December 2023 Boumans by the Danube

December 2023

Dear friends,
      Advent and Christmas greetings from Grand Rapids, Michigan! Julie and I are in the States for the holidays, spending time with family and friends. As we once again acclimate ourselves to our home culture, we are reminded that leaving home, and crossing cultures is very closely connected to the story of Christmas. There are shepherds leaving home, wise magi leaving home to search for a promise, a holy family on the run, and more than a culture crossing, you have the universe and time ripped open and God becoming a human baby, Jesus.
       Being back in our “home” city, with family is a sweet reminder of so many good things, and we are reveling in the chance to re-connect with so many that we have missed over the past year. And at the same time, on Christmas Eve our Young Adult Fellowship friends in Budapest will gather in our apartment (without us!) to celebrate Jesus’s birth together before going to the late evening service at our church there. Not being able to be in two places at once (or three, or four…) is just a small part of the lament we have felt all through this season of Advent – and the lament goes much deeper. In the second week of Advent, our Budapest congregation made the decision to intentionally *not* light the second candle on the Advent wreath, the candle of peace, as an act of solidarity with Christians in Palestine and Israel, who are at war, in grief, and in mourning. It does seem like the world has a pall cast over it with wars raging, and bitterness and divisiveness growing.
     Despite this, as we imagine our friends in Budapest at our apartment from the young adult fellowship having dinner at our place Christmas Eve, with Syrian, Kenyan, Nigerian, Armenian, Hungarian, Angolan, Indonesian, and Korean dishes being shared, we know that the light still shines in the darkness. Having celebrated the 50^th birthday of a creative German friend a few weeks ago, we know that hospitality still shines out brightly; and we trust that the ministry efforts of our five Cohort Europe volunteers in Berlin, Klaipeda, and Budapest are spreading hope. One of my Hungarian students, as part of her final project for my course on the Arts and the American Civil Rights movement, wrote an original song, and as I listened to it, I was moved at the way the creativity of the heroes of American non-violent activist tradition, like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahalia Jackson, and Mavis Staples, have been able to inspire young people in Hungary.
       Even with the spread of the darkness and despair, we remain hopeful, and grateful for the opportunity to be where we are. Thank you for your partnership, and we wish you and yours a very joyful celebration of the first coming of Christ, even while we continue to long for the second.
With the great hymn writer Isaac Watts, we trust that “sins and sorrows,” and the “thorns that infest the ground” will be overcome as blessings flow “far as the curse is found.”
Joy to the World, the whole world, no exceptions, friends.
Peace, peace.
Jeff and Julie
For those inclined to send a year-end gift, you can find our donation page here. Thank you!