Stuff I Love - Part 2

On social networking sites and blogs, I often see posts which list stuff which people hate or can't stand. So in order to be the ying to that yang, to be the Dr. Jekyll to that Mr. Hyde, the Luke Skywalker to that Darth Vader - I'm writing a few thoughts about stuff I love.
Here are some more:

• Seeing God's work in peoples' lives
  I think one of the most exciting things in the world is seeing God's changing power in someone's life, changing, healing, restoring them, etc... The guy I went mountain biking with the other day is the brother of Judit - the first girl in the church. This guy is someone we've prayed for for years, someone who Judit and her mom have been reaching out to for years, and just recently he has opened up, is attending church, and wanting to know the Lord. Its really encouraging to see the work that God is doing in his life.
  The other day at our Wednesday night Bible study, we talked about the question of what makes a "living church". The conclusion I came to, is that it is a place where God's work is noticable in people's lives - where there is change, healing and restoration because of God's presence. These are all characteristics of the Kingdom of God, which is essentially the realm where God reigns. If that is true in a church, and in the lives of the individuals of that church, then the characteristics of the Kingdom will be present and noticable. And I really love to see God's work in people's lives! I want it in my life all the more too.
  
• The Body of Christ
  The other day I got blessed unexpectedly by someone who anonymously did something which helped me out a lot. I don't want to go into details, because I know this person wanted it to remain anonymous - but it reminded me of how great a thing the Body of Christ is.
  One of my favorite verses about the body of Christ is Mark 10:29-30. The point is that in the body of Christ, we become part of a community which is a lot like a family, and in this community we take care of each other as family. I may not have any siblings, but in the body of Christ I have a ton of people who consider me and treat me like their brother. If I lose my house, there are a hundred houses, where I would be received into, because I am part of the body of Christ, and we have something in common that binds us like family.
  
• Weddings
I am in the States right now to attend 2 weddings. One of them was this past Saturday, and the other will be this coming Saturday. I seriously love weddings. I think they are by far the best parties around.
Honestly, I would have to say that, in general, traditional Hungarian weddings are my favorite. Tons of food, lagzi zene, everybody is dancing and sweating, and of course they don't open any windows, because they are afraid of the huzat (draft), which apparently is life-threatening, and at midnight, they bring out MORE food, and then keep partying until everyone finally drops and goes home - at which time they package up some food and send it home with you!
I love weddings. I try to go to as many as possible:) and I think it is so cool that God chose to use the analogy of a wedding to describe his relationship with His people and to describe heaven. In the Bible the church is called the Bride of Christ, He is the Bridegroom, and Heaven is called the Wedding Feast. Let me tell you - if heaven is like a wedding feast that lasts forever, then that is the place that I want to be!

What about you? What do you love?

Stuff I Love - Part 1

I am in Denver right now. I have jet-lag, and I woke up this morning at 4am local time, after sleeping for 3 hrs.
This past week, I've been thinking about a few things I love. The more I thought about it, the more things came to my mind. Here goes:

• Mountain biking
  Spring time in Eger, means mountain biking. It also means rain, so that can make the mountain biking all the more fun/dirty/hard. I went for a 4hr ride in the local mountains this week, and took a few spills because it was slippery, and came home so muddy that I had wash, rinse, and repeat. I had mud all over my face, even between my eyes. Rosemary was really happy about this, as you can imagine :)
  But it is such a good feeling to race through the forrest on a mountain bike. I seriously can't understand why people like fishing. It seems to me like glorified sitting, and a good way to get a sunburn. Mountain biking is the sport for me.
  
• Eger and the surrounding mountains
  When I lived in Debrecen and took the train up to Eger every week, people in Eger would tell me how they could never live in Debrecen, and how much they couldn't stand the alföld (plains). I didn't really understand at that time what was so bad about the alföld - but now I understand. People from Eger are a bit upity because they live in a nice place, but I'm cool with that, because people in Colorado are the same way.
  The Bükk and Mátra mountains aren't really high or spectacular, but they are perfect for mountain biking and hiking around. Its nice to live close to them.
  
• That there are guys in our church who love the Lord and like to do "man stuff"
  When we first started the church a few years ago, most of the church was girls from the college in Eger. Sometimes I would be the only guy at the Bible study. I thought of changing the name to "Nick's Women's Ministry". I remember how for the first year or two that we lived in Eger, I would get bummed out because there weren't really guys for me to hang out with and do "man stuff" with.
  One of our prayer requests for a long time was to have more men and families in the church, and that is a prayer that God has been answering! I even hear the girls in the church complain that there are too many guys in the church, and we need more ladies! I don't think the situation is that bad - I think its finally balanced out to where it should be.
  I remember something Mark Driscoll said about churches - If you win the men, you win the war. I think there's a lot of truth to that.
  In June our church will have its first "Men's Day", we are going to get together as men, shoot each other with paintballs, eat kolbász (sausage), and study about what it means to be a man according to the Bible. I am so looking forward to it I could barf!
  I love it that there are guys in the church that I can do "man stuff" with, like mountain bike, play football, punch each other in the arm, etc...
  
  Here's a classic video of men doing man stuff:

Version 2.0

We are expecting Version 2.0 to be released in January 2010.
Várjuk a 2.0-ás verziót, ami 2010 januárjában kerül kiadásra.

Praise the Lord!
Dicsőség az Úrnak!

American Hungarian

In our family of 4, there are 3 US citizens and 3 Hungarian citizens. It sounds a bit like a voting fraud scheme - but the explanation is that Rosemary and Nate are dual citizens. In our household, I (Nick) am the only person who is not a Hungarian citizen.

In our household we speak in both English and Hungarian - to Balázs in Hungarian and to Nate mostly in English, unless we are outside with other people, in which case we often speak to him in Hungarian. English is first, but we plan on teaching Nate both languages; it will be to his advantage to be bilingual - even though Hungarian is only the 67th most spoken language in the world, and spoken by just slightly more people than live in the city of Tokyo.
Nate's vocabulary is growing all the time, and he is already speaking words in both languages. There are many words he already knows in both: Duck - Kacsa, Dog - Kutyus, Milk - Tejcsi, Thank you - Köszönöm, Come on - Gyere, etc..., and there are others that he only knows in one of the two.

We do want Nate to have a sense of his American identity, and so we try to do some American things with him. For example: Every now and then we take him to the McDonalds in Eger, so he can get a dose of American culture. Every Friday is Hamburger Day. Nate LOVES hamburgers, and usually smiles and laughs the whole time he eats them. Today he tasted a shake for the first time, and cried really hard when it was gone.

A mi 4 fős családunkban, van 3 amerikai állampolgár és 3 magyar állampolgár. Lehet, hogy úgy hangzik ez mint valami választási csalási összeesküvés, de az egyszerű oka az, hogy Rosemary és Nate kettős állampolgárok. A mi háztartásunkban, én (Nick) vagyok az egyetlen aki nem magyar állampolgár.

A mi otthonunkban, mind magyarul mind angolul szoktunk beszélni - Balázzsal magyarul beszélünk és Nate-hez inkább angolul beszélünk, bár ha kint vagyunk emberek között, akkor viszont magyarul szoktunk beszélni hozzá. Bár az angol az első, úgy szeretnénk, hogy Nate mind a két nyelven tudjon beszélni, mert az csak előny lesz a számára, ha két nyelvet tud - annak ellenére, hogy a magyar csak a 67. legbeszéltebb nyelv a világon, és csak egy kicsivel többen beszélik a magyart mint amennyien élnek Tokió városában.
Nate szókincstára állandóan bővül, és már is vannak olyan szavak amiket tud mind két nyelven: Duck - Kacsa, Dog - Kutyus, Milk - Tejcsi, Thank you - Köszönöm, Come on - Gyere, stb..., meg vannak olyanok amiket csak az egyik nyelven tud.

