Pics & Info from Sightseeing Day in Budapest (July 29)

Parliament Building

St. Gellért Monument
Looking down on Elizabeth Bridge (Erzsébet híd) from Gellért Hill is the St Gellért monument, an Italian missionary invited to Hungary by King Stephen to convert the natives. The monument marks the spot from where the bishop was hurled to his death in a spiked barrel in 1046 by pagan Hungarians resisting the new faith.

 Independence Monument - the lady with the palm frond proclaiming freedom throughout the city from atop Gellért Hill was erected in 1947 in tribute to the Soviet soldiers who died liberating Budapest in 1945.

Heroes' Square
The Millenary Monument, which is a complex of statues and sculptures on the square, was originally planned as part of the Millenium celebrations held in 1896 to commemorate 1000 years of Hungarian history since the Conquest of the Carpathian Basin by Magyar (Hungarian) tribes. The occasion was a glorification of the Dual Monarchy, and the Millenary Monument was to reflect royal continuity and pride.

In the centre rises a 36m stone column with the Archangel Gabriel at the top and equestrian statues of the seven conquering Magyar chiefs at the base. Gabriel is depicted standing on a globe holding aloft the Hungarian crown and an Apostolic cross, representing the unity of the Hungarian state and Christian culture. Legend has it that the archangel once appeared to Stephen, Hungary's first monarch, charging him to convert the then pagan Magyars to Christianity.

The stone block on the ground in front of the column is the Heroes' Monument, the traditional spot for wreath-laying ceremonies. The inscription recalls those who have given their lives for Hungarian freedom and independence.

 Behind the column is a two-part colonnade. The four groups of symbolic figures on the top represent Work, Wealth, War, Peace, and Knowledge and Glory. Between the columns of the colonnade are statues of Hungarian rulers and princes.

Trinity Square - the three circles on the buildings represent the trinity

Zoltán Kodály (16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method of teaching music.

OM Hungary - Info

Information about OM Hungary from the OM Hungary website:
With a population of 10 million people, Hungary is a culturally Christian, but really secular nation. By tradition it claims to be Christian, but by what you see in the society, it would be hard to prove it. 63 percent of the population are Catholic and less than 30% are Protestant, the rest is atheist or following other religions. Within the Protestant church, the Reformed church is largest, with 16% of the population, followed by the Lutherans (4%), Baptists, Pentecostals (less than 1%). The evangelicals make an estimated 1-2% of the society.

Secularism, materialism, New Age type things are where Hungarians are seeking answers for life's questions. As a pastor from a mid-sized village said: we have 3 churches: Catholic, Reformed and the small bank in the village.

Our vision for the Hungarian church:(a picture that we would like to see becoming a reality)
We would like to see a Hungary, where the followers of Christ share the Gospel with their neighbors, where Christians strengthen their existing churches and plant new churches in their community or other parts of Hungary or where Hungarians live. We would like to see the churches sending missionaries to world mission, praying for them, supporting them.We would like to see Hungary transformed by the power of the Gospel in the individual lives, families and through this to transform the society.
That is why we serve as OM Hungary.


OM Hungary’s mission

1. We help the local churches in their existing ministries by
a., organizing short term outreaches and programs and helping and equipping them with resources to do this.
b, sending mid-long term groups to help church plants or existing churches to help the mission of the Hungarian church.
c., doing humanitarian/holistic mission activity in partnership with a local church to picture the wholeness of the Gospel and God, who cares about the spiritually and physically needy.
d., use the Bus4Life vehichle as a mobile mission center for outreaches

2. We mobilize Hungarian churches for world mission, encourage them to do mission work in their local community until the end of the Earth.
a., We help the Christians who are called to mission to prepare for ministry, to get to the mission field, to do efficient ministry there and after their ministry is over we help their re-entry. We do this in short, mid and long term.
b., We send returning OMers to present and mobilize for missions in churches
c., We organize mission events like mission preparation weekends and mission days to encourage believers to go to mission.
c, We are partnering with the Evangelical Alliance in the area of mobilizing and related events like Mission Expo.

We would like to do this around the core value of picturing the unity of the Body of Christ by caring for one another on our team, and helping each other’s ministry to make the other person efficient and successful.

