Monday, December 21, 2009

California


well we've been in CA for almost 2 weeks now but we really haven't talked about how our trip was with Zara. in a nutshell it was great! as you can see on the plane she had a little bed to sleep in (don't you wish they had those for adults!!). our little world traveler didn't scream or cry and when we were deplaning people said "I didn't know there was a baby on the flight". it took all of us a couple of days to adjust to the time but it's been easier than we had anticipated with Zara.

we've been so blessed to spend time with family & friends.

personally, I'm not missing the weather in Hungary. there's been a lot of snow since we left with temps in the 20's & 30's. I'm lovin' the sunshine & 70 degree temps!!

but we'll have to go back to the cold next month, until then, we're gonna enjoy every day!


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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

St. Nicholas Project 2009


as I blogged on December 6th, we began the "St. Nicholas Project". I challenged the church to bring joy to some mentally handicapped young people who live at an institution in Szeged. it was a challenge for a couple of reasons. first becasue the school told us when we could take the gifts & do a "show" for them and it was only a little over a week from the "challenge" to the church. so I didn't know if we'd get the 45+ packages or not. aslo I felt kind of strange challengeing the church and then leaving for America. but it turns out I guess I was of "little faith". the church answered the challenge in a wonderful way. not only did they prepare enough gift bags, there were a few left over. here are some pictures of this year's "event". the first pic is the gift bags (obviously), the second is of members of CC Szeged "preforming" for the school, and the last 2 pictures are of the young people who recieved the gifts.
I was told that the staff of the school was very grateful for our gifts. but we don't want this to just be a "it's Christmas and we're Christians so we should do this", we really want to help this school throughout the year. so we're going to be talking with them about how we as a church can minister to the school, either by coming and do things with the students or renewing a room or the courtyard.
anyways, I'm just so blessed that CC Szeged answered this challenge and that we've taken the first step to really reaching our community.


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Monday, December 7, 2009

Sunday, December 6, 2009

St. Nicholas Day


today many people here in central & eastern europe celebrate St. Nicholas Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas#Saint_Nicholas_Day). and since we have St. Nick's cutest little helper we had to take pictures of her as such. and yes that is Zara up in the pulpit with me. She came up to help me with this morning's sermon which was about God's heart for those in need, which was exmplified in the real Saint Nicholas. the sermon was the call to action for Calvary Szeged for our first "Saint Nicholas Project". this year we are going to perpare Christmas presents for 60 mentally hanidcapped here in Szeged. we hope to bring some joy to their lives through these gift packages and to point their caretakers to the Babe of Bethlehem.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving in Hungary


sometimes people in the US will ask if Thanksgiving is celebrated here in Hungary. The answer is "no". Thanksgiving is an American holiday. But every year WE celebrate Thanksgiving. This year we've invited some friends over and will feast on this 18.5lb (8.4kg) turkey.

We celebrate Thanksgiving not out of tradition cause here it's just a "normal" weekday (and there's no football on TV), we celebrate because as we look at our lives, even though there are difficulties & problems, we truly have so much to be thankful for. Especially with the arrivial of our daughter 3 months ago.

I think Thanksgiving should be celebrated all over the world. I think people do need to stop every once in a while & give thanks to the Almighty for the abundance of blessings that He pours out on us from day to day. If people gave thanks more & complained a little less, then their joy in life would increase.

We hope you have a wonderful day giving thanks to God for His abundance in your life.

"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." - Hebrews 13:15
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Monday, November 23, 2009

good news for Calvary Chapel Hungary

today the Hungarian Parliament approved a bill in which was included the accreditation of Calvary Chapel Bible College Hungary. This is a great "victory" as the Catholic gave a lot of money to the "Christian" opposition to try to block this bill. Now the bill will be given to the Hungarian President who has 15 days to sign it into law. this means the Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (www.ccbce.com) will now be able to offer accredited Bachelor of Theology degree.

we're very blessed by this cause this could benefit so many people in their desire to get a degree in Biblical studies. what excites me personally about this is that for the past few years, the thought has been in my mind that, it'd be good to "go back to school" to get a degree. I've looked into a few places but never really acted upon anything, but now since this has really "fallen in my lap" I think it would be a good thing for me to begin a course to get a Bachelor's degree. So Lord willing, I'll start as soon as possible. I'll be sure to blog about it as things progress.

