Anything But Glamourous

If anybody has the misguided idea that missionary life is glamorous, this week's events would disspell those misconceptions. It was another outreach weekend as a group from Calvary Chapel Heidelberg Germany flew in to Budapest and then traveled to the Ukraine to work with kids at a boarding school there. Through guitar lessons, language practice, sports and games the group of young adults connected with the Ukrainian/Hungarian youth enabling them to share their faith in very genuine ways.
After arriving back at our home late Sunday night, Russell loaded them in the van very early Monday morning and headed to Budapest where he planned to drop them off at the airport before attending a series of meetings with different missionaries. Ahh, but the best laid plans of mice and men ....
About an hour or so down the road, the van died. After calling the auto club, they waited for hours. Even the very mechanically-gifted Germans could not get the van to start. By the time they got towed to the nearby town of Eger, the Germans raced to catch a train, but not all of them managed to catch their flight. They were trapped in Budapest with no way home.
The van was in the shop and Russell, being the able-minded problem solver he is alerted the church community in Debrecen and found a solution. Our pastor would let Russ drive his car, and he could take the group to Germany -- a 12-14 hour drive one way.
They drove all night Monday night. At 4am I received an SMS on my cell phone -- the pastor's car broke down as they crossed into Germany -- with four more hours of driving yet to do. The five large guys slept in the tiny car outside a repair shop and waited for dawn. By 8:30 am the car was fixed and they were back on the road and the sleepy crew made it back the fatherland in one piece.
Russ is making the most of the trip as he is seizing the opportunity to meet with the groups coming for our big Thanksgiving at the Miskolc Orphanage. He still must make the long trip home though, so please keep him in your prayers.

Happy Birthday Niki!

Niki has now been a part of our family for about 10 months and on the 20th we celebrated her 7th birthday with all her friends at the Hungarian kindergarten. It was party fit for a princess as Niki wore a crown and sat beside her princess cake while her whole class sang to her. The event was punctuated by balloon games and balloon animals and every child went home with his own bottle of bubbles. Niki now looks forward to her family birthday party tonight where she will enjoy all her princess themed gifts. She has become our little princess!

Back in the Swing of Things

The Chuns took a vacation the first week in September and it was greatly needed. We enjoyed some solitude on the Hungarian/ Slovenian border and the girls got to have a horse experience. We even got to ride the old logging train between villages although we were deluged with rain much of the trip. We sandwiched the vacation with visits to the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta, Hungary where we got to catch up with Andi's God mother and namesake who recently became a mother herself.
Now we are home and back into the swing of things with the girls active in Ovoda (Hungarian Kindergarten) in the mornings. I homeschool them with some basic first grade material in the afternoons. The plan is that they will learn to read and write English this year and Hungarian next year when they enter Hungarian first grade.
Ministry has not slowed down one iota. Even while we were on vacation, GoodSports was still active as Luca coordinated a team from Calvary Chapels in Germany, taking them into the Ukraine for ministry and outreach at a youth center there. This week Russ resumed his weekly trek to Miskolc to lead a bible study with the orphanage kids. And even as I type this, our garage is full of Mikepercsi baseball boys working with Russ to put together a pingpong table. Next week another team from Germany arrives to minister in a boarding school in Ukraine and things at home will not be slow either as Niki celebrates her 7th Birthday on Thursday 20 September.
Meanwhile things are rolling ahead for the Thanksgiving program in Miskolc -- where we are celebrating our 10th anniversary of doing Thanksgiving at the orphanage. Never a dull moment at the Chun house.