Szeretnénk, hogy Nate amerikainak is érezze magát, és ennek érdekében probálunk "amerikai" dolgokat csinálni vele. Például, néha el megyünk a Mac-i-be Egerben, hogy kapjon egy kis amerikai kulturát. Minden pénteken Hamburger Nap van. Nate imádja a hamburgert, és általában mosolyog és vigyorog miközben eszi. Ma ő először megkostolta egy shake-et, és nagyon izlet neki, hiszen nagyon sírt amikor elfogyott.

Coming to America

I (Nick) will be leaving on Friday for 10 days to the States. I will be attending two weddings, one in Denver and one in Sacramento.
The one in Denver is for my friend Jordan and the one in Sacramento is for my cousin Jessica.

Here's the schedule:

• Denver: May 22-28
• Sacramento: May 28-31

I won't have a lot of free time, but I would love meet with as many friends, family, and church family as possible, so if you'd like to meet, please send me an email.

Please pray for Rosemary, Nate, and Balázs, as they will stay in Hungary while I'm in the US. This is the longest Rosemary and I will have been apart since we got married, and the farthest we've been away from each other. Please pray that she will have strength to deal with the kids!

Cars

The biggest industry in Eger is automotive, which is obviously struggling and lots of people have lost their jobs here, including many people in our church.

GM has announced that they are going to end their Pontiac brand.
Personally, I don't mind. I know that Pontiac is an iconic American car, but they really haven't made anything great in quite a few years. Most of their cars just look like other GM cars with different body trim on them, but you pay more for them than for a Chevy.

Even though GM is having a hard time these days, Fiat seems to be doing great.

GM Europe entered talks recently over the possibility of selling the Opel and Vauxhall brands to Fiat. Fiat has also been trying to buy up Chrysler - which is almost bankrupt.

As of last year, the Zastava auto factory in Kragujevac, Serbia no longer produces Yugos, but they have started producing cars for Fiat. Serbia is providing a trade-in deal for anyone who can push, pull, or drag in their old Yugo. This way they can produce and sell more cars and get the old, unfit cars off the roads.
The cars being produced in Serbia are the same as the Fiat Punto, but carry the name Zastava Z10.
Apparently its going pretty well for them, because the factory has more orders than they can keep up with. Zastava seems to be one of the only auto factories around with that problem!
The other day, as I was walking around in town, I noticed a car dealership that is selling the new Zastava/Fiat cars here in Eger:

Bad Miracle

Ági forwarded me this email, which one of her friends received:

Cette image est miraculeuse et sacrée

Le Président de l'Argentine reçu cette image et l'appela un "courrier de plaisanterie", 8 jours plus tard sa fille décéda. Un homme reçu cette image et envoya immédiatement des copies.....Sa surprise fût d'être l'heureux gagnant de la loterie.

Alberto Martinez reçu cette image et la remis à sa secrétaire pour faire des copies mais ils oublièrent de les distribuer: elle perdit son travail et, lui perdit sa famille.

Cette image est miraculeuse et sacrée ; n'oubliez pas de la faire suivre dans les 13 jours au moins à 20 personnes.

Ez a kép szent és csodát tesz.....

Argentina elnöke kapta ezt a képet és hülyéskedésnek gondolta, 8 nap múlva a lánya elhunyt. Egy férfi szintén megkapta ezt a képet és elküldte azonnal a másolatait (továbbította). A meglepetés az volt számára, hogy megnyerte a lottó nyereményt.

Alberto Martinez szintén megkapta ezt a képet és odaadta a titkárnőjének, hogy csináljon belőle másolatokat, de elfelejtették őket szétosztani, a nő elveszítette a munkáját, a férfi pedig a családját.

Ez a kép szent és csodát tesz, ne felejtsétek el 13 napon belül továbbítani, legalább 20 embernek.

In English, this says: This picture is holy and performs miracles. The president of Argentina received this picture and thought it was nonsense, 8 days later his daughter died. A man also received this picture and forwarded it immediately. His surprise was that he won the lottery. Alberto Martinez also received this picture and gave it to his secretary to copy and distribute it, but the woman forgot to distribute it and she lost her job, the man lost his family.
This picture is holy and performs miracles, but don't forget to forward it within 13 days to at least 20 people.

What a horrible misrepresentation of God and of holiness - saying that if you don't pass on this stupid e-mail, then God is going to punish you by killing your kid or your family...
This is the kind of spiritual fear mongering and manipulation that I wrote about in a previous post, and it is despicable.
People are obviously passing this on - the forward list had a ton of names and addresses on it - probably out of superstition, or "just in case", because they don't want their family members to die!
I just hope nothing bad happens to me for writing this blog post...

Ez mennyire rosszul képviseli Istent és a szentséget - olyat mondani, hogy ha nem továbbítodd ezt a hülye e-mailt, akkor Isten meg fog téged bűntetni azzal, hogy megöli a családodat...
Ez az a féle félelem felkeltés és manipuláció amiról írtam egy előző posztomban, és ez szánalmas.
Az emberek tényleg továbbítják ezt a levelet - volt egy csomó név és cím a listán - valószínű azért mert babonásak, csak "hát ha", mert nem akarják hogy a szeretei meghaljanak!
Csak remélem, hogy semmi rossz nem fog történni velem azért mert írtam ezt a posztot...

Why Nate is already a man

1. He opens the fridge and just stands there looking.
2. Nate reads on the toilet. (While getting a diaper change, he holds up a book and "reads".)
3. He likes to roughhouse. (Laughing the whole time-he likes to be chased around, then tackled; he throws pillows, and wrestles too.)
4. While playing with a "team", he takes the ball and hogs it.
5. He never cleans up after himself!
6. Nate will eat anything on a dare. (Mom says NO! NO! NO! Nate! Don't do it! and he will swallow gravel, beads, paper without a blink.)
7. He wants to control the tv with the remote control. He understands how to use it already.
8. He laughs in great delight while speeding...in the stroller while someone pushes him in a full run.
9. Nate is interested in breasts (for baby reasons).

~Rosemary

Hair Cut

We really like Nate's hair. Its soft and looks cute.
But recently it got so long that it was hanging in his eyes all the time, and old women kept asking if he was a girl...
So yesterday we decided to give him a hair cut. It was Nate's second hair cut, and dad's first time cutting someone's hair.
It turned out pretty good actually, except he does have a bit of a mullet, because mom didn't want to cut off the cute curls in the back.
Here's a video of it:

Socialist Realism

There is something I like about Socialist Realism. Maybe its because it is something different and something of the past, but for whatever reason, I like it.
Here are some posters in this style from communist Hungary:
Van valami amit szeretem a szoc-reál stilusában. Lehet, azért mert más és egy múltbéli, de akár miért is, szeretem.
Itt van egy pár szoc-reál poszter Magyarországból:

And here is one more poster, from the Soviet Union, which says in Russian: "Religion is Poison":
És itt van még egy poszer, a Szovjet Unióból, amely azt mondja orosz nyelven, hogy: "A Vallás Méreg":
This poster shows the ideology that went along with socialist realism, which was not so cool and which has surely had lasting effects on this part of Europe.
Ez a poszter mutatja azt az ideológiát ami a szoc-reál mögött állt, ami kevésbé szuper, és ami biztosan maradandó hatással volt Európának ennek a részére.

Not a Fan

I'm going to be honest: I am not a fan of "God" on Facebook. Nor am I a fan of "Prayer".
I am however a fan of sushi and LOST and coffee.
I must admit that I did feel a twinge of guilt as I clicked the X and made the "God" group disappear from my Facebook page's list of suggested friends and groups. But then about half a second later I was over it.
Why is it that I am a fan of sushi, LOST, and coffee, but not of "God" and "prayer"?
A few reasons.

1. My faith is more than being a "fan"
   My love and devotion for God, although imperfect, is infinitely greater than my love and devotion to food and TV shows. For me, putting God in the same list with those things is just not right. I feel like it cheapens and makes novel my love for God to put Him in the same list as Reese's Peanut Butter cups. My commitment to Jesus goes a bit further than being a "fan" on Facebook.
   
