Home is where your heart is

I have now been home in California for about 5 days. It is very good to be home. Good to see family and friends and relate to them my experiences abroad.

Budhaphest, Hungary was very ... interesting. It was the first time that i had been over seas. The flight over was 8 hrs 15 min from New York City to Budhaphest, and the shortest night i had ever experienced. We were brining 6 suit cases full of new clothes to donate to a social welfare program over there called the "Large Family Association" that helps poor families with three or more kids meet their baisc needs. We also followed up with the teens who attended an English Camp run by the missionaries there over the summer and ran a day camp in similar format for younger kids on the saturday we were there. It was neat to meet with the missionary couples and fun to play with their small children. We also attended the small missionary established church, and toured the city of Budhaphest.

The Hungarian language is rather unique and supposedly very hard for an english speaker to learn. The country was under communist rule until 1989 and you get a sense of this by the silence of the adults as they ride the buses. There are pastries stands on practically every corner, and my friend Tom knows just enough Hungarian to order a pastry. The currency of Hungary is the florint and it is about 200 florint to a dollar. Stuff in general seems to cost about 20% less for the most part.

I will be home from Thanksgiving to about new years. The Department of Global Youth Ministries will help run the missions emphasis week at Alma Heights Christian Academy on Dec. 4th-8th. Happy Holidays!

Infinity...been there. Beyond here i come!

Sorry, this post was a bit late in coming. We attended a missionary conference in Owosso, Michigan. This was the first time i had been in Michigan, and i really liked it. The trees were turning; igniting all different shades of red, orange, and yellow. The forests we drove through had an atmosphere i had never experienced before. It reminded me of M.Night Shyamaln's "The Village."

The conference went very well. Besides OMS, three other missionary organizations were represented: Wycliffe, CRI (Christian Resources International), OM International (Operation Mobilization). I am not sure of the full extent of each of the organizations, but Wycliffe is involved with translating the Bible into languages that do not have it; CRI is involved with receiving and distributing and Bibles and Christian books to people who need it around the world, and OM International has a fleet of ships they use to evangelize from port to port around the world.

After Michigan there was a weekend long college retreat ran by OMS called Breakaway. There were about 40 in attendance and it went really well. I ran the power point and helped with the cooking. Tom's wife, Beth, and her brother, Mark, are great cooks and i had a good time in the kitchen taking their orders. I didn't get too much sleep through this.

Than we moved a townhouse to a duplex on campus. That was alot work, and we cleaned the house after. Than the Department of Global Youth Ministries went to New Jersey for some business meetings with Pillar of Fire. Richard and I were told after that we did a good job presenting ourselves. We proposed for the department to be involved at other Pillar of Fire schools around the country besides Alma Heights and Richard proposed for an OMS Regional Office to be opened at Alma Heights for Northern California.

The next day we toured New York City and had a great time. Tom is a good tour guide and he knew just enough about the subway system to get by.

Tomorrow i leave for Budhaphest, Hungary. We will be bringing alot of clothes to a nonprofit orginization over there called the "Large family association" that helps low income families meet their basic needs. We will be doing follow-up and hanging out with kids who attended the Enlgish camp there last summer. We will also be working with OMS' missionaries living there, and setting up for next summer's English Camp.

Please pray pray that the Lord would fill us with his love to show to the people that we meet and that the light of His Son would be reflected on us also. Pray also for safety in our travels.

I look forward to being home in California, Thanksgiving morning!!!