College Outreach

(Mirrored from our ministry blog)

The Eszterházy Károly College in Eger is not a major university, but it is certainly up and coming, growing and getting more popular each year. The school now has around 10,000 students, and the campus is spread out throughout the city.

When we first started the church in Eger, we had quite a few college students attending, but as they graduated, many moved away. We have wanted for some time to do outreach to the college students here, and this year God opened a door for us to do that.
A guy in our church named Sanyi goes to college in Budapest, and is involved with Campus Crusade there. Campus Crusade in Hungary is an organization that I really love, and they have been very effective in leading students to faith in Jesus. One of their main outreaches every year is to go into dormitories and hand out "Survival Packs" (Túlélő Csomagok), which are binders with stuff in them for the students, such as calendars, schedules, note paper, and articles about Christianity, as well as a Gospel tract.

Part of passing out these binders, is that there is a questionnaire in them about issues of interest to youth, including relationships and of course faith. On the basis of the answers to the questionnaires, we can easily see who it is who is interested in knowing more about the Gospel, and we can later contact them and invite them to meet with us personally. This has proven very effective in the past for Campus Crusade, and I know many people personally in Hungary who came to know the Lord through this.

Since Campus Crusade is not active in Eger, they allowed our church to distribute the Survival Packs here. We included our church flier/tract, and went into the dormitories this past week to hand them out.
Out of the 400 binders we got from Campus Crusade, we have already passed out 320. We will still go into some more dormitories here in Eger, but we were able to do the biggest part on Monday and Tuesday. It was a lot of work, but a good number of people from the church came to help out, and we were able to take 3 teams through the dormitories on both days, and get the Survival Packs into each room. We were also able to have some good conversations and share with the students about Jesus and about our church as they filled out the questionnaire.

The next step is to contact those who are interested in knowing more about a personal relationship with God. Please pray for us, that God would lead us in this, give us wisdom, and that many would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior through this.
Here are some pictures of us in the dormitories:

Baptism!

(originally posted on our ministry blog)

On Sunday we had a baptism at a lake near Eger, in Ostoros.
For the past 3 years, we have had 2 baptism services every year: one in Vajta in July, at the summer conference with the other Hungarian Calvary Chapels, and one at the end of summer in Ostoros at the lake.
God blessed us with beautiful weather (much better than last year!), and we were able to have the whole church service outside, followed by a barbecue and fellowship.
3 young men were baptized: Sanyi, Marci and Peti. Before their baptism they each gave a testimony of what God has done in their lives and why they want to be baptized, and then we prayed for them and baptized them in the lake.
Praise the Lord for these young men, their faith and their commitment to following Jesus. May God strengthen them and use them in a great way!
Here are some pictures:

Really Important

I don't do it very often, but the other day I read a blog that made some blatantly wrong claims about the Bible's teachings about the place of the local church in Christianity, so I wrote back a detailed response, with lots of Bible verses and explanations - even going into the meaning of certain words in Greek...
Then the next day, I checked the blog again, only to find that I had not convinced the person I addressed the comment to that they were wrong and I was right. I realized that spending so much time on that comment was kind of a waste of time. I don't it was totally in vain, but it probably wasn't the most fruitful half hour of my life.
Last Sunday I taught from 1 Corinthians 15 about the hope of heaven, and the last verse of the chapter says this:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

There are a lot of vain things that I/we spend our time on, and one of the things I'm learning to do lately is to cut out a lot of the vanity from my schedule. It robs my time with my wife and kids, with the church, and with the Lord.

I start school again today, which means that more than ever I will need to cut the vain things out of my schedule to be able to balance my different responsibilities.
There is one thing that is never in vain, as this verse tells us: serving the Lord. That's never a waste of time. I want to abound in that, and cut out more and more of the useless vain activity from my life.

New Trabant Unveiled

A while back I wrote a post about how a new Trabant - the Neue Trabant or nT - has been in the works.
On Wednesday the New Trabant was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Here's the video:

The new Trabant has very little in common with its blue-smoke belching, 2-stroke engined, paper mache bodied predecessor, other than its name and body shape. The designers of the Neue Trabant claim it is all about being economical and ecological. It is an electric car, and has solar panels on the roof, which power the air conditioning.

The nT is still only a concept car, so we probably won't be seeing any on the road anytime soon, but even if the Neue Trabant goes into mass production, I think it will never have the same cult following as the original Trabant, because it's just too nice. People love things which are awesomely bad, and this car just seems too good!

Kevin Skinner's Got Money

We really enjoyed this season of America's Got Talent. It's a nice show that the whole family can watch together - Balázs can follow what's going on, and Nate likes it too, especially the acts with animals in them!
We are happy that Kevin Skinner won; we've liked him since his audition, and wish him all the best. To go from being an unemployed farmer to having a headline show in Vegas and $1 mill...that's a pretty drastic change.
There were a lot of good acts in the top 10; our favorite was Hairo Torres, a contortionist/break dancer. Hopefully being on AGT will help launch his career. Here's a video of (in our opinion) his best performance on the show:

Faith = Commodity?

This semester in my theology course, I have a class about Christianity and contemporary philosophy. The class hasn't started yet, but I got my text books already and have been reading ahead.
As I've been reading this book, one quote really caught my attention:

Talking about faith in a pluralistic, postmodern society, Peter Berger says this:

'the religious tradition, which previously could be authoritatively imposed, now has to be marketed. It must be "sold" to a clientele that is no longer constrained to "buy." The pluralistic situation is above all, a market situation. In it, the religious institutions become marketing agencies and the religious traditions become consumer commodities.'

