my head as I preach, and there is this statue of him in the courtyard. So, Calvin's been on my mind lately, since I see him almost every day of the week.

But in regard to Calvin and Calvinism, I would like to say the following:
I'm not a Calvinist.
But I have friends who are.
A few years ago one of my friends became a Calvinist; not long afterwards, I got an email from someone who knew him, asking me - Hey, I heard that (my friend's name) lost his mind and became a Calvinist. Is that true?
It was like this guy was asking about my friend as if he were Anakin Skywalker, who had just gone over to the dark side and become Darth Vader.

One thing which I make try to make very clear in the church I pastor, is that there is a difference between "primary" and "secondary" theological issues.
Here is an excerpt from a handout we pass out in our church about baptism:
Primary Theological Issues are those which are necessary for Christian Orthodoxy. They include such things as our belief in: One God, the Trinity, Jesus (i.e. His Virgin Birth, sinless life, death for sin, and resurrection), the perfection and authority of the Bible, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Secondary Theological Issues are those matters that are of varying degrees of importance, but which are not necessary for salvation. They are disagreed upon among Christians, and include such issues as speaking in tongues, different worship styles, baptism, and eschatology.

It was in regard to this distinction that Augustine is quoted with the following: In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas. (In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.)
Since Calvinism is a way of interpreting scripture in the areas of the sovereignty of God and often eschatology, which are not necessary for salvation, these are things which fall into the "Secondary" category - topics which are worth studying, debating, discussing and having strong opinions about, but not worth dividing over.

The unfortunate thing, is that some Christians are willing to, even eager to, divide over "Secondary" theological issues.
Not long ago, I was looking at an evangelical apologetics website; on the left-hand side was a long list of articles to choose from, which included Buddhism, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, the Baha'i faith, and so on. And there, on this list of non-Christian religions and cults was also "Calvinism."
Now, I understand that this is just a list of things this guy has articles on, and that he is not necessarily saying that Calvinism is heretical, but it bothered me that a position and interpretation of scripture which is not only Christian, but actually Evangelical, would be listed in the same list as non-Christian religions and cults.
This just illustrates for me how some Christians are quick to demonize anyone who has a view which is different from theirs - even if that view is a "secondary" theological issue - and treat them as enemies of the faith, portraying them as people who must not truly love God, the Bible, or people, whose hearts are black, and who hate everything that is good and beautiful, including puppies, babies, kittens, and flowers - and who have some dark agenda.

I think that there are things which are actual threats to Christianity which would be a better use of our time to fight against than to attack those amongst our own ranks who have different methodology or interpretations of secondary issues. The latter is probably much easier to do - although it avails little, if anything, for God's Kingdom.

I recently read this quote by Robert Frost:
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."
I like that. I hope that more of us as Christians could be like that when we encounter those who have different views than we do - and especially those brothers and sisters of ours with whom we have differences of opinion on secondary issues.

The Place That Time Forgot

Last week we were in Felsőtárkány, right outside of Eger, for our 3rd English Camp in Eger. The Lord answered our prayers and we had a lot of kids, and it was a great camp. We got to share the Gospel with those who came, and some responded that invitation to know God.
It was a great week. We had great helpers from America (and Canada!), and everything went smoothly.
A few things made this camp harder than those in the past though. Most obviously - this is the first year that we've had a baby. So we weren't able to be as involved in the "fun stuff" because of naps and bedtime and stuff like that. Another part was that the more kids come, the more punk and jerk kids come as well - and we had a bit of that this year.
But one thing about the camp is the place we have it. Táltos (which means "Mustang"!). The staff is nice, and the price is right, but the place is a bit rough around the edges.
It was built over 40 yrs ago as a Communist Youth camp. In the center of the camp still stands a statue of Hámán Kató - Hungarian Communist hero - with the text: "Hűség a Néphez, Hűség a Párthoz" (Faithfulness to the Nation, Faithfulness to the Party). Yea, that's the Communist Party, just in case you weren't sure.
If any of you have ever been to Csillebérc, its kind of like that - but maybe not as nice.
I think this place hasn't been cleaned thoroughly since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Actually, the place was abandoned for quite a few years, so that might well be the case. But this place is seriously unkempt. Some of our helpers who have come in past years lovingly refer to it as "The Bomb Shelter".
There are a lot of bugs up there. One of our helpers this year, on the last day, said - It is now time for us to leave this place, and turn it back over to the bugs. I think its possible that they have some nuclear waste stored up there, because the bugs are bigger than life. So much so that you're tempted to put a leash on them and give them cute names and take them home to live with you.
The main hall where we had our big events was cluttered with fragments of the walls and 10 yrs worth of dead june bugs. We lost power a few times because we plugged in a laptop and a fan - which overpowered the system - and another time we had a power surge and a light bulb exploded right above everyone.
For me, this picture really sums up Táltos in an artistic way:You see those stars under the horse's feet? Yea, its kind of like as if to say, We used to have more stars! This place used to be kind of nice - but not any more! Its all been trampled on! And now all we've got left is these 2 stars - which is probably an exaggeration to say even that.
But despite its flaws, we love the Bomb Shelter. Its in a really great place in the hills, we are friends with the staff, and they treat us well. We're going back next year for sure. Táltos, here we come!

