Happy New Year!

As usual there's just the two of us here to see in the New Year. The temperatures outside would discourage anyone from going to open-air celebrations! There have already been quite a few fireworks in the locality, but we're expecting enough at midnight to justify going outside for a couple of minutes.

Yesterday we finished the turkey, apart from a gallon of soup in the freezer, also the (very small) Christmas cake. To finish both before the New Year must be a record.

This is no holiday. Long meetings on Monday, counselling all Tuesday, e-mails and publicity today, more administration tomorrow. I also wrote the first chapter of a selective autobiography, more for the benefit of our family and social historians than anyone else, but it does give an insight into early childhood just after the war. I'm quite pleased with it.

A better kind of meeting!

Today we had our Regional Nations Centre planning meeting - not in the office, but in Coffee Heaven at Arena Plaza in Budapest, where they have free wi-fi and comfortable seats. We finished the meeting over a fast-food lunch at the food court. Wonderful.

The Regional Nations Directors (Roger and Chris) and Assistant Directors (Jim and Tanya) live out at opposite sides of Budapest, so a meeting in the centre of town, at a comfortable venue with free parking, seemed very logical!

Sunday Evening

Ebenezer preached on Pride at ICB today. Very good! Also excellent worship led by Erin. This afternoon, we watched "Horton Hears a Who", a Christmas present from Jeannie. I made supper, turkey risotto (what else), and Chris settled down to some serious facebooking. Her farm is close to making her a millionaire, and she has achieved Legend status in the mousehole game. Now I'm listening to Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" - only the first part! Part 2 is definitely not nice.

Now you know what missionaries do on a Sunday off.

Relaxing a bit...

This was a real day off, so I was able to do some work... Working on the Bucharest conference in January and on the Mission School in April.

Boxing Day!

Christmas Day was great, with an international guest-list crammed into our little house. We made them read out the jokes from the crackers and wear the paper hats all through the meal. After all, tradition is tradition. To make it complete, we all watched the Queen's Speech afterwards. Interesting questions from our American guest (first time in Europe for about 45 years) - "Why are they all princes? Why isn't one of them king?" And, of course, Why is tomorrow "Boxing Day"?

So today, known to Hungarians just as the Second Day of Christmas (which it is), we will be going to visit more friends on the other side of Budapest. That's a good tradition too. The weather is sunny and quite cold, with a light sprinkling of snow still left from Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve!

We're just about ready for Christmas. My last job was to find some fresh sprouts, not an easy job in Hungary, but I got them! Also got some fresh bread from our local bakery where the queue was out of the door. But ... sad news. We forgot to look for cranberry sauce on the "international" shelves at Tesco. We're thinking of using some of our freezer-full of frozen plums to make a substitute...

It's also a bit sad that in a country of copious and conspicuous alcohol consumption, they haven't even heard of sherry. There's nothing like a drop of Croft's while waiting for the turkey to brown. The duty-free in Bulgaria didn't have any either.

We're using our huge tiled stove as much as possible for heating, thanks to a free supply of logs which should last for another month or so. Anything that saves on gas is good!

Plovdiv memories

Well, we're back home from Plovdiv and now gearing up for Christmas. Plovdiv was great. Our 40 students were hungry for the teaching and willingly took part in all the practical exercises, even though it was all very new for some of them.

While we were away, our car was serviced. We thought it would cost £170 but the garage found some more things wrong and it ended up costing £350. Ouch!

Stop press news! We are just back from our local Tesco in the town of Gödöllő just down the road, where they had a huge range of oven-ready turkeys. How things have changed. Thirteen years ago a shopping-trolley was virtually unknown in Hungary and everybody trudged off to their local "elelmiszer" with bags and baskets. The turkey was £4 a kilo. I wonder how this compares with UK prices.

Plovdiv 6

We're home again in Hungary after a smooth journey back from Plovdiv. Roger preached in the morning at "Life Through Christ" church, our host church for ACC.

It's always a relief to see a friendly Malev plane arrive at a distant airport to take us home. This is Sofia. Interesting thought - if I'd taken a photo like this in Moscow, I'd have been arrested!

Plovdiv 5

Philip of Macedon keeps guard over the centre of Plovdiv. This unpopular monument at first had to be guarded day and night by police. After all, he's a foreign invader.
Contrasts - an ancient Turkish bath, an "Italian" restaurant, and a modern hotel.
Keeping the central park tidy.

Plovdiv 4

Here is Chris teaching ACC in Plovdiv. We are now running behind our usual timetable thanks to the reduced programme each evening, but we still have faith that we will catch up on Saturday!

Everybody is asking us when we can come back again - they are thirsty for more. We have been doing PMAs each afternoon; they saved the worst cases specially for us, but God is good!

Plovdiv 3

We think we can fit in the whole ACC course on a reduced timetable. These are good students. We had to explain to the pastor that a "full day" on Saturday does NOT mean starting at 1.00 p.m. so that people can have lunch first! We'll start at 10.00 a.m. and go on until we finish, with breaks for lunch and maybe even supper.

Plovdiv 2

Today was good. We taught Spiritual Laws (complete with being hit over the head with a giant inflatable hammer) and Spiritual Tools, which was followed by a great demonstration ministry. Then a teaching on the Holy Spirit and more prophetic ministry. Wonderful. Praise God!

Plovdiv 1

Here we are in Plovdiv, teaching ACC - Answering Christ's Call. We thought that we would have six full days, 36 hours, but yesterday it turned out that "nobody can come before 6 p.m." Then last night at 5.45 we learned that "people have been told that it will start at 6.30.pm". Hmmm. We must be in Eastern Europe...

But it was good last night! We are loved, and we are well received. The teaching went well. There are about 40 people in the class. The translator was good. God was good!

A diary?

Meet Johnny Jones, a superman,
Who kept a diary right through Jan,
And even filled up part of Feb
Before his strength began to ebb.

I think I'll use this blog as a diary. That way, I'll be able to remember what happened. You're welcome to look. Maybe I'll put some photos on as well.

We taught a one-day course Dealing with Stress, Anxiety and Burnout for Ellel Hungary today. About 20 people came, which is not bad for a weekend just before Christmas. Now we're packing for our trip to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, to teach ACC. They tell us there will be about 40 pastors and leaders there.