2. The person who started that group is not God!
   That's not actually God running that group; its just some person with a laptop!
   So there is no reason for me to feel bad about not joining their group. It doesn't mean that I don't love God, just that I don't feel obligated to be a "fan" of Him by joining some person's group that they set up on a social networking site.
3. Guilt trips are dumb.
   I bet there are a lot of people who become a fan of God on Facebook, because they feel guilty clicking that X and making it go away - as if by doing so, they are denying God.
   This is just like those mass emails that say at the end that if you don't pass this email on to 10 people, then you are ashamed of Jesus, and therefore he will be ashamed of you - i.e. if you don't forward this email, there is a very good chance you are going to hell!
   That's manipulation, and spiritual manipulation to boot - and I'm quite sure that God isn't down with that.
   I never pass on those emails. And I have no fear that I am going to hell, because I understand that my testimony of Jesus is not about whether or not I forward emails to people that say things that I would never write myself, just because I feel guilted into doing it.

If you are a "fan" of "God" on Facebook - right on. I hope you are a follower and worshiper of Him in real life too!

Boldog Anyák Napját!

Az a jó magyarországon, hogy itt az anyák napja egy héttel hamarabb van mint az USÁban. Mielőtt Nathaniel megszületett, mindig úgy volt, hogy valaki szólt nekem, hogy Hé, ma van az anyák napja - és akkor tudtam, hogy egy hét múlva lesz az anyák napja Amerikában, és más nap küldtem valamit az édesanyámnak. Most már Rosemary is anya, és az a jó, hogy neki 2 szer ünnepeljük az anyák napját. Úgy gondolom, hogy rá fér - ő egy tökszuper anya, véleményem szerint :)

Boldog Anyák Napját kívánok minden kedves anyukának!

The good thing in Hungary is that Mother's Day is one week earlier here than in the US. Before Nathaniel was born, usually someone would come up to me and tell me - hey, its Mother's Day - and so I knew I had one week to send something to my mother in the States for Mother's Day there. Now that Rosemary is a mother its cool because we get to celebrate Mother's Day for her twice. I think she deserves it - she's a great mom!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Savior?

Is it me, or is this just straight up blasphemy?
Painter Michael D'Antuono is going to unveil his new painting of Barack Obama on the president's 100th day in office, which will be displayed in New York City's Union Square.
Here's the painting:

Yes, that's a crown of thorns on Obama's head, and he is posing like Jesus.
The only thing I would agree with, is that some people do view Obama as a Messiah-esque figure - but since the title of this painting is "The Truth" it is obvious that the painter is also in the "Obama is our Savior" camp.
This is outrageous. This president covers up the name of Jesus, but does not object to being portrayed as Jesus in public.
Does this count as putting yourself in Jesus' place? Does this count as accepting worship as Savior? Those are pretty serious things. I'm not sure if this equates to that, but it makes me wonder...

Here's an article about it.

Csak én gondolom így, vagy ez tényleg pofátlanság és Istenkáromlás?
Michael D'Antuono festőművész be fogja mutatni a legújabb festményét Barack Obamáról az elnök 100. napján a Fehér Házban, amely ki lesz állítva a new york city-i Union Téren.
Fent található egy kép a festményről.
Igen, az tényleg egy tüvises koszorú Obama fején, és igen, ő tényleg úgy pózol mint Jézus.
Egy dologgal egyetértenék: vannak olyan emberek akik úgy tekintenek Obamára, mint egy Messiásra, de mivel e festmény címe "Az Igazság", nyilvánvaló, hogy ez a festőművész is az "Obama a mi Megváltónk" táborához tartozik.
Ez felháborító. Ez az elnök letakarja Jézus nevét, de nem tiltakozik attól, hogy nyilvánosságban Jézusként ábrázolják.
Ez annak számít, hogy Jézus helyére helyezi magát? Ez annak számít, hogy ő Megváltóként elfogadja a dicséretet? Azok igen komoly dolgok. Még nem vagyok benne biztos, hogy ezeknek számít ez, de elgondolkoztat...

Floyd Horony

We will miss Floyd. He passed away from cancer recently, and kept his gentle, cheerful character until the end. I heard that he passed away in a coma.
What I know is that Floyd never married and didn't have much of a family around. He has been a part of Calvary Chapel Vista for many years though, and was like a grandpa for many people. The kids all loved Floyd because he had either balloons or candy for them when he was around, and the kids weren't shy to always ask him for something.
I have many memories of Floyd. One of the oldest memories was from about 13 years ago when Calvary Vista had a cafe, and he would take groups of people there after service. He would call out to a whole crowd of people standing around after church, asking with an excited voice, if it was going to be white or dark hot chocolate that night.
When I moved onto the mission field 10 years ago, I remember that he gave me the fabled "missionary handshake" which means he shook my hand and secretly passed me a 20 or 50 $ bill. Every time I visited, Floyd gave me that fabled handshake, and it was really a blessing-of course to get some money, but that he always remembered me.
As the years go by while someone is away from "home," people write less and less letters and emails. Floyd was one of few who would send cards with Bible verses and handwritten messages to encourage me. He always included some cash, then wrote that I should NOT write back.
I remember those times that I went to tell him goodbye before I left for Hungary, and he would get tears in his eyes.
He was a genuinely kind man who had a huge amount of love for all and made all of us feel special.
When we visited home this last time in January, I was shocked to see Floyd so thin and bent over-obviously sick. He didn't want to oblige his news at first, but then told me that he was an old man and had cancer.
I know he has received his rewards now in heaven, but I want to write and share how special I thought he was.
His passing on is another reason I look forward to also going "home" to my eternal home where my mom and dad and a few friends await.

~Rosemary

Doga

In case you ever happen to have too much money and don't know what to do with it, here's an idea: Doga.
Yes, its Yoga with and/or for dogs. Its a new fad in America, just showing another example of something dumb people will spend money on.

Here's the article

Hátha majd esetleg annyira sok pénzed lesz, hogy nem tudsz mit kezdeni vele, itt egy ötlet: Doga.
Igen, ez jóga kutyákkal és/vagy kutyákért. Ez egy új divat Amerikában, és még egy példa arról, hogy az emberek milyen buta dolgokra hajlandóak pénzt költeni.

Name Above All Names

This week Barack Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University - one of the oldest Catholic universities in the United States. He created quite a stir, especially among Christians, because his people decided to cover up the name of Jesus, in the form of a monogram with the letters IHS, with a black peice of plywood, right above Pres. Obama's head.
The White House issued a statement about it, saying that they did it for camera reasons, so as not to have any symbols which might be distracting to the eye or misunderstood. But obviously Christians are quite upset about this - both at Obama for choosing to speak at a Catholic university and then daring to request them to cover up the name of Jesus, AND at Georgetown University for being willing to cover up Jesus' name instead of telling Obama to buzz off.
I understand that they don't want this to be misunderstood out of context - as if propogating Christianity over other religions - but if this is the case, I think Obama should have chosen to speak somewhere else rather than covering up the name of Jesus.
Its a shame that the White House doesn't think the Name which is above all names is appropriate to be above Obama's head.

Here are some links to read more or see the pictures:
From: The Dawn Patrol and NBC

Ezen a héten Barack Obama beszédet tartott a Georgetown egyetemen - az egyik legrégibb katolikus egyetem az Egyesült Államokban. Elég nagy kavarodást okozott, különösen a Keresztények között, mert az ő emberei úgy döntöttek hogy eltakarják Jézus nevét egy IHS monogram formában, egy fekete szinű butorlappal, pont Obama elnök feje felett.
A Fehér Ház adott erről egy nyilatkozatot, hogy ezt kamerai okok miatt tették, azért, hogy ne legyenek szemnek zavaró tényezők vagy olyan szimbolum amit félre lehet érteni. Nyilván, Keresztények ezért fel vannak háborodva - egyrész Obamára, hogy úgy döntött, hogy katolikus egyetemen tartja a beszédét és aztán mert őket arra kérni, hogy tarkarják el Jézus nevét, ÉS egyrész a Georgetown-ra, mert hajlandóak voltak eltakarni Jézus nevét ahelyett, hogy nemet mondjanak Obamának.
Értem, hogy nem akarják a felreértést, mint ha a kormány vallást propogál - de ha ez van, akkor szerintem inkább Obamának máshol kéne beszélnie, ahelyett hogy Jézus nevét takarja el.
Szégyen, hogy a Fehér Ház úgy gondolja, hogy a Név ami minden névnél feljebb való nem alkalmas hogy az Obama feje felett legyen.