New Camera

I've been wanting to buy a DSLR camera for a while now, but the price always deterred me. Finally I sucked it up and decided to buy one (or maybe Rosemary sucked it up and decided to let me buy one - whichever it is).
After spending a lot of time on ebay, and worrying that it wouldn't arrive on time to the person from California who brought it over for me - I got a used Nikon D50.
I'm really enjoying it, and it takes great photos.
I have some posted on this site: www.flickr.com

Race Against the Clock

Nate is always getting bigger and bigger. I guess that's just what babies do.
He's also getting more mobile all the time. He's been crawling for months, but now he's able to put it into 5th gear and crawl at super speed all over the house.
Last week we were in Vajta, and he crawled up a set of stairs! Then we brought him home to Eger, and he did the same thing on the stairs at the church. Good job buddy!
He's also gotten really good at pulling himself up onto things to stand up.
Because he's so active nowadays, whenever he's awake, one of us has to follow him around the whole time, and stop him from pulling all the wires out of the computer or pulling the fan down on himself, or grab him when he gets into the trash can or starts putting our shoes in his mouth.
Right now, Nate is sleeping. That's why I have time to write this.
What happens is that when he takes his naps (2 times a day for 1-2 hrs), its a race against the clock to get stuff done! We start writing emails as fast as we possibly can, cleaning up the house, doing things in the kitchen, the whole time glancing nervously at the baby monitor, because we know that with every second that passes we have less time to do things we need to do before he wakes up again!
It was a whole lot easier when he was smaller and slept for like 22 hrs a day!
I'm sure that all you parents out there know exactly what I'm talking about - especially if you have more than one kid. We're still new to this whole thing, but I'm already thinking about what its going to be like when #2 comes along and also gets this size.
Well, Nate just woke up, so I gotta go!

John Calvin and Chuck Smith

Here's a picture of the sanctuary at our new church building.
I took it right after the cleaning lady had been there - she always sets up the stage this way with the table, so it looks like its ready to host a talk show or maybe an arm wrestling competition.

Anyways, the reason I posted this was to show that there are 2 portraits hanging on the wall behind the stage.

The one on the right is a picture of John Calvin - reformer and father of Reformed Theology (AKA Calvinism)
So, as you can see in this second picture, John Calvin (or Jancsi bácsi, as I like to call him) looks over my shoulder every Sunday as I preach. Its almost like he's reading over my shoulder the whole time - and I don't really like it when people do that.
Another interesting thing to me about this picture, is that - I don't know when it was made, if it was made during Communism or what, but it seems to me to have a striking similarity to this picture of Hungarian Stalinist leader Rákosi Mátyás.
Having said all that - I actually do like the picture. Its cool that he's pointing to the scriptures and putting his hand on his heart, as if to say that he's touched by it.

