Budapest

Budapest welcomed us with Cool weather and great views. Its one of those cities that many people dream of visiting.
Our team had a great time in Budapest. So much so that three of the girls were looking up apartments to rent hoping for a return.

View from the Cathedral.  

My adventure buddies.  Often Aubrey, JoJo, myself and Anthony would
buddy up looking for adventure!  Sometimes that included hiking up hills
to get a great view. :-)

Gulasch... yum!

I have lots of pictures from walking around the city, it seems every corner has a beautiful building or great view. Our ministry times were much more like things we'd be doing at "home". Twice a week we went out to subway stops to do " evangelism". This looked like us setting up speakers and a microphone, singing songs, performing dramas and giving short speeches on the microphone speaking of love and testimony of Gods goodness in our lives. The thing we struggled with most was lack of translators. Only on one day while doing this did we have someone available to translate.  Quite unfortunate none of us speak Hungarian. We also did two nights of bar ministry, one day of handing out sandwiches to homeless and two nights in coffee shops with one of our team members performing.

Many of the younger generation speak English, but our first day we ran into very few that we were able to communicate with. Throughout the week had some great encounters and conversations. Half of these great conversations were with Hungarians and half with tourists.

Perhaps my favorite conversation was at the end of one of our bar ministry days. An English tourist joined me in conversation and I simply shared what we were doing. He asked "so you want to convert me?" To which I replied, "no, let's just have a normal conversation, if we happen to talk about God, great! Because I love talking about God!" This allowed us to have a great 15 minute conversation, mostly about God. :)

Simpla- one of Budapest's more famous bars and where we had bible study!  Why not?

This was the day that we took sandwiches to the homeless.  We met this man.
His name is Atilla and he asked for us to pray that his wife would deliver a healthy baby.
They had already lost the last 3 babies and all he wanted was a healthy baby.
We gave him a Hungarian bible and prayed whole heartedly!

Zsofi, an amazing Hungarian girl that loved joining in the ministry times.
If I ever have a daughter- I LOVE her name!

When people I meet ask what I'm doing, I tell them spreading love around the world. "We love because he first loved us." Knowing the love of my heavenly Father is one of the greatest joys. I'm just hoping to spread that so others can experience THAT.  Along the way there have been a couple of people who have prayed for salvation, a handful who have been healed through prayer and a thousand smiles shared.

Budapest was a very different experience from Guatemala, but so good in giving a greater picture of the world and different cultures.

My Reality

I'm 30 years old. I sleep on the top bunk of a bunk bed that is in a room with 11 other bunk beds occupied by a total of 14 other girls.

My belongings for the next 5 months fits within 3 dresser drawers and a carry on bag.

I don't have a job. I don't have a car. I don't have a house. I'm not married.
BUT
I'm happy!

Can you believe it? I'm happy! I have NOTHING that the world says I should have, but I believe I am going in the right direction.

Recently I've become more and more interested in the "minimalistic" life.  Its fun that I get a chance to experience it if only for a little while.  Don't get me wrong, its still difficult.  For example, I have $200 to last me the next 6 weeks.  That is $33 a week.  My basic needs are covered, food and housing, but darn it!  Sometimes I want a coffee from Starbucks.  So, now I'm practicing more self-control (and occasionally failing), but I'm grateful for the opportunity to live like this.  I still have a place to live and food to fill my belly.

I'm reminded more and more of all of the people I've met while traveling.  The locals who live on $2.50 a day.  Those who live in a single room with 4 others so they can afford rent at $40 a month.  And even though they only make $300 a month, half of that they send to their families so they too can eat.

PERSPECTIVE

So, in this time of living in community and living simply, I too want to keep my perspective.  To know that just because I'm sick of eating pasta and just because I can't splurge on Chipotle, my life is full.