A Certain Woman in Eastern Europe

The youth group - Nov meeting planning for December. From left, Jennifer, Bethany, Selena, Jenna, Marion holding Nadia on there lap. Later, Luca joined us.  Buddy our cockatiel arrived. Batthyany 18 will be it's new address until his new "mom" Abbe has her own flat. Here, Leah is saying goodbye and Abbe and Nadia are welcoming him. Buddy Spending time with "mom". I feel like I am the "foster" mom and I love birds!!

Due to the recent addition of young people and new ministry connections in my life, Thanksgiving became an international event with lots of people. Despite trying to keep the neighbors to a manageable 12, we actually invited about 25 people. That evening about 20 arrived coming from Hungary, Austria, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, Moldovia and a number of places from the USA. About 8 people had never had a Thanksgiving meal before so it was a lot of fun.  Although the downstairs main ministry room is almost done, we decided not to carry everything down but to have people upstairs. Somehow it worked out quite well.  Nadia and I and Abbe started preparing the day before (as you do :-) and we had the traditional turkey (but in pieces not the whole bird) mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, Sarah's Great grandma Sadie's scalloped corn, stuffing, rolls, Russian salad and apple and pumpkin pie. Just like home! (mostly) Before eating we all shared what we are thankf...

About a year and a half ago, I asked my friend Marie to lead worship for a Tuesday evening prayer group and it is the highlight of most of our weeks! Here is a picture of the group Carol, Chantal, me and Marie. Our numbers can "swell" :-) and last Tues we were 8. It was a special night as we said goodbye to our friend and worship warrior, Chantal who leaves today, Dec 3 for Chaing Mai, Thailand. Chantal is a very young hearted and energetic 70 something and is a great example to all of us. During a trip to Israel last month, the Lord assured of her future and opened the door for her to move to Thailand. We had a great dinner and prayer time in sending her off. Carol, Chantal, MJ and Marie Chantal and her special friend and neighbor Klaudia New and welcomed additions to our prayer group is this trio. Abbe, Sarah and Nadia. Here they are leaving after the prayer meeting - heading out for their weekly outreach to young partiers. Life is exciting here at Batthyan...

Visited my missionary friend, Tammy by flying into Kiev and then a 2 hour trip to Zhitomer and then her village. It was great being with Pastor Lena and Yura and the church there. Especially fun to spend time with the special "strong" young men in Tammy's life. Please be praying for Ukraine as they go through these troubling times.

Gathering in Diosjeno to send off missionary renter, Clint Heath. Clint has rented the village house for 1 1/2 years. Because he was planning on returning to the US and re-settling there we threw a good bye party in the village.  Clint has made great in roads in relationships there. He attends the local Reformed Church and has lead a conversational English course and organized a summer camp for 5 days of English Bible teachings and conversational opportunities with native speakers. That event was like a reunion for Clint, me, Martin Sutton and Jackie Ramsey. But now seemed to be the time of goodbye. We had a great time of worship, prayer, fellowship and food. Then Clint, surprised us by saying while he was away, the Lord instructed him to continue living in Hungary. He will be gone for 8 months now and is not sure where he will live but....we enjoyed his send off...and the door is wide open for relationships in the village. Thanks Clint for all you did to keep that door open. We h...