Szeged School is Underway!

September 1st is the first day of school in Hungary. No Labor Day weekend here - May 1st is Eastern Europe Labor Day, held over from Communist days. Donna always takes the important first day pictures, and the girls are happy to pose. The first is by the September calendar and the second is on our balcony.











































The evening before the first day, there is always an opening school ceremony. The kids all have to wear traditional black and white and there is a special program, especially welcoming the new first grade classes (each year there are 4 new classes - English, German, Music and Art). Our neighbors upstairs from us have a son Máté who is entering the 1st year Art group (in picture with special school scarf on). Hannah is posing with one of her best friends Boroka from her 3rd year class, which specializes in Art.


More pictures from the event:
*School Principal Mr. Bacsi sitting with our teachers, while the kids read poems.
*The sea of black and white classes all lined up.
*The inner courtyard of the school.

Summer Camp with Zion Church

We had a special week together with our Zion Church friends at our CRM Retreat House. There were 13 adults and 13 kids and lots of fun to be had in fellowship.
We had several important leaders involved in various ministry discussions, and good plans were made for upcoming fall commitments. Pictured below are Szilveszter (church elder, on guitar), Béla (youth leader, small group leader), Ági (children ministry leader), László (growing youth!) together one evening for some spontaneous worship singing.



















Sarah and Regina (Regi) did a great job leading the younger kids in some evening programs, while the adults could have more time together.

We made sure to enjoy the Lake Balaton water and various hikes in nearby villages.

Building a New Fellowship Hall!

In May, with our friend Béla's initiative from Zion Church, we gave support to new construction on his strawberry farmland in Szőreg-Szeged. Béla and Bea bought their neighbor's run-down old greenhouse structure. Now in September the empty frame has turned into a full-blown building of almost 100 feet long to be used for fellowship gatherings! A wooden framework was put onto the metal frame, and a heavy plastic wrap has just been added. The last crop underneath is tomatoes, and then the building will need a floor to be ready for hosting people this fall! The dream is to eventually put more significant roofing and walls on the structure......as the Lord leads.





BÉLA and ROB PLAYING PING PONG BEHIND BÉLA'S HOUSE




Béla and Bea know how to host a great party and there have been a few good gatherings since spring. The ping pong table and playing badminton are great for the youth who come. The latest event was a cookout with the famous Hungarian szalonna (bacon fat), but Béla's version does include some real meat, not just fat! The goal for Christmas is to do a big outreach and invite many families from the neighborhood.

POSING IN THE FELLOWSHIP HALL-WORSHIP TENT - OUR GIRLS WITH REGINA (REGI)

It is exciting to see the potential as Béla and family seek to host various events and dream for the future. We are glad that Zion Church is catching this vision for more outreach and we have friends such as the Hope Together team from Rochester NY participating in the support. Pictured below are friends Reverend Malcolm Moore and Dr. Emmanuel Puddicombe from the Hope Together ministry partnership.

THE FIRST METAL FRAME STRUCTURES GOING UP - WORK TEAM INCL ROB, BÉLA, ISTVÁN AND RICSI

Germany Trip

We had a special trip thru Germany, first with my Mom and our relatives in Bavaria - see below some pictures with Froschmeier families, very special to be together in Mom's birthtown of Pichl and meet George Froschmeier, who looks much like my Grandpa Froschmeier. Our girls had fun with Andreas and Katrin, the cool 20-year old cousins to follow around! We then traveled thru the Black Forest, visiting the university city of Freiburg, where I studied in 1991 (wow, 18 years ago!), slipping into Switzerland for a day, meeting a new CRM team in Karlsruhe, and making a connection with another nationwide mission effort. We were thankful to make so many memories together this Easter week.

Spiritual Formation Seminar

At the end of April, I had a very good 3+ days together with our Barnabas Csoport team and a number of other leaders from Budapest, plus a Romanian pastor - the group picture is a subset of some of the attendees. Our teammate Endi with his Imago Christi ("Into Christ's Image") team taught and led us through various meaningful spiritual exercises and discussions. It was a terrific location north of Budapest at a Jesuit retreat center which we rented. Interestingly, we learned that the retreat center was taken by the Communists after WWII and they used the facilities for meetings and even personal villa for the Communist Party Leader. We are glad it is back in the hands of the Jesuits instead! There were excellent, quiet forest trails for retreat walks, leading to views over the Danube River - see the sunset picture!

Zion Church Szeged Zoo Outing!

We had a beautiful April spring weekend here - long awaited! - and invited Zion Church friends for a trip to the Szeged Zoo. There were 16 of us who enjoyed the walk and the animals - pictured are the big lions, newborn baby goat, guinea pigs in petting zoo, and a red panda. The kids also had fun playing on the zoo playground.

Serbia and Szeged with Seapys

We had a great visit from Chet, our CRM International Director, and son Ryan in mid-March. Our time included meetings in Novi Sad with ministry partners Laki, Rodja and others at the Novi Sad Seminary as well as the opening of a new Bible Training Center. We went to our favorite Petrovaradin Castle Hill Italian restaurant Terasa twice. Back in Szeged for a day we had nice weather for a walk through downtown Szeged together with the whole George family.