Dear friends,
I was struck today by a line from a favorite book of blessings and reflections:
“From the evidence – why was I given this day?”
The Irish poet John O’Donohue’s book of blessings (To Bless the Space Between Us, 2008) is full of deep wisdom, and this question, asking me to reflect on why I was given this day, comes as the final line in a blessing called, “At the end of the day: A mirror of questions.” (See below for full blessing.)
I think the reason this line probably caught my attention is the way it caused me to stop, and to ponder the wonder of life. The many opportunities, but also the many ways we take those opportunities for granted, we operate on auto-pilot, and we so often fail to live in mindfulness and gratitude for the gift that each day is.
With that in mind, we are privileged to report that in December as the fiscal year reached its halfway point, we reached fifty percent of our support-raising goal. December was our strongest month financially since we began with Resonate four years ago, and that timing for us was sincerely a blessing. We already sometimes struggle with the deep darkness, the short days, and the general busy-ness of December. And this year was an unusually strange December in that the day after Christmas Julie left Budapest to fly to Pennsylvania to spend two weeks there with her mom, and her sister’s family. Which meant that our little family of four was in four different places over much of the holiday season, and our family celebration consisted of a three-hour FaceTime call from those four locations. Sad and happy at the same time. And in addition to the financial support that came in during December, we were also reminded in many ways (cards, texts, some FaceTime and Zoom conversations, etc…), that our support network is among the very best. Thank you, friends, for the reminders of your prayers, your love, and your friendship.
Julie has now been back in Budapest for over three weeks, and she is busy with a variety of things, some new, some on-going. The Selah Women’s prayer group that meets monthly has restarted, and their January topic was “centering prayer.” She reports a healthy and meaningful time of fellowship, sharing, and time with God as part of these monthly gatherings.
Julie is also requesting your prayers as she has been presented with a significant potential opportunity with a ministry that is just moving to Budapest. We will have more information in a future letter, but for now please pray for clarity and discernment for us as she considers taking on a substantially larger role with this organization as a volunteer.
Our International Young Adult Fellowship has also restarted, and in many ways did not break for the holidays – some of our members gathered with us at our place on Christmas Eve for a potluck; and another group joined me for a New Year’s Eve celebration… Our other group leader, and the founder of the group, Rev. Szabina Pena-Sztojka, gave birth to a baby girl last week, so we are celebrating our group’s youngest member! International students from other parts of Europe often come to Budapest for a study abroad semester, so we anticipate meeting some of these over the next few weeks as they show up at church having searched on-line for “English speaking church in Budapest.” Just this past Sunday I had one of the most eye-opening, and slightly humorous conversations I’ve ever had with one such person, a young man from Italy. He approached me in the narthex of the church and was clearly unsure of how things worked, and so I approached him and welcomed him. He asked me, hesitantly, if it was ok for him to come in and join worship even if he hadn’t made a reservation in advance? He went on to tell me it was the very first time he had been in a church, and he wasn’t sure how things worked. It took me a minute, but I assured him he was welcome, and I found someone who comes regularly to sit with him and help with the unfamiliar parts of a church service for a newcomer. This was a somewhat extreme example, but it is not unusual at all to meet visitors every single week in our church who are way outside their comfort zone. And we believe that God has brought them – in fact, the way the Hungarian language works when you say “you are welcome, here” (Isten hozott) you are literally saying, “God has brought you.”
As I prepare to begin teaching my course once again in the spring term on the American Civil Rights movement, I am reading the newly published biography of civil rights icon, John Lewis. (John Lewis: A Life, by David Greenberg, 2024). Lewis’s life stands as a profound testament of faith, and courage in the face of injustice, which I am finding inspiring in this moment in time. So much remains to be done to move governments, and other elements of civil society more in line with the Biblical call to justice. In our ministry context, we are regularly faced with the realities faced in Syria, Ukraine, Russia, Lebanon, Gaza, Nigeria, and other places living with deep injustices, many challenges to flourishing, and also courageous Christians calling us to join them in the struggles everywhere. We are, of course, paying close attention as well to the developments in the United States, and grieving many of the ways that it seems that the most vulnerable are becoming even more vulnerable. We pray, and we work, for peace, with justice.
Finally, the Cohort Europe volunteers in Berlin, Klaipeda, and Budapest continue in their learning and ministries. We will see each other again in March, so for the time being we resort to Zoom check-ins and a WhatsApp group for communication. I would love your help also as we begin the process of recruiting for another season of Cohort Europe. We will have an informational meeting on Sunday, February 16 at 3pm EST. If you know a young adult who might be interested in a year of ministry, learning, and Christian community, please point them to me, or to the Resonate website where they can fill out a contact form to receive more information. Thanks in advance – this year’s current group were almost all initially made aware of the program through someone who read a letter like this one – we need your partnership on this – spread the word!
Please also let us know how you are doing, and may the following blessing make you think, and shape your day today.
Peace,
Jeff and Julie Bouman
“At the end of the day: A mirror of questions.”
John O’Donohue
What dreams did I create last night?
Where did my eyes linger today?
Where was I blind?
Where was I hurt without anyone noticing?
What did I learn today?
What did I read?
What new thoughts visited me?
What differences did I notice in those closest to me?
Whom did I neglect?
Where did I neglect myself?
What did I begin today that might endure?
How were my conversations?
What did I do today for the poor and the excluded?
Did I remember the dead today?
Where could I have exposed myself to the risk of something different?
Where did I allow myself to receive love?
With whom today did I feel most myself?
What reached me today? How deep did it imprint?
Who saw me today?
What visitations had I from the past and from the future?
What did I avoid today?
From the evidence – why was I given this day?
PS. If you have been pondering a one-time or a monthly financial gift, we would very much welcome your partnership, and if your church is looking to add a ministry in Europe to those you support, we would welcome a few more churches as partners as well. Details for supporting us can be found on our Resonate webpage here. After you tap the yellow “donate” button, you will be asked if you would like to donate in USD or Canadian, and then you will land on a page where you choose an amount, and then on the drop-down menu below you will choose “Missionaries-Europe,” and below that a drop-down menu will be a list of names, and you select Jeff and Julie Bouman. Below that are instructions for entering payment information. Please consider joining us in partnership!
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