Our tools for the above are: sending Operation Village Mobilization (OVM) is unique ministry in Hungary as a resource to the Hungarian church for the purpose of reaching the many villages and smaller towns in Hungary which have had relatively little exposure to the Gospel. From the fall of 2008 we host  - in partnership with OM Finland, OM Romania and OM Czech - the Bus4Life mobile mission center vehicle that will serve in Hungarian outreaches and in Romania, Slovakia and possibly Austria and Moldova as well.
We see open door in developing a sports ministry profile for Hungary. It seems that sports and language learning are the tools that can make short and mid-term (GC and GA) foreign teams work efficient and Kingdom-building. 2008 will be the year for seeing that unfold.

OM Hungary plays a key role in supporting the development and ongoing ministry of the Hungarian Evangelical Alliance.
We have the ministry of returning OMers presenting and mobilizing for missions in churches, partnering with the Evangelical Alliance in the area of mobilizing and related events.

Day 13 (July 31, 2012)

Yesterday (July 31st) was the longest day of my life (literally!). I got up at 4:00am (9:00pm on July 30th, Winnipeg time) and left for the airport at 4:30am. After saying goodbye to Attila and Anna, I went through security and had a muffin (chocolate, of course!) and water while waiting to board. The flight to Vienna was short and sweet (50 minutes), but it feels so long ago I can't actually remember it! I don't actually remember waiting in Vienna either, but I guess I must have because I made it home! haha :) Our plane in Vienna was late leaving - I think maybe about an hour, but I'm not sure. I had a window seat, right by the emergency exit and the bathroom. The nice part was that I had lots of leg room. The bad part was that there was constant traffic to and from the bathroom and every time the toilet flushed I jumped. Plus it was freezing cold where I was sitting - I was an icicle for the whole ride. I couldn't figure out how to get my little tv working either. Because this was a daytime flight, it was very bright and everyone was awake, so I didn't get any sleep (plus the freaky toilet flushing sound woke me up if I started to doze). Finally we were getting close to Toronto, and, after finally figuring out the tv screen, I was watching the flight map. When we got near Toronto the plan turned around and started doing a loop. I didn't really think anything of it...I thought it must have to come in at certain angle or something. But when it started doing a second loop, I began to wonder. And the estimated time for arrival on the screen kept popping up as later and later. During the third loop around Toronto the pilot announced that the Toronto airport was closed and we were going to have to fly to Ottawa to land. So of course my mind automatically jumps to the worst and I start to worry that maybe the airport was in danger - like a bomb or something - and that my family would be worrying about me. Finally we landed in Ottawa, but the plane just sat there on the runway while the pilot was waiting to find out what to do. They would not let us go to a gate and get off the plane because of customs and stuff (since the aircraft was headed for Toronto, not Ottawa), so we had to stay in the plane. Finally we found out that there had been really bad thunderstorms in Toronto, which is why we couldn't land. They decided to fly us back to Toronto after awhile of sitting there in Ottawa. So...we took off again, and landed in Toronto. The cool thing about European flights is that everyone claps whenever the plane lands - I haven't witnessed that on Air Canada flights! Once we landed we had to sit there forever again because there were no gates available. I think we were 4th or 5th in the line of planes waiting for gates. It ended up that we were on this plane for about 15 hours (instead of the 9 hours we were supposed to be on it!). I was so cold and my legs were so achy by this time! I had also missed my connecting flight to Winnipeg, which was funny because if we had been on time I would have had a 5 hour layover in Toronto. I had been looking forward to getting some dinner and relaxing a bit before having to get on the plane for Winnipeg. Finally we got a gate and came off the plane. The Toronto airport was absolute chaos and completely crowded, but they did a really great job of redirecting us to where we all needed to go. It turned out that my flight that was supposed to leave at 7pm (Toronto time) still had not left (due to not enough flight attendants, as they were all stuck on other flights), so my flight had not even left yet! So I hurried to the gate, and ended up sitting there for another half an hour, but couldn't grab food because we had no idea when we were going to be boarding. Finally we got on the plane, but sat in it for another hour and a half waiting to be refueled. Once we were flying it was really neat because the sky was pitch black, but full of clouds. Every few seconds the clouds right beside us would light up with lightning - sometimes just a glow and sometimes you could actually see the forks. It was really neat to see lightning so close! I had a minute of nervousness, wondering if the lighting would hit our plane and kill us all, but I felt pretty sure that the pilot knew what he was doing and wouldn't fly if it wasn't safe. Even though it was only a 2 hour and 15 minute flight, I seriously thought I was going to go crazy! My legs were so cold, sore and restless, and I was so dizzy and sleepy from all of the flying! But when I got off the plane, came down the stairs to see my parents waiting at the bottom, a smile broke out on my face and in my heart and I felt so glad to be home.

