The view from Budapest

We can feel the heat tonight!  Our gas was turned back on today.  I paid the bill yesterday morning, but it took 30 hours or so to get it back on.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too cold over the last couple of days and it never got too bad.  It is warm again tonight!

Just in time for me to head to the US in the morning.  I’m off to Abilene, TX and then Kansas City.  Who knows where after that?  I’ll keep you posted.

Today Valerie called me during a meeting and when I answered she made it clear that I needed to take this call right away. When I got into the hallway, she said that there were people at our house saying that they were going to cut off our gas. I started thinking, “I’m sure I paid the bill”, “We haven’t received any notices”, etc . . . My assistant, Moni, started talking to the guy on the phone and he was sure that we needed our gas cut off and that he had the right house. In the mean time, I found several of my bills and confirmed that I had paid for the past 3 months and that the bill said nothing about a late payment. Although I didn’t understand everything Moni was saying, I could tell that she was being pretty forceful that we had paid our bill and that we shouldn’t have our gas cut off. The guy told her that if he didn’t do this today, that they would come tomorrow and totally disconnect our house from the gas company (which is a really big deal, evidently). We asked if there was anywhere in Budapest that we could go and pay the bill. He said that all the offices close at 3pm. Conveniently for this guy, it was 4:15pm. No luck. In the end, he had to cut off our gas. It is our heat for our house and our hot water.

After the phone call, I found a bill from April that I hadn’t paid. Then, I found a notice of disconnection dated in late May that said that they would disconnect in 10 days if I didn’t pay. I couldn’t read the notice and I’m sure I must have taken it to the office for translation, but in the busy-ness of getting ready to leave for the summer, I guess I forgot. The crazy thing is that none of our bills since then even mentioned the outstanding bill.  After calling the company on the phone, we found out that we do owe from the late payment and that they don’t put late payments on the bill since I’m on balanced billing.

The next step is that I go to the Gas Company in the morning and pay the bill.  Then, I FAX the payment notice to the company and they have 48 hours to cut the gas back on.

Please pray that it would be quick and that it won’t get too cold over the next few days.

This is clearly the STUPID AMERICAN TAX.  We couldn’t read the notice.  It is likely that we received phone calls which we couldn’t understand.

Here in Europe, we went off of daylight savings time last night.  It is very dramatic here since it was dark at about 4:30 or 4:45 today.  It means winter is here.  We were all wondering about 5 if it was time for bed soon.  The weirdest part is that I’ll start coming home from work int he dark every day.  In a few more weeks, it will be pitch dark at 4:15.  It isn’t one of our favorite parts of living in Europe this far north.

Here is what I have been looking at all day.  Many staff from across Eastern Europe & Russia, asking God to bring more students to know Him and to be involved in the ministry.  They are being trained in Change Action Teams and how they can come up with creative solutions to some of the challenges that they face.  It has been a fun day.  We all look forward to seeing what God will do.

The next 3 days will be filled with prayer, training, discussions, brainstorming, relationship building, and lots of fun.  Right now they are doing a group exercise using puzzles.

  Valerie & I had the great privlege to attend our National Directors Conference this past week.  All of the leaders of the 19 countries across Eastern Europe & Russia come together twice a year to pray, be encouraged, and talk about strategy.  Every couple of years, their wives come with them and we go to a special place where they can have some time to rest and relax in addition to the meetings.

This time we went to the Pearl of Croatia, Dubrovnik.  It is a beautiful city right on the Adriatic sea.  The old town is almost 2000 years old and is magnificent.  It was a great time of focusing on the ministry and building relationships.  Being a National Director is a tough job and they really were encouraged by the time.

I’m truly privleged to be a part of this great group of people!!

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