“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned. (Isaiah 40:1-2).
Dear friends,
Lately I’ve been working to remind myself what it means to hope. I’ve been eagerly listening to the podcast “On Being,” as host Krista Tippett releases new episodes each week this summer in the “Hope portal” she is crafting for her listeners. Poets are her primary resources toward what she is calling a “muscular, reality-based hope.” Alongside these short episodes, I am also re-reading my copy of Walter Brueggeman’s deeply influential book, The Prophetic Imagination, in which Brueggeman offers readers what reviewer and community-builder William J. Barber II called the boldness to “endure and even overcome [our present] troubles, not merely by the tenacity of blues lamentation and the transcendence of gospel communion, but also by prophetic improvisations that jazz the song of Joshua and crumble the walls thrown up by the politics of domination.” Brueggeman’s writing lands right now for me into the midst of a world troubled by hatred, violence, division, unfathomable bombs dropped in God’s name, and a sense of fear and isolation borne primarily by those already oppressed, displaced, grieving, and often on the move. We are tempted to despair, and we are called to grieve.
Addressing hope and grief, Brueggeman, (who died at age 92 in early June) wrote that
“it is likely that the only measure of faithfulness is that hope always comes after grief and that the speaker (in this case the prophet Isaiah) of this public expression must know and be a part of the anguish that permits hope. Hope expressed without knowledge of and participation in grief is likely to be false hope that does not reach despair. Thus,… it is precisely those who know death most painfully who can speak hope most vigorously.”
We are walking alongside, and grieving with, many who know death and deep sadness – due to the death of children, the lessening of opportunity, deep relationship difficulties, vocational and economic uncertainties, and much more. It is a heavy time, and easy to despair.
At the same time, we have so much for which to be grateful, including health, community, family, and myriad opportunities for hospitality and service. We are right where we belong. And the world is not yet as it should be.
Our fiscal year ends next Monday, and we are grateful to be in sight of our annual financial goal.
A few extra gifts will take us over the top. If you have been pondering a one-time, year-end, or a new monthly financial gift, we would eagerly 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.
For a lengthier update on recent events for us, you will find an extended update below with details and stories about: the Cohort Europe finale in Budapest, graduations and year-end celebrations for our Young Adult International Fellowship, a follow-up on our Iranian friends who now live in Vienna, our plans for an upcoming six-month stint away from Hungary, and an upcoming fun bike ride around Lake Balaton.
In radical hope,
Jeff and Julie
i thank You God for most this amazing day
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e e cummings
Source: Complete Poems 1904-1962
Bouman Letter June 2025. Blog extras
The Cohort Europe team met in Budapest the first week of June for their time of closure together. We experienced a blend of joyful celebration, wistful and open reflection, and time for sharing of plans for the future, much of which remains unknown for several in the group. Rebekah will return to Pennsylvania to live with her family, and to grieve belatedly for her beloved Grandma who died just after Rebekah’s arrival in Budapest last August. Hanis will remain in Budapest, and is discerning how to best follow God’s call into ministry going forward. Caroline, who was in Lithuania for the year, will return another year to serve at LCC International University. And from the crew in Berlin, Kevin will return to Nova Scotia and is discerning a path forward in service; Anastasiya is strongly considering remaining in Berlin another year, but remains undecided; and Alisha is also somewhat undecided as she weighs options for graduate school and future service opportunities. We are all grateful for bringing this group together, and on our last night together, we participated in a deeply meaningful time of mutual blessings where each member looked each other member in the eye and offered a verbal blessing to them.
Births and deaths and hope – several younger friends of ours, and children of our friends, are having babies, or trying to have them. We have been walking alongside those near to us who have encountered severe challenges in this journey. When a baby dies, it is an enormous grief; and when a woman miscarries, often very few people know. And when a baby suffers birth defects and endures major surgeries in the first weeks of life, we grieve and rejoice with what is possible. All of these have been part of our year so far, and we continue to hold the light for those walking in despair.
Fellowship finale / graduations
Many in our International Young Adult Fellowship are visitors in Hungary as a result of an academic program; and inevitably they conclude their studies and move on. This year we have said goodbye to several who have been faithful participants, and we wish them well as they move on to Czechia, to Germany, and to other places around the world. We anticipate a very fun graduation on Friday this week that we’ve been invited to attend for two friends from Kosovo and from Syria, as they are awarded bachelor’s degrees in Psychology.
Vienna follow up
I have connected the young Persian couple that was baptized at our church last fall, and who now live in Vienna, with an international church that was planted specifically to serve Farsi speaking Iranians and Afghans; I am hoping that this proves to be a place where they can grow in faith, and worship without fear.
Cohort Europe 2025-25; and Plans for totalization in US
We still have decisions to make, but it is becoming clearer that our mandated six-month absence from Hungary (due to a bi-lateral US/Hungary agreement) will take place from around December 1, 2025 through May 31, 2026. A good portion of this time will likely be spent in Michigan and Pennsylvania, with some travel to stay in touch with the Cohort Europe program that will be in progress. On that note, we are excited to welcome two new Cohort Europe participants starting in August. Both are recent graduates from LCC International University, and you can find more information here for Justé, and here for Dasha. Justè is from Lithuania, and Dasha is from Ukraine. More on their placements in future communication. If you are able, please consider giving to each of them, as they will be challenged to raise the necessary support for their participation, coming from Eastern European contexts where financial support for missions is not as culturally embedded as it is for North American, or Western European Christians. (Please let me know if you have trouble accessing their giving page – we have had some difficulties that the IT department is working on…)
Balaton biking
One fun thing we are looking forward to here in Hungary this summer is a visit from long-time friends Jim and Jennifer Bryson, from Dexter, Michigan. The four of us plan to set out on a four-day bicycle trip around the “Hungarian Sea,” or Lake Balaton, about a 200-kilometer trip along the edge of the lake, in mid-July. Watch for photos!
