December 10, 2021

"And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together."
December 2021

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 40:1-6
 

 

Dear friends, family,
and those who join us in watching and waiting for the Day of the Lord,
 
Advent here in Budapest is a very interesting landscape of many public reminders of advent. Our local park has a large Advent wreath with 4-ft high electric candles that get lit up on the appropriate Sunday, and most other public squares have similar religious symbolism reminding us of the season. At the same time, while the country has historically been a predominantly Catholic country, with a noteworthy percentage of Reformed Calvinist Protestants, it is also a country that in practice is essentially post-Christian. Only 14% of Hungarians surveyed by Pew between 2015-2017 reported that religion is “very important” in their lives; and only 17% reported attending worship services at least monthly. The Hungarian government is regularly in the news presenting their Hungary as one of Europe’s final defenses against those who would destroy Christianity. It’s a complex landscape we are getting to know here in Budapest, and despite the odd juxtapositions, we are still grateful for the public reminders of our season of waiting.
 
We waited eagerly this week for the arrival of our daughter, Bea, and she will stay here with us through the holiday. We waited for the Christmas markets to open (even with Covid restrictions), and they have, requiring proof of vaccination to enter. Now we wait with the rest of the world for the scourge of Covid to abate; and for divisions to lessen in our governments, our churches, our families.
 
While we wait, Julie and I remain actively pursuing the development of our skills in Hungarian. We are (especially Julie is) in the B-1 range, within sight of the end of our exposure to the many different complex grammars. Our teacher has given us the metaphor of a Lego set to describe the way you have to know how to attach many many prefixes and suffixes, and sometimes prefixes that move to the “post position” if the negative or imperative form is being used… (Wait! Why isn’t that a suffix then?!!!) … yet, it does somehow make it more fun to think of it as kind of like building something with Legos.
 
In our other work, we are pleased to report a major development in the area of the refugee center, Kalunba Social Services. About a month ago we learned that a new director has been hired, and I (Jeff) have had the chance to meet with him several times. I feel confident that Laci has the experience, skill set, and clear-sightedness to steer Kalunba back on track after a rough transitional season. We are hoping to help with a major office move to a new location in the next few weeks. We also continue to host a gathering for international students on Thursday evenings in our apartment. Our group ranges in size from 6 to 16, and we see students mostly from African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia); as well as the Middle East (Pakistan and Jordan). It is a lively and fun group, and we provide a setting for support, learning, good food and a warm place to feel known and loved. This week with the group we gathered to share updates, and to make homemade Christmas cards that our church will distribute to families with children in our congregation and neighborhood.

A recent adventure making Hungarian gulyás for the first time

and tasting it with the international students.

  

 All smiles with Bea's arrival earlier this week
 

The class that I am teaching at Károli Gáspár University will end this coming week with a presentation by my one student – her task is to bring together writings by philosophers, poets, academics, and artists, on the purpose of higher education, with hypothetical suggestions to improve her own university with the practice of service-learning. It has been a joy to be back in the classroom, especially with only one very engaged and eager student. I have also been asked by the university to help them develop a program specifically for students at Károli who are not from Christian backgrounds, who are primarily Muslim. I’m eager to put to use some of the things I learned in helping Calvin University develop a similar group over the past several years. I also continue to meet with the campus pastors, and with one of them I am regularly providing feedback as she works to develop her ability to speak and write on theological topics in English.

A final project I am working on involves meeting with Hungarian church and non-profit leaders who might be interested in hosting American young people for a year-long cohort program. If you think of yourself as a young person (or if you know one), and you have any interest in talking about spending a year in Budapest, please let us know.
 
Julie continues to tutor a high school student in English once a week in our apartment, and also to volunteer twice a week in a local high school. A few weeks ago, she was asked to provide a lecture on young learners in a developmental psychology class at this same school.
 
We’ll be staying in Budapest for Christmas, missing family and friends in the US, but we're also content with our calling where we are.
 
We are so grateful for our support network. As we anticipate the end of the year, and the six-month mark of our fiscal year, our account with Resonate is showing that we have received to date about 30% of our annual need. A strong end of the year from those of you able and interested in partnering with us financially would be a wonderful gift. You can find information on how to support us here, where you will find a new Resonate website. If any of you belong to a church that is not already supporting us, and you think there might be interest in your church joining our support network, please let us know, and we will be happy to reach out to the appropriate contacts to inquire about developing a partnership.

In joyful expectation,
Jeff and Julie Bouman

  
A cup of mulled wine at the Christmas markets hits the spot.                             

Morning bike rides still regularly provide moments of awe. Liberty bridge at sunrise.  

