Kirchentag Day 4: Finishing Strong

It's hard to believe that after all of the preparation and planning for the Kirchentag, it's all come to a close. The week in Hamburg seemed to fly by, but what an experience! After a few long, but wonderful days working at the RCH booth, the team packed everything up and prepared for the long drive back home to Hungary.

 It was awesome seeing blue EVERYWHERE in the streets of Hamburg!

"Reformed Church in Hungary/Reformed Church in Change"

Members of the Roma Ministry performed some Roma songs for Kirchentag participants.

 Some of the team dancing and having fun!

Working on the university chaplains' mosaic.

Breaking down...

...and packing up the stand.

This last week was an incredible experience for all involved and I must say a special word of thanks for all of the RCH volunteers, including those who worked behind the scenes back in Budapest! None of this would have been possible without everyone's cooperation, willingness and energy! Thank you! Cheers, to the team and to Kirchentag!

Kirchentag Day 3: Sharing in Ministry

Kirchentag has proved to be an excellent way to share the life and passion of RCH missions and ministries. Representatives from several different areas of the church are present at the festival this week, such as Refugee Mission, Roma Ministry, Deaf Mission and the Eco-Congregation program. One feature of the church's booth is the "living library." These ministry representatives act as living reference material for interested Kirchentag participants who visit the stand. It is a time to go further into current projects or programs, and just generally communicate the church's focus.

Members of Roma Ministry explain the Roma honey project and enjoy some homemade honey with bread.

Young people test their knowledge about Hungary.

Participants are encouraged to enjoy a delicious Hungarian drink and speak with RCH team members.

A visitor learns to sign his name.

The RCH Eco-Congregation project test your ecological footprint.

The booth has a schedule for each day that rotates the ministries at different times each day, so visitors have an opportunity to see them all. In addition, the RCH holds panel discussion each day where church representatives discuss specific ministries or the relative issues surrounding them.

Dóra Nagy-Kanizsai from the Refugee Mission discusses the current situation for refugees in Hungary.

And finally, there is no rest for the weary communication team. On top of designing the beautiful photography and videos utilized for the church's Kirchentag stand and printed materials, they have made two new videos from Hamburg. Check them out!

There is only one more day to visit the RCH booth before the team takes everything down and packs up for the long trip home. Stay tuned for what the last day has in store!

Kirchentag Day 2: Let the Discussions Begin!

Hello from day two of the German Protestant Kirchentag! Today was the first day we were able to welcome visitors to our booth, and it was both exciting and overwhelming at the same time. I've never attended a festival with so many participants before! There are multiple gigantic exhibition halls filled with churches of every make and model displaying the best features from their church's life.

The bird's eye view of our exhibition hall. Our booth is on the bottom right.

Our stand is designed to be interactive, from the touch screen visual from the 1% campaign to the face-to-face contact you get from our "living library," where members of the RCH team welcome visitors with information about the different ministries of our church. In this "library," festival participants have the opportunity to ask us about the unique offerings of the RCH's ministries.

Teaching Kirchentag participants sign language.

Describing the RCH's 1% campaign and the kiosk's interactive features.

Presiding bishop of the RCH, Gusztáv Bölcskei, also participated in several discussion panels throughout the day, including a discussion on the current political situation in Hungary alongside Rev. Thomas Wipf, moderator of the European Council of Religious Leaders and CPCE president. In addition, he was joined for a very interesting, central discussion panel discussing the importance of Roma ministry by the RCH's head of Mission, Eszter Dani.

 Bishop Bölcskei with Rev. Thomas Wipf.

Roma panel discussion.

The day ended with a reception hosted by an association of Hungarians in Germany as well as the RCH's Hungarian brothers and sisters in Hamburg, who helped tremendously in the pre-festival organization. The event was attended by figures from the RCH's partner churches in Germany that have offered their support as our church prepared for Kirchentag. Bishop Bölcskei gave a short speech at the beginning of the evening remarking on what a historic occasion this is for the RCH and how thankful he is for all the help received leading up to this event.

All in all, it was an incredibly long day on our feet, but the excitement of the participants is definitely re-energizing! Tomorrow is sure to be a challenge as well, but we truly can't wait to explore the festival a little more and continue to share the work of the church to all those in attendance.

Check in again tomorrow to see more!

