i don't know what you're saying, but...

this past week helping out at vbs has been such a great experience. the kids are absolutely beautiful...and i had no idea what they were saying, but for some reason i felt like i was able to connect with some of them. a little communication was able to happen via translation,

but a smile or a hug can sometimes communicate more than a thousand words

great things about this past week:

1. i woke up btwn 5-6am without hitting snooze too many times
2. every morning i had time to make strong coffee (with vanilla sugar and drink it in a cool mug from poland)
3. there was usually very strong coffee at vbs too.
3. the drive to where we helped out at vbs always took us through the beautiful city of Budapest, through forests and hills, and finally acres and acres of sunflower fields.
4. all of those crowd breakers and group bonding games do have a purpose beyond high-school and ra responsibilities. i pulled many out of my hat when we needed to fill some time
5. the weather was perfect-cool in the morning (i was even wearing my hoodie)
6. i rode a horse on a group outing

greater things about this past week:

1. about 100 kids heard the gospel and learned more about who God is
2. about 100 kids rubbed shoulders for 6 days with the body of Christ
3. about 100 kids memorized various scripture that explain our need for Jesus
4. about 100 kids experienced the love of God through His Church

it was kind of hard to say good-bye to the kids today. i "helped" (as much as that is possible without speaking hungarian) with the older kids, but knowing-even during the week- that my investment was not long term-makes it hard to start pouring into someone as well as makes it hard to leave.
a couple of the girls shed some serious tears when i left-which is crazy because they barely know me and because we barely spoke.
there are so many things going on in the lives of youth-not just in hungary but around the world-and their reaction to me leaving makes me wonder what is going on in their lives.

i have had a lot of time to process, pray, and think through some things, as well as continue working on the video project. God has been gracious in how much i feel like i am experiencing and doing with the amount of preparation, travel, and other stuff that is going on.

next week is the start of english camp. i will not have internet access those two weeks, but there will be another blog that will have updates posted by someone else on the team specifically for that camp.

please pray as others travel here to join us for english camp
pray for the hearts of the students (half are over the age of 20) as we study through the ministry of Jesus during the week

i am helping on the music team, teaching a conversation class, and working with a few others on the morning announcements/creative/fun/skit part of the day

pray for creative ideas
lesson prep for all the teachers
team interaction
student-team interaction
that i would be able to get the last video interviews i need with all the craziness going on
energy (long, full, fun days)

that Jesus Christ would be known and God glorified!