 November 1, 2021

Boumans by the Danube – November 1, 2021   Dear friends, partners, and supporters,   Today, November 1, is a national holiday here Budapest, All Saints Day. It is a fitting opportunity for us to reflect, especially since it has been less than two weeks since my (Jeff) dad died on October 19. We have deeply appreciated the many expressions of sympathy and friendship we have received from so many of you through cards, emails, texts, and visits. Our 15-day visit to Grand Rapids turned out to be perfectly timed to allow us to be with my dad, and with our kids, my siblings, and my mom, and other friends, as my dad moved quickly through the last stages of his life. The visit was very tiring, very sad, and in the end very rewarding - to be able to accompany him in this way, and then to hear literally hundreds of testimonies to his life well-lived. One key take-away for me was the connection between my dad’s nearly 30 years of service on the Missions Support Team at his church, Cascade Fellowship CRC, and Julie’s and my recent decision to respond to a call from God to serve in overseas missions. He was not happy at all about the distance between us, but he was very proud and supportive of our decision to follow this call.   Our work here in Budapest continues, mainly in continued daily language lessons, student fellowship ministry, teaching, mentoring, and continued patience as the refugee ministry patiently sorts through its vision, resources, staff, and social service realities.   I ended up with only one student in the university class I am teaching, called “Higher Purposes of the University: Service-Learning as Practice, Pedagogy, and Philosophy.” Éva is a delightful young Hungarian, a future teacher who has responded well to the course essentially being the equivalent of an independent study experience. She began her required service-learning experience at Kalunba last week, tutoring three brothers who are here in Budapest from Pakistan, two of them twins with a healthy rivalry in their learning. I am also helping to coordinate for two Calvin students, whose service-learning assignment has also placed them at Kalunba. They are also helping tutor these same boys, as well as helping out in a variety of other ways around the office.   Our weekly international student fellowship began on September 23, and we’ve hosted four gatherings so far. About 25 different students have come to one or more of these gatherings, and they have come to Budapest from countries that include Pakistan, Hungary, Tanzania, Kenya, Jordan, the US, and Indonesia. After our two-week trip to the US, we were glad to be able to re-gather last week with about 5 students, from Kenya and Tanzania. Our partners leading this group include Szabina, who is a Hungarian who also serves as the Assistant Pastor at the Scottish Mission church we attend, as well as Viktória, who works for Károli Gáspár University as the campus pastor for international students. Both Szabina and Viktória are pastors in the Reformed Church in Hungary. Each week we spend time enjoying tea and snacks together, playing a game, and then sharing with each other our burdens and gratitudes, as well as a time in the Bible and in prayer.   As the holidays and the end of the year approach, we are once again deeply grateful for all of the support that is shared with us. We count each of you as partners with us in this work in Hungary. As October turns to November, our financial update shows us at about a quarter of our annual support raised, after about a third of a fiscal year, making us just slightly behind a healthy support schedule. We received a number of new monthly donors since our last update, and we are very grateful for those – monthly pledges make it much easier to plan our budget. We have also been grateful for several donations of stock gifts – Resonate has staff in the development office who can help if any of you have questions about something like that. Once again, you can find more information on giving at this link; make sure to click through to the second page if you’re trying to make your gift monthly.   One last story before we go – in late September we were privileged to be able to spend a Sunday with our Iranian friends A and M, about whom we have written previously. They arrived in Budapest after some years in transit from their home in Iran, spending some years in a refugee camp in Serbia, among other places along the way. On a gorgeous fall day we went to worship together at St. Columba’s, then took the public transportation up into the Buda hills, where we ate lunch together and hiked some miles up to the top of Janos-hegy, the high point in Budapest, with a lookout tower, and then we rode a tourist chair lift back down to the city. Spending time with these saints and friends keeps us grounded in our understanding of what we are doing here. Life is short, people are basically all looking for the same kinds of comfort, friendship, stability, and opportunity, and when you spend quality time in the company of folks from very different backgrounds, you see better the image of God in them, and in yourself.   Thank you for your partnership that has helped us with so much upheaval and opportunity these past several months. We continue to pray for each of you, to covet your prayers for us, and to look forward to contact when we can get it – feel free to respond with even a short note after you read this – it is so encouraging to have some sense of who is reading what we write. And we are really interested in what is going on for you.   Peace and friendship,   Jeff and Julie Bouman Budapest  1 November 2021   Students from our Thursday international student fellowship Gravestones of young Hungarian martyrs who died in the country's 12-day revolution in 1956. A traditional Hungarian "house blessing," Where there is love, there is peace, where there is peace, there is blessing, where there is blessing, there is God; Where there is God, there is no need." Our family had a chance to take a one day getaway along the Michigan shoreline, reminding us of the beauty of the fall season in Michigan.