Kirchentag Day 1: Festival Prep

Late yesterday evening, the first wave of the RCH Kirchentag team arrived in Hamburg. Today, the main purpose of the day was to physically set up the church's booth in one of the festival's huge exhibition halls. As we waited for the other mini-buses filled with volunteer university chaplains from the Reformed Student Congregation of Debrecen and all of our supplies to build the stand, we took advantage of the extra time to iron out some last-minute details .

We love logistics.

Making movie magic.

We arrived at the exhibition hall early in the afternoon and got right to work. It was a long day that had its fair share of challenges, like trying to get the internet set up for the virtual presentations, but in the end it was all worth it. The booth looks great and we cannot wait to welcome all of the Kirchentag participants tomorrow!

Our university chaplains are wonderful!

 The booth's awesome interactive experience.

These portraits decorate the walls of the RCH exhibit.

If you're interested, go check out the RCH's website for Kirchentag (www.reformatus.hu/kirchentag2013). You can explore some of the videos and communication material on display during Kirchentag. And of course, make sure to check back in tomorrow for more festival updates and photos!

Happy Anniversary, Budapest!

I feel weird writing this post. Honestly, I've been procrastinating and putting it off for so long, it has become unnatural for me to write. And I was doing so mediocrely well in the beginning!

I don't know what it is. Am I in a rut?! I come to this blog page time after time and just end up staring at the blinking cursor on a white, empty page. It's like a metronome counting away the time as more and more nothingness pours out onto my computer screen.

So I've decided to force myself out of this creative slump the only way I know how. ACTUALLY WRITING. Now please, bear with me while I attempt to shake off the rust that's been eroding my creative writing faculties for the last month.

If I'm honest with myself, I think I have been avoiding this place actually. When I first started this blog I was preparing to leave for another country and subsequently arriving in said foreign country. Everything was exciting! Everything was new! Now, I'm comfortable. I have a routine - places to shop for groceries, places to grab a quick dinner, jogging routes along the river. I know how long my morning commute will take and the absolute latest time I can leave to arrive at work on time.

When did I stop being a stranger and start belonging here?

I think this new role really dawned on me while my friend was in town visiting over Easter weekend. Somehow I was the official authority on Hungary - culture, food, traditions, history. My tiny knowledge of the Hungarian language was really quite impressive to her. I ordered two things in Hungarian and all of a sudden, in her mind I was practically fluent. It was an odd position to find myself in, but it was so exciting at the same time!

By the way, this was taken on April 1st when it was still really cold.

I threw this picture in because it's so bizarre that I've seen two of my college roommates in Budapest, Hungary.

I loved being able to walk around to all the tourist destinations I hadn't visited since I first arrived. I loved experiencing the food with my friend and just generally enjoying the city that has started to become my routine. But mostly I loved discussing the things we've both learned since moving to Europe, like celebrating the fact that I'm finally starting to understand Celsius measurements, even though meters and kilometers still remain a mystery, or noticing how Europeans and Americans use silverware differently, or realizing that books of the Bible had different names in different languages (why had I never thought of that before?!). It was really just interesting to be able to compare and contrast our lives here to our lives there.

I saw the same thing last weekend when I met an American couple who are both friends of a friend back in the U.S. I got to take them to a great restaurant and coffee shop as well as discuss my life and service here in Budapest, the history of the Reformed church and Hungary's political climate too. And again, I was struck by just how much I've learned in my short time away from home. I can almost see myself becoming more well-rounded, knowledgeable and, hopefully, culturally aware.

I was nice to John and Carol even though they were Penn State fans. They did give me a hat though :)

But the best part is that there is no wall between my life in Louisiana and my life in Hungary. They are inextricably linked, because my life doesn't halt and resume depending on my physical location. It runs. It flows. It melds places, experiences, cultures together.

Believe it or not, I arrived in Budapest six months ago today, and on one hand I can feel every moment I've been away from home, but on the other I can't imagine that the time has gone by so quickly. I'm just so happy for all the ways that my life has been broadened, strengthened and blessed in these last six months.

Orsi and I on the way back from Győr for my birthday!

This is how Kriszti and I "work."

 Paris is for...friends?

I may still be in high school.

This happened when I went for a jog the other night. I couldn't pass up the photo opportunity!

I wouldn't trade these adventures for anything.



Proverbs 16:9
The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps