serenity (noun) - a disposition free from stress

Serenity is the name of the spaceship in the movie Serenity and in the series Firefly. Both, the movie and the series, were created by Joss Whedon, but I like the series better. This has nothing whatsoever to do with this post, I just simply remembered.

We are in Southern California now. We arrived this morning and we are staying in Green Valley Lake. It is beautiful, quiet, and serene. We are going to be here until the Missions Conference starting on January 2nd, 2007.

San Francisco

Our friends took us to San Francisco yesterday. It is more beautiful than we both remembered. Here are some pictures.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Alcatraz

Lombard Street

Sacramento

We visited Sacramento. The Governator lives here, he is on bed rest, because he broke his leg while skiing, unfortunately we did not get to meet him. We "only" went to old town Sacramento. It is a really cool place.

This statue commemorates the glory of the Pony Express, which started at this place at 02:45AM on April 4, 1860, when Sam Hamilton galloped into a blinding rainstorm on the first lap of the 1,966 mile trip to St. Joseph, Missouri. During its 18 month existence, its 121 riders and 500 ponies carried 35,000 pieces of mail with the loss of but one pouch. This venture ended California's isolation from the rest of the Union.

Wild West

The Wild West is still wild. Northern California is full of untouched wild areas, full of natural beauty. There is not enough place on my memory card to show you all that is beautiful.


For the last two days we have been staying with our friends Tom and Carolanne Gillett at their house in Penn Valley, California. Both of them used to serve with us in Pécs several years ago. Now they are married and they have a beautiful daughter. If you click here you can see where they live.

We went to Nevada City yesterday. It is one of the old gold rush towns. It used to be called Little San Francisco, because it's morals were as corrupted as San Francisco's were. Things haven't changed much, since Nevada City has the highest number of homosexuals per capita in the United States.

Bridgeport is the longest single-span covered bridge.

And what do people do for fun here? Check out the following pictures. I have to tell you, even Andi had a spark in her eye after she fired that Glock. We enjoyed staying here, we love the nature, and we love shooting guns.

The target

Christmas

We are in Napa, California now. We are going to spend Christmas with our dear friends the Waldens. It is definitely not going to be a white Christmas, since it is about 50°F (11°C) here.

Idaho

We are at the Boise [ID] airport waiting to board our flight to Oakland [CA], and the flight is about an hour late. We are not happy, but at least we have free wireless internet, at least we can post.

I am sorry to say this, but all those from Idaho should do a better job in letting the world know how beautiful Idaho is. It is gorgeous, lovely, quaint, everything the rest of the world should be. The few thing I knew about Idaho before I came here were potatoes, hewlett-packard, and micron, but there is so much more to Idaho than these.

We are in love with Idaho, we want to come back here one day for a longer period, so we can relax and have some more fun. Thanks to all our friends who made it possible for us to come here and visit.

Northwest

These last few days we have been in Seattle. The whole area is in a chaos. There was a huge storm last Friday (a week ago) and there are still about 200,000 houses without electricity. We saw areas where all the electrical wires were snapped by trees that that fell because of the storm.

Most of those who have no electricity are staying with friends. This means that there are more people commuting and they are driving longer distances than usual. The highways are all jammed, we spent six hours in a car on Tuesday and another four on Wednesday, just to get to places. The average speed on the highways was 20 miles/hour (~35 km/h). We are sorry that we were not able to update our blog sooner, but the internet wasn't working most of the time either.

Queen Ann Hill

On Thursday were in Hayden, Idaho visiting some friends, who moved here from California. Seeing them was such a blessing, and small-town America is so relaxing. We had tremendous fun.

Staten Island

Today we are at Staten Island. I was teaching at Calvary Chapel Richmond County here. Later this afternoon we took a ride with the Staten Island ferry to Manhattan. I took some pictures on the way there.

Lower Manhattan

Statue of Liberty

NYC

Empire State Building

Rockefeller Center

Times Square

Alec Baldwin

Chinatown

NYSE

Ground Zero

BUD-JFK

Well, we are at Calvary Chapel of Kearny right now, where I am going to teach the Wednesday night service.

