June 2025 Boumans by the Danube

 

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

   and cry to her

that her warfare is ended,

   that her iniquity is pardoned. (Isaiah 40:1-2).

Dear friends,

Lately I’ve been working to remind myself what it means to hope. I’ve been eagerly listening to the podcast “On Being,” as host Krista Tippett releases new episodes each week this summer in the “Hope portal” she is crafting for her listeners. Poets are her primary resources toward what she is calling a “muscular, reality-based hope.” Alongside these short episodes, I am also re-reading my copy of Walter Brueggeman’s deeply influential book, The Prophetic Imagination, in which Brueggeman offers readers what reviewer and community-builder William J. Barber II called the boldness to “endure and even overcome [our present] troubles, not merely by the tenacity of blues lamentation and the transcendence of gospel communion, but also by prophetic improvisations that jazz the song of Joshua and crumble the walls thrown up by the politics of domination.” Brueggeman’s writing lands right now for me into the midst of a world troubled by hatred, violence, division, unfathomable bombs dropped in God’s name, and a sense of fear and isolation borne primarily by those already oppressed, displaced, grieving, and often on the move. We are tempted to despair, and we are called to grieve. 

Addressing hope and grief, Brueggeman, (who died at age 92 in early June) wrote that 

“it is likely that the only measure of faithfulness is that hope always comes after grief and that the speaker (in this case the prophet Isaiah) of this public expression must know and be a part of the anguish that permits hope. Hope expressed without knowledge of and participation in grief is likely to be false hope that does not reach despair. Thus,… it is precisely those who know death most painfully who can speak hope most vigorously.”

We are walking alongside, and grieving with, many who know death and deep sadness – due to the death of children, the lessening of opportunity, deep relationship difficulties, vocational and economic uncertainties, and much more. It is a heavy time, and easy to despair. 

At the same time, we have so much for which to be grateful, including health, community, family, and myriad opportunities for hospitality and service. We are right where we belong. And the world is not yet as it should be.

Our fiscal year ends next Monday, and we are grateful to be in sight of our annual financial goal. 

A few extra gifts will take us over the top. If you have been pondering a one-time, year-end, or a new monthly financial gift, we would eagerly welcome your partnership. And if your church is looking to add a ministry in Europe to those you support, we would welcome a few more churches as partners as well. Details for supporting us can be found on our Resonate webpage here. After you tap the yellow “donate” button, you will be asked if you would like to donate in USD or Canadian, and then you will land on a page where you choose an amount, and then on the drop-down menu below you will choose “Missionaries-Europe,” and below that a drop-down menu will be a list of names, and you select Jeff and Julie Bouman. Below that are instructions for entering payment information. 

For a lengthier update on recent events for us, you will find an extended update below with details and stories about: the Cohort Europe finale in Budapest, graduations and year-end celebrations for our Young Adult International Fellowship, a follow-up on our Iranian friends who now live in Vienna, our plans for an upcoming six-month stint away from Hungary, and an upcoming fun bike ride around Lake Balaton.

In radical hope,

Jeff and Julie

 

i thank You God for most this amazing day

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e e cummings

Source: Complete Poems 1904-1962

Bouman Letter June 2025. Blog extras

The Cohort Europe team met in Budapest the first week of June for their time of closure together. We experienced a blend of joyful celebration, wistful and open reflection, and time for sharing of plans for the future, much of which remains unknown for several in the group. Rebekah will return to Pennsylvania to live with her family, and to grieve belatedly for her beloved Grandma who died just after Rebekah’s arrival in Budapest last August. Hanis will remain in Budapest, and is discerning how to best follow God’s call into ministry going forward. Caroline, who was in Lithuania for the year, will return another year to serve at LCC International University. And from the crew in Berlin, Kevin will return to Nova Scotia and is discerning a path forward in service; Anastasiya is strongly considering remaining in Berlin another year, but remains undecided; and Alisha is also somewhat undecided as she weighs options for graduate school and future service opportunities. We are all grateful for bringing this group together, and on our last night together, we participated in a deeply meaningful time of mutual blessings where each member looked each other member in the eye and offered a verbal blessing to them. 