When I first read this, I initially found the idea of referring to faith and the Gospel as a consumer commodity as offensive and wrong, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that not only is this the current situation in the world we live in, but it is not exactly a bad thing either.
The fact is, America is not a "Christian nation," and Europe has been "post-Christian" for some time. Those who still adamantly claim the opposite are like those who make themselves hoarse trying to convince others that Earth is flat.

But again - I don't think this is really a bad thing. The problem with "assumed" religion - meaning that you believe something, because you were born into it is not Biblical, and it can lead to a false sense of security that one believes the truth, is right with God and is going to heaven.
I think it is a good thing for a person to question and to seek truth, rather than say, "Well, my parents were Christians/Muslims/Buddhists/etc... so I believe it too."
The Bible would teach that every person needs to seek for themselves, and chose for themselves which path they will choose.

And that brings us to the consumer-commodity analogy for faith. If every person must choose for themselves what to believe, then the different religious organizations are trying to convince people that they should believe what they are offering. And to do this, we use different kinds of "marketing" tactics; we just don't refer to them in those terms.
In Eger, if you walk down the streets, you can meet with Christians from our church, Hare Krishnas, and Mormons - all trying to convince you to believe what they are teaching. And the person on the street has no obligation to receive any of it, if they choose not to. So we try to convince them that they need what we have - and we use 'marketing tactics' to do this: tracts, posters, lectures, preaching, etc...

But again - I don't think there's anything wrong with that - NOR do I think it is a modern phenomenon which is a result of market economies or postmodernism.
If you look in the Bible, at Paul the Apostle - he was doing the same thing: he lived in pluralistic society, where different cultures and religions lived side by side, and he worked hard to convince those people to follow Jesus by telling them why they needed what he was "selling".

Paul wrote: We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2.Cor 5:17) He was giving a "sales pitch" to convince people who had no obligation to "buy" what he was "selling" that they needed what he had.
So, in my opinion, getting back to the point as a society where faith is not assumed is a good thing. It requires people to seek the truth for themselves, rather than just accept the beliefs of their ancestors - which is a much more Biblical thing.

In Deuteronomy, when Moses speaks to the new generation - the generation who were born in the wilderness, the generation who were the children of the people who entered into the covenant with God at Mt. Sinai - Moses refers to God as "Your God" over and over. He does this because he wants them to understand that while Yahweh is the God of their fathers - he must be their God personally. They must make the choice to walk with Him for themselves. And in Deuteronomy 30, Moses places a decision before this new generation - that they must choose for themselves whether or not to follow the Lord. It is not enough that their fathers chose to follow him - they must also make that decision for themselves.

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live...
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days
Deuteronomy 30:15-20

This is essentially Moses' "sales pitch," in which he tries to convince the new generation to follow the Lord by telling them why it will be good for them.

I don't consider faith a commodity, but I think that we should use tactics and strategies to get our message to people and help them understand why they desperately need what God is offering them: Salvation, forgiveness, restoration and eternal life - through faith in Jesus.

Hoppá! - Oops!

Úgy tűnik, többen nézik ezt a blogot, mint gondoltam.
Amikor az unokatestvérem, Tess, itt volt júliusban, ő csinált egy fényképet Habis Lászlóról, Eger polgármesteréről, ahogy a pogármester úr megtartotta Tess plüss majmát. Erről írtam és feltöltöttem a képeket itt, ebben a bejegyzésben.
Nos, tegnap telefonált az egyik barátom, és azt mondta - Képzeld el! Emlékszel arra a képre amit az unokatesód készített a polgármesterről? Ma kaptam egy szórólapot ami arról szól, hogy a polgármester mennyire rossz - és az a kép van rajta!
Íme, a szórólap:
Erről fontos mondonom egy-két dolgot:

• Nem én írtam ezt a szórólapot
• Nem én adtam oda ezt a képet, hanem valaki csak letöltötte.
• Nincsen semmi bajom a polgármesterrel.
• A Biblia szerint, keresztényként, az a dolgom, hogy imádkozzak azokért akik hatalmi poziciókban vannak. (Romaiakhoz írt levél 13)
• Én csak ilyen szórólapokat szeretek osztani.

Csak remélem, hogy nem jönnek értem éjszaka fekete autóval... :)

It seems that more people are reading this blog than I thought.
When my cousin Tess was here in July, she took a picture of the mayor of Eger holding her stuffed monkey. I wrote about it, and uploaded the pictures here, in this post.
Well, yesterday a friend of mine called me up and said, Guess what - remember that picture your cousin took of the mayor holding the stuffed monkey? Today I got a flier about how bad the mayor is, and that picture is on it!
A few things I should say about this:

• I didn't make this flier
• I didn't give this picture to anyone - someone just downloaded it.
• I have no problem with the mayor.
• According to the Bible, as a Christian, my job is to pray for those who are in positions of authority (Romans 13)
• I only like to make fliers like this.

I just hope they don't come for me with a black car in the middle of the night... :)

Sopron Picnic

20 years ago the "Pan-European Picnic" was held on the Austrian-Hungarian border at Sopron to protest the Iron Curtain. During the picnic 600 East Germans used the opportunity to push through to the West, and significantly, were not shot at by Hungarian border guards. It was one of the main events which led to the fall of the Berlin wall.
Here's a video from CNN about it:

Aarrrgghh!

Just another day in Croatia...

Wedding Anniversaries 0-5

Yesterday we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Praise God for bringing us together and keeping us together. We look forward to many more years together here on Earth - and then many many more after that together with the Lord!

September 4, 2004 - San Diego, CA.

September 4, 2005 - New York City
Two friends of ours got married, and we got to spend our first anniversary in Manhattan. It was a good weekend.

September 4, 2006 - Aspen, Colorado
We had a great time together in the Rockies. Aspen is great.