The trip was all good, no terrorists (thank you for your prayers), but we were not able to sleep much.

Here is a picture I took of a plane as we were approaching JFK.

50lbs

Fifty pounds is not too much one might say, and I agree. Airlines allow two bags under 50 pounds. I tell you, it is not too much if you are traveling for five weeks, like we are.

We are leaving to go to Budapest tomorrow. We will spend a night there, and then we will fly to New York on Wednesday. Can't wait!

waste (noun) - a substance or material with no inherent value or usefulness

Some time ago (when we still had cable) we stumbled upon an award ceremony on television, it was the MTV European Music Award from Lisbon. The ceremony was hosted by Borat, who we thought was a Kazakhstani journalist. Later we discovered that Borat was one of the acts of Sacha Baron Cohen, a British comedian. The show was clean and we had a really good time watching the award ceremony.

Earlier this year we heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was releasing a new movie. We were hoping for some good fun (especially since I am a great fan of stand-up comedy), so we arranged a date. We haven't been to a movie theater in months, so we were really looking forward to watching Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Well, I don't remember when the last time was that I walked out of a movie, but we had to do it this time, hence the title of this post. Learn from our mistakes, even if you have seen the trailer, you should search the internet to see what others have said about the movie you are planning to see. I found Christian Spotlight, Plugged In, or Christianity Today to have some good reviews of movies currently showing.

Here is a thought. In your comment I would like you to send me the title of the movie that was the biggest disappointment to you so far, and maybe elaborate on why it was a disappointment.

Cactus

I have recently discovered that I have been uniquely gifted in a specific area of life. The discovery itself is actually quite disappointing, as all the women in my family who have gone before me (my mom, and both my grandmas) have NOT been this way.

Here's the thing: I can kill cacti! You are probably aware of the fact that cacti are plants which are considered to be virtually impossible to kill - which is why they survive so well in the desert. Well, I managed to do the impossible!

As I have mentioned, this is made further dreadful by the fact that people have often asked my mom what she does with her plants to make them look as beautiful and lush as they are ... and she has got A LOT of them!

The garden of my paternal grandmother was for years somewhat of a local place of interest. People would stop in front of her house and discuss the beauties of each and every unique and rare flower and plant that decorated her front yard ... (My grandma is too old now to still be able to work as much as she used to in her garden, but I must admit that her garden is still much more beautiful than my balcony with my three little plants ...)

Anyway, here's the proof of my unique talent:


Notice the cool looking beautiful green wreath around the dead cactus. You know why it looks so nice and green? Because it's FAKE!

So, the mistery remains. Nobody knows how I ended up an offspring of such a horticulturally gifted family ...

Lessons from the trail

St. Paul the Apostle had it right when he wrote:

"... let us lay aside every weight,and the sin which so easily ensnares us,and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us ..." (Hebrews 12:1)

I have often wondered about his comparison of the christian life to running. I have heard people teach about it, and talk about endurance and such things, and it all sounded so cool and nice, but it didn't sink in until I found myself on such a trail ...

We have been jogging for a while now, and I have discovered so many parallels between the christian life and running ... other than it being good physical exercise, it has also been an invaluable spiritual lesson.

1. Keeping your eyes on the end

We usually go jogging eary in the morning. Sometimes it can be very difficult to get up and out of bed,and to put on my running gear. But I have learnt that if I give in to the laziness and stay at home - without fail - I always regret it later.

It is the same in my spiritual walk: if I allow myself to get lazy, it shows, and I regret it.

If you have ever done some form of regular exercise, you know how great you feel when you have finished. I have learnt that this is precisely what I need to focus on in those moments when I don't exatly feel like going. If I remind myself of the end result, it is so much easier to begin the fight against my tired, lazy flesh.

It is the same spiritually: sometimes we get tired of the spiritual warfare, of the daily battles against the flesh, against the world, against ourselves.

But: if we make it a point to remind ourselves of the glorious end we know the Lord promised us, it is much easier to face the daily battles we face.

