March 2017

Finally! Spring has arrived in Budapest. The past few mornings I have woken up to the sun shining in my window. It seems like this winter was especially long. It's gloomy, dark, and lonely here in the winter. A lot of people don't realize it, but it's true. Whole weeks can go by without the clouds parting and letting the sun shine through. February, I think, was rough for us at GGIS. It seemed gloomy. The kids shut down.

Our regular Friday night youth group at school had a Valentine's Day party with food, games, a special guest speaker and a whole lot of fun. It was very well attended, but after that we kind of went downhill. As the leader, I spoke with my team and we decided to postpone it for a couple of weeks until after the Eurocon break. This was an extremely hard decision to make and I really struggled with it for a while. I think it's necessary to regroup, rethink, and come back with a new vision. I hope the kids will respond well to this little break.

I recently went on the 9th and 10th grade class trip to Vienna, Austria. (If you look up GGIS on Facebook you can see a video I made about it.) It was such a refreshing time to just be with the students. It really brought me back to the purpose of me being here. Like I said before, it can get so gloomy sometimes, not just weather-wise, but also mentally. I can become burdened and forget my purpose. Being in my calling brings me back like the sun shining through the clouds again.

I am looking forward to Eurocon, which is the Greater Grace European Conference that we have every year. It’s going to be an amazing time as it always is. I have two guys from America staying with me this year. I really look forward to being refreshed and renewed at Eurocon.

Lastly, I wanted to tell you about a Bible class I taught last week. I teach Bible four days a week, but I reserve Wednesdays as a discussion day with the students. One 11th grader asked me what I used to do in my free time as a teenager and I began to tell him. From that answer the students asked me a lot more questions about my life growing up. It was interesting for me to look back and think about where I was and what I was doing at their age. So much happened to me, both good and bad, but I told them in all honesty that I wouldn’t change any of it. God has always been working in my life for good. Who could have thought that things happening in my life ten or fifteen years ago could produce such fruit now. Keep going!