Great big world.

"It's a great big world - it's a great big moon - it's a great big sky - it's a great big love for you."  These lyrics from Pierce Pettis keep rolling around in my head as I continue to experience new things this fall.  We are just past our halfway point of time away from our home in Grand Rapids, and starting to wonder things like, "what does this experience mean for us?" with more depth and frequency.  Ok, maybe I should just speak for myself - *I* am asking these questions and wondering these things.  I often tell students to be careful where they travel, and to beware how deeply they invest when they do.  The tension with traveling and investing in people and places is always in the leaving - at least for me.  If you travel well, you always leave a part of yourself where you've been, and this is certainly proving to be the case for me this fall.  So now the lament is that there are new parts of me in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzogovina; in Lupeni, Romania; in Dubrovnik and other parts of the Croatian coast; soon in Krakow, Poland; and of course all over the grand Hungarian capital city of Budapest.  A lament not because making friends and loving places is a bad thing, but because of the limits of time and space - I don't know when I will be with new friends, or see or be in these physical spaces again.  There is another meaningful set of lyrics that comes to mind as I ponder these things - missing places and friends that are far away, and anticipating the missing of places and friends that are now nearby, by Bruce Cockburn, "Smiles and laughter and pleasant times, there's love in the world, but it's hard to find - I'm so glad I found you - I'd just like to extend an invitation to the festival of friends."  That's a party I'm looking forward to - in all of these and many other places.  On this eve of the observance of All Saint's Day, and on this Reformation Sunday, I'll look backward with gratitude and forward with anticipation while living today "every, every minute."  Salutations, friends.

This is a photo taken in the Old City of Dubrovnik, Croatia last weekend.  

It was about 30 steps from the little apartment we rented while we were there.

 I took this yesterday from the panoramic overlook on the dome of the St. Stephen's Basilica 

here in Budapest.  The domes are the towers of the Great Synagogue, one of the 

largest in Eastern Europe.

And this is another taken yesterday from the Basilica - the Castle Palace on the banks of the Danube.

Pictures of Romania

We went to Transylvania this past weekend to visit our friends Dana and Brandi Bates (and Brianna and Gabriel!) at the New Horizons Foundation in Lupeni, Romania.  This is the view from our room in the Montana lodge in Straja.

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This is the 10th (of twelve) station of the cross on the 5-mile road up to the top of Straja.

A beautiful sunny morning up in Straja.

With Dana Bates out at the Viata ropes course.

Julie grabbing the stick on the "leap of faith!"

Abi and Brianna had a good time together on Saturday.

The view from the New Horizons Foundation cabana.

 

 

 

 

 

Headed down the mountain after a day on the ropes course.

St. Columba's

A little bit about church in Budapest. We have been attending St. Columba's Scottish Presbyterian, a small, but old English-speaking congregation very near our apartment. In fact, it is about three tenths of a mile further in distance from our apartment than Neland Church, our home church, is from our house in Grand Rapids (.6 miles, and .9 miles respectively). There are several other options in the city, but for some reason, we have been drawn to this one. The worship is liturgical, but not high church. We sing from the Scottish hymnal, many songs of which are familiar to us. The people are exceedingly friendly, and incredibly internationally diverse. We have worshiped with brothers and sisters from Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, England (and Scotland, of course!), France, Macedonia, the US, Hungary, and many other countries. Each week after the service there is a meal to which all are invited. Members of the congregation offer to cook and set up and clean up. Today was an unbelievable meal prepared by a man who comes from Spain, and is a local chef. He put together a spread of empanadas, tacos, kebabs, and a huge platter of paella that was simply amazing - even just to look at, much less to have the privilege to eat. Another woman brought in three large bushels of apples, fresh-picked from her husband's orchards near Lake Balaton. Julie and I were in such awe that we volunteered our family for dish duty, and we gladly washed, dried and put away the dishes after such a feast. It was a love feast that reminded me of the way the earlier followers of Jesus would share so much together - the way things are supposed to be between people. It was a glimpse of a coming shalom.

The church has a history dating to the 1830s, when some Scottish missionaries landed in Budapest as the Chain Bridge was being built to connect the cities of Buda and Pest across the Danube River. The bridge was designed with a particular Scottish bridge in mind, and many Scots were put to work in its construction. So a church was born, with a dual mission to minister to these Scotsmen bridge workers, as well as to reach out to share the gospel with the large Hungarian Jewish population. See http://www.scotskirkhungary.com/?history for a more detailed version of the story. Another group of people working to make the gospel a reality right where they are. They have even provided for two of the service-learning placements for Calvin students that I was looking for; one is leading a small church choir for the fall term, and another is providing help with weekly English lessons.

We had the opportunity to visit at the pastor's home last week, at a monthly gathering they have at their apartment. It was a great chance to get to know their family better, and to enjoy a meal and good conversation with them and a few other members of the church.

It's a Small World at the Gulyás Party

First of all, what is gulyás?  You might call it goulash.  And what you call goulash might be nothing like what gulyás actually is.  Gulyás is a meat and vegetable soup or stew, seasoned with the ever-present Hungarian spice, paprika.

Next, a gulyás party?  Apparently, gulyás is traditionally cooked over an open fire all day.  The Calvin students (along with us Boumans) were invited by the family of 2011 Calvin graduate, Christian Gibson, to spend Saturday afternoon at their home in the Budapest suburb of Tőrőkbálint to enjoy their hospitality, learn a little bit about their work in Hungary, and eat gulyás.

The Gibson home was a lovely retreat, which is fitting, because they have just moved into it for their work in providing pastoral care and counseling to missionaries who may be experiencing crisis, burnout, or just the everyday stress that we all need help handling sometimes.  In addition to their own living space, they have a large apartment where missionaries can stay, meeting space, and lots of plans for ways they can use this space to minister.  Hungary is a great place for them to carry out this ministry because of its central location in Europe and the abundance of mission organizations headquartered here.  And as we experienced first-hand, their hospitality is generous and encouraging.

The table(s) are set, and the view is incredible.

But where does the small world element come into this party?  Well, the Gibsons had also invited some other people to gulyás with them, including a family whose daughter is looking at Calvin as a possible school choice.  When we were introduced to Kevin and Wendy Mason, Wendy asked what my last name is.  I told her, and she looked at me, still puzzling, and asked if I had by any chance gone to Grove City College.  Yes, unbelievably I found a long-lost college classmate in Hungary!  (Or more accurately, she had found me.)  We both graduated in 1989 with Elementary Education degrees.  Wendy is shown in the picture below, wearing a teal top and seated across the table from me. 

Students enjoying some of the Gibsons' many musical instruments

Many thanks to the Gibsons for a beautiful afternoon and evening of feasting, good company, and a little serendipity!

We enjoyed the Gibsons' hospitality on into the early evening.