2. The ups and downs

The trail we have been running on is in the Mecsek hills above Pecs. Thus, the elevation of the trail changes quite often. Sometimes it is sooooo hard to make myself keep running when we get to an uphill slope.
My favorite part on the whole trail though is the really cool, LONG downhill slope. Running down on it ALWAYS feels soooo easy, and even if I was super tired shortly before getting there - this is where I recharge. Here, I feel like I am the coolest runner ever :) and I feel like I could run for 10 more kilometres ... shortly: READY FOR THE OLYMPICS!

Just like in the case of the physical trail, so it is in our spiritual lives: when there's a trying uphill period, YOU CAN KNOW that it will for sure be followed by a long, easy, downhill "flight".

This is always a great reminder.

3. Growing stamina

When we first started running, we were sooo weak. We could barely complete the trail (and sometimes we did fail).
But the longer we train, the more we run - the more we can endure - and the easier it gets. Of course, then we always need to go further and run a bit more than last time.

There are always new challenges to face, new areas to conquer. However, the old ones that have already been conqered rarely present a challenge after a while. Yes, sometimes I still have to stop for a break at the uphill part where I used to always have to stop at the beginning, because it seemed too difficult. BUT: now, I only have to stop SOMETIMES, and NOT ALWAYS like I used to. That is certainly reason for rejoicing!

"OUR" TRAIL - ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL?

Croatian Day in Pecs

We had such a fun afternoon yesterday. Pecs was hosting a “Croatian Day” all day. This happens every year, and they always invite Croatian dancing ensembles from all over (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Hungary usually). As part of this, in the afternoon all the dance troops perform first in the main square and later in front of the theatre, and in the evening they do a full dance show on stage. Since the first two performances are free, we went to those and boy, it was so great, and beautiful. The first group was from the Croatian island of Korcula and it was all guys and they did this whole dancing with the flag thing, it was so cool, I hope this little picture helps you get a taste of it....

...and the last ones to come out were of course the dancers from SUBOTICA! I might be a little biased, but everyone seemed to like them best. At the end, the audience could join in, and we all formed a big circle around the main square to dance the KOLO – a traditional dance. Whadduyaknow? I joined in! Doesn’t it look like fun? It was!

Conversion of a vegetable-hater

On the first Sunday of each month we have a church pot-luck of sorts. It is always tricky to cook for this (even though we call it a pot-luck, I usually do the cooking), as tastes differ from person to person. One person who I am always working hard to please is our friend, Géza. Géza doesn't eat anything that is even remotely green, ie vegetables are out of the question. His favorite foods are potatoes, cream of wheat,bread and coke (unlimitied amounts of it). A character? Yes, he is, and we (still) :) love him.
Anyways, one of the things I made for the last pot-luck was a "Serbian Salad". To everyone's amazement, he ate it, AND LOVED it! So much so, that he had his wife get the recipe from me.

Here's a picture of a rare moment in Géza's life, as he is eating vegetables:

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... must be what God had on His mind when He planned my day for yesterday. Here's why:

A few weeks ago, Arpi was invited to teach at one of the days of the CC Budapest conference in Vajta. I decided to go with him, partly to support him, and partly to see some friends from Budapest that I haven't seen in a long time.

Well, the Lord had a much, much better plan! We had barely arrived when I bumped into three precious people from Miskolc. (sidenote: I lived in Miskolc for a year between 1999-2000, I was helping in a church-planting effort) I hadn't seen Alex, Nagyfej and Evi in about 5 years, and this was completely unexpected!

Here's a picture of the girls:

Nagyfej and Évi

We had a LONG chat of about two hours, and it was such an incredible blessing to see and hear that they are doing well, walking with the Lord. Oh, I can't even begin to describe how the Lord blessed me through them!

And if that wasn't enough...my former roommate (cca 1997-1998 from Budapest), Theresa Howard and her family "happened to be" visiting from England - where they have been serving as missionaries in Harrogate. What a blessing it was to catch up and share all that the Lord has done in both of our lives, and to share about the things He is doing in the places where He has us now.

The Howards

Whoever thinks that Christian life is boring, they are so wrong. It's anything but boring.