September 4, 2007 - Eger, Hungary
Nate dogg was 3 days old, so we celebrated our anniversary in the visiting room of the maternity ward.

September 4, 2008 - Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
This picture is actually from somewhere else in Bulgaria, but we like it :)

September 4, 2009 - Budapest, Hungary
A friend of ours watched Nate so we could go out. It was really nice.

5 Years Ago Today

It seems like just yesterday, but hey, time flies when you're having fun, right?
Here's to my beautiful bride. May our life together continue to be built upon the Rock.

Prodigy

Beethoven gave his first concert at 9 years old.

Doogie Howser graduated from Princeton at 10 years old.

At only 2 years old, Nate seems to also have a flair of genius in him.
He loves cameras, so on Tuesday we let him hold the camera in the back seat on our way home from the zoo.

Here are the impressive artistic images he captured:

Slovak Language Act

There is more and more tension between Hungary and Slovakia these days.
In addition to what happened last week - yesterday Slovakia passed a new language act, which "fines anyone misusing the Slovak language and limits the use of the Hungarian language in public." (Source)
Slovakia is being criticized for this law by many, even within the European Union, whereas the Slovak government claims that the law is being misrepresented and misunderstood. Here's the critics' view and the Slovak response.
I'm like Rodney King - I wish we could all just get along :)
Maranatha!

Egyre több feszültség van Magyarország és Szlovákia között manapság.
Azon felül, hogy mi történt a múlt héten, tegnap vezették be az új nyelvtörvényt, ami "bírságot követel azoktól akik helytelenül használják a szlovák nyelvet, és korlátozza a magyar nyelv nyilvánosságban való használatát." (Forrás)
Sokan kritizálják a szlovák kormányt e-miatt, meg az EU-n belül is, miközben a szlovák kormány azt állítja, hogy ezt a törvényt félreértik és média hamisan írja le.
Itt a kritika nézete és a szlovák válasz
Én olyan vagyok mint Rodney King - azt kivánom, hogy mindenki kijöjjön a másikkal :)
Maranatha! (Jöjj el, Uram!)

Birthday Images

September 1, 2007 Eger Hospital


September 1, 2008 - Nessebar, Bulgaria


September 1, 2009 - Nyíregyháza Zoo



Nate had a great time at the zoo today. He loves animals so much, and knows their names - most in both languages - and what sounds they make, but most of his favorites he had never seen in person. He recognized all of his favorite animals when he saw them, but there were a few surprises:

• He really likes elephants, so we were excited to show him a live one. When he saw it, he knew exactly what it was and raised his arm up like an elephant trunk...and then about 2 seconds later he saw some chickens and decided to run after them instead, and didn't care about the elephant any more :)
  
• There were certain animals which he had never seen before, which had him a little confused: He couldn't tell if the buffaloes were bears or cows, and if he should moo or growl at them. He saw some hairy monkeys, and first barked at them, then meowed at them, and then said "oo, oo" (the monkey noise). He had no idea what noise to make at the camel :), and he thought the raccoons were cats.
  
• Another one we were really looking forward to were the bears. Nate has a bear he takes to bed every night, and always growls at it. When we got to the bears it was feeding time, so the bears were less than a meter from us. Rosemary and I found this very interesting, but in the mean time Nate heard a cow down the way, and from that point on could have cared less about the bears!
  
• After seeing lots of monkeys, Nate surprised us by walking on all fours, like a monkey.

When we first arrived he couldn't stop saying "Wow!" to everything. I think his favorite was the polar bear, who even dove in the water right in front of us. He also got to hear a lion roar and pet a giraffe!
All in all, it was the best birthday of Nate's life :)

Happy Birthday Nate!

Today we celebrate Nate's 2nd birthday. Nathaniel Nicholas was born here in Eger, and we chose his name after we saw him because he had a gentle cry and was so sweet. Nathaniel is literally our "gift of God" and we have so much joy because of him.

A few things I love about Nate:
1. He is a rock n roller, banging his head to good music.
2. He doesn't stop moving around for a minute, unless you turn on a Diego video, then he can sit and watch those without moving for an hour.
3. He is very healthy and poops 3-4 times a day.
4. Sometimes he just sits down and reads his baby Bible.
5. His favorite word is apparently "mama" which he says all day long, and doesn't just say it, but SINGS it.
6. He talks to animals in their languages. I.E. When he sees a dog, he barks at it, for a horse he neighs at it and meows at all the cats we see.
7. Nate concentrates very hard to build something or use his tools. No one should disturb him.
8. He eats anything and says "yay" when it is time to eat.
9. He's very polite and yells "bye" when we leave the store.
10. We can easily know what Nate wants because he takes us by the hand or finger and leads us to what he wants, then grunts.

Happy Birthday! We love you Nate!

~Rosemary

Vissza

Vége van a nyárnak, és Balázs ma ment vissza az iskolába. Egész pontosan, ma kezdte a középiskolát. Hajrá Balázs!
Most már ő is azt mondhatja amit a mi hitbeli apánk, Ábrahám, is mondott olyan sokszor: HátIzsák, hol van?
Hátizsákokról beszélve, nyomjuk egy kis Demjén Ferit:

Tito and other Yugoslav graffiti

I wrote this post after our last trip to former-Yugoslavia, about Tito, and how in every former-Yugoslav country it seems there are many people who love Tito, and miss the Tito era, when the Yugoslav nations lived in peace and relative prosperity.
I found this poster in Zagreb:

 

It seems that in Croatia even punks love Tito!

