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,