 September 18, 2021

Dear friends,      Greetings from Budapest. It’s been some time since we last sent an update, and we’ve covered some miles in the meantime! In early August, after five months of living and learning in Budapest, we flew back to the US for a short visit. Our main goal was to help with our daughter Bea’s move from Seattle back to Michigan. We enjoyed four hot-but-beautiful days in Seattle, helping her pack and clean; we visited parts of the greater Seattle area (including the highlight trip to Orcas Island), and we enjoyed the first days our family had been together since Christmas. Our 2400-mile road trip involved a 1999 VW Beetle, and a 1994 Dodge Ram cargo van, partially converted with a bed and some storage. As wildfires raged all over the west, we navigated 5 very hot, sometimes smoky days through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, all the way to Michigan. We enjoyed participating in a send-off prayer for her at Bea’s Seattle church, Wallingford Presbyterian – a loving, embracing community where she spent 4 years worshipping. In Michigan we were glad to be able to offer a report at Neland Avenue CRC, our sending congregation, and to spend time with good friends and colleagues in and around Grand Rapids. A special highlight was being able to participate with close friends in an annual tradition of sharing a meal to celebrate each of our wedding anniversaries, which all happen in July. A challenging part of the month involved a short hospitalization for Jeff’s dad, followed by his move into the memory care unit in the community in Grand Rapids where his parents are living. Prayers for each of our parents, and for our kids, are coveted. On Monday, August 30, we flew back to Hungary.      Since our return we have been back at it with language learning. We were glad to have both successfully passed our A-2 level exams with our teacher just before leaving, and our learning loss after three weeks away seems to have been minimal. The A-2 level roughly equates with finishing a year of university-level language study. We now are once again enjoying 90 minutes a day five days a week, still on-line, with our teacher, Panka      The first big event upon our return to Hungary was a wonderful St. Columba’s Scottish Mission church retreat at a lakeside retreat center in Balatonfűzfő, September 3-5. There were about 30 people in attendance, from at least 6 countries, and ranging in age from about 2 to about 82. It was a good time of fellowship, and deepening relationships with this warm community. One highlight, among many, was the opportunity for Jeff to learn two Hungarian tongue-twisters and perform them with a new Hungarian friend (who learned “Peter Piper”… and “How much wood would a woodchuck…” for the occasion). In addition to the retreat, we are involved in a weekly on-line Bible discussion with the church, volunteering in the Sunday School program as teachers, and helping to lead a weekly fellowship with university students.      At the university, a couple of things are happening. On Friday, September 10, Jeff was invited to participate as a presenter on a panel for the first “Christian Open Day,” a set of lectures representing a range of data and projects related to Christian practice in the world. A report on helping Christians in Syria, one on understanding and preserving Coptic Culture, another on the History of Christianity in Korea, an overview of Christianity in Hungary, and Jeff presented on the development of a robust interfaith program at Calvin University that he helped to create and direct over the past decade. It was a very interesting collection of ideas and a privilege to participate. In terms of teaching, Jeff listed a course on “experiential learning and the purpose of the university.” This was a kind of exercise in testing the waters for adjunct teaching at Károli Gáspár University, and as of this writing it appears that this topic caught the attention of only three students for now – maybe a good chance to get more familiar with teaching in the international context in a small group setting. And the small size of the group allows more time for continued language learning and a focus on other areas of ministry.      At Kalunba, the refugee-serving organization, staff (including us) are still getting things in order after the reshuffling over the spring and summer. With the recent events related to the withdrawal of American and other troops from Afghanistan, there may be a large need developing. Early reports are suggesting that up to 400 Afghanis were brought to Hungary by Hungarian forces – these were people and families who had been collaborating with the Hungarian Army in its support role in the Afghanistan mission overall. If Kalunba is asked to help resettle some portion of these new arrivals, this may be a catalyst to the organization recovering its footing. A recent event we were invited to involved listening to the dissertation findings of a recently-completed doctoral dissertation that studied the effects of immigration and language-learning on identity formation of children 11-18 years old. Kalunba had been the primary case study organization for the research, and it was clear that the organization has the reputation and broad support to do the kind of work we are hoping to help it do. Hopefully there will be more concrete news to report later this fall.      Finally, we were witness to a fascinating week-long event that was center stage last week in Budapest, the International Eucharistic Congress, hosted by the Catholic church. This event took over the city, with enormous stages, ubiquitous publicity (“Meet Jesus in Budapest!”), and a concluding Mass led by Pope Francis himself. On Sunday, September 12, as we walked the three short blocks to church, we had to cross one of the main arteries of Budapest, Andrássy avenue, as always. As it happens, the Mass where Francis was to appear was held at Heroes Square, which is at the terminus of Andrássy, and there were pilgrims walking along this road beginning very early in the morning. In order to get to our little Protestant church, we had to navigate against the flow of hundreds of pilgrims, which felt strange and a little bit too Protestant, in a humorous way.      A brief update on our financial needs. We are still getting used to the rhythms of missionary life, and one especially new area where we are still learning is the area of communicating our needs well with supporters. We love the image and reality of being in partnership with you, and providing many of you a way to be connected with the work of campus ministry, teaching, refugee resettlement, and general hospitality in Hungary.      Over the past year we have been blessed to have about 200 individuals and 6 churches donate financial support, and promise to pray for our ministry. About forty percent of what we need on a monthly basis is pledged by many of these individuals and churches, for which we are deeply grateful. In the first year, the remaining sixty percent came through one-time gifts.      Since our support-raising began in September, 2020, the fall season of 2020 was encouragingly filled with many very generous one-time donations, as we told our story of calling and our impending major life change.      Now is the time for the one-time gifts to begin again, if we are to continue to stay on a path toward meeting our goal for the 2021-22 fiscal year. We would love it if there were more monthly donors out there, but we understand that such a commitment isn’t possible or desirable for everyone. The link to donate to our Resonate account is the orange button at this link, with the option to make your gift recurring on the second page. We continue to covet your prayers, emails, texts, and Zoom meetings. Thank you, thank you, thank you! In the peace of Christ, Jeff and Julie Bouman Budapest  18 September 2021 Pictured in clockwise order: A family pic in Seattle; Bea with friends packing "the beast," our affectionate term for the van; A family photo at Mt. Rainier National Park; and Jeff with his dad before heading back to Hungary.