Births and deaths and hope – several younger friends of ours, and children of our friends, are having babies, or trying to have them. We have been walking alongside those near to us who have encountered severe challenges in this journey. When a baby dies, it is an enormous grief; and when a woman miscarries, often very few people know. And when a baby suffers birth defects and endures major surgeries in the first weeks of life, we grieve and rejoice with what is possible. All of these have been part of our year so far, and we continue to hold the light for those walking in despair. 

Fellowship finale / graduations 

Many in our International Young Adult Fellowship are visitors in Hungary as a result of an academic program; and inevitably they conclude their studies and move on. This year we have said goodbye to several who have been faithful participants, and we wish them well as they move on to Czechia, to Germany, and to other places around the world. We anticipate a very fun graduation on Friday this week that we’ve been invited to attend for two friends from Kosovo and from Syria, as they are awarded bachelor’s degrees in Psychology. 

Vienna follow up 

I have connected the young Persian couple that was baptized at our church last fall, and who now live in Vienna, with an international church that was planted specifically to serve Farsi speaking Iranians and Afghans; I am hoping that this proves to be a place where they can grow in faith, and worship without fear.

Cohort Europe 2025-25; and Plans for totalization in US

We still have decisions to make, but it is becoming clearer that our mandated six-month absence from Hungary (due to a bi-lateral US/Hungary agreement) will take place from around December 1, 2025 through May 31, 2026. A good portion of this time will likely be spent in Michigan and Pennsylvania, with some travel to stay in touch with the Cohort Europe program that will be in progress. On that note, we are excited to welcome two new Cohort Europe participants starting in August. Both are recent graduates from LCC International University, and you can find more information here for Justé, and here for Dasha. Justè is from Lithuania, and Dasha is from Ukraine. More on their placements in future communication. If you are able, please consider giving to each of them, as they will be challenged to raise the necessary support for their participation, coming from Eastern European contexts where financial support for missions is not as culturally embedded as it is for North American, or Western European Christians. (Please let me know if you have trouble accessing their giving page – we have had some difficulties that the IT department is working on…)

Balaton biking

One fun thing we are looking forward to here in Hungary this summer is a visit from long-time friends Jim and Jennifer Bryson, from Dexter, Michigan. The four of us plan to set out on a four-day bicycle trip around the “Hungarian Sea,” or Lake Balaton, about a 200-kilometer trip along the edge of the lake, in mid-July. Watch for photos! 

Cohort Europe team closure excursion to Lake Balaton

On the ferry to the Tihany peninsula

Hanis and Rebekah's year of service in Budapest comes to a close this week.

Grateful for a good and faitbful team in Budapest this year.

All dressed up...

As a Cohort Europe team, we took an excursion to visit a bird sanctuary where one of Jeff's literature professor friends has organized a very successful grassroots effort to preserve several acres of prime bird sanctuary, partly through the discovery of this rare orchid, the European Marsh Orchid. 

With friends in early June we visited a thirteenth century church where ruins still stand in Zsámbék, a small town just outside Budapest. Incredible to imagine 800+ years of worship and awe in this space.

May 2025 Ascension Day - Boumans by the Danube

Boumans by the Danube, May 2025 – Feast of the Ascension

Dear Friends,

 

Today is Ascension Day in the Christian calendar, and like the disciples on that day so long ago, I too find myself wondering about the mystery that unfolded in this strange event. Jesus blessed his friends, and then left them, and he promised that (at some point soon) they will be clothed with power from on high. And while the disciples were looking up after Jesus, two bright creatures tell them that Jesus will return the same way he left. We are still living in that waiting time, rightly wondering about the timing of the completion of the promise Jesus made. 