Unfortunately my luggage did not make it with me...I picked it up in Toronto from the flight from Vienna, and checked it in again for my new flight, but it must have gone to the wrong place in all of the chaos. So they will deliver it to my house when it is found. Not a huge deal to wait - I put the important things in my carry-on. I couldn't believe how many people were complaining at the Toronto airport about their flights and having to wait, etc. I'm pretty sure the Toronto airport did not request for God to make a huge storm so that they could mess up everybody's lives. I thought that they really handled it well - I couldn't imagine having to manage that many people and flights, and trying to figure out what to do with all of the late arrivals, departures, cancellations, missed flights, etc. I was actually really impressed. So...GO TORONTO! The guy in the Winnipeg airport who I reported my missing luggage to said that 4 years ago a plane from France crashed in the Toronto airport during a thunderstorm, so that is why they are so cautious. I say, better late than dead.

My sweet little dog, Annie, as very excited to see me (and I was THRILLED to see her!). I got lots of whimpers, kisses and incessant tail wagging. Even this morning when I woke up in bed, I was greeted by excitement and demands for attention. It was so nice to sleep in a real bed and not sweat all night because I have air conditioning. I definitely already miss Hungary and the work I was doing there, but it is nice to be home too. It's too bad one can't be in two places at once! There is already talk about doing the same camp next year for Hungarian children, and I have already said I will be there if it does happen!

Day 12 (July 30, 2012)

Today is my birthday! In Hungary! If I think in both Hungarian time AND Winnipeg time, I get to celebrate my birthday for extra long...haha :)

It was a bit more of a relaxing morning, as Rebecca wasn’t picking us up until 11am. But everyone was back at the training centre, so there were a lot of people. I enjoyed playing cards (a game called “Rage”) with Phil, Sabastian, Vicki, and Hannah. I think I won, but I can’t remember!

For lunch we went to an Italian place in Budapest called Marcello’s. It was really good - I had spaghetti with a white, cheesy sauce and mushrooms.

Rebecca & I at Marcello's

 Then Rebecca had to do a couple of errands and then we went to the Covered Market. The Covered Marked it kind of like the Forks here in Winnipeg, except bigger and filled with Hungarian stuff! It was awesome - I'd love to spend more time there!! After that we went to a cafe and had cake. I had this really good chocolate torte, as well as a chocolate ball covered in almond slivers and caramel. So good!

After that we went to Rebecca’s and watched some more Olympics. We had watermelon and popcorn. We went back to OM around 9:00, and Attila came by with his family to say goodbye to us. A nice surprise was that he handed me a Bibila (Hungarian Bible), and everyone signed it. I had been trying to get one while I was there, but couldn’t find any - I wanted to start collecting Bibles from each country I travel to for missions (in their language). Luckily, Alegria was sneaky and set the whole thing up with Attila! I am so blessed. :)

Anyway, off to bed! We are leaving at 4:30am to go to the airport!

Day 11 (July 29, 2012)

Today was a super awesome day! Being our first day off, we skipped church and spent the entire day touring Budapest with Meagan and John. They picked us up at 9:30 and we drove to the train station. We took the train to Budapest, and then got a bus pass for five people so that we could ride all of the buses, trams and subways all day. At the train station we had to go on this super long, scary escalator thing...I didn’t know it was coming up - I was just following my group - when they all stepped onto it and I came to a sudden stop right before stepping on. It was going so fast and I was so scared of falling! So I stood there watching my friends go down, down, down, and letting other people go on ahead of me. Finally I just took a deep breath and stepped on. Super scary! HAHA I know I’m a wimp! We had to go on them a bunch of times, and they were sooooo long. I couldn’t look up on the ones that were going up because they made me dizzy.

It was so neat walking around Budapest and seeing all of the buildings. I have never been to Europe, and I couldn’t believe I was seeing all of the architecture that I have only ever seen in movies! The buildings are so neat - they have so much detail and such neat colours. I took a lot of pictures of doors, because they were so neat! There were also lots of statues. One of them was of Zoltan Kodaly, so I (of course) took a million pictures with him.

