So This is Christmas...

The flurries are gently wafting through the crisp winter air in Eastern Hungary and the smell of burning wood and coal fills the village of Mikepercs where we live. While our girls squeal with excitement at their recently unwrapped gifts, many children at the Lakasotthon Orphanage in nearby Miskolc spend another holiday without warm feelings or family.
But thanks to our dear friend Christine Pegnoglou, their Christmas was not without cheer and little bit of laughter, perhaps even delight. Visiting from Dallas, Texas, Christine brought an array of Christmas knicknacks, including festive pencils, erasers, stickers and candy canes packaged beautifully in SnowMan bags for the children. But the Krem-de-la-krem of these Christmas packages were the ever infamous whoopie cushions which took the institution by storm when we delivered them on December 23rd.
At first the children were wary of the odd-looking balloons, but once demonstrated and the first unmistakable sound of intestinal fortitude echoed through the halls, the institution exploded into a veritable bower of giggles, gurgles and gastrointestinal pandemonium.
Gergely, the tiniest boy in the orphanage, was afraid the cushion would pop like a balloon so he just ran around holding his ears as Csaba and the other boys produced endless echoes of artificial methane emissions.
The sounds of children's laughter poured into the streets as Christine, Trudy, and our faithful translator Bogi (from the Debrecen church youth group) left the institution and headed to the boys transition house (for older boys preparing to be out on their own) in the nearby village of Pereces. There we delivered a Hungarian Christmas dinner as several of them had no place to go for Christmas. And Christine brought each of the boys a Dallas Cowboys baseball cap as a special Christmas gift.
Of course, gifts and visits from foreigners cannot make up for what these children lack this Christmas season. Still, perhaps the visit gave them a little sense that someone cares. And perhaps someday, if we can consistently show them love in some tangible, genuine way, they will come to know the One who cares most for them.