Like riding a bicycle, (or more pertinently to my own recent experience, driving a stick-shift) there are some things that one can pick up fairly naturally right where they left off even after a long hiatus.
Such is fitting back in with the rhythm of life at WOL Hungary. And though there are many familiar faces, there are also many new ones, but what’s really encouraging is that the ministry that has been chugging along here for close to three decades is still holding true to its main purposes, the evangelism and discipleship of youth. And God has been faithful, and has blessed the people here and their efforts in many ways, as evidenced not in the least by the fact that Word of Life Hungary still exists after so many years, even more so by the fact that it is thriving in sharing the Gospel and discipleship of the next generation of Christian leaders!
Once we got some basic “moving to a new country” hassles out of the way, we were able to plug right back in to the goings-on at WOL. Lili translated for a few days during the English camps, for an old friend and former club-leader of mine, James Boyle. James was in the Deans’ Dept. at the BI here for many years, and now two of his kids (whom I remember being toddlers) are coming as students this fall!
As for me, I’m preparing for the coming school year by proof-reading (Lili’s actually great at this, so she’s helping as well) the Student Handbook, – seeing if the two languages match, for one. 🙂 (Context may be King, but Consistency is… um… Vice Regent???) I’m also polishing up some job descriptions to match current working responsibilities, and working on planning the organizational structures of various student ministries – as in addition to the Dean of Men position I will also have the responsibility of Student Ministries Coordinator. Every student is required to have a weekly ministry, usually as part of a team, serving in various WOL Hungary ministries or serving in local churches, or both.
There’s lots of catching up to do, as since I was last a part of the BI, many years have passed, and the school has been through many changes and much growth, and many of the BI staff are either in the U.S. or occupied with the busy camp season.
Please pray that next year’s BI team would be able to work well together to organize details of the coming school year in a way that makes it possible for student life to run smoothly, that small organizational and administrative “hiccups” would not detract attention from the real reason they are all here. A car is an excellent thing to get from “Point A” to “Point B” … and it’s best for everyone if the thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of man-hours that went into making the car run smoothly is completely “out of mind.” If something goes wrong, and we are faced with the complexities of a combustion engine vehicle… then we are not going from A to B… we are stalled and frustrated on the side of the road… Please pray that the organizational and administrative things will run smoothly so the “main thing” remain the “main thing.”
Speaking of which… we also bought a car! God was faithful, and we were able to find a good deal on a used vehicle. It is a 7-passenger minivan (still not a super-common thing in Hungary) which will allow us to fit our growing family and even a couple of other people in it when the need should arrive. It will also be useful for other ministry purposes, say airport runs, or going along on student ministries with the ministry teams.
I’m more technologically inclined, and mechanically challenged, so please pray that we would not be surprised by any unseen problems with this 12-year old vehicle.
Thanks for your prayers, and we’ll continue to keep you updated!