 

As we wait, we worship, pray, work, wonder, and rest. Our wonder, and our work here in Budapest and throughout Europe continues to energize us and occupy our time. Today’s note will cover a brief set of talking points related to recent events, and then for those of you eager for a longer-form narrative, below is where I’ll provide more detail.

 

·      Julie continues enjoying her work as the Intake Coordinator at Olive Tree Counseling Center

·      We welcomed twenty or so guests for Easter to our place for a potluck brunch.

·      The highlight of the subsequent season of Eastertide has been an extended celebration of my 60^th birthday, on May 19.

·      The first week of June will once again bring the Cohort Europe participants to Budapest once again for our closing time of reflection and farewells.

·      Julie and I anticipate a year of a few changes, some transitions, and probably slightly more travel than has been usual.

·      Our Young Adult Fellowship has continued to meet on Thursdays every week this year. In recent weeks we have been watching films together, both for entertainment, but also for meaningful discussion.

·      Some news about the coming end to the fiscal year.

As we approach the end of another fiscal year at the end of June, we remain grateful for the many faithful monthly, quarterly, and annual partners who donate on such a regular basis; as well as to those who give once in a while, and to those who pray faithfully and those who keep in touch with us through notes and visits. We would ask that you consider a generous year-end gift if you are able, to help us meet our annual goal. Our current shortfall for the remaining four weeks is about $20,000. And as always, if you have ideas for congregations who are interested in supporting our ministry, please point them our way. 

 

From Fr. Henri Nouwen, on the spirituality of fundraising, a reminder of our posture toward partnership:

 

‘We have a vision that is amazing and exciting. We are inviting you to invest yourself through the resources that God has given you—your energy, your prayers, and your money—in this work to which God has called us.’ Our invitation is clear and confident because we trust that our vision and mission are like ‘trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither’ (Ps. 1:3).” (The Spirituality of Fundraising, 2010)

 

Peace to you, friends,

 

Jeff and Julie Bouman

 

Julie continues enjoying her work as the Intake Coordinator at Olive Tree Counseling Center, going in to the office most days of the week, and managing the correspondence and the placement process for clients coming to Budapest for care and counseling. Her daily routine is vastly different from previously, and she has had to give up some of the volunteering she was doing in a Hungarian high school. Overall, though, the Olive Tree staff community has been a welcome new source of encouragement and social engagement for both of us. 

 

We welcomed twenty or so guests for Easter to our place for a potluck brunch. On Holy Saturday we spent a few hours at the Fine Arts museum here in Budapest, mostly taking in the work of Mihály Munkácsy, one of Hungary’s most famous painters. Many of his most famous works are large-scale paintings of Biblical scenes, most famous among them scenes of the trial and crucifixion of Christ. Seeing these well-known works helped keep us in pre-resurrection grief mystery on that last day of Lent. And then right on time, Easter arrived on Sunday, and we were able to celebrate the mystery and wonder of the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

 

The highlight of the subsequent season of Eastertide has been an extended celebration of my 60^th birthday. Julie pulled a rare set of surprises on me, beginning with the surprise arrival of Bastian on May 8, and followed by a big celebratory birthday brunch on May 10, more than a week before my actual birthday. It was very fun to have people over for a blended American/Hungarian sampling of breakfast foods; and also to watch the video that had been put together with cameos from many of you who had sent in birthday greetings by video. Thank you. The actual birthday was also special, celebrated with our regular birthday club, friends Daniel and Elise, a Dutch-Hungarian couple we are very close to and with whom we typically celebrate birthdays with a shared breakfast. Being sixty has so far been uneventful – I am grateful for health, and for beloved friends all over the world. 

