We’re Here!! In Szeged, Hungary!! Praise God!!

Praise the Lord! We’re here—and have so much to share with you, so please pardon this having more pages than we’ve done before. First—our big trip—it went great, well, as good as that sort of long travel can go with three children. The kids were real troopers, and yes, they did thankfully fall asleep. (Thank you for those prayers, there were angels singing lullabies!)

We did have overweight luggage which caused a problem at check-in. Four suitcases (the biggest, and expandable, filled to capacity) had to be opened and heavier items removed. We bought a box there at the airport ($6.00—total rip-off) and just began dumping stuff in it. Still not quite sure of all that we dumped into it, it was rather rushed—some kids’ books, sweaters, etc... Rachel’s grandparents were there with us and took it home and have shipped us the contents. Grandma Willson pointed out that with all that repacking and rushing we didn’t have time for the long and teary good-bye—so some good did come of it!

The boys were kept the most occupied on the flight with pads of paper, a hole punch and sheets of little circle stickers. They especially loved the hole punch. Anna was more work, but did enjoy little bags with small toys which she took out and put back in over and over. And of course she loved standing up and smiling at her brothers who sat behind her and mommy with daddy. Food helped distract too—and then, wonderful sleep came to Anna and Joshi first, and eventually Josiah for a bit. He stayed up and watched “Chicken Run”.

Our layover in Frankfurt was just long enough for the kids to wander and play. It was also fun in that we got to look out the window at the plane we’d be taking to Budapest and watch them load the luggage. It was a nice relief to see all ten of our pieces!

Norbi’s parents met us in Budapest. For his dad it was the first time seeing Joshua and Anna, and he’d only seen Josiah when he was a few weeks old. That meeting was pretty cool. His dad, Béla, took our luggage on ahead in his company van—we got to take the train with Norbi’s mom Ibolya and sister Nóra.

The train was Josiah’s favorite part—he loved it. Yes, he is his Daddy’s boy. They both had fun sticking their heads out the window and scaring Mommy and Nagymoma (Hungarian for Grandma). Joshi and Anna were in and out of sleep for most of the train ride.

Words can’t express the excitement at finally arriving in Szeged—seeing the big double towers of the famous Dom Cathedral all lit up. Buildings don’t go up much more than four or five stories here—so the Dom’s towers really stand out from a distance. And the big “Pick” factory—where they make the famous Pick line of salami, sausage and other pork products. It too was all lit up and visible for some time before we pulled into the train station. We arrived around 7p.m. or so on Thursday, Nov. 9th.

We had arrived! All our luggage was accounted for, we maintained sanity and were tired, but no worse for the wear. Thank you to all who prayed us over!

Getting Settled, Meeting New Friends...and a Mall?!

We have been blessed with our own little place from day one—no need to stay with others and apartment hunt. Norbi’s mom has an apartment that she normally rents out, holding it for his sister (or us, as she was hoping). This is actually where Norbi grew up, they lived here until he was 15 or 16 years old when they moved to his Grandmother’s apartment to help her. That other apartment is where his mom and sister live now, plus “Moma”, Ibolya’s mother and is where we lived when here five years ago as newlyweds.

The best feature of our new home is the back yard we share with the three other apartments. The other tenants are all elderly, and all but one were here when Norbi was a boy. They haven’t done much with the yard—so we have many plans for spring. Right now the boys have enjoyed helping the big willow tree to lose it’s leaves quicker, and they just got new balls and have a blast out back. Rachel loves that it’s all walled in, and only someone with keys to the building’s front gate can get in. The neighborhood is also nice and quite, on a small side street.

Best of all is our little bakery right around the corner! This place is so good, Rachel used to go way out of her way to shop there when we lived here before. And now it’s just around the corner! What joy, what bliss—warm, fresh bread and “sajtos kifli” (cheese rolls). So many things have remained the same—downtown looks pretty much the same. But way so much has changed in five years! There are now two big department/grocery stores, Cora and Tesco. These places are huge, and sort of combine Wal-Mart with a supermarket. And there’s a mall! Complete with a nine-plex movie theater and bowling alley! We haven’t explored the mall yet—but can’t wait to check it out.

Most of our time so far has been spent in shopping around and getting the best deals on stuff for the apartment, mundane stuff like a laundry hamper, a vacuum cleaner, etc… We get around by trams and trolleys which the boys think is great fun. Most Eastern European countries provided great public transportation, we have no plans to buy a car.