I really like looking at graffiti wherever I'm at in Europe; I think its interesting to read what people think is worth writing on walls for everyone to see. Sometimes the ones written in English are really funny, especially when they are misspelled, or phrased wrong. One of my favorites in the main square in Debrecen said: Let us go to steal.In Croatia there was a lot of interesting graffiti - I especially liked this one I found in Zadar:

 

I'm not really sure what they mean by saying that Zagreb=Belgrade, but I'm guessing its negative, and this person from Dalmatia doesn't like either of these cities very much.
Anyone have more insight into this?

Croatia pt. 1 - Zagreb and Plitvice

We have less money this year than in years past. Because of the financial crisis we have less money coming in, plus Nate is getting bigger and eats more, and we now have Balázs as part of our family and he needs food, clothing, bus passes, memory cards, etc...
Because of these things, we thought we wouldn't be able to afford a family vacation this summer. We were planning to go to Slovakia for just 2 nights, but had a hard time finding accommodation on short notice.
I happened to write on Facebook that I was frustrated about not being able to find a place to stay in SK, and someone left me a comment, saying: Why don't you just get some tents and go camping? My first response was that I wanted to write him back and say, That's easy for you to say - but I have a baby and a pregnant wife! Then I started thinking about it, and realized that we could actually save a lot of money by camping, and maybe we could even go to the seaside, as Rosemary had asked me earlier in the year to take her to the coast.
So, I mentioned the idea to Rosemary, and figured out that if we bought a bigger tent, then we could fit Nathaniel's bed and Rosemary and I into it, and Balázs could sleep in our other tent with our friend Dani from church, who happened to be off from work that week.
So, on Monday, at 1am we left Eger for Zagreb, spent some time there, and then drove down to Plitvice Lakes National Park, about 2 hrs south.

We got to Zagreb at about 6am, and had breakfast there, and let Nate run around a bit. He slept most of the way in the car, although he was pretty excited and knew something was going on, that we would get him out of bed in the middle of the night to go somewhere.
Rosemary and I had been to Zagreb before, so we knew our way around, which made being there really enjoyable. Its a much smaller city than Budapest, but very nice, clean, and has a lot of parks.

We then drove down to Plitvice Lakes, where we camped the first night.

 

Croatian food is great, and we ate a lot of Ćevapčići and Ražnjići, but we were on a budget, so we also heated up canned food we brought from Hungary over a fire. Nate liked being in the tent - and it was funny waking up every morning with him standing and watching us, waiting for us to wake up.

Here are pictures from Zagreb:
And here are some from Plitvice:

Denied

Last week, on August 20, the President of Hungary, Sólyom László was refused entry into Slovakia.
The president was going on a private visit to a town in southern Slovakia with a majority ethnic Hungarian population to unveil a statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary.
The reason the Slovak government gave for refusing entry to the Hungarian president was the day he chose to come on. The Slovak government told Sólyom László that he could come on any other day, just not August 20th. When he came anyway, he was turned away at the bridge where he tried to cross into Slovakia.
This is the complication - because whereas for Hungarians August 20th is Saint Stephen's day - one of their most important holidays, when they remember the founding of the Hungarian kingdom, which used to include the territory of modern Slovakia and Transylvania - in Slovakia August 20th is the anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, in which the Hungarian army also invaded Czechoslovakia to shut down the "Prague Spring" - an attempt by Czechoslovakia to move away from communism and Soviet domination.
The problem is that Hungary and Slovakia are both EU members, and Slovakia's denial of entry to the Hungarian president is contrary to EU law which permits freedom of movement between countries.
This isn't even the first time this kind of thing has happened to Sólyom László. On March 15, he went to Romania, to celebrate Hungary's national day with Transylvanian Hungarians, and while his plane was in the air, he was refused landing permission, and ended up having to come into Transylvania by car. Pretty embarrassing for a president...
Both Romania and Slovakia are sensitive to Hungarian territorial claims to their land, and view moves like these by the president as challenging their territorial sovereignty.
I can personally understand why Slovakia and Romania are concerned about Hungarian claims to their land. I can also understand the Hungarians, who don't want to lose touch with fellow Hungarians who were separated from Hungary not by their own choice.

What do you think? Was Slovakia justified in doing this? Is the president of Hungary challenging the sovereignty of these nations by his visits there?

BBC on Ukraine

Interesting video from the BBC about Ukraine, and the foreign leasing of land and farming in Western Ukraine:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8218081.stm

More Money

Probably everyone who doesn't live in a cave in North Korea is sick of hearing about the global financial crisis, and even those who do live in caves in North Korea have been effected by it.
We have certainly felt it here; we have less income from both work and support than we did last year, and more costs. People in our church have been effected by it as well.
But there are some signs this week that this crisis could come to an end sooner than later.

This week Germany and France announced that they have come out of recession.
That's good news for Hungary too, since many of the major employers here are multinational companies from Western Europe. Recession there means less orders in the factories here, less production, and people laid of. Hopefully the end of the recession in Germany and France will mean more work and job opportunities here, so people don't have to leave places like Eger to find work by going abroad or getting sucked into Hungary's 'black hole': Budapest.

Colorado is actually considering lowering the state minimum wage, because prices have gone down as a result of the financial crisis, but some good news is that the housing market is starting to recover. Forbes magazine rated Denver as the 7th best for housing recovery in the US.

This financial crisis is no fun. Hopefully it will be over soon...

Surprised

I don't like country music. But I was blown away by this performance by Kevin Skinner on America's Got Talent. He comes across like a total hillbilly bumpkin, but he's seriously good.
Check it out:

Superheroes VS Lenin

Lenin. Moscow. Superheroes. The USA.
All these are on the list of my favorite things. Exactly why this glorious video by the Hungarian electronica band Neo is worth watching over and over.
Check it out:

Animals

Nate loves watching videos. Especially animal videos.
Most of his first words were animal names and animal noises and he gets excited whenever he sees animals of any kind. He's always up for a pop quiz on his animal noises. Just say the animal name, and he will give you the noise :)

We're planning to take him to the zoo in Nyíregyháza for his birthday. We're curious how he will react to seeing some of his favorite animals in real life.