 

The first week of June will once again bring the Cohort Europe participants to Budapest once again for our closing time of reflection and farewells. It is hard to believe that another entire ministry year has already passed since these six remarkable individuals met for the first time in August last year. Since then we thank God for the opportunities for ministry and learning for Kevin, Anastasiya, and Alisha in Berlin; for Hanis and Rebekah in Budapest; and for Caroline in Klaipeda. Please join us in praying for a meaningful time of thoughtful and grateful closure to this year. At this point, we are still working on filling out our third Cohort Europe team – so far we have two participants, and there are others we are still finalizing – stay tuned for an update before the end of June on how this team takes shape. 

 

Julie and I anticipate a year of a few changes, some transitions, and probably slightly more travel than has been usual. The reasons for this are complex and many. Many of you already know that the denomination to which we have belonged since we got married thirty-six years ago (and Jeff his whole life) is experiencing some division. Our sending congregation, and where we are long-time members, Neland Avenue Church, recently completed a long process of disaffiliation from the CRC, and this means that we are no longer members of the denomination for which I am employed with Resonate. For the time being, my employment is not in jeopardy, but the landscape for this in future remains under review, and depends in part on the decisions made by future synods of this denomination. So we are grateful for each of you who continue to support us financially through gifts to Resonate, and we remain grateful to Resonate for their administrative support for our ministry as well. A second upcoming complication has to do with our residency in Hungary. The bi-lateral international trade agreement between the US and Hungary allows us to be here as foreigners not paid by a Hungarian employer for a period of five years. After this period ends (for us in March 2026), we have a choice – to either begin paying into the Hungarian retirement system, or to leave the country for a period of six months, in order to restart another five-year period. Sometime in November or December we will be leaving, and will not be able to return until May or June. Much of our time outside the country will likely be spent in West Michigan, and a portion will probably be spent in places where Cohort Europe partnerships exist in order to strengthen those partnerships. More on the details of this in future letters, but in the meanwhile please pray for clarity and for places to land in order to recharge, communicate well, and continue our ministry from a distance. 

 

Our Young Adult Fellowship has continued to meet on Thursdays every week this year. In recent weeks we have been watching films together, both for entertainment, but also for meaningful discussion. We have watched Sister Act (1992); Hacksaw Ridge (2016); and Babette’s Feast (1987). We have also been able to have three meetings in the lounge at a relatively newly built residence hall, which has been a pleasant change of venue for us. Other themes have included: “how to think about the resurrection of the body?” What does meaningful service look like? and a game called the “thirty-circle challenge.” 

 

Finally, I also had the chance last week to attend two very interesting lunch gatherings. The first was to host a lunch bringing together a former student from Calvin who is now a professor at Western Seminary – Travis West: with a young pastor from one of the more prominent Reformed Church pulpits in Budapest; and Hanis Kakaba, one of the two Cohort Europe volunteers this year, from Nigeria. We had a very rich discussion about post-Christian Hungary, church planting and evangelism – as well as some time comparing seminary training in the US and Hungary. And I was also happy to reunite with the Iranian couple that were baptized at St. Columba’s last October. They have recently moved to Vienna, Austria for a work opportunity, but they returned over a recent weekend, in part because while they have found a new church in Vienna, they still consider St. Columba’s their church “home.”

 

As we approach the end of another fiscal year at the end of June, we remain grateful for the many faithful monthly, quarterly, and annual partners who donate on such a regular basis; as well as to those who give once in a while, and to those who pray faithfully and those who keep in touch with us through notes and visits. We would ask that you consider a generous year-end gift if you are able, to help us meet our annual goal. Our current shortfall for the remaining four weeks is about $20,000. And as always, if you have ideas for congregations who are interested in supporting our ministry, please point them our way. 