 July 16, 2021

Dear friends, family, supporters, encouragers, past and present colleagues,
 
Julie here, to thank you for being all of the above and more, and to give you a snapshot of what we are up to.
 
Recently there have been a number of very hot days in Budapest: days in the 90s, high 90s, and about 100 a few days. These are the kind of days where a sheen of sweat coats your neck, even if your hair is tied up in a ponytail. You make sure to walk on the shady side of the street. The chart on Google maps appears to show that the local waterpark is two or three times busier than usual. You wonder whether you should escape your un-air-conditioned apartment by going to the mall or movie theater or just riding around on the 4/6 tram because it does have air.

At the end of a recent such week, we had plans to do something fun with a young Iranian family who arrived in Budapest around the same time we did. They are clients of Kalunba, the refugee-serving organization which will be one of the main foci of our work here. Personnel changes and the effects of the pandemic have brought a lot of uncertainty and upheaval to Kalunba, so we are still just beginning to discern what Jeff’s and my roles there will be. But one of our main connections to Kalunba so far has been spending time getting to know A. and M.
 
Our plans for this get together were to go to Margit Island, and for the first time their 12- and 15-year-old sons would join us. One of the island’s main entertainments is a fountain with choreographed shows of water and colored lights dancing to music happen on the hour between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. The island is also an oasis of green in the middle of the city, especially for families like ours and theirs living in the concrete-heavy inner part of the Pest-side of the city. Flower gardens, a small zoo, a waterpark, snack and drink stands, small pedal- and motor-driven vehicle rentals, even an open-air theater round out the entertainment options.

.              
 
When we arrived, it turned out that A. and the boys had been to the island and the fountain before. But M. had not been with them, and they were excited he was going to get to see the musical fountain. Even though the fountain’s “show” was still 20 minutes away, we sat down at the edge of the fountain and started enjoying being near the water. Pretty soon shoes and socks started coming off. The water on bare skin was so refreshing. When the music started, though, A. just came alive with delight in the music and the water together, and her joy was contagious. Whenever the music built to a climax, so did the spray from the fountain, and the mist enveloping us made us laugh and cooled us down naturally.
 
We did some other things after the show, including introducing our friends to their first taste of Hungary’s popular “junk” food, langos, (think a savory elephant ear, fry bread, or funnel cake). But the clear highlight of the evening was the fountain, and we made our way back for the 9 p.m. show. At 9 p.m. the show is longer, and it is dark enough by then for the colored lights to change the entire look of the presentation.
 
As we sat there in the dark, once again enjoying the coolness and beauty of the water, the music, and now the lights, I was struck by two things. Dear A. and M., unlike Jeff and I, had not come to Hungary by choice. They had to leave their native country when it became known that they had become Christians. As soon as that information was public, their lives were in danger. When their boys talked about wanting to go "home" that night, and A. told us that by “home”, they meant the fountain because they liked it so much, the difference between their situation and ours could not have been clearer to me. No matter how much I enjoy the display, I don’t think I will ever call the fountain “home.”
 
And as we sat listening to Michael Bublé sing,
 
“Fish in the sea
You know how I feel
River running free
You know how I feel
Blossom on a tree
You know how I feel
 
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good…”
 
And as I witnessed the enjoyment A. and M. and the boys were taking in this simple entertainment, I could only hope and pray that it is indeed a new day and a new life for them. It is not easy for them, and yet we had this moment of which Marilynne Robinson could have been speaking in her novel, Gilead, when she wrote, “…it is easy to believe in such moments that water was made primarily for blessing, and only secondarily for growing vegetables or doing the wash. I wish I had paid more attention to it.”

Other things happening:

• Continuing daily Hungarian lessons; we’re starting to learn the past tense! Since March, we have had over 90 lessons, each 90 minutes, and we are approaching A-2 level competence.
• Jeff is planning to be teaching a course at Károli Gáspár Egyetem (university) this fall on Service-Learning and the purpose of university education.
• We are meeting new people: Viktoria, Csenge, Carmella, Alyeriz, Mahdi, and some neighbors.
• We are meeting some old friends: Kata, Eva, Kati, Judit, Zsuzsa, Viki.
• We are actively participating in a mission discernment process of our church community in Budapest.
• We are experiencing many firsts after the easing of Covid restrictions: singing in church, eating inside a restaurant, seeing a movie. Covid numbers are down drastically, and vaccination rates have been very good until recently, slightly ahead of US percentages.
• We will be visiting Michigan and Seattle in August to celebrate Abi’s graduation and to help her move back to the Midwest. Current schedule: GR August 8-10; Seattle (and enroute to GR) August 11-20; GR August 21-29. We would love to see as many of you as possible! On August 8 we will give a brief update at Neland church in the morning.

Prayer requests:

• Continued low Covid numbers for Hungary (and for an end to the pandemic)
• Discernment as many opportunities to serve begin to present themselves
• A. and M. and family’s adjustment to life in Hungary (and our adjustment)
• Our parents and children, especially Jeff’s dad, who has had a rough several months with difficulty sleeping, reduced mobility, and an undiagnosed set of conditions. 

