Hungary Return Visit Summer 2011

July 5-14th we were back in our "hometown" with many Hungarian friends and ministry partners. Szeged will always have a special place in our hearts. Our connection to the city stems back to 1992, when we first went to teach English in Hungary until 1995. The 7 years (2003-2010) there with CRM made it much more special, particularly for Sarah and Hannah who have spent the majority of their growing-up years in Szeged.

So, you can imagine coming into the city on the train after one year away, there were many emotions that overwhelmed us. Hannah cried and said, "Why can't we just move back here?!" The great blessing is that we were received so warmly by all of our friends, and at times it felt like we had never left. But it was also important to see that the churches and God's work continues on without us. God's leading is certainly not dependent on us!

We were thrilled by the big gathering of about 70 people out at Bela's farm, where Bela and family had organized a "welcome home party" for us with music and testimonies and great food, including paprika gulyas. The small dilemma was that it was 102 degrees outside for this 5 hour outdoor party! Lots of cold fruit tea was drunk by all, but of course no ice because Europeans do not like their drinks "too cold" on their throats!  But what a special day together celebrating friendship and partnership.  Thanks be to God - "Isten" in Hungarian!

We helped Bela set up for the party - special homemade teas available on the farm!

Tents helped beat some of the heat, and the music was a gift, with a new English praise song they prepared!

Sarah and Hannah had a great time re-connecting with lots of old friends and younger kids who missed them very much.

Donna got to hold one of the new babies!

Rob got to catch up with village mayor and evangelist, Robi

It was special to be back in the fruit and vegetable store - and see Bela's display from their March trip to be with us in Virginia!

OUR NEW LIFE in BLACK FOREST

We have had a very busy, but productive several weeks in Kandern, our new home in the Schwarzwald of southern Germany. We love our small city of Kandern and are making new friends within the German church and international school communities. Our only disappointment is this 2 month process to get DSL (made request 3 weeks before we arrived), setting up phone and internet - a surprise for us in this well-organized, meticulous culture!

FIRST ACTIVITIES!
Attending our local Kandern Free Evangelical German Church and making new contacts there.

Exploring with our neighbors the nearby, smaller town of Sitzenkirch, where Hannah's middle school building is (Sarah will be at the main Kandern high school building). Pictures above are from the walk.

Traveling by train and bus to the large city of Freiburg for our visa process and paperwork filing. And we met a member of another nearby evangelical church on the bus!

Visiting smaller city of Lörrach on Swiss border to inquire about our German driver's license.

We bought season passes for the girls to swim in the Kandern city pool - a chilly 68 degree temperature water - the Germans don't mind it, and neither do our kids!

Rob went to a regional church planters' meeting near Freiburg and also to the city of Müllheim for an interdenominational conference event called ChristusTag, where different churches of the region coming together and challenging the attendees to bring the hope of Jesus into the world. Rob connected with JANZ Team mission leaders and they went out into the city in the afternoon, using a questionnaire to start spiritual discussions with people on the streets. See pictures of the conference here below:

Heading to Germany!

On June 8th, we arrive in Deutschland to serve with Church Resource Ministries there, after 7 years with CRM at the Hungarian-Serbian border. We have an apartment to rent in an old German home in the town of Kandern, SW Germany. We will be just 20 minutes from the Swiss border and large metro area of Basel, Switzerland. Our initial partnership focus is with the German Free Evangelical denomination, as they have invited us to support their pastors and leaders in starting new churches, in addition to supporting the growth of existing fellowships in the German State of Baden-Württemberg. Rob is always open to crossing borders, so there may some opportunity to venture into German-speaking Switzerland. We look forward to seeing how the Lord leads us forward!

Our new home - we will rent the first floor and finished basement of this house. Another family rents the top 2 floors in the long roof.

We will live on the sunny side of the Kandern valley - sun will rise into our front windows and we have our own little piece of yard to use!

We will attend the local Kandern Free Evangelical Church (renting building above), where we will work with Pastor Markus and his leaders.

At the annual Free Evangelical near Stuttgart, Rob connected with many leaders who are helping pursue the start of 100 new churches in 10 years. Rob discovered that there are many southern cities and towns that have very few, if any, living faith communities to bring hope and light.

Rob with nationwide Church Plant Director Dietrich. Great to have his invitation to come partner with leaders and communities in the South.

THE GIRLS' NEW SCHOOL!

This is the entrance to the Black Forest Academy school in Kandern where Sarah will enter 9th grade and Hannah 6th grade in August.

Walking downtown in our new town of Kandern.

Some of the February Black Forest landscape in the area.

The 3 Girls in Freiburg last spring when we visited the Black Forest area. Freiburg is the "capital" of southern Black Forest, and where Rob studied a semester in 1991 - 20 years ago!

Hungarian Friends Visit Us in Virginia

We have been moving through an eventful and challenging year in the USA. Transitions are not easy, as we left Szeged last summer and have been planning for our new life in Germany, where we arrive in June. But we are thankful to family and many friends with whom we have had extra time in the States this past year. Before we share more of our plans toward Deutschland, we would like to share one of the highlights of the year - the visit of our Hungarian friends to us here in Virginia!

The Mihalecz family - Béla, Bea, and daughter Regina (Regi) - visit was a great joy for us, as they came for 11 days on their first trip out of their homeland. We had such a wonderful time with them here in Central Virginia. We hosted them in our temporary home in Maidens outside Richmond, and we introduced them to many friends in the area, including several events with our Hope Church family. We made a special trip down to Donna's family in Dinwiddie County and enjoyed a visit to Central Baptist Church there as well. Virginia history and culture was important as we made trips to Charlottesville and Williamsburg. See the pics below for better flavor of these special days together!