A Certain Woman in Eastern Europe

Love that "Wiii" game! Austin, Mikhail, Michael and Bryce with Uncle Jack With Jilly & Greatgrandma Jill

Years ago my mother started our favorite Christmas tradition of always playing a good group game sometime after dinner and before turkey sandwiches. My brother says this was the 20th year in a row of the guys beating the girls. This year we played the newest edition of Cranium and we had a great many side splitting laughs during the game. We all had a great Christmas with wonderful presents. I am now looking forward to my Michael and family coming for the day tomorrow. After all the activity mom went to bed in one of her new pair of pajamas and slept all night! Yeah!!

Santa found our stockings and left them filled to overflowing!! Lots of presents under the tree waiting for the family to arrive later today Yesterday mom received this beautiful centerpiece from her daughter-in-law Sherry and the David's cookies from her granddaughter Becky. We are enjoying both a great deal

Kedves Barátaink!Kellemes Ünnepeket kívánunk Mindannyiótoknak és sok áldást az Új Évre!!!Szeretettel,***Dear Friends,Happy Christmas to you all and may blessings for the New Year!!!Lots of love, Christmas Greetings!!! and His name shall be Immanuel, God with us... I pray that this Christmas greeting finds you with increasing peace despite circumstances, increasing hope in your prayers being answered, even if it is not exactly how you imagined and even more important ..... increasing confidence and personal knowledge of the Presence and the Power of Jesus our Immanuel ...God with us , right here, right now. Blessings, Mary Jill

Nice not having to go out in this weather!

Thanks Jack! (and Jim and David!!) - it took all of them! and which of the wonderful brothers was the first to snowplow?

Kathy and mom - note the decorated walker The "olde homestead" I was really surprised with the snow we already had here. This area just missed a terrible ice storm that hit a week ago. Some areas are still without power and now we are waiting for a signifigant storm to move in sometime tomorrow. They are saying by noon time a heavy wall of snow which will drop 6-12 inches by 9pm and will be followed by another storm on Sunday. Today I ran out and did last minute shopping and post office etc. I am glad I brought my boots! We are mostly ready for christmas.

My brother Jack and his wife Debby just arrived back from Florida where Jack was trying to hide out from having to face a "big" birthday. So my sister Kathi and I decorated his house to welcome him home - and left him a card that said "You can run, but you can't hide! :-). Some of you know Jack by his more common name "No rules for kids, Uncle Jack". Well, mom really enjoyed visiting with Jack and Debby and as a result she stayed up until 10.30. Most nights she can only sleep for about 5 hours tops and even then gets up a number of times. That means I get up with her :-). Night before last that was at 1.30, 4, 6 and 7!! So when this morning I realised I had been able to sleep through the night I was more concerned than relieved. I checked my monitor and yes it was working and finally turned on the light to check and see if mom was ...alive. Do you remember the first night your baby slept all the way through to morning? You awake with a start and run in...

Mom has failed noticeably in the 5 weeks I've been in Hungary. Needs help in bathroom - trouble getting in and out of chairs, on and off toilet, etc. Nurses come twice a week plus nurse we had. Monday, my first day here I started slow as the sitter comes Mon & Fri for Kathi and we left her on same schedule this week. So I got to go to Post office for Tammy, the bank, bought cards, out for lunch, stopped to visit Kathi at work etc. Then my brother in law came to put lights on tree and tonight I put tinsel and my brother helped me finish decorating. That was fun. Mom thinks she is living someplace else at times and she is a bit nervous that I will not know how to help her. Praise God we got the monitor - she is supposed to call and ring bell so I wake up to hear her and come down to help her in the night. Because of frequent urinary track infections we need to wipe her and keep her clean. She is a pretty good sport about it. She had trouble getting off the toilet last week and sh...

The finished tree - isn't it a beauty? Mom and her best friend Libby supervising. My brother David helped me decorate. My loves tinsel and he reached the top for me. We think this is my first Christmas at home since 1997! The house was decorated inside and out but they saved the tree for me. As we decorated mom asked me to share my best Christmas memories from home. It was a really special time.

it only took 23 hours :-). Did you know that the Budapest Airport (Ferihegy) workers have been on strike? I met a fellow flyer who admired the solidarity of the people in this!! Management says "we won't even talk about it until you return to work." Today is day 6. The biggest problem has been security is only at Terminal 2B, Terminal 1 is closed completely and Terminal 2A has arrivals only. Here was my experience: It was a bit of a miracle so thanks for praying. I went to Term 2A - no one in line at Lufthansa!!! - Got bags weighed (had to repack to only have 1 carryon!!!!) and tagged and got boarding passes but then had to go to 2B to drop bags - Did that - no problem (All between 9.45 and 10.15) (after driving from Debrecen 7am arr arport 9.30) Then the rat maze of line started for going thru passport control! (Think Disney Land on a busy day but a line filled with people who have no respect for your personal space!) :-) . Imagine this, they shut down the ticket/ch...

Blessings and thanks to the Debrecen office of immigration who helped me renew my visa in less than a month's time. Thanks too to The River Church office and Inarcs office of EEO who got my paperwork ready in record time so I could apply for the renewal. The other great news is I got a three year residency permit. It is good through March 31, 2012. It was important to me that I had the visa by Friday, December 12th as I fly out Sunday the 14th to spend Christmas with my family in my hometown of Johnstown. I will then stay with mom for an unknown amount of time. More to come on my new yet temporary assignment in the mission field of upstate New York. Pray too that I won't be delayed by the airport workers strike now going on at Ferihegy Airport in Budapest. Thank you!

