April 4, 2022 Dear friends, Our update for you today will be split into two parts. The first section will be an update on the rapidly changing cadence of our lives here in Budapest as we figure out how to best serve the Ukrainian refugees coming through Budapest while still fulfilling our other obligations. The second part of the update will be a letter from a good friend and monthly supporter, Joel Sytsma. He explains why he and his wife, Amy, have chosen to support us in our mission in Budapest. When Joel wrote a few weeks ago with this letter, asking us if he could offer it to you, it was a very good reminder of the nature of partnership we value between each of you already supporting us regularly, those of you who have supported us in the past, and those of you still considering a financial gift or monthly pledge. We could not do this work without you, and you also could not be represented here in the way we are without us. We value this reciprocity, and so we offer Joel's letter as a reminder of that. If you'd like to join our team of support as well, you can do that here. Boumans in Budapest On the ground here in Budapest, the month of March was a blur. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, our local English-speaking congregation opened a short-term shelter in early March to house people fleeing the war in Ukraine. We have since closed, reopened, and then once again closed the shelter due to changing needs and changing processes put in place by the government. Our leadership team met late last week, and we are making a pivot to opening up a food bank this coming week for those who have stayed in Budapest, and we are exploring other best ways to serve the immediate and longer term integration needs of the thousands of displaced people now living in and around Budapest. It has been rewarding, but exhausting work.  We have continued with much of our other work - this week I showed the 2016 documentary "Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry," to my English class at the university. We continue to host weekly international student gatherings, and our group now regularly includes students who left Ukraine but are now pursuing either work or study options in Budapest. Resilience. We participated in a visit from delegates of the Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe, as well as church leaders from the Rhineland, who were interested in continued partnership with the Reformed Church in Hungary's refugee ministry. We met at a Pakistani-Indian restaurant that has not opened yet (scheduled opening is April 10) belonging to a Christian Pakistani man who has been living in Hungary for 45 years. There was singing and prayers in at least 5 languages around the beautifully-lit, delicious-smelling restaurant. And Friday last week, I (Jeff) had the treat of playing basketball with Pauline, a 22-year-old Kenyan student who is in our fellowship, at a nearby park. We were challenged to a game, as it turned out by 2 visiting Italian guys who were on holiday from nursing school (we won). You never know what a day will bring. This week is a big week for visitors, as Károli Gáspár University here in Budapest hosts the International Network of Christian Higher Education conference April 6-8. We look forward to connecting with friends from the US coming to the conference, with Steve and Chris VanZanen coming from Lithuania, and to many good discussions with people interested in faith-based higher education in Europe. Finally, work continues on recruiting young adults to come to Budapest this summer and spend a year in an internship with us, working in the refugee ministry, and helping to imagine a larger program in future years. Peace and blessings, Jeff and Julie Why I’m a supporter of the Boumans: by Joel Sytsma Hi, my name is Joel Sytsma and I’m writing to tell you why I support the mission that the Boumans are on in their new home of Budapest Hungary and to encourage you to do the same (if you are convinced already, click here to get started). But first, a bit of history: I first met Jeff Bouman about 13 years ago while he and I were co-leading a group of first-year students through Calvin University's Streetfest. I then had the opportunity to be a student of Jeff’s in 2011 in Budapest during his first of three times leading the study-abroad program there. It was during this same semester that I got a chance to get to know Julie and their kids. When I got back from that semester I began to regularly meet with Jeff over breakfast at the Brandywine Cafe in Grand Rapids. It is over those breakfasts that something like a friendship emerged. It was also over those breakfasts that Jeff met my girlfriend, Amy (now my wife and mother-of-my-child). In the almost-decade since that first meeting Jeff and I have exchanged letters and shared many meals together. Okay, like the text at the beginning of Star Wars, I have gone on too long with the context. Instead I want to share two stories with you all and then make my final request for you to consider giving to Jeff and Julie (which again, you can do here). Amy, Julie, Jeff, and I were wandering around a large bookstore together one day in Seattle while they were on a visit to their daughter who went to university here. As tends to happen in bookstores when in the company of curious people, the four of us separated almost immediately as we pursued our interests. Sometime later Jeff, Amy, and I got back together and we couldn’t find Julie. After a careful moment of thinking Jeff said, “I bet she’s in the children’s book section. She loves to read the latest children’s books.” It struck me as odd. I didn’t have kids at the time, Julie’s kids were well-beyond “Goodnight Moon” and I didn’t know why she would be there. However, when I read the story that was in the March newsletter from the  Bouman’s where Julie described spending the day with two children as they fled from Ukraine, it suddenly made sense to me. Julie didn’t read those children’s books to learn the latest fads in children’s literature. She read those books because she cared deeply about what children were being told. In Budapest, she has displayed that care in a much deeper way. She spent hours with children telling them, in word and action, that they are special and loved. Those kids left Budapest knowing that, whatever else may come during the rest of their unexpected and unwelcome journey, they were worth paying attention to. That they were worth being loved. I think that’s worth supporting. On to Jeff. I have been friends with Jeff and have leaned upon him as a wise and careful listener during the following (incomplete) list of situations: * I just broke up with my girlfriend (now wife and mother-of-my-child) and I’m freaking out a bit. * I just got rejected from graduate school for the 3rd time and I’m freaking out a bit. * Amy (now wife and mother-of-my-child) got a job in Seattle and we might move there from Chicago. I’m freaking out a bit. * I just got a job in Seattle and I’m freaking out a bit. * I’m having a kid and I’m freaking out a bit. * Etc, etc. I don’t tell you these situations to draw a parallel between my life and the Ukrainians streaming into Hungary right now, because they are completely and utterly different. However, I do tell you these situations to tell you that I’ve been on the receiving end of Jeff’s care as he walks alongside someone who is going through a transition. As dissimilar as my situation is from refugees running from war, I wonder if I can draw some parallels that might help illuminate why I think Jeff is so rightly placed at this moment. When one begins speaking to Jeff and the conversation wanders close to some vulnerable part of the heart, his entire posture changes. You know, that he is intensely listening, and that listening ear doesn’t intimidate but rather invites both the speaker and listener to take seriously what is being said. Then from that posture, he begins to ask questions and invite action without cajoling. It is an experience I’ve come to treasure and I cannot imagine how welcome it is for people from Ukraine who find themselves sitting across from Jeff. To feel listened to and recognized. And to sense that they have a strong advocate. And to know that the advocate will support them right now and also as they consider their next steps. What a gift Jeff has to offer and I’m proud to help support financially. Please do consider giving to the Boumans so that they can keep doing this work. Because God knows that people fleeing war, from children on up, need some of what they are offering: deep and loving hospitality. Joel and Jeff at a reunion Thanksgiving feast for the 2011 group at our house in GR in 2012.