Searching youtube today with Nate for some good animal videos, I ran across these two, which were worthy of passing on. Enjoy.

Recharging

After a few weeks, or actually months, of conferences and camps and events and visitors, we are taking it easy this week.
All in all our summer has been blessed and fruitful. There is always more to be done, and things will pick up again soon, but for this week we are recharging our batteries - which is especially needed for Rosemary and little 2.0.

Here are some random bullet points:

• Our church's English Camp this year went GREAT. This was probably our best camp yet. There was great planning beforehand, we had a great group of helpers, and God moved in a great way. Praise the Lord for that.
• There have been a series of attacks against Christians in Pakistan. Over the weekend 8 people were killed - mostly burned alive - as Muslim mobs attacked the Christian minority, setting their houses on fire, and even shooting them with guns, because of a vague and unverified claim that some Christians somewhere had desecrated the Quran.
  This "religion of peace" teaches that anyone who desecrates the Quran should be killed. And of course, what qualifies as "desecration" is open for interpretation...
  So, with this unverified claim, Muslim mobs attacked not one Christian - but the whole Christian community.
  Articles about it: Here and here.
  The Bible says that we should 'Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.' (Hebrews 13:3) We should remember to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution in Pakistan.
  
• Colorado Man Fights Lion with Chainsaw - Article here.
  A true Coloradan - this guy was cutting wood, when he got attacked by a mountain lion. The Colorado man fought the lion with the chainsaw and won.
  I just hope that the next time I get attacked by a mountain lion, I have my chainsaw on me too. That really turns the tables on 'em.
  

Dr. Habis László

Az egyik unokatestvérem, Tess, meglátogatott minket a múlt héten, szerdától szombatig. Ő most utazik Európában, és az első állomása Eger volt. Örültünk, hogy itt volt, és jól eset, hogy egy család tagunk látogatott minket itt Egerben.
Elvittem mountain bike-ozni Bélapátfalván, elmentünk vacsorázni Egerszalókon, és elmentünk az egri strandra.

Tess-nek van egy plüss majom, és egy fényképet akar készíteni róla minden városban, ahol jár. Pénteken, elmentünk vacsorázni Egerben, és Tess le próbálta fényképezni a majmot az étteremben, ahol voltunk. Rosemary észre vette, hogy ezt a melettünk lévő asztálnál ülő férfiak aranyosnak találták, és mondta nekem, hogy kérdezzem meg tőlük, hogy keszíthet-e Tess egy fényképet róluk, amiben ők tartják a majmot.
Oda mentem és megkérdeztem, és az egyik úgy felelt meg, hogy 'Szeretnél, hogy a város polgármestere megtartsa a majmot a képben?' És akkor leeset, hogy azzal akivel beszéltem, az Dr. Habis László volt - Eger polgármestere!
Itt vannak a majmos képek:

My cousin Tess came and visited us last week, from Wednesday to Saturday. She is on a tour of Europe, and Eger was her first stop. We had a good time together, and were glad to have some family visit us here in Eger.
I took her mountain biking in Bélapátfalva, took her out to eat in Egerszalók, and took her to the outdoor bath in Eger.

Tess has a stuffed monkey that she wants to take a picture of in each city she visits. So Friday, we went out to dinner in Eger, and she was trying to take a picture with the monkey at the restaurant we were at. Rosemary noticed that some men sitting at the table next to us were amused by this, so Rosemary suggested we ask them if we can take a picture of them holding the monkey. So, I went over and started talking to them, asking if they would be willing to let Tess take their picture with the monkey, and they asked me, 'would you like the mayor of Eger to hold the monkey in the picture?' It turns out the man I was talking to was the mayor - Dr. Habis László!
Here he is holding the monkey:

Adios Paula

Apparently, Paula Abdul will no longer be a judge on American Idol, as she hasn't been offered a contract to continue with the show.
Article here.

Paula had her ups and downs, did some crazy stuff off-screen, and was obviously on prescription drugs, but I think we're all going to miss hearing her say every week: 'You're a bright and shining star' and 'I love you' to almost every contestant.

We actually liked Paula being on the show - she usually had something nice to say when they other judges didn't - and you always knew that if there was a performance that even Paula couldn't say something nice about, then it must have been really bad!
Here's Paula on AI - an example of why she might not have been invited back...

Glacier

'A glacier is a large mass of ice moving slowly over some land surface or down a valley, formed over long periods from the accumulation of snow in areas where the amount of snow that falls exceeds the amount that melts. Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth. Glaciers are found in mountain ranges of every continent except Australia' (Souce: Wikipedia)

On Monday I took Andy, Kim, and Balázs to the High Tatras. Andy and Kim came to help with our English Camps, and since there is a one week break between the 2 camps, they wanted to see some cool stuff in the area.
Every now and then I have to go get my mountain fix up in Slovakia - it kind of reminds me of home.

We went to Tatranská Lomnica, and took the lift up to Skalnaté Pleso - a lake which collects the water from the glaciers near the peak. I've been up there quite a few times, but had never actually seen the lake, since its frozen and covered with snow in the winter. It was beautiful.
From the lake we could see the glaciers, probably about 700 meters up the mountain, so we decided to hike up to them. Kim had never seen glaciers before, so we figured we might as well go see it from up close.
Up on the top of the mountain we saw some deer and a fox. I caught a frog.

