Dear friends,
It’s been almost three months since we returned to Hungary after an extended visit to Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ontario last summer. On the day I arrived back, I received a message from our pastor here, asking if I might have time to meet with a young Iranian couple that had reached out to the church email address asking for information about Christianity. I said yes, and we met at a local café to see how I could help in their quest. “Can you tell us who Jesus is, according to the Bible?” they asked me. I did my best to introduce them to Jesus - we had a wonderful two-hour conversation about the Bible, and Jesus, the Trinity, and about how they had been feeling prompted to learn more about Christianity during the two years they have spent in Hungary as students. Both come from Muslim backgrounds, though their families have quite different types of commitments to Islam – one of their families is mostly secular Muslim, and the other more practicing Muslim. Since this meeting, they have come to church, identified as Christians, and found Persian-speaking Christian communities on-line to help in their growth as believers. Last Sunday they were baptized in our church here in Budapest, alongside another former Muslim who also came to Hungary to study. Because of a job opportunity, this couple is moving soon to a different European country, but we are grateful for this clear demonstration that the Holy Spirit is so often at work quietly in peoples’ hearts. We appreciate our on-going opportunities to serve and worship at St. Columba’s, which also included a very restful summer’s end retreat on Lake Balaton with the theme of Psalm 121.
Also in early August, we welcomed our six new Cohort Europe volunteers in Budapest for orientation to the Cohort program, and we spent a fruitful and meaningful week together learning about each other, our ministry contexts, and exploring Budapest. Since the departure of the Cohort members to Berlin and Klaipeda, here in Budapest Rebekah Shultes and Hanis Kakaba have begun volunteering with partners across the city in a variety of placements, ranging from refugee services, working with Roma children and families, and work with the St. Columba’s congregation. During a historic flood in mid-September, they had the opportunity to join our pastor for a day of sandbag filling at a nearby riverside village. During the first weekend of October, our Cohort group gathered once again and traveled together to Lupeni, Romania, for the first of our four weekend intensives. We focused on team-building, using an experiential learning model that has been very successful in helping build trust in a post-Communist, Romanian Orthodox society. Only in its second year, the Cohort program appears to be a successful method of introducing young adults to the possibilities of ministry in Europe.
I have also once again begun teaching, with three interesting university classes this fall. Primary once again is a course I am teaching for the third year, on the American Civil Rights movement, and how poetry, song, and film from the Black community wove through this movement for justice. There are 19 Hungarian students enrolled, many eager to learn more about these creative role models. I am also teaching a course with 11 Calvin College students – placing each of them in a service-learning practicum placement, and attempting to guide them in meaningful reflection on the cross-cultural learning that accompanies these experiences. Finally, I am assisting in a brand-new Master’s level course at Károli Gáspár University, on Spirituality and Society, in which we have 14 students learning about a broad overview of big ideas that affect modern society – everything from post-secularism, contemplative spirituality, artificial intelligence, race, and the ecological crisis. Also in September we began our weekly hosting of the international young adult fellowship on Thursday evenings. A few have moved away, and a few others are newly joining us, and this fall’s theme is “what does it mean to be human?”
We continue with our language learning, meeting three times weekly with our private teacher. Our comprehension is growing, and we each have a growing number of formal and informal opportunities to practice with language partners. On a more personal note, we have also enjoyed having our Resonate colleagues from Berlin, Mary Buteyn and David Kromminga, temporarily living nearby since we returned – it has been a delight to spend time together in various places around Budapest – an encouraging time of deepening friendship for which we are grateful. My brother Greg was able to spend several days visiting at the end of September – his first trip to Budapest, and we had a great time together. And in Pennsylvania, Julie is in daily contact with her mom, Joyce, and her sister to keep tabs on Joyce’s progress toward recovery from her stroke. This is a challenging time to be so far away from there for Julie. We also have been challenged by the unexpected passing of a young American acquaintance of ours here in Europe – he had an accident while hiking in the nearby Slovenian mountains – leaving behind a young wife and two very small children for whom Julie and I have enjoyed babysitting several times.
We are very mindful that the strong promises of Psalm 121, that God will not let our foot slip, and that God will keep us from all harm, are sometimes difficult to understand when real harm comes our way, or to others. We are mindful that the world is at war, in real military terms in places like Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, and Myanmar; but also in spiritual, political, emotional ways as well. This is a time of stress and worry in the world, and there is much to fear. And yet we hold on to promises, even when they are beyond our full understanding. We cling to hope. And we appreciate your encouragement now more than ever.
Thank you for all that you do to encourage us, to support us, and to stay in touch with us. If you have a moment, drop a line of update – we would love to hear from you, or know if there are any specific ways we can pray for you.
Peace to you,
Jeff and Julie
PS: Our year-end financial report showed that we raised 93% of our overall goal for the 2023-24 fiscal year, and we would love to see that go to 100% over the next year. If you have been pondering a one-time or a monthly financial gift, we would 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.
Finally, one deeply meaningful part of our time together with the new Cohort group in August was the daily singing of a new-to-us worship song, “Jesus Strong and Kind” – we share the lyrics below in case they can be an encouragement to you:
Jesus said that if I thirst, I should come to him
No one else can satisfy, I should come to him
Jesus said if I am weak, I should come to him
No one else can be my strength, I should come to him
For the Lord is good and faithful, he will keep us day and night
We can always run to Jesus, Jesus strong and kind
Jesus said that if I fear, I should come to him
No one else can be my shield, I should come to him
Jesus said if I am lost, he will come to me
And he showed me on that cross, he will come to me
For the Lord is good and faithful, he will keep us day and night
We can always run to Jesus, Jesus strong and kind.
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