Roommates - Tammy and Edith and I checked out a new, fabulous bookstore in downtown Debrecen. It has a wonderful coffee shop with a view. And the lattes... Arden came to visit and we took in the sights of the Christmas Market - the sign above us says in Hungarian "Merry Christmas Debrecen"

Tonight the children in this country put their cleaned and empty shoes in the window sill. In the morning the awake with excitement to see what St. Mikulas has left them. IF they are good they get chocolate otherwise ...sticks.

Welcome to Agi's kitchen. What a great day we had stepping into her life and learning some new Hungarian dishes, too. Here we are making "Arany galuska" and it was even better than it looks!! Especially with the vanilla sauce. Agi's son David thought so too.

What fun to spend time with my Hungarian son and "grands". Meet Hunor and Zsu and big sister Sari and the twins Abel and Vinny. I love Hungarian fellowship especially when it includes a sleepover.

A hay maze at the Christmas Market Dom Ter, Szeged site of one of the markets Christmas Celebration Weeks Nov 25-Dec 24

ICF-International Christian Fellowship-Szeged Friday at 7 - Our first wedding!! The groom Zoltan and the bride Anita with Mary Jill who performed the wedding. You may now kiss your bride!! The wedding cake Anita, Zoli and baby Denes get ready to cut the cake The wedding party: Eszter(Pepus), Gabi, Arden and Zoli (Dubi) Time to go home. Zoltan, Anita, Tamas and baby Denes Zoltan and Anita were married by the local government authorities on February 28, 2004 but the Lord began working in their hearts and they decided they wanted to be married before God (the Higher authority!) Anita and Zoli have a special relationship with Arden and with ICF as both their boys were healed as an answer to prayers: Tamas in the womb when Arden's bible study prayed for Anita, and ICF when baby Denes was prayed for and healed of floppy baby syndrome earlier this year. When Zoli and Anita considered where to marry they realized who their church family was and came to ICF. Over 50 people came to cel...

A traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our American friends Mike & Nancy and their wonderful Hungarian neighbors. The meal even included cranberry sauce from USA But we are in Hungary so Nacy wisely served the seasonings in a traditionally Hungarian manner. Did you have paprika with your turkey? Trust you were as blessed as we were. Nancy wrote out the story of the first Thanksgiving in Hungarian and shared it with us. Everyone was impressed with her language skills (and Mike's reading skills) and we were able to share our tradition about this family celebration and being grateful to God for His care and provision. Thanks Nancy and Mike for a lovely evening and sweet fellowship

May your Thanksgiving be blessed with a table overflowing, the family gathered round, the house full of sounds of joy and laughter and a heart grateful for the bounty of the Lord. May you know His peace and fullness of joy during this wonderful time of celebration. I joined Face Book recently and a friend sent a "note" that I should list 25 specific things I wanted to do in the future. I really took some time to think about it and the list is pretty interesting and as yet unpublished. But as I thought more about it I realized that the Lord has blessed me already with a very full and interesting life. In fact many of the things I've done are on other people's list! I began to thank Him for all the wonderful places he has taken me to, all the great adventures He's given me and I was overcome with thankfulness for all the incredibly, wonderful people He has faithfully placed in my life no matter where I lived and I thought...... specifically of you!! Thank you for b...

Some of you might recall last summer when I went to The Call-Nashville and I met up with a wonderful gang of people from the Quad Cities. My friend Luana from Iowa is a spokesperson for "Operation Outcry" and she will be sharing her story of abortion on television tomorrow night. Please tune in if you can and hear these important truths. Here is the e-mail I received from Luana. "There is going to be a documentary on channel 378 (RBN) called " Beyond the Dark Valley ". It is on tomorrow, Tuesday Nov.25th at 6:00 pm central time. It is a documentary on Abortion staring Josh Davis the Olympic gold metalist. I was part of the taping as well. I am telling my story of how abortion hurt me.Please consider watching it and let me know what you think." Thanks,Luana

Dear Mary Jill,I have an unusual exhortation today: Turn on your TV! Tomorrow and Tuesday next, DirecTV subscribers will have the opportunity to see the first national airing of Beyond the Dark Valley.The Justice Foundation produced Beyond the Dark Valley this past summer. This captivating special features three stories of women and men who have been devastated by abortion and their journey to find hope and healing. It also discusses the scientific and medical evidence and consequences of abortion. The program serves to educate viewers that abortion hurts women, men, and families. Beyond the Dark Valley guides the hurting to repentance and healing found through Biblically-based abortion recovery programs. Finally, the show reaches out to those in unplanned pregnancies to let them know that there are crisis pregnancy centers available to help. You can watch this powerful program on the National Religious Broadcasting Channel on DirecTV, Channel 378. Beyond the Dark Valley wil...

On Monday Edith and I left Szeged and drove to our friends at Keleti Europa Misszio Alapitvany where we had a great visit and also picked up paperwork for my visa renewal. From there we ran a few errands in Budapest and then headed north about 55 km to visit my country house and friends in Diosjeno. We left there about 8 and arrived safely to Debrecen at 11pm - 3 days and 754 km later but what a great weekend. In Diosjeno, Eva shared with us her latest joy and blessing. The month before she and Sandor had attended a series of meetings with a Catholic priest who was teaching on the Holy Spirit. There were about 40 others who attended. She was so excited as she had received her "angyal nyelv" (angel tongue) and could really tell a difference in prayer!! Thank you, Lord! What a great turn out this was as three small villages came together. God is moving! She also had a new creative idea to make Christmas ornaments from corn husks and silk. She has been selling them to a firm in ...