All in all, it was a great time. The only thing missing was Rosemary...:(
Here are the photos:

Heaps

We have an Australian couple, Andy and Kim, staying in Eger right now for a few weeks to serve with us in our English Camps.
We've really enjoyed having them here - they are great people - and we have learned a lot about Australia:

• We ate our first Vegemite sandwiches
• Watched some Australian films: Australia and The Castle
• Finally figured out how Australian Rules Football works
• Learned about Aboriginals, 'The Stolen Generations', Marsupials, and Australian Country Music

Australian culture has a lot of British influences, but it also seems to have a lot in common with the western United States. They have cowboys - called 'drovers', they have country music, they have surf culture and wear flip flops and board shorts, they are laid-back, etc...

According to Andy and Kim, Australians make fun of you if they like you. They certainly make fun of me a lot, which must mean one of 3 things:

1. They do it because they like me
2. They do it because they don't like me
3. They don't actually like me, but they want me to think that they do...

I'm not sure yet; I'm still working on this one.
While I'm busy doing that, here's a video:

First Semester Finished

I've finished my first semester of school, and I'm really enjoying it.
In light of this past semester, here are a few of my reflections on studying theology:

• I would recommend it for anyone who has the means to do it.
• I think you can be properly equipped to be a pastor or Christian leader without formal theological education, but I think it is a good for 'rounding out' one's theology and method of studying the Bible.
• I enjoyed spending a lot of time in the Word, and I feel that it gave me a better overall grasp of the big picture of the areas I studied this semester (The Gospels and the Pentateuch).
• I haven't really encountered anything super new, but it has been good to be exposed to views different from my own. I think that is really important for everyone who really believes something.
  If we just read books and listen to people who believe exactly what we do, and say only things which we agree with our particular tradition, that does not strengthen our faith, it does not make us question and rethink our positions. Its just like, "Oh, hey, this guy agrees with me too!", and that doesn't help us develope discernment, which is so important for Christians these days, with all the aberant teaching that goes around.
  After all - our goal is not to hold to or affirm one position or another, it is to seek God and to seek truth. And if our positions are correct, then they will be affirmed through this process anyway, and if they are not correct, then its better to be disillusioned than to believe something unbiblical!
  A good case in point is Thomas Schreiner, a prominent theologian, author and pastor, who recently changed his long-held view of amillenialism to premillenialism, because he was convinced by the text to do so. That's a great example of someone committed to the truth and not to defending his particular tradition. Here's an article about it.
  

Books and websites which have been most helpful to me:

• Google Books
  I found so many usefull resources here for writing papers - mostly excerpts from books. This was really helpful since I don't have access here to an English library with theology books.
  
• Online Synopsis
• The New Testament Gateway
  
• Bible Dictionaries
  I love Bible dictionaries, and my favorite is the New Bible Dictionary. I use this all the time.
  
• ESV Study Bible
  This was Rosemary's gift to me for Christmas, and I LOVE it. I use it a lot for devotional reading, preparing for sermons, and as a reference. It is full of good articles, charts and maps. With purchase of it, you also get access to the ESV Study Bible Online, which has everything the paper version has, and gives the opportunity to writes notes on the column and highlight in different colors, which are all be saved and can be accessed online from anywhere. Its a great tool.

Something I Don't Understand cont.

A while back I wrote this post about how I don't understand why people use the Playboy bunny on their clothes and on products - especially how I see in Hungary that people put Playboy bunny clothes on their pre-teen girls.
Today, I had a case in point.
We've had an English camp this week for school aged kids, and today one of the little girls - 10 years old - came to camp with a Hooters shirt on.
A few thoughts on this:

• This little girl probably has no idea what this shirt means.
• Her parents probably know full well what it means, and sent her out to church camp today wearing a Hooters shirt, thinking it was all well and good - perhaps even cute - to see their little girl wearing a shirt like this.
• Do they hope that one day she will grow up to be a Hooters girl? What a great ambition to have for your little girl: that some day she will grow up and have men ogle at her while she brings them beer and hot wings while wearing skimpy clothes...
• How wrong is it that Hooters even makes clothing in sizes for little girls?
  
• Doesn't this encourage pedophilia somehow?

Needless to say, I was disturbed...

Tokyo Robot

I've never been to Japan, but I get the impression from what I see on the internet that Japanese people are cool, in a strange and nerdy way.
Here's an example: This robot was built in Tokyo, just for fun.

Its 18 meters (59 feet) high - about as high as a 6 story building - and lights up at night.
More pictures here.
Crazy Japanese...

Ukraine

I have wanted to go to Ukraine for literally years.
My mom's family moved from North America from Ukraine, and I've been interested in the country, and wanted to visit it for quite some time.
When I first moved to Hungary, my plan was actually to stay in Hungary for a short time, and then move to Ukraine. Obviously, the Lord had different plans, but Ukraine has always had a place in my heart, and has been a place I pray for and read about.

Well, the time finally came for me to go to Ukraine. A few weeks ago during the Foundations Conference in Vajta, I went with one of my pastors to Ukraine - to Zakarpatska Oblast, the part closest to Hungary, which at one time belonged to Hungary.
Both Pete and I have Ukrainian family background, and have both had a heart for the country for a long time. We went there to check things out, pray for God's leading in future ministry opportunities in Ukraine, and hopefully make some contacts.