Thank you, Lord for a wonderful surprise of a day!

The boatride

One day we took a boatride from Vodice to Sibenik and back. As you can see from the pictures, it was A LOT OF fun, and really beautiful. Seeing some of the cute, old Dalmatian houses by the sea, Lili and I agreed that it is absolutely outrageous that some people get to live in places like this. Scandalous! How come THOSE people get to live there, and WE don't?! We still haven't figured out the answer, but if anyone has an input, we'd love to hear it.

Arpi and Andi, happy on the boat.

An artist's (Geza) view of Sibenik's famous cathedral from the fortress above the old city.

The loggia at the main square of Sibenik's old town.

In Split

Our first two days of our vacation were spent in the city of Split, visiting our friends, the Warholics. Tim and Grace (along with baby Thomas) are missionaries there. It was an encouragement to see them, as they are faithfully serving the Lord.

It was also good to see Andi Djirki, who is from Subotica (our hometown), and who has been helping them by interpreting the Bible studies. What an amazing God we serve!
Do pray for them, and pray that God would save many people in the city of Split and in Croatia!


Here's a picture of Tim and Grace, aren't they cute?

We went back to Split a week later, this time with our friends Geza and Lili (with baby Nori in tow). They have never been to Croatia before, so we took them on a tour of the old town of Split. They are every tour-guide's dream. Both of them are totally enthusiastic about everything, amazed at how beautiful everything is - which it really is -, but this made it so much more fun to show them around.


Here are a few pics of the tour.

Vacation!!!!!

Actually, the title might also include an exclamation of „Dalmatia!”. For the sake of those who might not know, Dalmatia is the coastal area of Croatia, and it is absolutely and totally beautiful.
This is where we are going to travel in two days for our vacation. We both love it so much there, that we often wonder if maybe some long-lost predecessors of both of us were maybe from there and our families just don’t know about it somehow. Could be....
For now, we are excited to pack and plan our visit there. We look forward to visiting our friends Tim and Grace who are missionaries there, and then heading to the little town of Vodice to enjoy the beaches and the crystal clear water there.
On our way home we will also stop for a day to see Laci, Keri and Lea in Vukovar. Looking forward to it all, will be back to tell you all about it!

The kids around us

Although we haven’t got kids of our own yet, there are plenty around us. God is definitely using them to prepare us for “the deep waters” of parenthood sometime in the future. Just wanted to share with you pics of some of them....

Mark is our nephew. He is 4 years old, and a real boy. He helps his grandpa in the toolshed (one of his favorite things in the whole world!), and he loves fixing anything that’s broken, even bikes and tractors!

Lea is our niece. Although only 20 months old, she has enough character for a 5-year old. She loves to draw, she loves dogs and enjoys entertaining people around her. Really. Scary to think about it, but she is a total one-woman show already.

Nori is the daughter of our friends Géza and Lili. She is a year old now, and at this point, her favorite activities include: screaming at a high-pitched voice (checking to see how long the adults can handle it), smiling at everyone who looks at her, and shuving her pacifier in adults’ mouths.

What is man?

So what’s been up with us? Well, I finished an extremely busy and draining semester with my students at the language school. This is probably the busiest I have been since I’ve been teaching there. Thankfully, starting in September I should only have half of the load that I had this past semester. That should help me to actually have a life.

We attended two really good conferences these last few weeks, and the Lord showed me a bunch of stuff, and did a huge amount of work in my heart, but there was one theme that stuck out to me, that touched me in a major way. It’s nothing new and revolutionary, but it was fresh for me. The Psalmist wrote it down a long time ago in

Psalms 8:4
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?

The last night of the Southern Hungary Calvary Chapels’ conference, we had an extended time of worship and prayer. I was sitting in the back, and watched virtually every single person (around 150 attended) in the auditorium go out to ask for prayer regarding something in their lives. All of a sudden it occurred to me that what has become somewhat “normal” and “everyday-ish” to me is in fact an amazing thing. That those people were standing up and going out there because Almighty God, the Creator of everything had spoken to them. He had touched their hearts and they were responding.
What a miracle that is! The fact that He, YHWH would care enough about us to touch our hearts, to change our hearts, and then He even made it possible for us to respond, to answer, to communicate with Him…this should never stop amazing us.