Eger in April

Some pictures taken recently:

Slovenský Raj

Balázs had his spring break around Easter, and since he's never really been anywhere yet, I took him to one of my favorite nearby places to hike - Slovenský Raj (Slovak Paradise) national park in Slovakia.
He had a great time, except that the hike lasted 6 hrs, and 1 hour into it he started asking if we were almost at the end yet...
I told him that by the end of this summer he will be a hiking machine :)
Here are the pictures:

Balázsnak tavaszi szünete volt a múlt héten, Húsvét előtt, és mivel eddig még nem nagyon járt túl sok helyen, elvittem az egyik kedvenc kiránduló helyemre turázni - a Szlovák Paradicsom nemzeti parkba, Szlovákiában.
Nagyon jól érezte magát, csak annyi volt, hogy ez egy 6 órás tura volt, és az első óra után Balázs elkezdett kérdezni, hogy "ott vagyunk már?"...
Mondtam neki, hogy a nyár végére, már tura-gép lesz belőle :)

Easter Egg Hunt

I just finished working on my midterm assignments, hence the sudden burst of blog posts.
Nate had his first Easter egg hunt on Easter Monday. Here are some pictures and a video:

Four Years

This past Sunday marked the fourth anniversary of our church in Eger.
On Easter 2005 we started the church formally with our first Sunday service. Since that time God has done good things amongst us; people have come to know the Lord, been baptized, stepped into ministry, etc...
We can see that we are having an impact for Christ in Eger, and that is a good feeling. We believe that this is only the beginning of what God wants to do here.

Rosemary and I have been in Eger for 4 years now too. In that time we've gained some weight, seen some things, had a kid, and picked another one up along the way.
Currently we're trying to buy a house; please pray for that! We've made an offer on a house, but haven't heard anything back on it yet.

But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God." My times are in your hand.
Psalm 31:14-15

Its Official

Bajnai Gordon is the new prime minister of Hungary.

He has a pretty hard job ahead of him. He has told Hungarians that they should prepare for things to get difficult for a little while, as he takes drastic measures to fix problems, and that in the end it will be better for the country.

By the way - that's exactly what Gyurcsány Ferenc said a few years ago, when it came out that he had been lying to everyone about the financial state of the country...

I'm already not a big fan of Bajnai, because he is taking away state support for families buying houses from June 1st. So, we'll see if things work out for us to get into something in the next month, before they cut the funds.

Time will tell if Gordon bácsi can turn things around.
I personally hope he does, but I think that no matter what happens, he will be very unpopular because of his cutbacks. But alas, it would be really hard to be less popular that Gyurcsány Ferenc - the man who was so unpopular that it made George Bush seem like a teen pop idol in comparison.

Nerd Fact

Rosemary often says that my brain is full of "nerd facts" - silly facts that I bring up in sentences which begin like: "Did you know that..."

Here's the nerd fact for the day: Hungary is one of only 4 countries in the world that use the date format of yyyy/mm/dd. The only other countries that format their dates this way are Lithuania, China and Mongolia. This is interesting, because the main theories about the origin of the Hungarian people is that they are an eastern people group, with closer relations to Mongols than to the Slavic and Germanic peoples around them.

Another interesting thing is that the United States and its territories are the only places where the dating format is exclusively: mm/dd/yyyy - Canada and Kenya also use this format, but they use others as well.
Maybe we should conclude that this proves that Canadians and Kenyans actually descend from the USA.

Here's the map - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Date.png

20 Years

This year marks 20 years since 1989, when many of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe fell.
The BBC has a cool page about this, with old video footage from 1989:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7961732.stm

Life in Eger

Thoughts for the today:

• We really like the mall here in Eger. The Agria Park, as its called, was a big deal when it was built a year ago; in fact, it won an award for best shopping center of 2008.
  
  We go to the mall at least 2 or 3 times a week, and usually more. It is only 2 blocks from our house, and there's a grocery store there, a branch of our bank, an outdoor playground, an indoor play area, a hair dresser, coffee shops, etc... Nate loves to hang out there, because there is a lot of room for him to run. We often go there to meet with people from church.
  Unfortunately, our dear mall seems to be in decline. A lot of the shops have been closing up, even some owned by big international chains. One good side to this, is that a lot of the shops have sales.
  Today, to our great disappointment, we saw that the Subway restaurant in the mall closed too. Having a Subway was a big source of pride for us here in Eger, since we were one of the only places outside of Budapest to have one! Its true that the prices were really high, and because of that we only ate there once - but we were sad to see it go. In fact, they already took Eger off of their international list of restaurant locations! Farewell Subway. Its back to the dark ages for us citizens of Eger.
  
  
• Today we watched the movie Fireproof with Shane and Marianna.
  I have to say that this has to be the best Christian film I've ever seen. Usually I don't like Christian films; I didn't even like Facing the Giants - made by the same people who made Fireproof - movies about high-school football don't do it for me in general.
  Kirk Cameron out-acted everyone else in the film like Michael Jordan playing on a team of 5 year-olds, and some of the actors were so bad that we wondered if they were just nice people from the church of the producers rather than professional actors.
  But overall, the movie was great - well written and captivating. Good job on this one Christians! Keep up the good work.
  
  
• The actual vote will happen on April 14th, but it seems that Hungary's next Prime Minister is going to be Bajnai Gordon.
  I've never met a Hungarian named Gordon before, and I wonder if they just chose him because he's the closest thing they could find to Gordon Brown. Even Balázs told me that he's never heard of the name Gordon before in Hungary; the weird thing to think about is that when this guy's parents named him Gordon like 50 yrs ago, they were being hip and trendy by naming him something different, before it was even popular in Hungary to be hip and trendy! Nice work Bajnai Gordon's parents!
  I just hope Gordon does good things for the country, as Hungary is in danger of economic collapse this year. Hopefully that won't happen.
  

Police Station

We got a call on Monday that we should come into the police station, because they caught a team of burglars who have been breaking into houses in Eger, and found some electronics and jewelery in their possession. So we were told to bring any documentation of our stuff into the police station on Tuesday.
We went in on Tuesday, hopeful that maybe we would get some of our stuff back, but we didn't.
We had counted these things as gone when we got robbed, but it was kind of a let down, as we started to get our hopes up about what the police had found.

Overall though, our experience with the police in Eger has been very positive.
In Hungary, the police are the butt of most jokes - kind of like how blonde women and Poles are in the States - and they make them out to be incompetent idiots.
Our experience with the Hungarian police is that they work hard and are quite professional, and they don't deserve their bad reputation.

But, just for good measure - here's a Hungarian police joke:
Two policemen are talking; one says "hey, what's that?" The other says, "Its a thermos". "Really, what's it do?" "It keeps hot food hot and cold food cold." "Wow; what do you have inside?" "Some chicken soup and 2 scoops of ice cream."

Hétfőn telefonáltak nekünk a rendőrkapitányságból, hogy menjünk be, mert elfogták egy csapatot, akik Egerben rendszeresen betörnek lakásokba, és találtak náluk néhány ékszert és elektronikát. Azt mondták nekünk, hogy hozzuk be minden papírunk, hogy be tudjuk bizonyítani hogy ha valamelyik cucc a miénk.

Kedden bementünk, és reméltünk, hogy valamit vissza fogjuk kapni, de végül nem kaptunk vissza semmit.
Amiután megtörtént a betörés, úgy voltunk vele, hogy nem számitunk arra, hogy vissza fogjuk vissza kapni az elveszett cuccokat, de azért mégis csalodtunk egy kicsit, mert elkezdtünk gondolkozni rajta, hogy lehet hogy találtak valamit.