We had a little difficulty at the border - I had a document to take the car across the border since it is in Rosemary's name, but it wasn't notarized, which isn't necessary in Hungary, but is in Ukraine. So, after spending 2 hrs at the border, we walked across and took a taxi to Mukachevo (Munkács in Hungarian). There we took some pictures, prayed, and ate some bad Ukrainian food.
After the food, we went to the local Hungarian Reformed church, hoping to be able to talk to someone there and ask about the spiritual life of the city, and the church situation there. The Lord really blessed this meeting; the reformed pastor there is young, and we actually have a lot of common acquaintances in Hungary, including a few people in Eger. He took us around in his car, showed us the various churches, told us a lot about the Spiritual situation in the area, and even drove us back to the border! It was a big blessing.
Funny thing was, that as we crossed the border again, the Ukrainian guard - an ethnic Hungarian - who knew we had been turned back when we tried to enter with our car asked how we had gotten around, and when I told her that we had gotten a ride from the Reformed pastor she got very excited, because she was also Reformed. When I then told her that I was a pastor too, she came out of her booth and gave me kisses on the cheek and asked why I hadn't told her that before!

We are still praying about the next step, and what God would have us do, but it was a good trip. Here are the pictures:

The Rose

This has been on the internet for a while, and I'm sure that a lot of people have already seen it - but in case you haven't, here's Matt Chandler speaking at a Desiring God conference. Check it out:

Joy

I got to baptize Balázs on Friday in Vajta.

On Thursday he came to me and told me that he wanted to be baptized, and when I asked him why, he said, "Because I want to commit my life to God." That is such a beautiful thing, and it was such a joy to me to get to baptize Balázs, and see him make the choice on his own initiative to make a statement of his faith and his commitment to following Jesus by being baptized.

Congratulations Balázs! May God strengthen your faith and bless you, so that you truly do follow Jesus all of your days!

Lehetőségem volt Balázst bemeríteni pénteken Vajtán.

Csütörtökön odajött hozzám, és azt mondta, hogy be szeretne merítkezni. Amikor megkérdeztem tőle, hogy miért, azt mondta, "Mert Istennek akarom elkötelezni az életemet." Az egy anyira szép dolog, és nagyon nagy öröm volt a számomra, hogy Balázst bemeríthettem, és láthattam azt, hogy saját döntést hozott arról, hogy ily módon bizonyságot tesz az ő hitéről és arról, hogy arra kötelezi magát, hogy Jézust kövesse.

Gratula Balázs! Isten erősítse meg a hitedet és áldjon meg téged, hogy tényleg kövesd Jézust az életed utolsó napjáig!

Happy Birthday Calvin

Jean Cauvin, who we know as John Calvin, was born on this day in 1509 – 500 years ago today.

We Protestants owe a lot to Calvin for his work as a reformer and his contributions to the development of Christian theology. His ideas have also been credited with promoting democracy and capitalism in the west. Not bad for a Frenchman!

Remény - Hope

Amikor januárban Kaliforniában voltunk, beszéltem egy gyülekezetben - a vistai Golgota Gyülekezetben, és meséltem, hogy milyen módokon próbálunk terjesteni az evangéliumot Egerben, és említettem azt, hogy posztereket szoktunk kirakni, amin kihívő Biblia idézetek vannak. Az alkalom után, odajött hozzám valaki, (http://seaufin.com/) hogy ő grafikus designnal foglalkozik, és szívesen készít nekünk egy posztert.
Ez az amit készített nekünk. Szerintem nagyon profi, és nagyon jól néz ki.
Majd nem soká, ezeket is fogjátok látni az egri utcákon és épületekben!
When I was in California in January, I spoke at Calvary Chapel of Vista, and I was talking about what kinds of things we are doing to spread the Gospel here in Eger, and I mentioned that one thing we do is put up posters around town that have Bible verses on them that would speak to people's hearts and challenge them. After the service, someone came up to me (http://seaufin.com/) and said that he does graphic design, and would be happy to help us by making a poster.
This image above is the poster he made us. I think its very good; very eye-catching.
Soon these will be seen on the streets and in the buildings of Eger!

Cyril and Methodius Day

Yesterday was Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Cyril and Methodius, were, in my opinion, pretty cool. I think they deserve a holiday.
They were brothers, born in Greece, in the 9th century, who became missionaries to the Slavic people. They have been called the "Apostles to the Slavs".
Cyril and Methodius translated the Bible into the language of the Slavs - now called Old Church Slavonic, and created an alphabet - the Glagolitic alphabet - which was suited to match the specific features of Slavic language. They evangelized the Slavic people, and are seen as heroes throughout the Slavic world to this day.
As a missionary, I can't help but be impressed with that. They did what He said to do:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Tegnap Szent Cirill és Metód napja volt Csehországban és Szlovákiában.
Véleményem szerint, királyok voltak. Szerintem megérdemlik egy ünnepnapot.
Testvérek voltak, akik Görögországban születtek a 9. században, és missziónáriusok lettek a szláv népek között. Valamennyien a "Szlávok Apostolai"-nak hívják őket.
Cirill és Metód a szlávok nyelvére fordították a Bibliát - ma ezt óegyházi szláv nyelvnek hívják, és kitaláltak hozzá egy saját ábécé rendszert - a Glogolita ábécé - ami alkalmas volt a szláv nyelv sajátosságaira.
Ők evangélizálták a szláv népet, és a mai napig hősöknek tartják őket szerte a szláv világban.
Mint missziónárius, ez nekem nagyon tetszik. Ők azt csinálták, amit Ő mondott:
18Jézus hozzájuk lépett, és így szólt: "Nekem adatott minden hatalom mennyen és földön. 19Menjetek el tehát, tegyetek tanítvánnyá minden népet, megkeresztelve őket az Atyának, a Fiúnak és a Szentléleknek nevében, 20tanítva őket, hogy megtartsák mindazt, amit én parancsoltam nektek; és íme, én veletek vagyok minden napon a világ végezetéig."

The Lost Ark Found?

According to this article, 'Ark hunters and Bible enthusiasts are buzzing about a report that the Ark of the Covenant, the ancient container that holds the Ten Commandments, is expected to be unveiled in Rome today.'

