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.