The picture on the left is of a man named Kovács Károly, who apparently was the pastor of the Reformed church in Eger from 1889-1901.
What's interesting about him, is that translated to English, Kovács means Smith and Károly is Charles. In other words - his name is Chuck Smith!
And the most ironic thing about it all: In our Calvary Chapel, between "Chuck Smith" and John Calvin on our wall, its Chuck's picture that we take down every week so we can project on the wall!
Don't worry - there's no ideological or theological statement involved in that - just an odd coincidence.

For everything there is a season...

Solomon, inspired by God, wrote these words in the book of Ecclesiastes:
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill, And a time to heal;
A time to break down, And a time to build up;
A time to weep, And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, And a time to dance;...(Ecc.3:1-4)

Nate is apparently a very mature baby, because as you can see in this picture, he seems to already understand this.
Perhaps in his case it could be phrased: A time to be serious, And a time to be silly.
Oh, and by the way - his shirt reminds me of that Pirate movie. You know the one, right? It was rated ARGH!
Sorry.

J.C.

This blog post is in honor of 3 people whose initials are J.C., who have been on my mind a lot lately -

1. JC = Jesus Christ
Last week we were in Vajta for the annual Foundations Conference, for church leaders from Eastern Europe.
7 of us from our church went, and we had a really blessed time. For me, this conference is one of the highlights of the year - because its a great time of fellowship with like-minded people whom we don't get to see very often, and the teachings are directed at our unique situation, as missionaries and church planters.
But more than anything else, the conference was great because of the presence of Jesus Christ. The reason the teachings were good, was because they were about Jesus Christ - about living for Him and serving Him. The reason the fellowship was good, was because of our common love for and commitment to Jesus Christ, just like 1.John 1:3 says: That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.


2. JC = Joe Cady
My dad. Last Sunday was Father's Day in America. For me, this was my first Father's Day - and for my dad, it was his first as a grandfather.
Also, last Friday was his B-day. Happy Birthday dad! I love you! Thanks for being a great dad and grandpa.


3. JC = Jean Cauvin (AKA John Calvin)
The building our church meets in now is called the Kálvin Ház (Calvin House). It was built in 1711 originally as a brewery, using the water of the Eger Creek, which flows out of the nearby hills (Hungarians call them mountains - I obviously disagree with that designation!).
The building was later purchased by the local Reformed and Lutheran believers, and they lived there (there weren't all that many of them) and held their church services there. It was during this time that the upper floor was added. Later both the Reformed and Lutherans built their own separate buildings, and used the Kálvin Ház for offices and private residences.
During Communism the building was taken away from the Reformed church, and they were just able to get it back, less than 10 years ago.
We have the great blessing of using this building, which is right in the center of town, for our church.
The building is named after John Calvin (born Jean Cauvin), a French Theologian and Reformer. Calvin's "magnum opus" was Institutes of the Christian Religion, a book about Protestant Systematic Theology; originally published in 1536, and is still widely studied by theology students today.
Although I don't agree with Calvin on every theological point, I look up to him and respect him as the champion of such great doctrines as Justification by faith alone, Christian liberty, and the Sovereignty of God.
And, on top of all that, we have a great statue of JC in the courtyard of the building. Nice beard!

Photo Websites

Lately I love Flickr. I could browse it for hours - although I try to exercise some self-control.
Also, in connection with Flickr, I love this site: Big Huge Labs, which has all kinds of cool apps on it for doing quick and easy photo projects. Its designed to work best when hooked up to a flickr site, but if you don't have one, that's no problem either; you can upload any random photos you want as well.
Here are some of the things we've made on Big Huge Labs:

A River Runs Through It

As far as natural disasters go, Hungary is a pretty safe place to live. There aren't really earthquakes, there are no tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc... But, every now and then there are floods.
The Danube river overflows its banks in Budapest every couple years - sometimes every year, and even here in Eger we get our own floods from time to time.
Back some time in the 19th century there was a big flood in Eger, and many of the older buildings in town have marks on them from the high water mark of that flood.
Today there was a flash flood in Eger. I (Nick) was stuck at our church office downtown and not able to come home, because the roads were under water. After a little less than an hour it cleared up and I was able to go home. On the way the roads were all covered in silt and parts of the sidewalk on our street had been washed away!
Also on our street, a sink hole had opened up in the road, and the fire department was there trying to fix things - even now the road is still closed.
Rosemary was at the house with the baby - and had a good time with the neighbors watching the river of water flowing down the street in front of our house.
Something similar happened 3 years ago, when we first moved to Eger; we had to get to church, and I had wade through water to put all the stuff for church into the car!
Nothing near a natural disaster, but for Eger, this was pretty interesting!