Besides shopping and exploring the town, we’ve been getting to know our new church. There are two other couples in leadership with us: Pastor Kyle (American missionary) and Odi (Hungarian national and full-time student) Eckhart, and Laci (Serbian, here for school, now graduated and full-time church staff) and Keri (Hungarian, also full-time student) Nemeth. They all speak great English—even Kyle! We’ve know Laci for like forever—he was going to High School here when we were here before. It’s sort of weird to have him all grown up and married! We love his choice, Keri is a sweetheart. Rachel knew Odi from her time in Baja, Hungary. Odi’s family is from Tompa, where the church in Baja then visited weekly to teach a Bible study. Odi’s dad, Bela is now the pastor there. Kyle we’re just getting to know—but hey, the guy loves Star Wars, Dr. Pepper and U2, so we’re feeling confident. We had a great time at Kyle and Odi’s for Thanksgiving. Our boys already wrestle and rough house with both Laci and Kyle.

The church here is full of little boys—six regulars, plus our two. It’s been great to watch our boys get right in the middle of the after-church play. Our first Sunday here Odi brought an air pump and those long thin balloons clowns use to make the shapes and stuff, she made swords. All the boys were playing with them—ours right in the middle. The Hungarian language will come, the language of play is universal! And everyone loves Anna—of course. She tends to wander around after services, Kyle is already one of her favorites to visit.

There are several old friends in the church too. Kornél was on the worship team with Norbi before, he’s been through a lot, and has only recently come back to His Lord—it’s so great to have him here. Eva and Agi are still here and blessings still too! We thank God for old and new friends.

Norbi’s Ministries: Worship, Hangin’ With Kyle

Norbi has begun worship practice, and has a great little team already. He’s on guitar, as is a great Hungarian guy named Zoli. Zoli is the one Kyle wants Norbi to raise up and teach to lead worship himself. Then there’s Laci on a Jimbey drum (sort of like a congo drum, but NOT) and a Finnish girl, Kirssy, on the violin. Kirssy is so talented, and so sweetly shy about it. The team is meeting every Tues. and Sat. So far our kids have been at all the practices (there’s lots of wrestling afterwards with Zoli and Laci), and have been pretty good. But they’re moving to Laci’s apartment. Rachel hopes to get a babysitter for the Sat. meetings and be able to go too.

So far, Norbi’s other duties have been mostly to hang out with Kyle and help in whatever. They’re designed business cards and are getting them printed up this week. These will be great to be able to give people—it seems our family causes a stir, so many opportunities have come just from people hearing Norbi’s Hungarian and the kids’ English and asking about it. They’re always amazed that Norbi would come back from the U.S., it’s a great witness!

Norbi also got to teach his first Bible study in years, and his first ever in Hungarian when he covered for Kyle out in Békéscsaba (a nearby town where Kyle goes to teach every Sun and Thurs night). Norbi heads out for Békéscsaba with Kyle and one of our boys twice a week too, he leads worship. Norbi is praying not to be asked to translate, otherwise, he’s open to whatever.

During our second week here Rachel met with Odi and Keri and they asked her to take over the Children’s Ministries. So, Nov. 26 found Rachel teaching the Children’s church, with Odi translating. They’re going through the Christmas story now, with the focus on God fulfilling his promises and Joshua 21:45 as the memory verse. We have a great set of flannel graph, going through the whole Bible, but are short on craft ideas or a curriculum. The flannel graph has a book with simple story outlines. Rachel is making up the craft and doing the story herself—but she’d like to get other moms involved, which would be easier if she could hand them a planned curriculum.

Right now the eight boys range in age from 3 to 9 or 10 years, with three sets of brothers and one on his own. For boys they really sit and pay attention good—a blessing.

The church also wants Rachel to head up a Women’s Study, which she’s really excited about—we’ll keep you posted.

Our family is of course also keeping Rachel as busy here as it did in CA. We did buy a washing machine, which really CLEANS—one cycle takes 2 hours! And the loads are much smaller, so laundry day is just about every day here. We do miss our dishwasher, but Joshi LOVES helping with washing dishes! When will they be old enough to do their own laundry? Being a wife and mommy is still Rachel’s number one ministry.

Prayer Requests:

- For Calvary Chapel of Szeged (Golgota Keresztény Gyülekezet) to grow in depth of spirit and full of His grace.

- For the leadership here, especially Kyle, Norbi and Laci to have wisdom, a oneness of spirit and a love for the brethren.

- Spiritual covering for our family, health and safety and protection from enemy attacks both mental and physical.

- Please keep Anna’s eczema and allergies in prayer—she had a bad reaction our first week here, is healing, but we don’t know why she reacted.

- For Norbi’s mom and sister to come to church regularly and for salvation for his sister and his dad. For his mom to make Jesus her Lord, not just her savior.

- For Norbi as he leads worship, for oneness in the worship team.

- For Rachel as she prepares and teaches the children’s church—for craft ideas to keep coming.

- For our family to learn/remember the Hungarian language...ahhhh!!!

- For our many packages we shipped to ourselves from the States, for them to arrive safely and for the customs agents to be law-abiding and not steal from them (we had one box of books that Norbi sent in August arrive with half the books gone!). Every package is opened, but this was a first to have items stolen! Note: keep list of items in any package you send us.