Friday, October 30, 2009

response from the mayor

yesterday I got a response from the mayor about our request for facilities to operate social services (soup kitchen & 2 pre-schools) in Szeged. the response was "at this time we don't have any buildings that meet the health board requirements". it was a little discouraging, but I guess this just means that we have to think a little "longer term" (maybe doing these things in 2011??). our rental agreement for the church is up in December 2010, so maybe we'll look to move to a different facility where we can have "multi-use" capabilities. please continue to pray with us about how we can be effective for the Kingdom of God here in Szeged.

Monday, October 12, 2009

christmas in cali

for those of you who've followed us on facebook you know that my dad was in the hospital a couple weeks ago with some breathing problems. the honest truth is that his health isn't so good. my dad is fully aware of his condition and there is one person who really "inspires" him to get better that that is his granddaughter. both Odi & I are so dad that we aren't as close to my parents as we are to hers. after talking to my dad a couple of times, we think the best thing for us to do, in his current situation, would be for us to spend some time with him. so we're gonna be spending Christmas in California. we're gonna be around from december 8th till january 7th.

we're very excited about this because we know how much of a blessing this will be to my dad. my mom & step-dad will come down to CA during the time we'll be there to see their granddaughter.

a trip like this for us, especially now with a child, is very expensive. not only the plane ticket but also a rental car while we are there. if you'd like to help us on this trip, there is a link on the left side of our blog - "support our ministry" - and you can click on that and donate to us via Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

as this will be our first trip to CA with our daughter (and our first trip in 2 years) we'd like to connect with as many of you as possible. we know that it is the holiday season & that there is a lot going on, but if you have time to fit us into your schedule please contact us via e-mail (kyleodi@gmail.com) so we can begin to plan our time there.

thank you all for your love, prayers & support.

kyle, odi, & zara


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

meeting with the deputy mayor - part 2

as I posted yesterday, I was called an invited to a meeting with one of the deputy mayors of Szeged in regards to the church's desire to open 2 pre-schools and a soup kitchen for the homeless. what really surprised me (oh me of little faith) is that they took my letter and our desire seriously. so, today I, and Balázs, one of the elders from the church who is a lawyer, went to the mayor's office & we met with the deputy mayor and the head of the social services office. they were prepared and knew who "Golgota" (Calvary Chapel) was. after them asking me some questions about Calvary here in Hungary and the church in Szeged they asked about why we want to do these things. I told them that as we look at the life of Jesus, He reached out to people on a real, physical level and met their needs, which opened their hearts to hear the spiritual message. I told them that it is our desire to meet the needs that are obvious in our city. the head of the social services was open to us from the get go and by the end of our meeting the deputy mayor was also open to us operating social services. when he asked what we want from the city I told him we need facilities. we will be able to get the money to operate these "ministries" from the central budget but we need places to operate. he said that they will look for places for us and get back to me in a week. so we left very excited and hopeful.
when I got home our "contact" in the mayor's office called me. he told me that he laid the ground work for the meeting by giving the deputy mayor a lot of info about our church. he showed our letter to his boss, the deputy mayor in charge of city development and said that after he read the letter there was a "sparkle in his eye" that we want to do this. and because of this we were given audience today. our contact told me that the request for facilities would land on his desk in a couple of days & that now he would be able to finish a study that the city commissioned this summer about were new pre-schools need to be operated. he said that the city stopped this inquiry for some reason but now with us wanting to open two pre-schools, his boss would reopen this inquiry.
needless to say, I am in awe of what is going on. when I think about this rationally, we're a small church, with not much experience in things like this, with little money. but I know that we've got a big God on our side and we've got a heart to reach out and meet needs here in Szeged. so if this thing happens all I can say is, "all glory be to God."
please continue to keep this in prayer & check back often for updates on this.
thanks!