Financial update. We reached the end of the fiscal year (our first with Resonate) in good financial shape. Because we were not with Resonate for an entire fiscal year (our year began part-time in August), it’s harder to calculate whether or not we reached our official target goal, but all indications are that we have had a very strong start. We are grateful for each of you who have made financial gifts to Resonate on our behalf, many of whom have made monthly pledges and kept them. Nearly daily we receive email reminders that one or more of you have made a gift that day to our account. Thank you. Monthly donors make it easier to plan and budget, but we definitely appreciate gifts that come in annually or in a less-planned way. If you made a gift last year to our account, we encourage you to consider giving again this year, and/or becoming a monthly donor. Our goal set by Resonate for the 2021-22 fiscal year is $113,000. Please reach out if you have questions about that goal – we have joined Resonate during a time of some structural changes in their process of making goals like this, so the rationale is hard to sum up in a short paragraph. In any case, we are confident that we are where God has called us to be, and we trust the Spirit’s leading for those of you considering supporting us. We are happy to report that there are six congregations currently supporting us annually, and we are in conversation with others.

In Christ's Peace,

Jeff and Julie Bouman

 June 1, 2021

1 June 2021   Dear friends, family, colleagues, and support team,   We are now writing to you from a new place – in late May we officially moved out of our temporary apartment, and over a two-week period we made a dozen or so one-mile trips on foot, by bus, and a few in taxi or the car of a good friend, and we have now begun the adventure of furnishing a new home here in Budapest. In our new place there are new sounds, rumbles, neighbors, transportation options, and shops. We are still waiting for delivery of a couch, book shelves, and a piano loaned to us by a friend.   May in Hungary does not include a Memorial Day, though Hungarians generally have more days set aside per year than Americans do for remembering those who have died in service to their country. The month of May here did include a day for laborers, for mothers, a Monday holiday to commemorate Pentecost, and the last Sunday of May was Children’s Day, a day set aside to celebrate and enjoy children. The rate of vaccination here has been very steady and quick, and the rates of infection have declined precipitously, making things more open, with fewer restrictions, and we’ve even been able to worship inside a church sanctuary for the first time in 14 months, albeit still masked and without singing. We were thrilled and very grateful to receive news about two weeks ago that we were eligible for the Johnson and Johnson single dose vaccine, and this week we reach the two-week milestone after vaccination.   Jeff’s dad continues to struggle with mobility issues and questions of declining strength. His mom and dad celebrate their 60th anniversary today on June 1, a major milestone – we are grateful for their faithful witness to God in their many decades together. It is hard to be far from them in this season of both celebration and struggle.   Abi graduates from Seattle Pacific University on Sunday, June 13, and while we initially had been making plans to be there for that, we changed our plans when the university announced that the commencement would be entirely virtual. Instead, we hope to go to Seattle in August to help her move from Seattle back to the Midwest. We hope we can see many of you during that time visiting the US. Anyone interested in joining (even briefly) a Zoom celebration of Abi’s graduation on June 13, message us directly, and we will send you the Zoom link information. The work for us here in Budapest continues to be primarily the work of being students. We are in class learning Hungarian for 90 minutes a day, five days a week. We still have not begun to learn past or future tenses, but today we shifted to a new kind of grammar for definite, rather than indefinite verb conjugation. We feel real progress, and also the enormity of this project. But we are still enjoying it, thanks be to God.   Jeff has been meeting with the University Pastor regularly, and has been attending the weekly student worship. The experience of sharing communion in another language, and that of singing (or listening to) familiar hymns and choruses sung with different words, is one that helps de-center our American-ness in a good way.   Our work with Kalunba, the refugee ministry, is still essentially in the beginning stages, largely due to the same set of questions regarding how they return to normal work after Covid, replacing some key staff members, and a move from their current location to a smaller office in a nearby building. More to come, but this is an area without much to report for the time being.   We continue to enjoy and be fed by our worship, fellowship, and study alongside fellow participants at our Budapest church, St. Columba’s Scottish Mission. In a recent meeting with the associate pastor, we were excited to learn about a potential for ministry with international students who are affiliated with the church. We are eager to continue meeting regularly with her to learn more. I already mentioned that we have been able to attend in-person Sunday worship; and we continue to meet with folks for weekly Bible study, and occasionally for coffee and lunch opportunities at outdoor cafes. Restaurants are open for indoor dining, but only to people who have received an “Immunization passport,” issued by the government affirming that you have been vaccinated in Hungary. Ours have not arrived yet, and this limits us to outdoor dining for the time being, which is fine.   On the day of our move, Saturday, May 29, we read the following liturgy as a prayer for God to bless our new place with vision, hospitality, and friendship…     A liturgy for moving into a new home   We thank you for this new home, O Lord, for the shelter it will provide, for the moments of life that will be shared within it. We thank you for this our new home, and we welcome you here. Dwell with us in the place, O Lord. Dwell among us in these spaces, in these rooms. Be present at this table as we eat together. Be present as we rise in the morning and lie down at night. Be present in our work here. Be present in our play. May your Spirit inhabit this home, making of it a sanctuary where hearts and lives are knit together, where bonds of love are strengthened, where mercy is learned and practiced. May this our home be a harbor of anchorage and refuge, and a haven from which we journey forth to do your work in your world. May it be a garden of nourishment in which our roots go deep that we might bear fruit for the nourishing of others. May this our new home be a place of knowing and of being known, a place of shared tears and laughter; a place where forgiveness is easily asked and granted, and wounds are quickly healed; a place of meaningful conversations, of words not left unsaid; a place of joining, of becoming, of creating, and reflecting; a place where our diverse gifts are named and appreciated; where we learn to serve one another and to serve our neighbors well; a place where our stories are forever twined by true affections. Grant also, O Lord, that our days lived gratefully within these temporary walls, enjoying these momentary fellowships, would serve to awaken within us a restless longing for our truer home. Incline our hearts ever toward the glories of that better city, built by you, O God – a city whose blessings are neverending, and whose fellowships are eternally unbroken. Amen   As ever, we are so grateful to each of you for your interest, your support, your gifts of time and financial resources. We are eager to stay more personally connected, so feel free to reach out on whatever platform you are comfortable with, and we would love to spend some time together learning how you are doing, and how we can hold you in the Light of Christ as well.   Peace,   Jeff and Julie Bouman The view from our dining room table, where we eat our meals, take our Hungarian lessons, do our work, and basically look out on the traffic and pigeons and neighbors on Izabella street, in Terézváros, one of the early “suburbs” in what is now very urban and very “downtown” Pest. Two lines of the red electric trolleybuses run up and down Izabella all day every day, so we are accustomed to the music and rhythms of urban sounds. Finally, as the fiscal year nears its end, we are grateful for the overwhelming support we have received. Any year-end giving can be made on-line at the Resonate website. Peace to all of you,

