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!!
Click here to see more pictures.
I watched the opening Monday Football Games this week and I can’t believe how far MNF has fallen. I didn’t watch hardly any of the games last year because of the time difference, but due to being sick, I watched them on tape the next morning.
First of all, Jaworski is a disaster as a live color commentator. I lost count, but I think he pointed out that Carson Palmer likes to throw to the outside about 4,382 times. I’m not sure he made another point during the game. It was absolutely laughable. I like him in the studio shows when he has had time to prepare. He is great at pointing out nuances of pass coverage and quarterback decisions, but he could do none of that during a live game.
Also, I’m not sure Tony Kornheiser made an interesting comment the entire night. He threw a couple of insults at Jaws, but other than that was totally worthless. Again, I love him on PTI, but this just isn’t his gig. How did they not figure that out last year?
On the other hand, I watched the first quarter of the Arizona-SF game and Mike n Mike n Mike were pretty good. Greenberg and Golic have incredible chemistry and Golic does a great job of making insights on the fly. Ditka is good for the mix. I say throw out the A team and bring in the Mikes full time.
I knew that MNF was at the end when it switched to ESPN, but they seemed determined to kill it off altogether. For now, it is clear that Sunday night has become the new Monday. Long live Sunday Night Football.
Yesterday, I spent the Day with the Lord. Part of that day I wanted to get away and spend sometime in solitude. That is very difficult in a city of 2.5 million. I chose to go to the a small hill with a chapel on it overlooking the town of Budaörs where my office is. You can also see my village, Törökbálint, in the distance. I had a great time with the Lord and I enjoyed the beautiful views. It was difficult to get alone as two American dads brought their kids up there to play football and climb on the rocks while I was there. What are the chances of that? I didn’t even know them which is a little more surprising. It was still a good time as it is a big place and I was able to get off by myself.
What do you get when you have two lawyers in a room in Hungary? Two days of trying to stay awake in meetings and there’s nothing funny about that. Don’t you wish you could join me? We are going to be wrestling with Hungarian Tax Law as it relates to our ministry.
Here is Kendall, Trent & Reed on their first day of school. It was a big day for Kendall and Reed as Kendall is beginning High School (unbelievable) and Reed is starting middle school. Trent is just cruising along into the 7th grade.
Kirby Ann starts Hungarian 1st grade next Monday so I’m sure there will be lots of news related to that day. First day in school and it will be all in Hungarian. Valerie wont’ have any idea what is going on.
Well, I’m going to give this blogging thing another shot. I really didn’t intend to stop posting over 6 months ago, but life happened to me and blogging was a casualty. With a new ministry year underway, I’m going to try to crank it back up. We’ll see how it goes.
There is still another week here in Budapest before the office gets really crazy. Everyone shows up on Sept 3rd and there are a ton of meetings. Maybe I’ll get a few posts in before then.
It has been a weird winter here in Budapest. There have only been a few days where it even dipped below freezing. Many days it gets up into the 50’s. We had one dusting of snow back in November, but other than that it hasn’t even threatened. We have enjoyed the warm weather and the sun. It is definately a nice change of pace, but it might be changing soon. Forecasts have snow moving in soon. We’ll see if it makes it. I’ll just keep enjoying the lack of winter while it lasts.
I had the privilege this week of facilitating a meeting with our ministry in Bulgaria. Last spring, Bulgaria held a nationwide campaign using the Story of Jesus for Children. Across the nation over 300,000 people saw the film in a live showing and another 1.1 million saw the film on National Television. Many of those that saw the film indicated that they made a decision to accept Christ.
It has been a great week of discussing what the Lord did. We are trying to learn from our successes and mistakes so that we can improve the next time. Overall, the Lord brought the gospel to many across the country.
How blessed I am to be a part of this!!!
Yesterday, I took my first trip in almost 6 months (here is the plane that I flew on). This is definately my longest stretch without a ministry trip since I moved to Budapest. I’m in Sofia, Bulgaria to facilitate an evaluation of a major evangelistic campaign that we held across the country last year. I haven’t seen much yet, but I’m looking forward to my time here. I’ll try to keep you posted on how the week goes.
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
