The view from Budapest

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Tonight was the annual Fall Festival at our office here in Budapest!! It looks amazing similar to Halloween, but we stay away from those terms because everyone isn’t okay with celebrating Halloween.  Whatever you call it, everyone had a great time.  There were games galore, including bobbing for apples and pumpkin seed spitting!!!   It was another chance for us to experience a little bit of America here in Budapest.  There were probably a little over 100 people in attendance and we had a great time.

 As you can see, everyone had fun dressing up, too.

This is a phrase that we use a lot inside of CCC.  Conferences are something we are really good at and that we have found effective in moving forward on our mission.  Bringing people together to discuss challenges, work on problems, get some training is really important in ministry. 

This week it is hitting me close to home as I’m planning / running one conference and attending another.  Our National Directors conference is this week here in Budapest and I did all of the arrangements for it, but I’m not attending it.  I’m attending, along with Valerie, a Cross-Cultural Training here at our office in Budapest.  It is a requirement for us as we transition from Short Term status to Long Term status.  We are joined by 15-20 others from around Europe.  It is a 3 week conference.  I’m sure it will be good, but it is definately going to be long!!!!  Also, this week will be difficult as my body is in one conference and my mind is in another.

These are the last conferences for this calendar year so I’m looking forward to a slower pace next month.  Maybe I’ll blog some more then.

Here it is.  Almost a month since my last post.  I’d like to say it was something spiritual like a blog fast or something, but it was just overwhelming busyness.  I jumped into the deep end of the pool with my new job and I haven’t had much time for extras like blogging.  For some, blogging is the last thing to go.  For me it is one of the first.

Here’s some highlights of the last month:

• My Fantasy Football team is 4-0 and leading the league.  This is amazing since I haven’t had time for that either.  Maybe the reason that I don’t usually do too well in Fantasy Football is that I actually think about it and strategize. 
   
• We had a surprise visit from my Dad.  There was a technology conference here in Budapest and my dad’s boss was supposed to attend.  His boss broke his leg the week before and my dad was willing to jump in at the last second.  It was fun to have him here and be in meetings together.  My kids had a great time seeing Big Tom.  What a treat!
• I attended CCC’s Operations Leadership Conference.  I joined 90 or so operational leaders from around the world.  Campus Crusade is separated into 12 or 13 Areas of Affairs around the world and almost every one of them was represented here in Budapest.  My favorite part was listening to the stories of what God is doing around the globe.  I also saw a bunch of good friends from Orlando.   It was fun to catch up.
• I’ve given up on Aggie Football for the year.  Trent & I stayed up to watch the Texas Tech game last Saturday.  I wish I would have gone to bed 30 seconds earlier.  At 12:45am, it looked like we were going to win.  By 1am, we had blown it.  We’re done even though we are 4-1.  I think it would have been easier to get up the next morning if we hadn’t have blown it at the end.

Maybe I’ll get back on the blogging trail, but no promises.