Finding the Lords Goodness in Everyday

Today I spent time with an amazing person. Lori Talbot. She spent two hours with me just listening. Listening to my problems and hopes. She gave me advice and thoughts on what she would do and she shared with me her heart. She also challenged me to do something.

Everyday I am to look for the good. Find what the Lord has blessed me with. I think this is a great way for me to think less about the negative and more on the positive.I think that people can sometimes dwell on their problems and discredit the blessings under their noses. Sadly, I have been doing this often.

So for today my blessed moments were with two people.

1. Lori listened and encouraged me. She shared her tender heart and told me she would pray for me and my family. Not just pray when she thought of me but sacrificial prayer.

I am so happy that she is a part of my life because she is such a great example of the Proverbs 31 woman.

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
Proverbs 31:25-26

2. Last semester, I interviewed a man from a seminary in Orchard Lake. His name is Lukasz /wukash/ it means Luke in English. He is leaving for California to continue his training in seminary, so he and I had coffee. I learned a lot about him during my interview, but today I learned more about his heart. He has such a passion for serving the Lord and keeping his ministry for Christ. And he is really sweet. He bought me two drinks at Caribou and a ginormous bar of milk chocolate. For someone who is going to live a celibate life he sure knows how a girl likes to be treated.

So for me our time together was wonderful. I thought that I was going to spend my night by myself, but we spent five hours talking. I loved it. He loves talking about his family and he loves talking about what he will do for God even more.

I think spending time with him helped me be thankful for my family. He has not seen his family in a year and he is waiting another year before he goes home to visit again. Two years without my family or a familiar home is difficult. The most amazing thing about his heart though is his faith. He trust God for what is going to happen in California. He has no idea what will happen but he is faithful.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
Matthew 21:21-22

Today was a wonderful day filled with friendship, just what my heart needed.

A Woman's Heart

In honor of an emotionally draining week, I have decided it was a perfect moment to search for the beauty in the pain I feel or at least see beauty in what the Lord has helped me understand. What good am I to his calling if I can not come out on top of my struggles with learning and being blessed by them.

I was reading Thriving Family by the Focus on the Family organization, and I came across an article called Bringing Up Girls by Dr. Dobson. He really is an amazing man of God, and his words. that are given to him entirely from the Lord, inspire me very much. He wrote about the heart of a little girl and how her heart should be treated by her father, her brother, her husband, by her mother, and by those who have a relationship with her.

If you want to know a piece of my heart, I would like you to know my love for words. I think that God gave me this passion for them to feel His love more and more everytime I read or hear a specific word.

I think these words are a beautiful description of a girls heart and they have made me truly thankful for his captivating glory.

Delightful Unique Captivating Sensitive Tender Charming Soft Nurturing Compassionate Gentle Caring Wonderful Confident Beautiful Radiant Peaceful Precious Pure Blessed Diligent Joyful Fascinated Elegant Meek Adorned

So many words that describes what a girl should always feel. However, because of sin it is sadly replaced with pain. What a glorious God to have given us the healing for this wound though. Thank you Jesus for giving me the things that I long for.

Girls, my heart goes out to you, if you feel pain or shame. The Lord has forgiven us seven times over, and he wants to heal our broken heart. Let him be this for you, and know you are all of these words above. NO ONE can EVER take these true characters away from you, no matter the condition of your heart in sin or no sin. You need to believe in the grace you have been given and then believe that these things are true about you, You are AMAZING.

We are priceless gifts that need to be protected and treated delicately:

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." Proverbs 31:10

The continued story...

For the remainder of my trip in Hungary, everyday was quite similar. We would share with classrooms about American universities. Sharing with the students there was a great way for us to learn how different we are here. We had a chance to just talk with them and get to know about their lives and what it was like for them growing up in Hungary or in some cases, other parts of Europe. I loved listening to their accents. They asked so many questions, and it was amazing that i could answer them.

After this time of classroom presentation we would do randoms in the commons of each university and share the gospel. The basics of what would happen is this: Me and my new friend Sandor, (sanie- /shawnie/ for short)
I thought it was great that we were paired together during this week, our names matched well :)

Anyway... We would approach a student, and introduce ourselves. I would tell them that I was from America, and that I was working with an organization called CRU (in Hungary it would be called FEK). Sandor and I would ask them questions written in a survey. They pertained to their lives such as "Where do you think you will be in five years?" and "What do you want to do with your life?" Then we would get deeper into the heart of our purpose there. We would ask them question about God and who or what they thought of Christianity. Finally if they let us, we would go through a diagram with them.

I had never done a diagram with someone until that week, it was amazing. The pictures that were representing Christ helped me to be clear and precise. Sandor, thank the Lord was with me every step of the way :) Thank you Sanie!

My interview at church

Seana @ Yahoo! Video

I was able to talk a little about my trip to Hungary in front of the church on Sunday. There is more to come about the trip. Hope you can be patient until this weekend. School is kicking me in the butt this week.

An arrival worth the sleep we deserved

After all the chaotic mess of flight cancellations, long waits in the airports and expensive airport food, we finally arrived to Budapest.

We still had four members of our team stuck in Paris for the night do to a strike the airport staff had gone on. One member of our team had not received her luggage, and one team member carried salsa over for the staff in Hungary only to find that the jar broke and was seeping into all of his nice cloths.

With the news of our arrival the staff prepared a short orientation for our partial team. Then off to a fancy boat tour for dinner.

We were so exhausted from the travel and jet lagged, that the girls were having a difficult time being social. The boys ate their food with joy and finished off the girls. After two hours of delightful conversation we headed back to our Hotel Classic. It was a quaint little hotel that resembled a bed and breakfast. It was very cute and unique to each guest, every room was different. I had the square room, and very pink room!

Off to bed we went, and slept very well!

Hungary for Budapest

So it has now been 10 days since I have returned home from the amazing country of Hungary. I will not say that my life has been changed, however I have learned a great deal about myself, my country, and about what I know I have been called to do. I had a four hour conversation yesterday with someone about this trip, and I didn't know that I had that much to say.

It was amazing!

So here is a glimpse of the time I spent in this beautiful city of Budapest...

Sziasztok

Sziasztok is hello to several people... sziasztok family. So far this trip has given me a greater understanding for the amazing need for God in Hungary, but most of all for the passion that is needed in America. I cannot get over the amzing encouragement I have received from the Christians here in Budapest. Their hearts for the broken and lost in Hungary is heavy. When I think of my own heart for Americans at home, I feel conflicted over the apathy I have and the rest of our culture. Passion is the best word I can use to describe what Hungarians have for Christ: passion, love, appreciation, understanding, and awe.... all things I hope to aquire and radiate!

Please continue to pray! Isten áldjon minket! (God bless)