Aware

Yes, we are aware, and painfully so of how long it’s been since our last post. Yes, we know that we are a disgrace to bloggers around the world (Lili, I know you agree, and you are right!) Sorry. But here we are now.
I will not go into a lengthy discussion of how busy we have been during the last few months, because we could have always just stayed up a bit so we could write a post, but we didn’t. The answer is simple: we love and value sleep. So we chose that instead of blogging.
We will try to do better in the future.

Whirlwind Recap

Okay, I know. We have got to be the laziest bloggers out there. The fact that my brother and our friends the Zimonyis put us to further shame almost daily, definitely doesn't help our self-esteem. But I did tell Lili (Zimonyi/Vida) to just wait, one day soon I will be home with a baby, and that will be my time! Ha!

So what is new with us? Well, since our last post - which was on the day we found out we will be parents - lots has happened. First of all, we had a whirlwind visit in the faraway Hungarian city of Debrecen. If you know Hungary a little bit, you are probably aware that it is a long drive from Pecs to there. However, this has been a visit long postponed, and much needed. We visited our dear friends, the Chuns (Russ, Trudy and little Andi). They moved there last June and are involved with a sports ministry through which they reach out to kids, orphans and youth in Eastern Hungary and Romania. We had a really good time seeing them. Hard to believe that little Andi is already close to five years old! And she is so smart (must be taking after her godmother - me.)
After two days in Debrecen we went to Eger for half a day to visit our other friends Nick and Rosemary Cady who are missionaries there. What a great visit that was too! I was so encouraged to see them venture into that city and start a whole new work. Seeing someone do that always gets me excited about missions, and then I think: gosh, I should do that too, I should become a missionary! Wait, I already am doing it!
Anyways, the last time I was in Eger was when I was ten, with my parents. Of course, you see things through completely different eyes when you are ten and when you are older. That little town is so cute, and quaint, and lovely! If you are ever looking for a quiet little romantic getaway, Eger is the place! I have a feeling that we will also be back there sometime.

Okay, so by the time we got back from our trip to Eastern Hungary, we had six students from the Bible College staying at our house. I mean, invading our house. We had offered that they stay here for their outreach to our city, but we had no clue what this would mean. We virtually became guests in our own home for a week. The team was great though, don't get me wrong, they were a total blessing. But one of our main pastimes during those days became the hunt for the bathroom. The trick is to do everything else you can before you need to go in to shower in the morning, (this also meant climbing over 19-20 year old boys sleeping in the living room to get to the kitchen for some grub) and then just listen for the click - the sound of the door being unlocked, and then run! Poor Arpi had it really tough. At least I could say: I have to leave for work soon or I am pregnant and need to pee!
It was quite fun, actually, looking back at it now. (Of course, I also discovered again that I am a very, very selfish being, but that's a whole other subject.)

Since they left, life has gone back to normal. A big thing is that I told my boss today that I am pregnant and will not be able to teach the new courses starting in September. He was actually very excited about it, and very supportive. I think the fact that his own wife is going to have their first child in June was probably to my advantage.

So that's it, pretty much a quick recap of the last few weeeks. I'm going to Budapest this week-end for a day to attend an English teaching conference, which I am pretty excited about. An extra good thing about it is that it will be held at a school just few minutes walk from one of my favourite Turkish restaurants. Yeyy! (By the way, if you haven't had Turkish food yet, you must try it. And soon. Your life is hardly complete without it.)

Back

Okay, so here it goes! The Horvat-Kavais are back! Watch out blogworld!