De azt kell, hogy mondjam, hogy csupa pozitív tapasztalatunk volt az egri rendőrökkel. Ahozz képes, hogy mennyire szivatják őket (az USÁban pedig a lengyeleket szoktunk szivatni a viccekben!), az volt a tapasztalatunk, hogy szakszerűek és szorgalmasak, és nem igazán érdemlik a rossz hírnevüket.

De azért, hadd írjam ide egy jó magyar rendőrviccet:
Két rendőr beszélget: az egyik megkérdezi, "az mi az?" A másik így felel: "Ez egy termosz" "Igen? Az mire való?" "Hát, a meleg kaját melegen tartja, a hideg kaját pedig hidegen tartja." "Tyű, de jó! És mi van benne?" "Egy húsleves és két gomboc fagyi."

Playground

Today we went with Nate to the playground at the Eger mall. It was his first time playing on a jungle jim all by himself, and he had a great time. His favorite was the slide - there were some steps he could climb up to get to the top of the slide on his own, and he must have done it about 20 times.
Here are some pictures:

Viszlát Feri Bácsi

Gyurcsány Ferenc ma lemondott a miniszterelnökségről. Alíg tudom elhinni.
Az az ember aki még Bokor Györgynél (George Bush) is népszerűtlenebb volt, végül lemondott.
Egyrész sajnálom őt, mert mindenki utálja; másrész nem sajnálom, mert sok mindenre feleős. Lehet, hogy azért mondott le most, mert látja hogy lesülyed a hajó és jobb neki ha inkább most ugrik ki!
Itt a videó:


Gyurcsány Ferenc resigned today as Prime Minister of Hungary. I can barely believe it.
The one man who was less popular than George Bush has finally resigned.
On one hand I feel sorry for the guy because everyone hates him, but on the other hand I don't feel sorry for him because he's responsible for a lot of stuff. Perhaps the reason he's resigning right now is because he sees that the ship is sinking and it will be better for him if he just bails out now!

St. Patrick

My dad is Irish, but the only really Irish things I remember growing up were eating corned beef and hash and having a big Irish wake after my grandmother's funeral. I'd have to say that the Irish deal with death better than anyone else I've ever seen - they go out and have a big party with the family and keep everything very lighthearted.

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and I wanted to write then, but just now found the time - at almost 1am...
Anyways, St. Patrick's Day is a cool holiday in my opinion, not just because of the green beer and pinching people - but because of who St. Patrick was.
Patrick was a Roman Briton born in Wales around 390 AD. He was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave when he was 16 yrs old. After living there as a slave for 6 yrs, he managed to escape back to Britain. While there he joined a monastery and became a minister, and later decided to go back to Ireland as a missionary.

Patrick was one of the earliest Christian missionaries to travel abroad to spread Christianity. There isn't a lot we know about his time as a missionary in Ireland, except that he preached the Gospel and baptized many people, including some members of the royal family.
One of the noteworthy things which Patrick did as a missionary was live in solidarity with the Irish people. Patrick wrote that he "sold his nobility" to enhance his commonality with his Irish audience. He learned their language, and lived among them, instead of separately.
In a lot of ways he left a good legacy for missionaries who came after him.

Here's to Patrick the missionary and the Irish people. Corned beef forever!

Camera

When our house got broken into last month we lost some valuable stuff. Although some things we lost were irreplaceable, we have been able to replace a few things with a little help from our friends. Thank you to those of you who blessed us in that way.

Today we replaced one of the things we lost which we really don't 'need' in order to live, but which we really liked having - our Nikon D50 camera. They don't make the D50 anymore, so we got a D60, which is the newer version of Nikon DSLR.
There are some things about it which are different from the D50, which we will have to get used to - like the body is much more compact - which is good in a lot of ways, but it feels different in your hand. Also, because of the smaller body there is no setting display on the top of the camera, but it is done on the LCD.
The nice things about it are that the LCD is bigger and the camera is much lighter than the D50. It also has a better sensor and is 10 megapixel instead of 6. There are some other significant technical improvements on it as well.

Today I took it out for a test run.

Be a Man!

As part of my theology course I've had to study a bit of the New Testament apocrypha - i.e. books which are written in the style of the New Testament books, but which are not considered canonical, or inspired by God.
Most, if not all, of these books were written long after the canonical New Testament books, and were usually written by certain pseudo-Christian groups in order to promote or validate their aberrant theology.

Here's a quote from a scholar:
People may still be heard to say: 'After all, these Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, as you call them, are just as interesting as the old ones. It is only caprice that they were not put into the New Testament'. The best answer to such loose talk has always been, and is now, to produce the writings and let them tell their own story. It will very quickly be seen that there is no question of any one's having excluded them from the New Testament: they have done that for themselves.

(M.R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament)

I think that guy's right, and I'll give you a few examples.
Probably the most popular of the NT apocrypha is the Gospel of Thomas. It was found in a 4th century library in Egypt in 1945. It contains stories and sayings of Jesus, some which are found in the NT, and some which are quite different from the teachings of the NT. Its also well known, because it was quoted in the very B movie Stigmata.
Here's an example: saying 114 says this - 'Simon Peter said to them "Let Mariam go out from among us, for women are not worthy of the life." Jesus said: "Look, I will lead her that I may make her male, in order that she too maybe become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."
I think that's wild! According to this Gospel, you are saved by grace through faith...that is, unless you are a woman! In which case, you must first become a man. Very nice...

Another example, which would be too long to write out, but here's a link for it, is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which claims to tell the story of Jesus' childhood, which is so obviously missing from the canonical accounts.
The story starts with Jesus at 5 years old playing at a brook, and he makes the waters of the brook gather together and form pools. Then, a kid comes along - the son of a scribe - and takes a stick and ruins the pools Jesus made. So what does Jesus do? HE KILLS HIM!
And then Jesus goes home. A little later Jesus is going through the village, and a child runs into him and dashes against his shoulder. So what does Jesus do? HE KILLS HIM TOO!
Then Joseph hears that Jesus has been killing the other children in town, so he grabs him by the ear and "wrung it sore." Then Jesus rebukes Joseph for doing this. Well, at least he didn't kill him.

Anyways, the above quote has a really good point. If you read these apocryphal Gospels, it becomes pretty obvious really quickly that they disqualify themselves from being included in the canon by their aberrant stories and theology.

Personally, I believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing God, who is able to preserve His Word and keep it pure throughout the generations, protecting it from all kinds of crazy stuff like this.

Today - Ma

Today:

• Was Women's Day in many countries of Europe - mostly the former communist countries.
  The poster to the right is a Soviet-era Women's Day poster from Russia.
  Happy Women's Day to all the ladies out there!
  
• I found out that Balázs knows off the top of his head the exact size of the Eger plaza (mall).
  We were talking about a mall in Debrecen, and Balázs asked, "Is that mall bigger than the Eger mall, because the one here is 19,000 square meters."
  We were impressed. He can't find Peru on a map, but he knows the exact dimensions of the mall.
• The Volvo Kupa ended today in Eger, with Hungary playing the final match against the USA.
  Despite my rooting for the US, Hungary won the match 13-4. Congrats Hungary.
  However, it wasn't enough for them to win the tournament, which was won by Serbia.
  Here are the final standings:
  1. Serbia
  2. Hungary
  3. Romania
  4. USA
  I spent a lot of time trying to think up a good excuse for why the US lost, but in the end I gave up - they lost, really bad. Oh well, life goes on.
  Maybe I should start rooting for another team. Hajrá Szerbia!

