.ministry.update.

we must apologize for not having written a ministry update for a shamefully long time. we know that this update has been way overdue, and we are thankful for your patience, prayers and support.

a lot has happened with us since we last updated you, and we will try to summarize below, as well as share with you a little bit of what we believe lies ahead of us.

spring
during the spring semester, arpi continued heading up the administrative, legal, and accounting departments of the bible college and conference center. in a place this big, you can imagine that he always has his hands full, but he is loving every minute of it. there are always plenty of deadline challenges, as well as lessons in faith when it comes to dealing with government offices, finances, or people in any other way.
the lord opened a wonderful door this spring for us to get the bible college accredited in the european union, which is something we tried once before after the school moved to hungary in 2002. the accreditation process is a huge undertaking, lots of paperwork, red tape and such. arpi gets to be part of it, and watch god work. please be in prayer for the process as well as arpi and gabor, a lawyer from the budapest church who is doing an amazing job helping us navigate the maze of european bureaucracy.

this past semester arpi had over twenty hungarian students and he taught the book of daniel. it was an amazing time of seeing god work in the hearts of the students.

andi was happy to translate the women’s discipleship class, where we studied the book of james. she also lead a discussion / work-group which was a stretch time-wise, but a huge blessing all in all, as it gave her a wonderful opportunity to minister to some of the hungarian girls much more closely.

during the outreach season, in april, we traveled to sarajevo (bosnia and herzegovina) to seek the lord. while there, he confirmed to us that he has a place of ministry for us there some time in the future, which was a great encouragement for us. however, the time is not yet, and we continue to seek him and wait for him to open the effective door when he sees it fit. until then, we hope to take outreach teams there to work alongside and support some of the missionaries that are there now. bosnia and herzegovina’s spiritual climate is not a light one, and we desire to be an encouragement to those that are already there serving the lord now.

summer
you might remember that every summer the bible college hosts an intensive, six-week discipleship program called a vision for life. years ago, when serving here, andi helped set up the first such program, and this year, arpi got to teach the book of hebrews and daniel to the twenty students that came. it was encouraging to see young lives changed.

during the summer, andi busied herself with (other than nina) translation work, and interpreting occasionally. in the spring, our pastor, phil metzger asked andi if she would be willing to organize and head up a translation and publishing board for calvary chapel hungary. as the ministry in hungary has been growing, we have been trying to connect the churches in the different towns as much as possible so we can be even more fruitful and so we can reach even more areas of the country. translating and publishing good books, that are needed in this country, and doing the job well, is definitely a priority.

after picking the people for the board, andi’s job now mainly consists of coordination, but when time allows, she likes to do a bit of translation and proofreading as well.

hopefully, in our next newsletter, we will be able to announce the title of our first finished project to you.

prayer requests:

• may we fall more in love with the lord.
• protection for our marriage, and our time together as a family.
• for arpi’s classes this semester. anointing, guidance and blessing from the lord.
• may god lead arpi and gabor as they pursue the accreditation of the bible bollege in hungary. favor with the authorities regarding this.
• wisdom for andi in coordinating and leading the translation board.
• daily wisdom in raising our daughter, nina.
• for god to continue to use us in ministering to the hungarian students and interns.
• god’s timing and an effective door into bosnia in the future.

.transmogrifier.

the transmogrifier is a fictional device invented by calvin (calvin and hobbes by bill watterson) capable of transmogrifying any object into any other object. the first transmogrifier calvin invensts consists of an upside-down cardboard box and using the transmogrifier he transformed himself into a tiger, a dinosaur, an elephant, and other animals.

nina got transmogrified today, but it did not happen thanks to a cardboard box. a friend gave nina a necklace made of plastic "pearls" and it instantly transformed daddy's innocent baby into a princess - a posing, self-aware woman. scary!

.loop.

1,996 kilometers (or 1,240 miles) is the distance we covered while driving in four different countries lately, but we are finally (and happily) back home - sleeping in our own beds, using our own showers and bathrooms, ... sweet home :)

we went to split (croatia) first, where we visited our friends (tim and grace warholic). we went to church and we were also able to go to the beach a few times. fun! fun! fun!

on our way to sarajevo, we stopped in mostar (bosnia and herzegovina) for lunch. beautiful town, beautiful landscape, but bosnia definitely needs more highways.

in sarajevo (bosnia and herzegovina) we spent some time with our missionary friends, the mezgers. we love you mezgers, you are much fun and we treasure your friendship :) when in bosnia, you must have burek or čevapi - we, of course, had both :)

after sarajevo we stopped to see laci and keri in vukovar (croatia) and spent some time talking about everything and nothing. it was one of those sweet conversations that had no major topics, but it was very satisfying and encouraging. we hope laci and keri feel the same way - altough they did not even mention it on their blog that they had visitors :(

during our entire trip:

• nina threw up twice,
• we slept in five different beds,
• we had one flat tire,
  
• we spent $239 on fuel,
• we went through 27 tunnels,
  
• and we had to show our passports about ten times. border guard #7 informed me that my passport was so full with stamps that i had to get a new one before traveling again - thankfully, i was able to acquire one within 48 hours (for further details read this post).

the leprosy passport (as we call it),
since you get very special treatment
(read, you are treated as a leper)
every time you board a plane
or try to cross a border
bearing one of these passports

in serbia we visited our parents, spent time with family, consumed enormous amounts of junk-food and nina further developed her love for furry four-legged animals and dirt :)

.dorkhood.

According to online resources a dork is a term used to:

• describe someone who has unusual interests and is, at times, silly,
• refer to someone who acts on his own motives without caring about his peers' opinions.

We know people who are milk dorks, coffee dorks, coke dorks, green dorks, wine dorks, beer dorks, gadget dorks, etc. We also had a suspicion (which has now been undoubtedly confirmed) that Nina is a dog dork (taking after her maternal grandfather, who is the king of all dog dorks), since she breaks out in loud shrieking and shakes when she gets near one of these furry animals.

Are you a dork? If so, let us know about your dorkhood.

her royal dorkness in action

.the.burek.connection.

Bureaucracy.

It's a word that makes most people cringe and get a nut in their stomach. I personally start sweating, get a ball-size hardening in my stomach and lose my appetite upon finding out that I need to go to some government office and submit some papers in the hope of them giving me some other papers in return. There are, of course a few reasons for this. First of all, it is never easy. Even if it seems easy at first, things ALWAYS get more complicated than you thought was possible when you first set out. Even if you bring all the papers that they said on the phone you need to bring, once there, they will then inform you that there is indeed something else their uninformed colleague (Who told you such a thing?) forgot to mention to you. Secondly, the lines are always long. And in those lines, EVERYONE is frustrated, because nobody likes standing in lines. And thirdly, because most of the people working in these kinds of offices are bitter, unfriendly, rude and short with the customers. They treat you like you came there with the purpose of ruining their day.
So when, upon arriving to the last leg of our vacation (Subotica, our hometown) this morning, we found out that we need to go to such an office urgently, neither of us was particularly happy. Especially because we found out that the paper we needed takes a week to arrive, and we need it in 3 days, because we need to get back to Vajta.

So we had a quick family pow-wow. There is just no way to get this in 3 days. And then my mom remembered that she knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone ... you know. A few phone calls later, we had a clean passage to THE GUY. (I must mention here that this particular guy has been in his place for many years and is famously rude and mean to people and that he has been rude to me before, which made me dread going again even more.)
Did we have to bribe him? Oh, no! The friend who knows someone who knows someone did ... And this reminded me of the fact that this is how so many things in the Balkan countries are done. If you know the right people, you can get what you need. Sometimes the bribes are monetary, and I wondered what the scoop was with this one. Upon arriving home, I found out. The person my mom knows is a baker. My parents helped him with something YEARS AGO, and he still feels indebted to them. Since then, he has become successful and has built relationships with important people. One of the ways he does this, is providing free baked goods for breakfast to the employees in key offices. So what do these people do in return for free pastries and burek a few times a week? Speed up the bureaucratic process for OUR paperwork because our friend gave him a call! I find that amazing. Actually, it cracks me up. Only in the Balkans.
Yes, there are people who will only be bribed with money, but for some - a burek or two will do it.

p.s. In case you are new to this blog, and don't know what burek is, click here.

.old.glory.

We went to Igman yesterday, one of the locations of the XIV Olympic Winter Games held in Sarajevo in 1984. Only few of the sites are used today, some of the sites were destroyed during the war - maybe beyond repair.

.en.route.

we had to stop in mostar to see the old bridge

.ćao.more.

We said good-bye to the sea today - something we always do when leaving the coast. We are leaving to go to Sarajevo (Bosnia) early tomorrow morning via Mostar on very curvy Balkan roads - God help us!

one last look at the waves

when on the beach

the love of the game

.in.her.shoes.

We are visiting our friends (Tim, Grace, Thomas and Mila Warholic) in Split, Croatia. Today we went for a walk in Sustipanski Park, all of us walked.

Nina took her first steps barely a week ago, but by now she rarely lets us carry her, or put her in her stroller. She wants to walk, so be it.