The view from Budapest

  One of the great things about returning to the US this month is that I got to go to my nephew, Hunter’s, high school football game.  Abilene High is ranked 9th in the state of Texas and was playing their crosstown rivals, Cooper High School.  It is always the biggest game of the year for them and it was fun to be there as a part of it.

They won the game 34-10 and the outcome was never in doubt.  Hunter played great and even had a near sack that ended up on the front page of the Sports section in the Abilene paper!  Pretty awesome.

There is nothing like Texas High School Football!  I just wish the rest of my family could have been here to enjoy it with me.

Click here to see more pictures.

We had another wonderful Christmas morning.  Here’s a recap in pictures:

Kids wait “patiently” at the top of the stairs before seeing what Santa brought: 

Diving into the presents
 

Christmas breakfast and the reading of the Christmas story:
 

Kirby Ann has a breathing treatment.  We are so thankful that she is with us and not at the hospital
 

 

We invited all the Aggies that we knew in Budapest to come and watch the big game with tu.   We had some great food, great fellowship and to top it all off, the Aggies won.  I know that my neighbors are wondering what was going on at our house all night with all of the yelling.  When they scored the go-ahead touchdown, the place erupted.   

What a great night!!  We all agreed that this is a new tradition in Budapest!!!    

It’s 5:30pm the night before Thanksgiving.   I’m about to send the final copy of a 125 page report to my boss that we’ve been working on for the past week and a half.  I’m not coming back to the office until December 4th!!!!!  YIPPEE!!  I haven’t had a day off to speak of since June so I’m ready for a break. 

At the moment, some time off is at the top of my list of things that I’m thankful for.  I’m sure tomorrow, I’ll remember to be thankful for more significant things

Happy Thanksgiving!!

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.

This is a big week for Campus Crusade here in Budapest.  Being a missionary community with a large number of expats, many of our staff are gone for the summer.  Some return to the US to see family, fund raising and general R&R.  Others are on summer projects out in one of our 19 countries.   Others, like me, are mostly in the office, and on a couple of ministry trips.

All that to say tha things are different in the summer and a lot of people are gone.  All that changes this week.  Everyone is back and the new ministry year gets underway.   We have two all day meetings and  a golf tournament this week.  Next week is an entire week of all day meetings.  In that past, I would just need to show up at these meetings and it isn’t too much of a deal.  In my new role, I am the coordinator of most of them.  This is very different.  Today will be a crazy day since I’ve been out of town for a week and I still have to do a ton of work on the first major meeting on Tuesday. 

We’ll see if I have time to blog.  Don’t be surprised if it is another month before you hear from me.

I moved my blog to a new hosting provider.  I love bluehost.com and have used them for other websites.  I’m glad that my contract ran out with my old provider so that I could move my own site to them.

I’ve also moved my blog to the home position of my site.  I had big plans to make changes and add features.  I guess that will have to come someday in the future.  The summer hasn’t had as much down time as I expected.  Maybe at Christmas.

WOW! Almost a week and a half since my last entry. What a couple of weeks it has been. Work has been really busy and my parents have been here visiting for the past week. We have had a great time. I’ve had to work more than I would have liked, but it has still been good to have them here. The kids have enjoyed their time with Mimi & Big Tom. They played tennis, went to the pool, and we have been playing cards almost every night. We also went out to eat at a couple of our favorite restaurants.

They are here until Monday, but I leave tonight for Singapore. It is the follow-up trip to my last time there in February. Last time we designed software for our ministry to capture measurements from the field. Since then, a company in Singapore has been building the software. Now it is time to learn how to use it. I’ll be trained and get everything setup. Then, when I return to Budapest, we hope to get it ready for 3 of our countries to use in the Fall. It has been fun to work on a project that involves the whole world. I’m really excited about the progress we have made.

Maybe I will have time to post more from Singapore. I’ll still be doing my day job back here in Budapest so maybe not.

[image:372:l]Valerie & I went took the kids to see the Prestonwood Baptist Church Student Choir that was here on tour this past Saturday. My aunt who attends had let us know that they were coming. The only person that I knew we would run into was Ross Robinson, the missions’ pastor, whose brother works with me here in Budapest.

When we found them on Margaret Island (the big island/park in the middle of the Danube). I saw Ross so I went up and introduced myself. He was talking to 5 or 6 girls in the group and he started to introduce me. He then said that they all went to Trinity Christian Academy!!! That’s where I went! Weird. I realized while talking to them that I graduated before they were born!! With my 20 year reunion this summer, that was a huge OUCH!!! I’m closer in age to their parents than them.

Then, we told someone else that we met that I grew up at Legacy Drive Baptist Church. Instantly, they said, “You must know Carly Henderson.” I instantly knew that she was Curt & Cindy’s daughter although I’m sure I haven’t seen her since she was 2. They went and found her and it was fun to get to meet her. She was excited that someone that knew her parents mysteriously showed up on the other side of the world. She was kind of freaked out about it.
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It was a great day and the concert was amazing. 300 kids and they were really good. Also, they really had a heart for ministry and were rushing into the crowd after the concert to tell people about Jesus. My kids loved the concert and the boys played soccer and football with some of the guys after the concert.

It was fun to make some back home connections all the way on this side of the world.