This article was posted on June 25 - well over a week ago - and I haven't heard anything about it from any major news source. I imagine something like this would be HUGE news. Even Indiana Jones was looking for the thing!
Time also had an article about it - also written before an unveiling of the ark.

According to the article, the Ark of the Covenant - the box which held the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments on them, the staff of Aaron which blossomed, and a golden vessel containing a gomor of manna, which was kept in the Holy of Holies and represented the presence of God to Israel - could possibly be in Ethiopia.

Bob Cornuke, author and explorer, who has written books about the search for the Ark of the Covenant and participated in a History Channel program about it, said: "They either have the Ark of the Covenant or they have a replica that they have believed to be the Ark of the Covenant for 2,000 years,"

What do you think? Is this the real deal? Does it matter? Should we just leave it alone?

Don't forget what happened to Uzzah, or the guys who got the tumors, or the guys who died from looking at it...
It might be safer to just keep one's distance from it!

Independence

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends, both in the States and abroad!
To the rest of you: Happy Saturday.

Ultrasound - Week 11

We went to the baby doctor yesterday for a check up, because he's leaving on vacation and won't be back until August.
Everything is fine, and little 2.0 let us take a picture of him/her. 2.0 also did some moving around while we were watching, and we got to see the little legs moving around. It was cool. We also got to see and hear the heart beating.
Currently 2.0 is almost 4cm long, from head to rear end (not including legs), which is a whole lot bigger than he/she was 3 weeks ago. Kudos to God, 2.0, and Rosemary for that!
Here's the ultrasound pic:

Technology

When I moved to Hungary a few years ago, my parents tried to buy me a laptop. I said no way. I didn't think I wanted one - it was too expensive, and too fancy for my style. At that point I had never owned a mobile phone, and I didn't want much to do with electronics.
Well, I finally agreed to let them buy me a laptop - but only the cheapest and smallest one I found. Then I moved to Hungary and got my first mobile phone - a Trium Astral piece of plastic junk.

A few things have changed since that time.
I have since fully embraced technology. So much so, that I get the shakes if I'm apart from the internet for any length of time.
The one thing I'd never been into was having a nice phone. I thought it was dumb and pointless; after all, phones are for calling people, not for all that other nonsense, right? So, until now I just had cheap phones.
Well, on Monday I finally joined the 21st century and replaced my old phone with a new one. This one can browse the internet, use wifi connection, take videos that are not just one big pixel...
The phone took a bit of getting used to. Its a lot more complicated than the phones I had before, so I called one of the kids from church to come over and show me how to use it - which made me feel a bit like an elderly person who can't figure out how to send an email, but I probably needed that humbling experience. And actually, I know there are a ton of things the phone is capable of doing, which I still have no idea about. That's fine actually, because I won't be replacing it for a long time :)

Yes, I have become this guy:


Amikor Magyarországra költöztem egy pár évvel ezelőtt, a szüleim próbáltak venni nekem egy laptopot. Azt mondtam, hogy semmikép. Azt gondoltam, hogy mineka? - az nekem túl drága és túl luxus. Addig a pontig soha nem volt mobil telefonom, és nem is érdekeltek a műszaki cuccok.
Hát, nagy nehezen beleegyeztem, és megengedtem, hogy laptopot vegyék nekem - de csak a legkisebb és legolcsobb laptopot amit találtam. Aztán elköltöztem Magyarországra és megvettem az első mobilomat - egy Trion Astral műanyag szemét darab.

Azóta egy pár dolog megváltozott.
Már teljesen átöleltem a technológiát. Annyira is, hogy elvonási tűneteim vannak ha nem vagyok net közelében egy ideig.
De az egyetlen dolog ami soha sem jött be nekem az volt, hogy szuper mobil telefonom legyen. Úgy gondoltam, hogy az lényegtelen butaság; hiszen a mobil telefon csak azé kell, hogy tudjak vele telefonálni, nem? Tehát, eddig mindig olcsó telefonjaim voltak.
Hétfőn végre csatlakoztam a 21. századhoz, és vettem egy új mobilt a régi helyett. Ez tud böngészni a neten, wifi-t használni, videókat felvenni amik több mint csak egyetlen egy nagy pixelből állnak...
Egy kicsit nehéz is volt hozzá szokni ehezz az új telefonhoz. Ez sokkal bonyolultabb mint ami eddig volt nekem, úgyhogy szóltam egy fiatal srácnak a gyüliből, hogy jöjjön át és tanítson arra, hogy hogy működik. Egy kicsit úgy éreztem magam mint egy idős ember aki nem tudja kitalálni hogyan kell emailt küldeni, és azért szól egy fiatal embernek, hogy segítsen. De biztos ez által nyertem egy kis alázatosságot. Még mindig van egy csomó minden képessége a telefonomnak, amiről fogalmam sincs. Nem baj, mert úgy sem veszek újat egy jó pár évig :)
Tehát - igen, ezzé az emberré váltam, aki a fenti videóban énekel a menyasszonyának, arról hogy mennyire szereti a technológiát (és őt is):)

Happy Canada Day!

To all Canadian friends and/or all Canadiophiles - Happy Canada Day, eh!

Here's Jim Carrey on being Canadian:

200 Forint Coin

On June 15th, the National Bank of Hungary introduced the new 200 Forint coin (worth roughly 1 US Dollar):

This is actually the second time Hungary has produced a 200 forint coin - they also produced one from 1992-1994 which had a design somewhat similar to that of the new one, with the Lánchíd (Chain Bridge) on it:

I got my first 200 forint coin today. The biggest bummer about it is that the coffee machines in Hungary don't take it... So, even though I have to carry these coins in my pocket now - I can't even use them to buy coffee. Felháborító.