May 1, 2021 

Dear friends,
Today is Saturday, May 1, in Hungarian “a munka ünnepe,” Worker’s Day. This morning the Jesuits who put together the daily devotional podcast that Julie and I try to listen to pointed us to the tradition in the church of remembering St. Joseph as “the worker.” This is the day when many European countries, including Hungary, remember and honor the work of everyday laborers, and many businesses close to allow some of those workers a day of rest and celebration. It’s a good day to remember the sacredness of work in each of our callings; and to ponder the question, “is there some aspect of your work that helps make the world more as God would want it to be?” 

Our work lately has been full of new things, people, places, and questions. Our main work for now is language learning, and we are busy with that each weekday from 10-11:30am, on-line with our teacher Panka, speaking our elementary Hungarian, developing our vocabulary, and moving through the required endless mistakes that early language learners must go through. We enjoy it, even if it does work the brain pretty hard, and the 90 minutes go very fast every day. Then we usually have lunch, and take a short break before we get to our homework for the next day, and the many other communication tasks we have. Our work also includes learning more about each of the facets of our ministry here – at Kalunba, at the university, and within the ecumenical office of the church – in campus ministry and other areas. This week I (Jeff) had two very interesting meetings of note, one with the University Pastor, and the other with a seasoned community organizer who works to equip Hungarian churches to better embody and live out the gospel in their response to the needs of their neighborhoods and communities. Both of these new colleagues provide opportunity for us to come alongside good work, and to help extend it. We also have been slowly getting to meet with various staff, volunteers, and clients of Kalunba, the refugee-serving organization in Budapest. There are a variety of changes taking place at Kalunba currently, some as a response to Covid, some due to staff moving on or taking maternity leave, and others as a part of a new cycle of elected leaders in the church. We are grateful for the chance to more slowly and surely integrate into the life and culture of this organization. We have been meeting and staying in touch with a young client family recently arrived from the Middle East, here in Budapest for less than two months so far with their two pre-teen boys, after spending three years in a Serbian refugee camp.
 
We have also found ourselves working on the establishment of our new home here in Budapest. We have located an apartment we will move into in late May – the one we are in now was meant to be temporary until June 1. We are excited to have found a place that has excellent potential for hospitality – it’s size and location make it close to ideal for our hoped-for opportunities to host others in our home for meals, conversation, and fellowship. Last weekend we were given the keys in advance, in order to move some things in that we had purchased on-line at a US Embassy auction. And Julie has been busy monitoring various websites that advertise used furniture and other home furnishings. This morning we felt very successful when we navigated our way to the home of a family having a kind of estate sale, and we were able to buy two chairs, a large rug, and a beautiful old Hungarian wicker market basket. The work and humility to conduct even very simple business like this when you don’t speak the language is notable – the older couple selling the items did not speak any English and our basic Hungarian was not terribly helpful, so we had their grown daughter on the phone being passed back and forth in order for us to make the purchase. Another recent adventure came when we picked up the furniture from the Embassy sale last weekend. After a failed attempt to pick it up with a too-small borrowed van, we then rented a manual transmission extended length van that was very challenging (but fun!) for Jeff to drive on narrow downtown Budapest streets. The most challenging feat was conducting a u-turn on a very busy, very narrow street in a long van with no clear sight lines. No damage was done, and the mission was successfully accomplished.
 
Another element of our work involves our role within Resonate – we are part of a team of six couples and families that live in various parts of Europe, from Berlin, Germany to Klaipeda, Lithuania. Each week we meet on-line for conversation, planning, prayer, and support. We also stay connected to Resonate’s many other programs and activities. I highly recommend you check out the upcoming Glocal mission summit opportunity, free to register, and coming up May 13-15.
 