Are you in Hungary? Did you have flooding where you live too?

Here are some photos and a video:
The river in front of our house


Firefighters on our street and the hole (taken w/ my phone)


Video of flooded streets downtown (taken by Shane from the window of his workplace)

Poky Little Puppy

The Poky Little Puppy is a book about a group of puppies who are naughty and always getting into things they shouldn't.
More and more lately we have been noticing that Nathaniel is a lot like a puppy.
Some examples: He likes to hold his toys in his mouth to keep his hands free while he's busy with other stuff. He has sharp little teeth, and chews on everything. He started crawling last week, and now he's double trouble! He likes to lick us to show us that he loves us (probably his imitation of our kisses). He often pants loudly when he gets excited. He also pounds on stuff when he is happy - as if he had a tail he wanted to wag.
Today, we read him the book The Poky Little Puppy. Afterwards we let him play by himself for a few minutes, and when we went back to play with him, we noticed that there was something in his mouth... So, I dug it out of there, only to find it was part of the cover of the book we had just read him - a hard-backed book, supposedly made to be baby-proof. He had bitten it off!
We are convinced: Nate is the Poky Little Puppy.

Nate's Little Knives

I (Nick) recently got a knife. I've wanted one for a long time, and a friend blessed me with it a few days ago. I really like it, and I try to use it as much as possible - to carve my name in things or to open up my yogurt, letters, etc... (pretty much anything I possible can).

But in more interesting news: Nate himself has been blessed with not one, but two little knives.
Right now he has 2 teeth that have popped out on the bottom, and the top 2 are coming any day now.
Let me tell you - those little things are sharp! I used to let him chew on my nose before he had teeth, but last night I wasn't on guard enough I guess, and he chomped down on my nose - I thought I was going to die. It was more painful than having your nose hairs pulled out! I was sure that he had drawn blood - but in the end he didn't. I think I just got a bruise.
So, Nate is getting bigger and bigger every day, and getting more and more of these razor sharp little knife/teeth.
Its so cool to watch him grow. His name means "Gift of God" and that's truly what he is!

Spring in Eger

Spring is my favorite time of year in Hungary.
When I lived in Colorado, spring was actually my least favorite time of year, because it meant the end of the ski season. But here I'm actually glad when the winter's over; for one, because ski season isn't a big deal here (although I did manage to get to Slovakia to snowboard a few times this year), but mostly because it means that I can get outside and start doing stuff that is fun to do around here, like hiking and mountain biking.

Last week some guys and from the church and I went hiking in Slovakia, to a super cool national park, where we hiked up 2 canyons, in a beautiful area. For pictures click here.

This time of year in Eger it rains a lot, but that also means that the hillsides are very green, and so when the sun shines its gorgeous.

Today we went for a bike ride in the hills, and even got to see some newborn sheep, who still had afterbirth on them and were taking their first steps! Cool stuff.

Jet Lag

Jet Lag is a physiological condition which is a consequence of alterations to the circadian rhythm. The condition is generally believed to be the result of disruption of the "light/dark" cycle that entrains the body’s circadian rhythm. (reference: Wikipedia)

It is also said that jet lag is worse for women and even harder the younger someone is. And with that, I’ll tell you that Nathaniel has really bad jet lag. He wakes up 2 times at night and is awake for 2 hours a time just as he would during the daytime with his naps. I am the one who stays up with the bubba, letting Nick sleep and take over in the morning when Bubba wakes up. This is the 3rd night now-which I know isn’t horrible, but I am so tired and hope to get Nathaniel back to sleeping well for 12 or 13 hours a night. (No, he doesn’t sleep through the night yet-he gets up to eat, then goes straight back to sleep.)