We are painfully aware of the fact that it’s been about two months since our last check-in here (not counting what Arpi wrote yesterday). It took us a while, but we have figured out why this happened. Both of us are very good at getting too involved in our everyday responsibilities, so much so that sometimes we forget to have fun, and just write emails, or a blog for that matter. Sad, but true. Workaholics unite!
Lots and lots has happened of course. Last week both of the English courses ended that I have started teaching in September. My students did quite well, and I discovered that teaching makes you into somewhat of a mother-hen (not that there’s another kind). To explain: I was so nervous for my students, and I rooted for them, and cheered them on throughout the exam, and at the end, of course was as proud as if they were my kids! Crazy! It’s a great feeling when you see them excel at what you have taught them, it also makes you realize that what you do is all worth it. This should give me a push for the next few weeks for sure!
Today I had the day off from work, so I went to Vajta with Arpi – decided to use this day to visit my friends there. It is always good to see everyone. One of my best conversations was with my friend R. (can’t disclose her name, you’ll see why), who is moving to a Muslim country in a month to be a missionary there. As she shared how the Lord had put these people on her heart, and how He had lead her, it made me cry. Our God is so awesome, and He does such amazing things, and we get to be a part of them, and watch them unfold. We get to see Him change lives forever! She told me of a man she had met there on a previous visit who has been a Christian for a year now, but still hasn’t told his wife because he can’t. His life had changed completely, he found the meaning of life, and he can’t share it with his wife! How sad is that?
So if you are reading this, feel free to shoot up a prayer of support for this brother of ours, and the countless others like him in similar situations. We have things real easy and good, you know.

And, on a completely different subject, sweet Arpi got his new portable mini-laptop-desk thingie today! It made him very happy, as now it will be almost like he has a real (albeit mini) office! Guys are so very cute with their love and excitement for gadgets and other computer-related gizmos. Especially my husband. He is the cutest for sure.

Non Sequitur

We would like to think that we are remembered by our names, that we can hide behind our names, but people remember us by our actions, giving us nicknames. This is how we end up with friends like Grumpy, Ugly, Fat, or Sarcastic, even though we might know their names.
At the apartment building we live in there are people we know by their nicknames, actually we know most of them only by their nicknames. There is the Oracle, who not only looks like the one from Matrix, but she knows everything and everyone. If you want to know who gets home at what time and who throws out how much garbage, you need to ask the Oracle. Then there are Bonnie and Clyde: always tanned (even during the coldest and darkest of winters), they drive a high-end car, and they always leave home at night and come back in the morning. We are wondering what they do for a living, maybe they are drug dealers and they deal drugs at clubs during the night. Other then these intriguing neighbors we have the Dentist (who always takes his showers late at night), the Yeller Lady (who always wins her arguments by yelling at 2:00 in the morning), and the Postman.

Some Christians are afraid to come out and show the world that they are believers. They are the undercover Christians against whom there is not enough evidence that there are believers. They do not go to church, even though they claim they are followers of Christ, whose first task in every city was to fellowship at the synagogue. These Christians want to keep up plausible deniability in case they are cornered, they do not want to be seen or associated with the Jesus Freaks.

tabula rasa (latin) - a clean slate, a blank or erased tablet

No matter how good the things we humans make are, things will quit working at one point or another. (This is the order of this fallen world and we cannot but hope for a better world coming with our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, as a 21st century thinker living in a developed country and hedonistic society I believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son, and He is our Saviour.) So I (Arpi) had to spend quite some time reinstalling some of Bill Gates' favorite softwares, and some of the better ones on my laptop lately. This task being quite tedious and very time-consuming I have decided to make an image of my hard disk drive allowing me to restore this image at any time in minutes, all this for free!
While I was attending to my gadgetry Andi was surprisingly patient. Maybe she learned that if the computer works properly she is happier as well. We get into discussions about my gizmos (male trinkets) occasionally, but I always win the argument by saying that this will make our life so much easier. This statement has been proven wrong so many times as I shouted at the laptop, the divx player, the mp3 recorder, or my state of the art phone, but we both still believe that our next tool in this digital society is going to be flawless and perfect. Fat chance! Sometimes I think that Ned Ludd and the Luddites were right in destroying those textile machines years ago. Yet, I am writing this blog on a laptop, over wireless internet, as I am watching the latest episode of Lost aired in New York only six hours ago.
I really need to go, for Andi is almost done cooking and I am really hungry. (Oh, by the way, in addition to eating healthy and occasional running we started doing pilates this week.)