Ma:

• Nőnap volt számos európai országban – főleg a volt-kommunista országokban.
  A fenti poszter egy Szovjet nőnapi poszter.
  Boldog nőnapot kívánok a hölgyeknek!
• Kiderült, hogy Balázs fejből tudja, hogy pontosan hány négyzet méter az egri pláza.
  Beszélgettünk egy debreceni plázáról, és Balázs megkérdezi, „Az ottani pláza nagyobb mint az itteni? Mert az itteni 19 ezer négyzet méter.”
  Tyű. Le voltunk nyűgözve. Nem tudja hol van Peru egy térképen, de pontosan tudja, hogy hány négyzet méter az Agria Park.
• A Volvo Kupának ma lett vége itt Egerben, és az utolsó meccs Magyarország – USA volt.
  Az USÁért való drukkolásom ellenére, Magyarország nyert 13-4. Gratulálok, kedves magyarok.
  Viszont, ez még nem volt elég ahozz, hogy Magyarország megnyerje a tornát, amelyet Szerbia megnyerte.
  Ez volt a torna végeredménye:
  1. Szerbia
  2. Magyarország
  3. Románia
  4. USA
  Jó sokáig próbáltam kitalálni egy jó kifogást arra, hogy az USA miért nem nyerte meg, de végül feladtam. Verést szenvedtek, egész rendesen. Nem baj, ezt is túl fogom élni.
  Lehet hogy mostantól fogva egy másik országért kéne drukkolnom. Hajrá Szerbia!

Volvo Kupa

Eger is not a football (aka soccer) town, in fact, it would be fair to say that Eger's football team sucks. They are so bad that they are in a low-level group that play's against such "powerhouse" teams as Bekölce and Egercsehi. You get the idea.
However, the big sport in Eger is waterpolo, and the Eger team is very good. So good that the city built for them one of the best and biggest water polo stadiums in the country, where the Eger city team often plays against national teams from other countries, like Ukraine and Italy to name some off the top of my head.
This weekend is a big waterpolo event in Eger - the Volvo Kupa - in which the national teams of Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and the USA are having a small tournament.
Tomorrow afternoon is the finale: Hungary vs. USA. One of the reasons its such a big deal is because Hungary beat the US in the summer olympics in Beijing to win the gold medal.
I'm hoping to make it out to the match after church - too root for the US, of couse - but I'm not sure I'll be able to make it; plus, according to the news it might already be sold out.
Hajrá USA!

Eger nem igazán egy foci-rajongó város, sőt jogos azt mondani, hogy az egri foci csapat béna. Például, olyan csoportba vannak, amiben olyan "hatalmak" ellen játszanak mint Bekölce és Egercsehi. Tehát, ja.
Viszont, Egerben a vízilabda az igazi sport, és ez egri csapat nagyon jó. Annyira, hogy a városi önkormányzat építette nekik az egyik legjobb vízilabda csarnokot az országban, ahol Eger városának a csapata játszik más országok válogatott csapatai ellen, mint Ukrajna és Olaszország - csak hogy kapásból mondjam egy-két példát.
Most hétvégén, nagy sportesemény van Egerben - a Volvo Kupa - amiben a magyar, román, szerb, és USA-i válogatott csapatoknak lesz mérközés.
Holnap lesz a finálé: Magyarország - Egyesült Államok. Ez azért is érdekes, mert a magyar csapat legyőzte az amcsi csapatot a pekengi olimpiában, és így nyertek meg az aranyérmet.
Remélem, hogy gyüli után el tudok menni - az USÁért szurkolni, természetesen - bár nem valószínű hogy tudok menni, sőt azt is mondták a híradóban, hogy lehet hogy már nem lehet jegyet kapni.
Hajrá USA!

Garden of Eden?

According to this article, archaeologists have found a site in eastern Turkey which they claim to be the most important discovery in the last 50 years.
Based on its location, and carbon dating saying that the site is about 10,000 yrs old - as opposed to Stonehenge at 3000 yrs and the Giza pyramids at 2500 yrs old - some archaeologists are suggesting that this is the location of the Garden of Eden.
The idea is intriguing, considering that it would match up roughly with the dating and location described in Genesis, but for some reason I'm not totally convinced yet.
What do you think - is this the location of the Garden of Eden?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1157784/Do-mysterious-stones-mark-site-Garden-Eden.html

E-szerint a cikk szerint, régészek megtaláltak egy olyan helyet kelet Törökországban, amelyet egyesek a legfontosabb régészeti felfedezésnek tartják az utóbbi 50 évben.
A hely elhelyezkedése alapján, hozzáadva azt, hogy a szén dátumozás szerint az ott talált tágyak kb 10 ezer évesek - összehasonlítva a 3000 éves Stonehenge-dzsel és a 2500 éves gizai piramisokkal - egyes régészek azt állítják, hogy ez az Éden kertjének a területe.
Szerintem nagyon érdekes ez a feltevés, mivel hogy nagyából egyezik azzal a dátumozással és elhelyezkedéssel amit az 1.Mózes könyvében olvasuk, viszont valamiért még nem vagyok teljesen meggyőzödve róla.
Mit szóltok hozzá - ez az Éden kertje területe lehet?

Goodbye Rocky Mountain News

When I was growing up, there were two main newspapers in Denver: The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. It was always kind of like a Coke or Pepsi type of thing - some people preferred one, other preferred the other, and it was more about style and feeling than about the content, because both were good. At our house we always had the Rocky Mountain News.
But times, they are a changin'. I took this picture when I was in Denver in December:That sign's probably not going to be up much longer, because the Rocky Mountain News has printed their last edition, and a Denver icon has passed away.
In this internet age, old slow media will have to adapt or else go the way of "The News" and Rest in Peace.
Here's a video about it:

Nonconformist

I found this quote today:

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I like that. I think that being a nonconformist is also an important part of being a true follower of Jesus.
I'm sure there are some situations where following Jesus is the popular thing to do, but probably those situations are the exception, not the rule.

On Wednesday night at church we finished our study through the book of Hebrews, and read this in the last chapter:

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (Hebrews 13:13)

Sometimes being a follower of Jesus means being willing to be "different," to be nonconformist, even to bear reproach for Him.

Romans 12:2 says - "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..."

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist."

Question

As part of the theology course I'm doing, we have an online forum for students to discuss. Its a lot like a blog really, except its only for students studying that particular class.
One of the questions for us to discuss on the forum really caught my attention and made me think, so I thought I'd post it on here too, for the sake of discussion.

Here's the question:
"When, if ever, should pragmatism take precedence over obedience to fundamental principles? (The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer struggled with this dilemma when he joined the group planning to assassinate Hitler)"

What do you think?

I put my answer from the forum below in a comment, if you're interested.
I'm interested to know what you think though.

Megprobálom magyarra fordítani a kérdést:
"Mikor, ha egyáltalán, van elsőbbsége a pragmatizmusnak az alapvető alapelveknek való engedelmességnél?"

Mit szóltok hozzá?

Egri Sztárok - Celebrities of Eger

Az egyik dolog amit nagyon sokszor megkérdezik tőlünk, mint amerikaiak, az, hogy találkoztunk-e már sztárokkal.
Balázs mondta, hogy az iskolában megkérdezik tőle, hogy mi ismerjük-e 50 Cent-et. Mondtuk neki, hogy azt mondhatja nekik, hogy "Persze, hogy ne ismérnének? Jó haverok! MSN-ezni szoktak vele szinte minden nap! De, a 50 Cent most már nem akar velük szóba állni, mert Nick lehülyézte, és ő megsertődött."

Amerikában összesen 1 "sztár"ral találkoztam csak: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brooklyn-ben amikor "A Tégla" című filmet forgották.
Úgy volt, hogy láttuk, hogy filmet forgatnak egy házban. Oda mentünk, és kb 3 méterre tőlem állt egy ember, fekete napszemüveggel, és valahogy ismerős volt az arca.
Az apukám felém fordult és azt mondta, hogy - "Hé, nézd már - ott van Matt Damon." Aztán Rosemary szólt, hogy "Ne már - az nem Matt Damon, az Leonardo DiCaprio."
Leo amúgy mindezt meghallotta - és csak mosolygott és bement abba a házba, ahol forgatták a filmet.