We also take very seriously our responsibility (and need) to stay connected with family and friends, and with supporting churches and individuals all over the world. Our support network now includes over 180 individual or family financial supporters, and another 20-30 who have joined our support team as prayer partners. Five churches have taken us on as partner missionaries with regular support and communication. We have received support from people in several countries (including several Hungarian donors), and many states in the US. There are about 65 recurring donors who have pledged to give monthly or quarterly or annually, and another 115 or so who have given one-time gifts for now. Fifty of our donors have come from within our sending congregation, Neland Avenue CRC; over sixty of our donors are former students, and more than thirty are former colleagues, faculty and staff at Calvin. Nearly every day we receive an email update reminding us of new gifts, and we remain mindful, grateful, and committed to the partnership and trust that these regular gifts suggest. Thank you.
 
Finally, just a word about what we see when we walk, run, bike and take public transportation around Budapest. The built environment here, as everywhere, is a reflection of the culture, the history, memory, hope and disappointment of a society. Everywhere you turn in downtown Budapest you see a plaque, a bust, a statue, a memorial of some kind to some person or some group who someone wanted to remember. Many are reminders of painful parts of the country’s history, but there are also lots of reminders of Hungary’s commitment to beauty in the arts, in music, and in architecture and design. Many others are inside jokes, playful ways of remembering people and events in creative and beautiful ways. Poetry and public art seem to be hallmarks of Hungarian culture, reflecting a depth of seriousness and intellect that weaves beauty and humor into the public landscape. Last night we went for a walk up to the “Vár” or the castle district, with its perched view over the bridges of the Danube, and the dazzling lights of the Parliament and other Pest buildings and squares. It was a perfect spring night, still in the upper sixties, and a quintessential dusk descended like a blanket from light blue to rose to purple to dark blue and then black sky. As Hungary begins to open up with over forty percent of its citizens vaccinated, there are glimmers of hope – both here and (hopefully) where you find yourselves. As we continue to live into this calling to work, worship, play, and serve in a new place, we covet your friendship, your prayers, and your visits; and we hope the spring unfolds for you like the opening up of the manifold lilacs that are just now gracing every neighborhood in Budapest.
 
A Blessing for Longing. From “To Bless the Space Between Us,” by John O’Donohue
Blessed be the longing that got you here
and quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.
May the forms of your belonging – dash in love, creativity, and friendship –
Be equal to the grandeur and call of your soul.
 May the one you long for long for you.
 May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.
 May secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling.
 May your mind inhabit your life with the sureness with which your body inhabits the world.
 May your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage.
 May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
 May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.

 Points for prayer:
Please pray for our process of applying for residence permits, and then a speedy access to the vaccine once that process is complete (or sooner if possible!). We are glad that so many others have been able to receive the vaccine (including most of our friends in the US, and both of our kids), and we are not finding ourselves in a position of much concern in terms of our ability to stay out of harm’s way pretty easily. No indoor meetings or work yet, and very careful meetings at all.
Please pray for wisdom as we plan a brief return to the US in August to help our daughter Abigail pack up and move from her university home of Seattle back to Grand Rapids. We haven’t yet finalized the dates, but it looks like in the latter half of August we will be in west Michigan in addition to a cross-country drive from Washington to Michigan. We hope to see many of you then.
And we ask for continued prayers as we become more and more familiar with the Hungarian language. We are not young learners.
Finally, we would love for you to pray for clarity in the particulars of our ministry as it develops. We are grateful for many potential avenues of friendship and partnership, and eager to see how things develop in terms of specific opportunities.

In the blessed peace of Christ,
Jeff and Julie Bouman

April 2, 2021 

Holy week 2021, Budapest

 
Dear friends,
 
As I begin writing this update and meditation, I can hear the bells ringing to mark the noon hour from the St. Stephen’s Basilica just a few blocks away from our apartment. We can hear them better today because the windows are open on a gorgeous sunny day with temperatures reaching the seventies. Today is Maundy Thursday, and also April Fool’s day, a combination which has not been lost on many reflecting on the upside-down nature of the life and friendships of Jesus. This is the day we remember that he washed the disciples’ feet, which is just as upside-down as it sounds.
 
Soon Julie and I will venture out carefully to do some additional grocery shopping before our evening curfew – we’ve been warned that the custom in Hungary is for shops to close for four days beginning with Good Friday, and extending through Easter Monday. The curfew runs from 8pm each evening until 5am each morning, and has been in place since November. Case numbers and deaths in Hungary from Covid have been at their all-time high in the month since we arrived, making our start here a very slow one since our March 2 arrival. But we are glad we are here, and we are trying to take advantage of the extra time in our new home to really study the language. We have a teacher we are very happy with, Anna, and we have been meeting with her several days a week for 90-minute sessions. We’ve learned how to talk (in very basic terms) about food, the weather, time, what kind of furniture is in various rooms in our homes, and how to describe people and things. Our challenge is to focus on what we know and build our vocabulary and grammar knowledge “brick by brick,” and not to focus on all that we do not know. We regularly have small frustrations, and sometimes large belly-laughs, with what we don’t know, or with what we still don’t understand. Hungarian is a very old, very singular language, and we are thankful to have many very willing friends who are also eager to help us learn. And our regular walks around the city commonly include attempts to decipher long multi-syllabic words by identifying parts within the words that include phrases or roots that look familiar. Sometimes it works, most times not so much.
 
