January/February update - 5 February 2022 Boumans by the Danube Dear friends,  Below are a series of vignettes from the past several weeks since we've written.... Bea’s visit We were very happy to have Bea here for a nearly-3-week visit over Christmas. We stayed mostly close to home due to the unwelcome rise of Omicron covid cases, but we were glad to be able to get to some favorite coffee shops, Christmas markets, and walks along the river. A highlight was the warm afternoon on Christmas Day when we walked to St. Stephen’s Basilica, and we realized that the upper outdoor balcony was open for visitors. We hiked up the spiral stairs to the top, and enjoyed one of the best views in Budapest, peering down on the bustling Christmas market, with views of the Parliament, the Danube river, and the scenic embankment on the Buda side of the river. A Christmas gathering We gathered in our apartment on Christmas Eve with 13 students, plus our daughter Bea. It was a very international group, representing at least 8 countries, mostly African (Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa), but also Syria, Pakistan, Hungary, and the United States. We ate good food, played games, and made new friends. After eating together, we sat in a circle and talked about Christmas in our family traditions, and we wondered together how and why the Christmas story includes the birth of a real live human baby. One of our guests was a Nigerian medical student, and he shared the story of how he had just in the past week participated in a hospital birth procedure. He was able to enlighten us with the perspective of a medical student on the many things that could have gone wrong in this scene where Jesus is born. We were all enriched by his perspective. And I was also surprised at how many of our students shared that for them as children, Christmas gifts were usually comprised of new clothes to wear to church, and later to school. A few of our guests were able to stay awake long enough to join several of us at a service of communion at our nearby church that was held at midnight, as Christmas arrived in the middle of a cold night. This group, the international student fellowship that Julie and I lead with our partner in ministry Szabina Sztojka, will continue to meet in our home on Thursday evenings this coming semester. We have chosen as our theme to delve into what it means to love God with all our hearts, minds, and strength, while also loving our neighbors as ourselves – all within a construct of how our loves are influenced by money, sex, and power. Keeping it simple, as always. Kalunba’s move Many of you know that the refugee ministry of the Reformed Church in Hungary has had a difficult year. Beginning in December, and culminating on Saturday, January 8, we helped pack and move them from a large office space to a much-smaller community center space about a 20-minute drive away. It is still technically downtown, but it will be a while before it can begin to consider pre-pandemic programming, with unpacking and reorienting, and some new hiring necessary first. Ice skating On Thursday, January 20, we took some members of our international student group ice skating at the Budapest City Park outdoor winter rink. Since most come from countries where ice skating is not a normal activity, it was rewarding to watch many of them courageously lace up their skates, and step tentatively on to the ice. Many falls ensued, but no serious injuries were sustained. The backdrop of the Vajdahunyad Castle, an 1890s replica of a famous Hungarian castle in what is now Romania, made for some wonderful group photos. Omicron invader After 22 months of protection, we finally had a positive test in our household. Because only I tested positive, Julie and I spent a very awkward 10-day period of self-isolation where we slept in separate rooms, ate our meals apart, and wore masks when we were in the same room together. It may have been easier to get a hotel! But thankfully neither of us developed any serious symptoms to speak of, and now we are past it. We continue to pray for relief for those who have suffered so much loss, and many who continue to work so hard to care for others during this dark time. We are hopeful for a time when human connection will become easier once again. Plans at the university January is a quiet month for university students in Hungary – they have a six-week period in which to study for and take the exams for their fall courses. Our new semester will begin this coming week with course registration, and the teaching begins the week of February 14. I (Jeff) plan to be teaching two courses this coming term – one will be the same course I offered in the fall, on the pedagogy of service-learning. The other I will team-teach with another professor, a basic B-2 level English course for students who are enrolled Károli Gáspár University’s honors program, or what they call the College of Excellence. I look forward to the return to regular meetings with students. Financial update We continue to give thanks for the generous financial partnership with many of you. To date we have around sixty individuals or families that give to us on a monthly or a quarterly or annual basis, and those gifts from individuals make up approximately a third of our overall need. We also are grateful for five church congregations who support us on an annual basis; their support provides another fifteen percent of our need. This means that a little more than half of our annual support must come from individuals or churches who give on a more one-time basis, making the support process a bit more tenuous than we would like. If you have been considering a monthly, quarterly, or annual donation, we would love to hear from you, or have you go to the Resonate giving page, and sign up. In addition, if your church, or a church you are aware of, might be interested in partnering with us in our efforts to bring renewal, leadership training, support for refugees and other marginalized people, we would also welcome that. After seven months, or about 60% of the current fiscal year, we have raised 43% of our total goal. We would love to welcome more partners into this work, and we trust the God who provides to move the right partners through God’s Spirit. (side note: for monthly givers, occasionally the arrival of a new credit card can interrupt one’s monthly donations – if you have a moment to double-check that your gifts are still automatically deducted, that would be great…) Conditional tense (and the race to the B-2 exam in June) Finally, we continue to meet for 90 minutes on a daily basis with our Hungarian teacher. She gives us homework, she provides guidance on how to practice well, and she is our number one encourager. Panka is hopeful that we can both pass the B-2 level exams in June, a feat I will consider a large miracle if we do. Our most recent, and final, I think, major grammatical concept to learn is the conditional tense. This is statements like, “I would like to pay by credit card,” or “If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?” Handy to know, but one more layer of complexity for us.    Friends, we continue to covet your prayers, your communication, and for some of you, your upcoming visits.   Blessings and peace, Jeff ...aaand a few photos for you... .    views from the lookout balcony on St. Stephen's dome, Christmas afternoon. .    The group at the gorgeous rink, and a close-up with Lucky, from Pakistan.