There were also two guys with birds you could get your picture taken with - I’m not sure what the small bird was, but the other one was a hawk. I really wanted to do it, but it was 1600f and so I decided not to. We toured around the castle, which was really neat. You could even see the chunks out of the walls from the gunfire and canon balls.

The best part was when we came across a guy selling wooden flutes! He played all of them for us (I took videos, of course!), and ended up buying two! One is a traditional flute made out of wood, and one is a dual tone flute. If I could have, I would have bought one of everything!!

For lunch we stopped at a little restaurant and I had pasta & broccoli cheese soup. They don’t give out tap water at these restaurants (because that would be free), so I had to buy bottled water, which cost the same amount as buying pop.

We visited a church as well, and saw that there was going to be a Baroque recorder concert going on this evening. I SO wanted to go to that! I guess I will just have to come back to Hungary. :)

We also went to Hero Square, which was totally cool! I took lots of pictures! 

After that we rested in a little coffee shop (I had an awesome brownie!), and Ty did video interviews of us for OM Arts.

Then we took the subways and trains back home. There was a really good rain/wind/thunder and lightning storm this evening. We went to Meagan and John’s (and Rebecca’s) house where we hung out for the evening and watched some of the Olympics. Rebecca made me an awesome quesedia while the others had sausages. We came back to OM around 9pm to find all of our English camp friends back. I was so exhausted and fell right to sleep! It had been so hot today, and I think I didn’t stop sweating until we actually sat down at Rebecca’s.

It’s funny how you don’t realize that you are different from the rest of the world until you actually leave your home. I never realized how much I say “eh”...it has been pointed out to me many times...haha :) My apparent “Canadian accent” was also a source of laughter all day! And everyone was super confused when I said, “I was going to wear my runners but decided they would be too hot”. Apparently only Canadians call “sneakers” runners! :)

We also said goodbye to Ty before going to bed, as he was leaving at 4:00 in the morning to fly home. He hasn’t seen his family in 6 weeks!! We are going to miss him though! I have had so much fun hanging out/living with him and Alegria all week!

Day 10 (July 28, 2012)

 Today can be chalked up to one of the best days of my life. It was performance day! We started off by leaving at 8:00am with Attila and going to the OM office to print programs. Then we went to get the cast photos printed for the kids - a gift from Alegria, Ty and myself. For lunch we had Greek food - I had this awesome fried cheese patty...pretty much the best thing I’ve ever tasted. We met at the school at 12:00 to finish getting ready for the rehearsal at 2:00. Our run-through went really well, and then we gave the kids their pictures. I also gave Juli the letter I wrote her (I gave her my handwritten one, as well as Attila’s translation of it). She came up to me after to say how much she appreciated it, and to thank me for encouraging her. She just really touched me this week, and I wanted to let her know what I thought, and I wanted her to feel uplifted and to know that God is there for her.

Dear Juli,
I have truly enjoyed working with you this week and watching your talents grow. You are a beautiful young lady with so much to offer those around you. Your calm, gentle spirit gives peace to all who know you, and you are so kind and sweet-hearted. I hope that you are proud of all that you have accomplished this week. I could not imagine myself doing what you have done, and I am very proud of you too! You have come so far, and learned so much. Your Heavenly Father is definitely smiling upon you. God does not give gifts by mistake, and He is thrilled to see you sharing your talents with us. When you are performing today, remember that God is right there with you, encouraging you and supporting you as you share the gifts He so deliberately gave you. We are all so very proud of you. I pray that you feel the encouragement from God, from your cast-mates and from your directors. I pray that you continue to use your gifts to learn, grow, and glorify God. You will always be an inspiration to me.
Much love,
Ashley

For the performance we set out about 50 chairs, and ended up having to set up more once people came! It was great to see so many of their family members and friends out to see them. The performance went so well! It was the best yet, and I felt so proud of them. Cinderella did very well to, and I was so happy for her. By the end of the show I was trying not to cry - I’m so sad that it is over!