 

From Fr. Henri Nouwen, on the spirituality of fundraising, a reminder of our approach

 

‘We have a vision that is amazing and exciting. We are inviting you to invest yourself through the resources that God has given you—your energy, your prayers, and your money—in this work to which God has called us.’ Our invitation is clear and confident because we trust that our vision and mission are like ‘trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither’ (Ps. 1:3).” (The Spirituality of Fundraising, 2010)

 

If you have been pondering a one-time or a monthly financial gift, we would welcome your partnership, and if your church is looking to add a ministry in Europe to those you support, we would welcome a few more churches as partners as well. Details for supporting us can be found on our Resonate webpage here. After you tap the yellow “donate” button, you will be asked if you would like to donate in USD or Canadian, and then you will land on a page where you choose an amount, and then on the drop-down menu below you will choose “Missionaries-Europe,” and below that a drop-down menu will be a list of names, and you select Jeff and Julie Bouman. Below that are instructions for entering payment information. 

 

Photos:

Bastian and Julie at a favorite café near the river.

With Bastian on the balcony outside our apartment.

 

With Bastian in front of Parliament.

With Bastian across the river from Parliament.

Another one in front of Parliament.

Bastian getting the tour of Olive Tree’s offices from Julie.

 

Our “birthday breakfast club” on Jeff’s birthday.

 

The big 6-0.

 

We caught this giraffe posing with the Budapest hot air balloon in the background. 

Easter 2025 Boumans by the Danube

Dear friends,

As Easter approaches, I (we) want to share some timely and insightful reflections on the celebration of Palm Sunday, as we make our way through the sixth week of Lent, Holy Week. It is all too easy to sidestep Palm Sunday’s incredible political significance, so I will share below the insights from my college friend, Rev. James Van Tholen, a Christian Reformed minister who died too young in 2001at age 36 of an aggressive cancer. Jim’s incisive sermons on the liturgical year have been collected in a published volume entitled, “Where All Hope Lies: Sermons for the Liturgical Year,” (Eerdman’s, 2003) and I have been doing my best to read them each Sunday over the past couple of years. We did not know each other well, but we did know each other at Calvin, and I resonate deeply with Jim’s depth of perspective - his references to Frederick Buechner, to Stanley Hauerwas, and his call to radical discipleship in the face of struggle and hardship. Jim’s reference to Palm Sunday as a “Junior Easter celebration” struck me as particularly insightful this week. Below are some quotes from his Palm Sunday sermon in that volume.
 
Where All Hope Lies: Sermons for the Liturgical Year, James R. Van Tholen
 
Excerpts from “Palm Sunday: An Alien King”
 
“How fitting that our Messiah should be welcomed into Jerusalem in a first-century version of a ticker-tape parade. But of course that’s the problem, because it doesn’t fit. It doesn’t really fit at all. Because this is Lent we’re in. For five weeks we’ve reflected upon the fact that we are a journeying people following in the footsteps of a suffering Savior. We’ve watched from a distance as he set his face to go to Jerusalem, and we know that he was setting his face not to go to a parade of palms but to go to a cross. All along we’ve known that the cross is where he’s been headed. And, now here we are on the brink of beginning Holy Week, at the entrance into Jerusalem, just a few days before the agony of being betrayed and tried and whipped and mocked and killed, and what do we find? We find a coronation. We find a royal welcome for the man who has come to the capital city to suffer many things. It doesn’t fit because the king has come to die in Jerusalem, not reign there. It doesn’t fit because the journey to suffering is still going on; his face is still set. It doesn’t fit because the next time he is labeled king of the Jews it’ll be part of some joke hanging over his bloody head. Maybe these Palm Sunday disciples caught onto anything. “Hosanna in the highest!” It just doesn’t fit. And so the timing here makes us a bit uncomfortable, doesn’t it? It’s a little strange singing, “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” when we remember that it’s a tomb, not a palace, in which he’ll spend the weekend. There’s something wrong with making Palm Sunday a junior Easter celebration, honoring Christ the king, when we know that this coronation will be completed with a crown of thorns…” …
 