Múlt vasárnap az egri plázában voltam - kulcsot másoltam - és a kulcsmásoló csávó azt mondja nekem, "Hé, nézd már - ott van Gazdag Tibor!" Fogalmam sem volt, ki ez a Gazdag Tibor, de most már tudom, hogy ő a "Jóban, Rosszban" egyik főszereplője.
Életemben egyszer sem néztem azt a sorozatot, de azért örülök, hogy legalább még egy sztárt láttam.


One of the things that Hungarians often ask of us as Americans is whether or not we've ever met any celebrities.
Balázs told us that at his school, the other kids ask him if we know 50 Cent. We told him that he can tell them, "Oh, of course they know him, they are good friends! They chat all the time with him on MSN messenger! But now 50 Cent doesn't want to talk to us, because Nick called him names, and his feelings got hurt."

In America I have met only 1 celebrity: Leonardo DiCaprio, in Brooklyn, during the filming of "The Departed."
What happened was, that we saw that they were filming a movie in a house, so we went over there, and this guy with dark sunglasses was standing about 10 feet from me, and his face seemed familiar.
So then my dad turns to me and says, "Hey, look, that's Matt Damon!" Then Rosemary said, "No way, that's not Matt Damon, that's Leonardo DiCaprio!"
Leo heard all this by the way, and just smiled and walked back into the house where they were filming.

Last Sunday I was in the mall in Eger, getting a key copied, and the guy copying my key says, "Hey, look, there's Gazdag Tibor!" I had no idea who this Gazdag Tibor guy was, but now I know that he is one of the main actors on the Hungarian TV series "Jóban, Rosszban." I've never seen this show in my life, but I'm glad that at least I got to see another celebrity.

Back to School

As of Monday - after a 7.5 year hiatus, I am once again a student.
My distance learning classes through the Open Theological College of the University of Gloucestershire started Monday.
I'm excited to get to study theology this way, and hopefully get a degree out of it.
Reminds me of a song I once heard:

The Picture

This past weekend in Mátrafüred we had our church's 3rd winter retreat. All 3 years we've done it on the same weekend, in the same place, and even in the same panzió (small hotel).
This year, we were sure that we wouldn't fit into the panzió, but we had some people cancel and the panzió was also expanded with 4 more rooms, so it worked out perfectly.
This panzió is nice enough, and they give us a good deal on it, but it is also a bit quirky.
For sure the place was built during communism; even the map at the end of the hall still says "Magyar Népköztársaság" (Hungarian People's Republic).
The room Rosemary and I stayed in the past two years had a leopard bed - with ears on it, mind you! - and a radio built into the headboard (which didn't work).
This stuff isn't bad, it just adds to the campy ambiance of the place.
However, this year when we arrived, we found that some changes had been made. Some were good - the leopard bed was gone, and some old wooden chairs had been replaced with nice couches.
Some changes were not so good though - there was a new picture that dominated the common room:
We showed up to have our nice Christian weekend retreat of studying the Bible and worshiping God, and this was the image we got to look at every time we gathered together in the Lord's name!
We wanted to take it down or to cover it up, but it didn't happen.
I would be curious to know the history of this picture. I wonder if this was a gift, or if perhaps it was ordered, and if so, how did that conversation go?
I kind of imagine it somewhat like this: "Hmm...I'd like a picture that would be perfect for the dining area of my panzió - you know, something for the families to look at while they eat their meals together; something that encourages conversation. Oh, I've got it - make me a picture of a centaur holding a nearly naked woman. On Mars. And make sure the centaur man is stepping in a puddle, so it looks true to life. And I want the centaur to look awesome and buff, and the woman to have giant muscles, like the kind those female body-builders have. Oh, and they should both have hair cuts that have been out of style since the 1980's. And, just to top it off, please put a flying "spirit horse" up in the corner to fill the empty space. That should do nicely. Thank you.
This was probably our last year in this place. There are a lot of things I will miss about it. This picture is not one of them.

Happy Birthday Rosemary!

This one goes out to Rosemary - my beautiful wife, my friend, my supporter, my other half, my teammate.
You're a wonderful wife, a great mother, and a huge blessing in my life.
I love you RM!

Bad Day

Today was rough.
Yesterday Nathaniel climbed out of his crib and hit his head. Today we took him to the doctor and had to take him for an x-ray. Praise the Lord, he's alright, just has a hematoma. But please pray for him nonetheless!
The high point of the night was going out with some friends for dinner, but the low point was when we got home and realized someone had broken in and dug through our house looking for valuables.
All in all, we "only" lost our laptop, our Nikon DSLR camera, and jewelry which Rosemary's mom gave her, including her mom's wedding ring, all of which had a lot of sentimental value. The police came out, did their thing and just left not long ago.
Praise the Lord that nothing happened to the 4 of us. Please pray that God would protect us and watch over our family and our house. Balázs is especially shaken up and doesn't feel safe, so please pray for him as well.
Thanks!

Ma egy kicsit kemény nap volt.
Tegnap Nándi kimászott a kiságyából és megütötte a fejét. Ma elvittük az orvoshoz és be kellett menni a korházba röntgenre. Hála az Úrnak, úgy néz ki, rendben van, és csak egy vérömlenye van. De, azért kérlek, hogy imádkozzatok érte!
A nap fénypontja az volt, hogy elmentünk vacsorázni barátokkal, de amikor haza értünk, láttuk, hogy amig nem voltunk otthon, valaki betört a lakásba és feltúrta a házat, ahogy kereste az értékeket.
Mindössze, "csak" a laptopot, a Nikon fényképezőgépet és ékszereket vesztettük el - amúgy az ékszereknek szentimentális értekük volt - mivel Rosemary megkapta őket az anyukájától, pl az anyukája házassági gyűrűjét lopták el. A rendőrök eljöttek, csinálták a dolgukat, és nem rég elmentek.
Hála az Úrnak, hogy mi négyen rendben vagyunk, és nem lett semmi bajunk. Kérlek, imádkozzatok azért, hogy Isten megőrizzen minket és óvja meg a családunkat és házunkat. Balázst különösen zavarja ez az egész, és nem érzi magát biztonságban, úgyhogy kérlek, hogy imádkozzatok érte is.
Köszi!

Church Retreat

This past weekend we had our 3rd annual church retreat in Mátrafüred - about an hour from Eger.
For me, these retreats are one of my favorite things that we do with the church. They are always times when we grow closer to the Lord and closer to each other, as we spend the weekend in fellowship together, hanging out, cooking, playing sports, going hiking, and studying God's Word together.
Horvát-Kávai Árpi, Andi, and Nina came up from Vajta, and Árpi taught the Bible studies, which were a blessing to everyone.
We're already looking forward to next year's retreat - or maybe we will have to do one sooner. We'll see...
Here are some pictures:

Potatoes

One of Nate's favorite things is potatoes.
They are the perfect size for his little hands, so any time he finds any, he loves to take one in each hand and run around the house.

I don't know if he's saving them for later, or playing a game with us, but he also likes to hide potatoes in different places in the house: under the couch, behind the bed, in drawers, etc...
One time we found two potatoes in the back seat of our car - which means that Nate smuggled them in there, without us knowing, under his coat.

Yesterday, Rosemary prepared a bucket of water to mop the house, and when she tried to put the mop in it she found that someone had put a bunch of potatoes into the bucket when she wasn't looking.

A little while later I was in the other room and heard Nathaniel coming down the hall sounding upset.
I looked at him, and he was holding this partially-eaten potato, with raw potato bits coming out of his mouth - as he tried to spit out the thing which he loves so much, but yet which he had just found out tastes really bad!

If you ever want to get on Nate's good side - you won't do it with candy or chocolate - since he hasn't ever eaten either. For him, its potatoes all the way.

The Wild East - A Vad Kelet

Hungary is generally a pretty safe place to live. There is crime here, but mostly non-violent crime, like tax-evasion. One Hungarian friend of mine put it this way: In the west, tax evasion is a serious crime. Here it is a hobby!

