Today was my LONG day: double session starting at 9:00, ending at 20:00 with full involvement in conversations and sessions all day. I was wiped when I got back to our flat and slept long.

The morning started with a session on LGTBQI issues I shared with Phil Metzger. It is not yet a super hot topic here since Hungary is a very conservative country. But there is a large LBGTQ community in Budapest and Calvary has always had a heart for hurting people so thinking this through biblically and pastorally was helpful. Typical of the many questions was “what do we do if a gay couple with kids receives Jesus and comes to our church?” Tough but very real questions. They want to do things well. Questions did not stop just because the Q & A was dismissed for lunch

A German, a Finn, a Texan, and a Theology Professor went into Mazel Tov for lunch . . . Sounds like a bad joke but in fact it was a great time to share cultures and what Jesus is doing in each of them while enjoying Jewish food in an enclosed section of street between ancient buildings. I handed my phone to the server, telling him I was a tourist and needed a picture. He laughed, took the phone, snapped the picture and handed it back to me for approval. It was my turn to laugh – he had done a selfie so I had a great picture of him!

Calvary Budapest has just opened an outstanding coffee shop, fully comparable to the finest in the city. The coffee is at Stumptown level, the service excellent and the prices competitive with the other high end shops. This business helps fund the church while serving the downtown community. I now stop for a “filter coffee” each morning.

The evening session was titled “Gospel Challenges” which left a LOT of room for topics. I finally decided to do “Where is God in Suffering?” a topic very relevant to Hungary with its revolutionary past. This is a very intense presentation so doing it in short time with translation had me a little anxious. Fortunately with Ildi translating so well, it went well.

I present three views, Meticulous Providence (God ordains evil for His greater glory and our ultimate good); Active Providence (God is at war with evil using good as His primary weapon); and Free Will Providence (God allows us to choose evil for the sake of true loving relationship). I told them they are all held by good and godly people and that I would would ask them to vote on which one I held after I presented the three. Interestingly, I was voted Free Will by about a 50% majority. When I said is was Active Providence (God is at war with evil using good as His primary weapon) they were surprised and there was cheering from the “winners”! I then explored how to respond to the Serpent’s charge that God either does not really care or can’t do anything by pointing to Emanuel, the God of the universe going through horrible suffering. There is no way He does not care if He does this – and He is doing things, though it’s often not obvious what He is doing.

It took a long time to get the discussions wound down after session ended

I have a perfect illustration – now I need a sermon to go with it! As soon as our flight was in the air, the couple in front of us – who had already demonstrated their love quite obviously – leaned their seat back, robbing us of six precious inches. So I immediately am tempted to “I hate them” mode. I managed to avoid that obvious temptation. Well into the flight I was trying to get to my back pack, a task made much harder by the leaned back seat (do you feel my pain yet??) when I saw the iPhone under the seat. Clearly the lady had dropped it. So in full Jesus style “love your enemies” I determined to retrieve it for her. But how?? I reached with my foot and pushed it around the seat foot, but there was no way to reach it. I tried using my Kindle as a tool but no joy. Then I thought my foot might become “handish” and took off my shoe. No joy. Then I took off the other shoe and tried to manipulate it with the two opposed. I could get it, but couldn’t lift it. Finally I realized I might be able to get it into the pocket of my back pack. Success! I was able to pull the back pack up, retrieve the phone and restore it to the lady. She was delighted – and I still consider her a forgiven robber!

Amsterdam was a brief layover where we had to do a bit of sorting to get Sherry’s assistance worked out. Ended up being a very nice Dutchman who wanted to ensure everything. Sadly the plane ride to Budapest was over clouds so I didn’t get to see anything.

Big Regret!

We arrived in Budapest, retrived our bags and walked out of the airport – No Hungary stamp in our passports. Very sad! It is the outcome of coming here from within the EU.

First day of exploring

Terry Cokenour picked us up and showed us a bit of the town on the way to our flat. We unpacked and then Arpi and Andi Horváth picked us up and we took the bus across the Chain Bridge to the Halászbástya or Fisherman’s Bastion which Wikipedia tells me is a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style situated on the Buda bank of the Danube, on the Castle hill in Budapest, around Matthias Church.

Matthias Church is behind Sherry and Andi. Unfortunately I could not get far enough back to get all the church into the picture. The Falconer and his bird is a total tourist trap, Arpi said. For 5 Euros, you can have him on your arm, it seems.

This is the street we walk to get to the entrance to our flat. It’s a beautifully remodeled one bedroom with a kitchen Sherry immediately had to have transported back to Portland. Since the owner is a Finn, it is fitting that there is a sauna in the shower room. The bed is great for sleeping – but tired as we were we would have slept on bricks!

There were several lessons from our day. First is that Arpi and Andi are wonderful! Delighted to have them as new friends. Second, there is so much history in Budapest. It ranges from beautiful to completely tragic. For example, we were near the Shoes Memorial memorializes the place were many Jews were forced to remove anything valuable including shoes before they were shot, falling into the Danube. Third, the public transportation system is something to bring to every US central city. Fourth, Sherry will never again do the Undergroud here with its super long, super steep and especially super fast escalators.

Faith Baptist Church was the church I preached in last time I was here. My former student and friend, Rudolphe, was pastor. He was in remission from a most severe kind of cancer so he and Rana Gedeon took us to a most marvelous lunch in the Lebanese Mountains. Alas the cancer ended his life early. The church feels much different without him. The new thing there is an active ministry to many Syrian refugee families.

We saw several friends when we arrived and enjoyed the service, enhanced by Walid Zailaa‘s excellent simultaneous translation, my first time for such a marvel. I knew he was good because he had been my translator when I taught last time. We laughed at stories together and enjoyed that he and Rana are married since we last saw them. 

Rosette Mansour took us to lunch with our new friends. Lebanese food is even more excellent here in Beirut.

Sherry and I both are doing well in the time zone which is marvelous. 

The Summit is finished and most of the participants have left. Those going to Congo have a very dangerous journey home so when I saw their team gathered to begin their journey, I spent some time praying with them.

Sunday was at a local church founded by Jumah Patrick, the MTS Africa director and Pastor Cosmos, one of the miracle stories of the MTS program. He had been hurt badly in pastoral ministry, going back into a fully sinful life for many years and got AIDS as a consequence. But Jesus reached him through a gospel message. He joined an MTS trauma healing session. Today has found the wife he abandoned, restored their marriage and is now part of the pastoral team of a church largely made up of people with stories like his. We got to hear some after the four hour church service.

Monday and Tuesday we will be doing a trauma healing training with the staff at the National Rehabilitation Center, which translates into the facility where all juvenile offenders go. It is not a Christian organization, but they have begged MTS to help their staff.

Internet is spotty here and time is very limited. There are more updates here. When I get back to the USA, I will fix the non-functional links in the other posts.