“That’s the mystery of Palm Sunday, not how it doesn’t fit into Holy Week, but how well it does. The mystery is that the king of glory could enter the city of his people to be put to death there. The mystery is that the same ones who yelled so loudly, “Hosanna!” could a few days later yell more loudly “Crucify him!” and not realize that they were yelling the same thing. Filled with love for his people, he was willing to die in their place. He was so moved by the human cry, “Hosanna – save us!” that he refused to ‘come down from the cross and save’ himself. That’s the kind of king he is – like no other, belonging to a different world, raising up a different kind of people.”…
 
“So we praise this king with “Hosanna!” and “All glory!” but, when we do, we do it as he receives it – looking straight at the cross and knowing that that changes everything The cross is a sign of what happens when you take God’s account of reality more seriously than Caesar’s. When you refuse to underwrite the status quo, and instead proclaim, “Jesus is Lord!” then you believe that to find your life you must lose it. We are a community of the cross, strangers in a world that thinks only suckers end up on crosses. And being marked by a cross has a lot to do with dying, dying to the ways of the world, dying to other kingdoms, dying to accomplishment and success and status. But when Jesus Christ is your king, you don’t stay dead for very long.”
 
“Blessed is the strange king who comes in the name of the Lord. And blessed are all those who belong to him.”
 
Blessed is the strange king, Jesus, indeed.
 
Julie and I wish each of you a blessed, and challenging Holy Week, Easter, and Eastertide. The world is as challenging now as it was for first century Israelites – oppression, violence, and confusion. I pray that we all have the courage to follow the voices of the prophets who call us to provide for the aliens, the strangers, the widows and orphans, and all those on the margins of society. The courage to wash one another's feet, and to stand up in the face of danger and claim our identity as friends of Jesus.
 
On Sunday we will welcome friends from our local Budapest community who are also far from home, and after our Easter potluck brunch, we will read, as is our custom, Walter Wangerin’s short story “Lily” from the book Ragman: and Other Cries of Faith. If you can find it, I highly recommend it to you. It is a story of “again,” of a faith that reminds us that even in times of death and sorrow, there is hope, and God is near.
 
Recent news from us includes Julie’s very positive beginning of her work as Intake Coordinator for the Counseling Center where she now works. Her colleagues are providing on-going, in-depth, intensive therapy for missionaries and global workers, and Julie is often a first contact for people as they make their way to Budapest for care and counseling. We are very grateful for this opportunity to serve.

And in early April Jeff had the privilege to spend a few days with the Cohort Europe team in Lithuania as we learned from Resonate colleagues and others about the creative and expansive vision of LCC International University in Klaipeda. 
 
Peace to you, friends, as you make your way to the cross, and as you take in the enormity of the reality of the resurrection.
 
In eternal hope,
 
Jeff and Julie
 
PS In case there is anyone out there who fits the description of a “young adult” who might be interested in ministry in Europe next year, I am happy to report that our applications for Cohort Europe are still open until the end of the month. Join young adults from Eastern Europe and North America in a meaningful opportunity to serve the people of God in Europe next year. If you are interested, please send a direct email and I can connect you to the application process.
 
PS2. If you have been pondering a one-time or a monthly financial gift, we would very much welcome your partnership, and if your church is looking to add a ministry in Europe to those you support, we would welcome a few more churches as partners as well. Details for supporting us can be found on our Resonate webpage here. After you tap the yellow “donate” button, you will be asked if you would like to donate in USD or Canadian, and then you will land on a page where you choose an amount, and then on the drop-down menu below you will choose “Missionaries-Europe,” and below that a drop-down menu will be a list of names, and you select Jeff and Julie Bouman. Below that are instructions for entering payment information. Please consider joining us in partnership!

March 2025 Boumans by the Danube

Dear friends,

Today is a banner day for us, with Julie out the door bright and early to start a new intensive volunteer position as the Intake Coordinator with Olive Tree Counseling Center. Olive Tree serves global and cross-cultural workers with intensive counseling services designed to help them experience God’s transformation, wholeness, and peace. Julie will work alongside a talented staff of counselors and therapists, helping with communication and placement of clients in the process. We are grateful for the arrival of Olive Tree to Budapest over the past year, as they recently moved their operation from Antalya, Turkey to Budapest.

