May 2022

Dear friends,  Another full month has passed, and we are very pleased to report that April was a record-setting month of financial support for us in our ministry here in Budapest. Thank you. We appreciate each of the 74 monthly donors, the 5 church partners, the dozens of one-time givers, and the hundreds who keep us in faithful prayer. Each of you is a blessing and a partner with us in this work and ministry. This increase in April is no doubt associated at least in part with the war next door in Ukraine, so we are not exactly pleased with the mounting refugee crisis as the possible external catalyst for support, but we are grateful that God’s people are paying attention to the developing situation. We continue to pray for peace, but while we pray, like you, we work.   Our work has continued in intensive language learning, with daily lessons in Hungarian and humility. We are improving, but it is slow and difficult. We plan to take a B-1 language exam in June (and success is far from certain). We also continue working with our local church, St. Columba’s Scottish Mission. The group of international students we host weekly in our apartment now includes several students who are displaced from their studies in Ukraine. I (Jeff) also continue to manage the volunteer efforts of our church community in providing a weekly distribution of food for newly arrived refugees, as well as a 5-times-per-week warm lunch provided for a few dozen displaced students here in Budapest.   The work with the Reformed Church Refugee Ministry has moved forward, and we are now helping to manage a very large grant from Western European ecumenical partners that is designed to meet the short-, medium-, and long-term needs of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary with everything from immediate cash assistance to housing and employment and educational needs. As you might imagine, attempting to develop longer range plans in the midst of an ongoing catastrophe is an organizational and bureaucratic challenge, so things are moving forward, but slowly. We met this week with our team at the refugee ministry to begin developing regular programming for families with children who live in the Budapest area.   Early in April, we were very grateful to host several former colleagues from Calvin College who were in Budapest for a conference promoting Christian higher education in a fractured world. Jeff gave a workshop on the importance of pedagogies like service-learning, and we re-connected with several very good friends from Grand Rapids (and Lithuania!). Jeff was also invited to give two other talks in April, one to a student Christian group at the university, highlighting the journey that has taken us to this major life transition; and the other a faculty workshop and prayer breakfast with Christian faculty at the university, designed to offer a window into creative teaching and learning. In the midst of these extra opportunities, he continues to offer the B2 level English course as well.     We hosted visitors on 18 of 30 nights in April, and gratefully enjoyed a two-week visit from our son, Bastian. April was a full month, and we celebrated a very blessed Easter.   One very exciting new development is a pilot one-year internship program that attracted several highly qualified young adult applicants. Jeff is in the final stages of selecting two recent university graduates to join us for a year beginning this coming August as Resonate volunteers working with the refugee ministry, as well as helping to develop a more robust cohort program with Europe team colleagues. Pray for discernment in the selection process, and for wisdom for these young people as they make significant decisions about spending next year in Budapest.   As the end of another academic year approaches, we are mindful of our unique position and opportunity here in Budapest. All of the beauties of spring are in tension with all that is wrong in the world. We live in a beautiful cosmopolitan European capitol, and we also acutely feel the effects of a misguided violent conflict in our neighboring country. As our language abilities increase, and our friendships develop, please pray with us that the Prince of Peace would be made manifest in our work, our conversations, our teaching, and our fellowship.   Thank you for your continued support. Peace, Jeff and Julie For those still interested in joining in partnership with us financially, you can find the link to support us here. We are very grateful for the many new monthly donors who have made commitments in the past two months - thank you! A few photos of our April can be found below: "Love Thy Neighbor" graffiti overlaid with a heart for Ukraine... An art exhibition in our nearby public park displayed several works committed to telling the story of brave Ukrainians. A nice reunion with Claudia and Shirley, long-time colleagues at Calvin who attended the INCHE conference here in Budapest. It was great to re-connect with Don and Kathy on a beautiful spring day. We were glad to host Steve and Chris Van Zanen from Lithuania too! All dressed up for my faculty lecture at a prayer breakfast at Károli Gáspár University. We enjoyed touring the city with Bastian while he was here. Mom and her favorite son at the cherry blossoms on Castle Hill.  Julie at a lookout tower we hiked to with our Hungarian teacher in late April  A night at the Frans Liszt Music Academy with our Thursday evening international student fellowship group.