He had a very short night on the airplane with only 4 hours of sleep in a little bassinet under our legs. He’s a good boy and enjoyed the adventure of being on an airplane, and was interested in everything. So interested that he spent 1 1/2 hours looking around and saying "ooh, ooh!"
Nick and I enjoyed brief naps of maybe 30 minutes each.

They say that since jet lag is your body being out of sync with the local time-is there any way to fix this quickly???
Sleep is so valuable to me that I am getting desperate. I am also worried that the Bubba will enjoy these night time awakenings to play and be with mom for a long time!

Any advice is appreciated.

Our trip to America - pt 1.

Hey there,

We are now in San Diego area staying with my friend Jenni. She has 3 kids and her youngest is just older than Nathaniel, so our kids nap at roughly the same times.
Nate has a bit of jet lag-he got up at 5:20 this morning and finally went back to sleep a while later.
Our trip started when we left Eger at 3:30 in the morning Tuesday. The flight took off at 6:30 am and Nate slept all the way to Frankfurt, Germany. WE were SO blessed that the flight to Los Angelas wasn’t full and we were able to have a seat for Nate, and we had him take naps in the car seat. He was such a good boy on the airplane and enjoyed looking at everything and everyone, and seemed to enjoy the air turbulence and especially when the plane landed. He was laughing! SO, it seems that Nate will be a roller coaster fan in the future.
Praise the Lord, I was concerned that he would cry a lot on the plane and it would be hard for him. He did a good job on the 11 hour ride from Frankfurt.
Nick and I are tired but doing well. Our pace of visiting people is a lot slower with the baby as we don’t want to tire him out. We are enjoying our time here and my brother Tony is coming over every day to see us. Nate loves him and stares at Uncle Tony and babbles and laughs. Nick says that Uncle Tony looks like mom with a beard.
I hope you are all well. Keep in touch.

Rosemary

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Now playing: coldplay - the Hardest Part
via FoxyTunes

Milestone

On Jan. 1st, our son, Nathaniel, turned 4 months old. He's doing great - getting stronger and fatter every day. Now he laughs and is able to grab at things and play with simple toys. He loves to talk to his stuffed animals! He used to cry when we put him to bed, but nowadays he just talks to his stuffed animals for a few minutes and then goes to sleep on his own!
Today we experienced an important milestone in the life of our son. We were sitting down eating dinner together, and was holding Nate in my lap while I ate. Next thing I know, he's reaching onto my plate and grabbing handfuls of my food and throwing them!
I realized that this is truly the beginning of a new stage in our son's life - a stage in which he will be throwing food and making messes everywhere. That's ok - its worth it!
Oh, and you can click here to listen to Nate laughing.

Orrszívó Porszívó - Nose Vac

Sorry for not writing since the birth of the baby! He's beautiful and wonderful - praise the Lord!
In case you don't know yet, he was born on September 1st and his name is Nathaniel Nicholas Cady.
Well, Nate got his first cold (from his dad it seems), and today we took him to the doctor because of it. And her recommendation - buy an attachment for our vacuum cleaner that sucks out his brains, I mean mucous!
Anyways, I knew that Hungarians use this product, and I must admit that I was a bit skeptical to use it - not to mention that it didn't help when the doctor told us, "Don't be surprised if he bleeds a little from it!"
But we gave it a shot, and his brain didn't get sucked out or anything! Its still fully intact.
Anyways, I have to admit that I am totally impressed with this thing! I was totally convinced that this is some sort of torture device, but now I'm fully converted - I'm a fan. I vacuum out his nose every chance that I get, and I'm pretty sure he actually likes it, because he gets super calm and just lets me do it.
I can't wait until I have a cold, so I can use it on myself!

Oh, and I found this awesomely bad video - an official advertisement for this product. This is one of the worst commercials I've ever seen! Among the things that make this video so bad its good, my favorite parts are: 1) the horrible background music, 2) the part where the kid takes it and uses it on himself, 3) the close up of the snot fluttering as it is sucked out of the kid's nose.

Enjoy!

Birth Announcement