Today’s anecdote comes from the great market, where I ventured recently to buy some authentic Hungarian salami, a national specialty. I remembered that for meat you can order in “deka,” or hundredths of a kilogram. Normally you might ask for twenty or thirty deka, which for salami would be in the neighborhood of a half-pound. For the first order, I remembered correctly, and ordered Húsz-deka (20), and I was feeling confident to order about half that much for the other kind of salami. I proceeded to mix up the word for 10 with the word for 1, and I tried to order a single decagram of salami, which is an extremely small amount people would never order, and I was able to learn that embarrassing fact by looking at the quizzical face of the kind woman trying to figure out what I meant to say. I punted, knowing that she knew English quite well, and I pointed to my first batch and I said in English, “about half of that, please!” We both laughed, and maybe next time I’ll remember to use ten instead of one. One more serving of humility, coming right up…
 
Julie and I have been listening to a daily podcast called “Pray-as-you-go,” a ministry of a Jesuit community in the UK; as well as virtually attending worship and Bible Study with our local church community here in Budapest. Lent has been a mix of inspiration and a slow slog toward faithfulness. As they were while we were still in Grand Rapids, our days here are spent in a routine that does not include most things we took for granted until one year ago, namely an in-person social (or work) life. We run and walk for exercise most mornings. After breakfast we either have our Hungarian class, or we do our Hungarian homework, and then after lunch we try to go on another exploratory walk around some part of the city. Now that the weather has turned nice, we can linger in parks or along the riverbank, and we’ve had a few outdoor lunches with take-out. Then later in the day we attend to communication with friends, supporters, and family who are just getting into the day six hours behind us, and then we work on something for supper. In the evening we read or play a game or study a bit more, and then we have our evening popcorn and usually watch something interesting on a screen before bed. Then we sleep and start it all over again.
*******
(Continued on Good Friday)
 
The news from the US seems to be all about the availability of the vaccine, and we are rejoicing that both of our kids have now either been jabbed, or have made an appointment for their first jab (“jab” is apparently euro-speak for getting a shot). Here in Budapest we will likely be waiting until sometime in the summer, unless some kind of surprise comes along – and we are fine waiting, and grateful for warmer weather in which to perhaps begin to meet new colleagues for outdoor walks. We have made progress on securing a more long-lasting place to live, and we anticipate a move to a more permanent apartment rental sometime in mid-May. There is plenty of other news as well from the US and other places in the world, about a trial in Minnesota, scandals in Washington DC, attempts to restrict voting in many places, on-going conflicts and corruption around the world, a massive freighter stuck and then freed in the Suez Canal, climate change and its drastic effects, civil war, hunger, and many many reminders that not only is all not well in the world, and that we, if we’re honest, are implicated in much of the injustice that happens, sometimes intentionally, but more often than not unintentionally. We need the reminders of Holy Week, all of us.
 
We were hurrying home at 6pm on Thursday when we heard the bells from St. Stephen’s again, and once again they played for longer than usual, helping us remember that we were hurrying because we were joining a virtual foot-washing and communion service with our church community here in Budapest. Due to the current restrictions as well as the new-found skills in technological community, we were able to meet simultaneously with people in Hungary, Italy, Scotland, and the US. It was remarkable and moving.
 
There will be another service for Good Friday tonight that we plan to participate in as well.
 
Author and Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor concludes her exploration of the benefits of “learning to walk in the dark,” by writing: “endarkenment, like enlightenment, is a work in progress. The best thing I can say is that learning to walk in the dark has allowed me to take back my faith, removing it from the glare of the full solar tradition to recover by the light of the moon. Now the sun still comes up, but it also goes down…”
 
I have found it hard over the years to figure out ways to really dwell in the darkness of Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Holy Week – it is too easy to remember that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and Easter is coming.
 
The reflections below, among others, have helped me sit today in the reality of that darkness.
 
Wendell Berry 1980
 
I What hard travail God does in death!
 
What hard travail God does in death!
He strives in sleep, in our despair,
And all flesh shudders underneath
The nightmare of His sepulcher.
 
The earth shakes, grinding its deep stone;
All night the cold wind heaves and pries;
Creation strains sinew and bone
Against the dark door where He lies.
 
The stem bent, pent in seed, grows straight
And stands. Pain breaks in song. Surprising
The merely dead, graves fill with light
Like opened eyes. He rests in rising.
 
Finally, I discovered this series of sermons given by Rev. Dr. Sam Wells that dive deeply into the roots and story of Jesus’s suffering and death, which I highly commend to you.
 
"Good Friday isn't a magic trick by which Jesus used the special formula to produce the genie of salvation out of the bottle of sin and death. It's the day on which Jesus went into the cloud of unknowing and the tunnel of despair and the chamber of agony to show that God being with us is the heart of it all."                 
Rev. Dr. Samuel Wells, St. Martin in the Fields
 
Peace,
 
Jeff (and Julie) Bouman
 
https://www.resonateglobalmission.org/support/our-missionaries/jeff-and-julie-bouman