Not goodbye just Au Revior!

At 3pm, we all headed down to the church to say our last goodbyes to the church members of Nyritelek.

It started off with Uncle Misi saying his goodbyes to us, and how we had done such a great job in Hungary, and that we had wrung us dry like a wet tea towel by making us do three weeks of work in one week!

Then the church gave us all some presents to say thank you. And after that the London team all said our goodbye's and then we gave her presents to Misi and Anna, and to the translators and our bus driver.

We then said our individual good byes to people and then had group photos on the steps of the church. And after that, well about 30 minutes after that, because people could not really let us go, and we could not stop saying goodbye, we got on the bus and started our journey to Budapest.

It was very emotional and hard saying goodbye to these people who we had spent a lot of time with over the past two weeks. But hopefully we will see them one day again, even if it is in Heaven.

Last Church Service in Hungary

After the tree planting ceremony we went into the church for our last service in Hungary. There were lots of trees and am not ashamed to say that I shed some tears - a lot has happened in Hungary and am always going to have a special place for Hungary and its people in my heart

The service was very long, as many groups took part in the service. First of all there was the people who attended the gypsy conference, they sang a song for the church. And then we got up and sang two songs and Pinoki gave her testimoy.

As well as the gypsy people singing and us singing, there was also a baptism of a baby from one of the gypsy families.

After all this the bishop gave a sermon which I think was based on mission, well thats what I gathered from the bits of translation I picked up from Agi during the service.



It was a good service and afterwards we spent time saying good bye to some people, but there was going to be a big goodbye meeting at 3pm, so we kept many of the goodbyes until then.

Planting Trees

Sunday was our last day in Nyritelek and we were all pretty sad.

To mark the end of the gypsy conference and us being over to help out with the Hungarian church, the church had a tree planting ceremony, were four trees were planted: one for the bishop of Nyritelek, one for the gypsy village, one for the All Souls Wetfoot team and the fourth one was for the church itself.

It was a very moving moment... I did not understand what was being said except when Dave spoke, because he was the only one that spoke in English. But having a tree planted for us in Hungary, was amazing because it brought us altogether in unity with Christ, we are all one family. And these trees symbolized all the work we did together in mission for Christ.

More Gorgonzallas Photos

Ili and Tim


Lovely food hey!

Dave was trying to rescue me!

Hands Drama

Ying Hwie giving her testimony and Agi translating for her

Arpi took this photo.... he is a good wee photographer

Me trying to hide from the Mosquitos... oh and Agi because she was hitting me everytime one landed on me... and even when one did not land on me!

Gorgonzallas in the Evening

After devotions had ended, we got ready to go back out to the gypsy village to do some street evangelism.

I still did not feel 100% so I stayed behing with Ava, Agi, Nick and Ying Hwei and we headed out an hour later to join the rest of the team.

The evening at the gypsy village went well. The team sang a song, Ying Hwei did her testimony and then Dave, Tim, Jamiey, Zsuzsi and I did the Hands drama. People were walking in and out of us doing this, it was a bit disturbing but these people aren't really disciplined so its not in their nature to sit for hours and listen to people. But the people who were listening seemed to enjoy it, and people were even doing the actions on the hands drama with us!

It started raining whilst we were eating and the mosquitos were out in force, I tried hiding from them by covering myself up completely... but they still found me. So we quickly ate our dinner and then left. My mum always told me I should not hate anything, but I can definately say I hate Mosquitos.

Today was good but I felt very fragile and emotional all day - God was working within me today and I am very grateful and appreciative for all that he has done today and within the past week of me being ill in Hungary.

Encouragement

Today's devotions which was based on Ephesians 6 vs 21-24 and was all about encouragement. I have been feeling discoyraged all due to being ill and being out of the team. But today I was encouraged by the study and realised that all the encouragement I need comes from God. And he was certainly giving me courage this week through various people and verses I have been reading.

All I need his God's acceptance and approval and no one else's. God's opinion is all that matters.

Gorgonzallas Feelings 2

When the crafts and english teaching had finished, the parachute was brought out and the kids loved this. The power of the parachute, it has the ability to bring a smile to anybody's faces no matter where they come from or whatever age they are!

I sat in the hut with Ruth and others who were just singing a few songs, it was amazing to see everyone gradually just flocking into listen to them and then started singing as well. It was really lovely to see and the kids love singing.




Some of them are Christians and I can see God really working there. I just pray that more people's hearts are opened and that God is welcomed in.

I came away from the camp feeling guilty - here were people who had nothing yet seemed to get on with their lives without complaining. I am from a westernised country and have access to everyhing I need or want yet I complain. Last year I was convicted by the same thing in Serbia, and again God has convicted me again.

I need to be more content with what I have. Life is not about materialism, it is about relationships and especially the one with God.

Crafts & English Teaching

We split the kids into two groups - one to go and do crafts and the other to learn English, and then after about 30 minutes, they would swap activites.

I stayed with the craft section. The craft today was decorating picture frames. And they seemed to really enjoy this activity. They put all their effort in to making them really nice, making sure the paint wasn't sloppy and that they had the right decorations to put on them.

Some of the adults came and joined in with the crafts as well, this was really nice to see. To me, they were just like big kids and were enjoying painting and decorating their frames. One man spent about 40 minutes making sure his was just perfect. I think the fact that the could do something like this and then take it home meant a lot to them.

One women came up to one of the team members later, with the frames her kids made and they contained photos of the kids in their best clothes. She was very proud of the frames and when I heard this story it brough a tear to my eyes, because this was the only frames they had ever had.

Gorgonzallas Feelings

As well as kids turning up at the camp, mothers also turned up with their babies with them. There was one small boy who was running around with no trousers on, but did have a t-shirt on. But no one seemed to care.

The feeling I got from the camp was that these people do not have anything but they have each other and they seem to be content with that. All they really need and want is love and encouragement and that was what we were trying to give them and also what the church at Nyritelek also gives them in their regular work with them.

Gorgonzallas

Today I was feeling better when I woke up this morning, and because this was the last day of the gypsy camp, I decided that I would go.

We left at 9.30am and arrived at the camp at 10am, by the time we arrived, kids had already for there. They flocked towards the team members they already knew. But as I had never been before I kept at the back and settled in gently.

Ruth led a time of songs and the kids seemed to really enjoy this - it was great to see them being so enthuasiastic. And their behaviour was fantastic, they listened to the bible story and despite expecting chaos to break out, it never did.