Monday, September 28, 2009

meeting with the deputy mayor

a while back I wrote that we are taking steps towards opening two pre-schools here in Szeged next year. we have a contact in the mayor's office and he told me to write a letter to the mayor to introduce our church and tell them what we want to do. so last week I wrote to the mayor. much to my amazement his office called me today asking if I could come in tomorrow afternoon to meet the deputy mayor. so tomorrow I, and hopefully one of our elders from the church Balázs (who is a lawyer) will be going for a face to face. please keep this meeting in prayer.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

family photos


we realized something, we had lots of pictures of Zara with pretty much everyone, and lots with mommy and lots with daddy but we didn't have any with mommy & daddy, so we finally had some pictures taken of us as a family yesterday.

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

new pictures of Zara


over the past few days we've noticed that Zara is more & more active and alert during the days. thank God she is starting to learn that night time is for sleeping. for the past couple of nights she's only woken up twice to feed. anyways here are some pictures of Zara with her eyes open & at the bottom what I like to call the "fat & happy" face which happens after feeding.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Zara's first walk


Today we took Zara on a walk for the first time. We HAD to take a couple pictures because she just looked SO CUTE in this little outfit.
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Sunday, September 13, 2009

social health care

so, I know there is a big debate over the health care system that the president is proposing. Living in Hungary for many years and seeing a social health care system up close, America would be stupid to adopt a similar system. our current system isn't perfect but it's the best thing out there.
what is this picture?? This is what Odi got for dinner in the hospital for 4 nights after giving birth!!! this is just a small display of what a social health care system would bring in America.
by the way, yes, I did bring Odi all kinds of regular food!
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Saturday, September 12, 2009

job description

just got this from a friend of ours and thought it worth sharing.

PARENT

This is hysterical.. If it had been presented this way,
I don't believe any of us would have done it!!!!

POSITION :
Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma
Dad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop

JOB DESCRIPTION :

Long term, team players needed, for challenging,
permanent work in an
often chaotic environment.
Candidates must possess excellent communication
and organizational skills and be willing to work
variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends
and frequent 24 hour shifts on call...
Some overnight travel required, including trips to
primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities!
Travel expenses not reimbursed.
Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES :

The rest of your life.
Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily,
until someone needs $5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
Also, must possess the physical stamina of a
pack mule
and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat
in case, this time, the screams from
the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges,
such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets
and stuck zippers.
Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and
coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings
for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be a willing to be indispensable one minute,
an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a
half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.
Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for
the quality of the end product.
Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and
janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION :

None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills,
so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
:

None required unfortunately.
On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION
:

Get this! You pay them!
Offering frequent raises and bonuses.
A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because
of the assumption that college will help them
become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that
you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS
:

While no health or dental insurance, no pension,
no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and
no stock options are offered;
this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love,
and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.

Friday, September 11, 2009

night 3

tonight is night 3 with Zara at home. the first night was tough, Odi slept about 30 minutes, I got about 3 1/2 hours or so. I releaved Odi at 6am by taking Zara into bed with me for a couple hours and we all slept well. last night, things were better, we both woke up "rested" and Zara wasn't up too much during the night. tonight is night 3, we hope that she sleeps well tonight and only wakes up to eat. we'll see what night 3 holds........

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Zara came home today!


this afternoon Odi & Zara were released from the hospital. we brought her home in the same winnie the pooh outfit that I was brought home from the hospital in 33 years ago! so now we're home and getting ready for life to change but we both know it's gonna be a change for the better!!
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Tuesday, September 8, 2009