It was amazing to see the transformation in the kids during the five days we worked with them. One went from being so shy and staring at the wall to performing on stage and speaking lines. Another had no idea why she was chosen to play Cinderella and ended up doing an amazing job! Still others were shy and quiet girls at the beginning of camp, and were able to get up on stage, project their lines, show excellent expression and have a ton of fun! After the show Juli came up to me and said, “I will never forget you.” I will never forget her either. She was so brave, and such an inspiration. Fanni also told me that this week was the best week of her whole summer. I am so happy the kids enjoyed it so much.

It is amazing to see how God works. I spent the last 13 summers working on musicals at CUC, and took this summer off so that I could do something different. And what happens? I end up in Hungary doing musical theatre as mission work. It was so neat to come here and help to create a similar environment - one of encouragement and creativity. Has God been preparing me for arts missions?

After we finished cleaning up the gym we went and got some food. Back at OM, Alegria went to sleep (she had stayed up until 5:30am working on the cast photos the night before), and Ty and I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail on his laptop. I will admit...it was pretty funny. :)

I still have so much more to say, but I am so tired and need more time to process.

Day 9 (July 27, 2012)

Today we started off with worship for our team at 8:00. When we were singing “Your Grace is Enough” I was caught by the line “You send the weak to lead the strong”. This always seems to be a recurring theme in the Christian life. Those who are sent always feel that they are weak or not good enough to be doing the job that God wants them to do. I have often thought, “Why would I ever be a missionary? I don’t know enough.” But it seems to be the way of God - to choose people who are “weak” in some form or other and give them a job to do. I feel that I have already grown so much more this week as a result of this work. God is so amazing.

At 8:30 we did warm-ups with the kids - I led some vocal warm-ups, Bananas, Show Us How to Get Down, and then taught them the Pony game. After that we cleared of the stage and set up the gym. We did a run-through on the stage for the morning, which went very well. Our biggest challenge is to get the kids to speak loudly. The Hungarian word for louder is “hangosabban” (pronounced hongawshob-bon), but I have been having trouble saying it and one time yelled out “hogwash!”. So now whenever I want them to be louder I say “HOGWASH”! :)

For lunch I had a nice vegetable soup (they had meat soup), and rice with large breaded mushrooms on the side (the kids had breaded chicken that was pounded flat). For dessert we had this bread that had jam on it and was rolled up like a cinnamon bun.

After lunch the kids got into their costumes and we did another run-through. They looked amazing!

Cinderella's slipper fits! :)

 Cinderella was having some difficulty with her song, so during our break I worked with her a bit more. Ilana asked her if her parents were proud of her and her face crumpled and she started to cry. I put my arm around her and cuddled her as she told us about how her father picks on everything she does. She said he points out everything she does wrong but never notices anything that she does well. She is worried that he is going to come to the performance and point out all of her mistakes. So I spoke with her a little bit, and told her that he must care about her a lot, and wants her to do well. I said that he might just be one of those people who shows his love that way - through trying to help you do better, and that maybe he has trouble showing his love in other ways. But I also told her that she is not doing this performance for him - she is doing it for herself. She has come so far and learned so much. I told her that God does not give gifts to her by accident. He gave her these wonderful talents so that she could use them, and even if she feels that her father is not proud of her, her Heavenly Father is most definitely proud of her and encouraging her all the way. I told her that everyone in the cast is also proud of her, and that I am so proud of all that she has done and the hard work she has put into learning this role. Some of the other girls had gathered around while we were talking, and echoed some encouraging words as well and had a little group hug. It was a really heartwarming moment. I pray that tomorrow she feels the encouragement of all of her cast-mates and production team, and that she knows that God is smiling on her. I also pray that her mother and father are inspired by her performance and let her know how proud they are of her work.

After our break, we did one more run-through. A couple of parents came to watch because they are not able to come tomorrow to the performance. The kids did extremely well - the best yet - and everyone was excited when we were finished. I think that Juli felt a lot better about her performance too. The kids decided that they wanted to do another dress rehearsal before the performance tomorrow, so we will be doing that at 2:00 (performance is at 4:00).

Our Cinderella invitation (made by Alegria - the kids made the title)

Attila took us out for Chinese food, and then we went back to the training centre. I was supposed to be making mouse ears, but was having such trouble making them. Plus I had a monster headache (probably from the unbearable heat yesterday!), so I decided to give up and go to bed. I will make them tomorrow morning. Time to turn out the lights!