In other news, we are mid-semester with our international young adult fellowship, a group that regularly includes prayer requests from Syria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Pakistan, and other places where families of our participants live. We pray for peace, for opportunities, for flourishing. I am also once again teaching my class on the American Civil Rights movement, and the influences of poetry, music, and activism in the Black church on the drive for justice – there are nine Hungarian students and one student from Syria.
 
In February I had the opportunity to join parts of my extended Michigan family for a wedding of my niece Annika in Phoenix – it was a wonderful time of family celebration, and it was really good to see siblings and nieces and a nephew, and especially my mom. My mom has remained independent, living alone and continuing to drive herself around. Last week she suffered a left-brain stroke event, and received excellent care, including now spending time at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation hospital in order to try to recover some speech, and movements that were compromised. Overall we are all very grateful for the excellent care she has received.
 
Julie’s mom continues to recover from her stroke now over a year ago, and she recently moved as well, into a skilled care unit in the complex where she lives in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Most days find Julie on video calls with either her sister, her mom, or both. Prayers for both of our moms are appreciated, as well as wisdom for us as we navigate this season far away from loved ones.
 
In early March our Resonate Europe team (about 35 people) met together for our annual spiritual retreat, in a retreat center near Rome. Julie and I were able to go a few days early to do some visiting in Rome proper, visiting the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Forum, the Pantheon, and the Colosseum – it’s an awe-inspiring city, and we barely scratched the surface of it, but wow, truly amazing. The retreat was the result of a year of hard work for a small committee which I had the privilege to chair, so it was nice to finally see it all come together – we had organized talks, member care listening sessions, game nights, delicious food, and time for small group discussion and solo silence, all on the edge of a lake in the Roman hills outside the city. It was also an opportunity for the current participants in the Cohort Europe program to be with each other, and to spend informal time with seasoned missionaries serving in other parts of Europe. And next week already will be our Cohort Europe Intensive visit to LCC International University in Lithuania, to learn about another cultural approach to ministry in a different part of Europe. We are still accepting applications for the 2025-26 Cohort Europe program if you know any young adults who might be interested! 

As the world continues to turn, and division seems to multiply, we find ourselves at a loss; grateful for the grounding rhythms of the Lenten liturgies, and the example of Jesus. But we also turn regularly to the artists – to poets and musicians for solace, for understanding, for wisdom. Julie introduced me to this song a few days ago, and it struck a chord deep down in both of us – Citizens, by Jon Guerra, an artist not previously known to me, except as someone occasionally featured on the devotional app we use for morning prayers, Pray-As-You-Go.  Written for an American Christian audience, it has valence here in Hungary as well. It begins with, “I have a heart full of questions, Quieting all my suggestions, What is the meaning of Christian, In this American life?... and concludes with, “Is there a way to love always? Living in enemy hallways - Don’t know my foes from my friends and Don’t know my friends anymore. Power has several prizes - Handcuffs can come in all sizes - Love has a million disguises - But winning is simply not one.

In the hope of Easter, and resurrection,

Jeff and Julie

PS. If you have been pondering a one-time or a monthly financial gift, we would very much welcome your partnership, and if your church is looking to add a ministry in Europe to those you support, we would welcome a few more churches as partners as well. Details for supporting us can be found on our Resonate webpage here. After you tap the yellow “donate” button, you will be asked if you would like to donate in USD or Canadian, and then you will land on a page where you choose an amount, and then on the drop-down menu below you will choose “Missionaries-Europe,” and below that a drop-down menu will be a list of names, and you select Jeff and Julie Bouman. Below that are instructions for entering payment information. Please consider joining us in partnership!