If you read the newspaper headlines, it is clear how quiet life is here in the "vidék" (every part of Hungary outside of Budapest). I used to read the Eger newspaper almost every day, and the headlines always made me crack up - stuff like: "Really hairy baby born in Eger hospital" and "Chinese store robbed in village."
These headlines made it obvious that there just wasn't much going on in Eger or the rest of Heves county.

But every now and then Hungary does feel a bit like the Wild West East - last week was one of these times.

• Last Thursday an Eger post office got robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight.
• At the same time, another post office in Haláp - near Debrecen - got robbed.
• That same day a bank in Kecskemét was also robbed; this being the 3rd armed robbery in a Kecskemét in recent days.
• Saturday night Marian Cozma, a Romanian handball star who played in the Hungarian handball league, was stabbed to death outside of a bar in Veszprém. 2 of his teammates were also hospitalized with injuries.

We've had a few things happen to us in our time here - but nothing major. Probably in many places this kind of stuff would be commonplace and not such big news. From that perspective, this isn't a such a bad place to live!

Magyarország általában egy elég biztonságos hely, szerintem. Van bűnözés, de az általában nem erőszakos bűnözés - pl. adócsalás. Egy magyar barátom így magyarázta ezt nekem: Nyugaton, az adócsalás egy komoly bűncselekmény. Itt viszont hobby!

Hogy ha az ember megnézi a hírlapok főcimeit, akkor világos, hogy mennyire csendes és nyugodt a vidéki élet. Régebben majdnem minden nap olvastam a Heves Megyei Hírlapot, és mindig nagyon viccesnek találtam a főcimeket: "Nagyon szőrös kisbaba született az egri korházban" "Egy falusi kínai boltot kirabolták."
Ezektől a főcimektől, egyértelmű, hogy nem túl sok minden történik Egerben vagy Heves megyében.

Viszont, időnként egy kicsit olyan mint ha a Vad Nyugaton Keleten lennénk. A múlt hét ilyen volt.

• Csütörtökön, az egri Almagyar utcai postát fegyvérrel rabolták ki fényesnappal.
  
• Majdnem pont egy időben, egy másik postát rabolták ki Halápon - Debrecen közelében.
• Az nap, Kecskeméten, fegyvérrel rabolták ki egy takarék szövetkezetet. Ez volt a harmadik ilyen rablás Kecskeméten, rövid idő leforgása alatt.
• Szombaton, Veszprémben, egy szorakozóhely előtt, szíven szúrták Marian Cozmát, a román válogatott kézilabdás, aki a magyar ligában játszott. 2 csapattársa is korházba került sérülések miatt.

Velünk is előfordult egy két dolog az itt tartozkodásunk alatt - de semmi komoly. Igazából, sok helyen, minden napos az ilyen dolog, és nem olyan nagy hír. Ilyen szempontból nem is olyan rossz itt lakni!

One Flesh

Rosemary and I share an email address. In fact, almost all of our online presence is combined - for, 'for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (Matthew 19:5-6)
By combining our online accounts, we are one flesh on and off-line :)

Hence, this blog post about Christians couples who share an email address hit close to home.

http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/2009/01/468-sharing-email-address-with-your.html

My favorite line: We leaved and cleaved our separate email addresses and lit a unity candle on yahoo that burns brightly throughout the virtual landscape.

The Failed Presidency of Barack Obama

This is super funny. Check it out:

Kiírás

Találtam ezt a kiírást egy Rozsnyói (Rožňava, SK) falon:

Elég régiesen van írva a szövege. Törtem a fejemet azzal, hogy kifejtsem mit mond, és ennyit sikerült megértemen belőle:
Istennek dicsőségére felépítette ezen rosnai (szerintem rozsnyói-t jelent) ispitalt (gondolom ez korházat jelent) Krasznahorkának eörökös ura, idősbik (idősebbik) Andrássy György.
Lett régi hiv szolgálja tisztanólja (fogalmom sincs mit jelent - talán azt, hogy a régi hiv szolgálja tiszetelére lett építve?)
Rózmáni Industriálja által (gondolom, ez egy akkori cégnek a neve).

Mivel nem vagyok egy vérbeli madjar, lehet hogy ti tudtok jobban megérteni ezt a kiírást.
Mit szóltok hozzá?

Shopping Abroad (cont...)

A few months ago I wrote a post about shopping abroad, about how we love to go to grocery stores in other countries, and what things we like to buy in different places.

After our last trip to North America, in which we visited all 3 N.American countries (I don't know if Greenland counts as N.America or not...), I thought I should update the list.

Canada

• Buckley's - Cough medicine made from pine needles, among other things. This is probably one of the worst things I've ever tasted. Its kind of like getting slapped in the face or punched in the stomach, but it certainly works to help with congestion or a cough.
  
• Coffee Crisp - Candy bar. I haven't figured out quite yet if they have coffee in them, or if you are supposed to eat them with coffee, but either way, they are great.
  
• Kicking Horse Coffee - One of our favorite coffees. Rosemary says that she likes it better than Illy. We'll just have to find a way to get more of it once we run out :)
  

Mexico

• Food from street vendors, especially tacos (3 for $1!), frozen coconut dessert sticks, and corn on the cob.
• Tajín - chili seasoning for fruit. One of the best things in the world. We actually went to the village of El Tajín on our honeymoon!
• Vanilla extract. I'm not really sure why Rosemary always buys it there, but I'm sure there is a reason.

England

• Yorkshire tea.
  
• Rubina black current drink.

What about you? What products do you make sure to buy when you travel to different places?

The Dance

I've always noticed that a lot of the time people who are the most self-absorbed and concerned about their own well being and happiness are ironically the most unhappy and isolated.

In The Reason for God, Tim Keller explains why this is from a Biblical perspective:
[Because of man's fall into sin] we became stationary, self-centered. And according to Genesis 3, when our relationship with God unraveled, all our other relationships disintegrated as well.
Self-centeredness creates psychological alienation. Nothing makes us more miserable than the self-absorption, the endless, unsmiling concentration on our needs, wants, treatment, ego, and record.
In addition, self-centeredness leads to social disintegration. It is at the root of the breakdown in relationships between nations, races and classes, and individuals.

We lost the dance. The dance of joyful, mutually self-giving relationships is impossible in a world where everyone is stationary, trying to get everything else to orbit around them.

However, God does not leave us there. The Son of God was born into the world to begin a new humanity, a new community of people who could lose their self-centeredness, begin a God-centered life, and, as a result, slowly but surely have all other relationships put right was well.

If you respond to [Jesus], all your relationships will begin to heal.

There are a few key phrases that I always like to repeat to the church; catchy sayings to help them remember key Biblical truths.
One of them is: Jesus makes you normal.

I really believe that sin makes people weird - because of sin things aren't right in the world; a lot of things are backwards and messed up.
But when a person comes to Jesus, he begins to makes them normal. The begin to think and act normally - the way God intended.

One of my favorite examples of this is in Mark 5, where there is this crazy guy who hangs out around the cemetery, running around naked, screaming scaring people, and cutting himself with rocks. He was a punk rocker, apparently.
And then the guy meets Jesus, and Jesus ministers to him - and then the next thing you read about him is that the people were amazed when they saw this man "sitting down, clothed, and in his right mind." (Vs 15)
The guy was weird. Jesus made him normal.

In our church, we've been able to see this too - as people get closer to Jesus, the more normal they become.
Of course there are some Christians out there who are pretty strange, and some even use Christianity as an excuse to be strange - but that is certainly in spite of Jesus and not because of Jesus.

As Keller is pointing out, one of the greatest ways God changes us when we come to Him is by getting our eyes off of ourselves and inviting us to be part of "the dance", a God-centered and others-centered life, in which we find true joy by getting out of our static, self-centered existence, and thus become more like the Triune God, who is in 3 persons who exemplify love by not focusing on themselves, but by glorifying one another.

I want to be part of that dance!