Around the corner, to the left, all the way in the back

Everyday for the past maybe 4 days I have excitedly checked the postbox infront of the house looking for a slip of paper which held my name. Today I knew was the day. We returned from class and someone else got to the box before myself, but they found the paper and said my name. What a sweet sound to my ears. I ran upstairs (only 3 stories) grabbed my ipod and headed towards the bus, walking briskly and listening to upbeat 1940's christmas music.

I departed from the bus at the right stop, but from there had no direction, so i wandered in every direction. Then my eyes spoted it in the distance, a beautiful sign "POSTA" it read and my step lightened a bit.

Walking in I was slighty intimidated by the large crowds and 7 different lines. I dont understand post offices at home, where I can read the language and ask questions - here I was really out of the loop. So I tried to sound out words on the paper and find words that looked similar on signs, no luck. I then turned to plan B - look dumb and hope for help. It worked! I stood long enough lookng confused and finally a guy came up and started to talk to me, he found out I spoke english and in english told me I was at the wrong post office (which I assumed because I was told there were 2 I just couldnt find the other one) so he pointed where to go. I thanked him.

Directly to the left around the corner, there was another wonderful "POSTA" sign. I entered and was redirected two more times by motions and found the right room. I saw lots of packages and knew I was in the right place. After producing an ID to prove my identitiy, I had it. A package with my name, sent all the way from Keizer Oregon, and it found its way to me, all the way over here in a little neighborhood post office in Budapest, Hungary.

I walked home in glee and slowly opened the contents upon returning home. The first thing I did was dip my finger into the Super Chunky Skippy Peanut Butter Jar. I played with the hacky sack and sat down to a cup of my favorite tea.

This is the story of a girl getting a package and enjoying it in Budapest.

I

Glance - by Misty Edwards

I remember the first glance
I remember the first romance
I remember the first dance
When I fell in love with you
When I fell in love with you

I thought that I would never know loveI
thought that I woudl never know touch
Then you came and awakened me
Then you came unlocking me
I've never known a love like this
You've shown the truth behind the mythThe Mystery

When it's all be said
When it's all be done
When the race is run
And this life overcome

I remember the first glance
I remember the first romance
I remember the first dance
When I fell in love with you
When I fell in love with you
When I fell in love

I will remember your love
I will remember your love
I will remember your love
I will remember your love

What is she really doing over there?

Some of you might be wondering what I do here. If we only have like “2” outreaches a week and teaching once a day, am I just chilling? Was your support worth it? Now I am not just chilling, and yet it was wroth it. I wish I could begin to describe what we do here, but words don’t do it justice. Pretty much, I am learning a lifestyle. I am learning how to let my heart tick with Gods. How to use every moment to benefit him. I read books, I rest in Him. I take daily walks in the bitter cold air and survey his beauty and he tells me of my beauty. We have amazing worship together. We meet in small groups to just talk about the week, we have fellowship. I spend much time in the kitchen and I see it as a way to honor my King. I see everything that I cook as a gift for the King. That is how I think of it as I prepare the feasts for dinner, or the beautiful deserts. God doesn’t care if it is perfect, it is the condition of my hear that he looks at.

We are learning to be receptive to the prophetic realm, how to hear Gods voice in our life and how to speak life into others. No one is left out, no one is too young. I am gaining a life long heart for missions, living with so many other people representing varying cultures. I see people in a different light, I don’t judges as quickly, I don’t withdraw as far. What I am doing here is preparing me fore life. Just like school prepares you for work, this prepares me for life. I know that from here I will be equipped, more ready to do what I am called to. I will never perfect my calling, I will always continue learning, but this is a great time of growth.

I am learning how to share my vision with god, not to have my own, but to let his become mine. If I am in tune wit him, I will hear his heart, he will grab hold of mine and they will gently beat in tune. I want to not be on my own, I want to not walk the path alone, I want him to be my guide, if I follow him through the darkness he will lead me, he has walked this before and knows, he knows and I will trust him always. I will follow him anywhere.

So what I am doing here is not in vain. What I am doing here will not last for a few months. This is not like a one week mission trip that fires me up then melts after the wick burns… this is igniting an eternal flame. I am not just on an energy trip - like the energizer bunny. I am not on a high that will fall, because not everything here has been a high. I don’t have to be always running with excitement to be following my King. I will have bad days, but the fire is still there. I am learning how to keep the flame going when it wants to die. For those of you that have invested in me, thank you. It was a well worth investment and I promise that it was not a waste of your time. I am doing all I can to make the most of this opportunity so that it might increase the kingdom of God.

Rise up from the Sea

Would you rise up from the sea
Would you come upon the shore
I want to meet you here, Lord.
I want more. Oh, I want more

I see you rising from the sea
I see you coming upon the shore
You are meeting me here, Lord
But still I want more. Oh, I want more

You have risen from the sea
You have come upon the shore
You have met me here Lord
Yet I want you more. Oh, I want you more

Bye Bye India

well as many of you know i have had to decide where to go for my outreach phase of my trip. Before even coming to Budapest I have had my heart set on 'India, and that is where my heart has stayed, Until Friday God decided to change my mind. Now I am going to Bungaria, Armenia and Greece. (If you dont know where those countries are, look them up on a MAP, of if you dont have one of those or dont know how to use it, look it up on google images... if you still dont find it ask me and I will gladly tell you.) Anyways it looks like it is me and 7 other students and we will travel to the 3 different countries. We will leave around December 11 and be gone for 11 weeks. I am not exactly sure what ministeries we will be involved in except for the first location (Bulgaria) we will be spending a few weeks working with a program similar to Angel Tree. We will be helping deliver christmas presents to underprivildeged kids. For me this is like the best thing I could do because I absolutly LOVE christmas. As of now we dont necessarly have a leader, it looks like maybe we will have a leader take us to each location, and get us set, then we would have student leaders and keep in touch with our director or something. Everything is still very very vauge, but I thought I would let you konw as much as I know. This trip will be expensive because of all the traveling involved, so please pray that the finances I have cover the final cost. I will let you know more when I know.

Prayer and Outreach

Just a quick update. In about 3 weeks our group is taking a short outreach trip to Romania. It is a few hours drive from hear and we will be traveling by vans for the 4 day trip.

We will be teaming up with a couple from Hungary that we work with at times that are missionaries to the Gypsy people. We will be working with Gypsy Hungarians that live in a small village in Romania. We will spend 3 days doing outreaches for them. We are beginning to prepare music, dramas, dances, and sermons. I have been asked to lead up the kids ministries. I have accepted this challenge and greatly look forward to the amazing opportunity. Ministry will be geared towards everyone, except for the preaching times, it will be at that point that me and my team will separate and take the kids to play games with them, speak on their level. I don’t have very much information yet, I don’t know if I will have a translator, how many kids there will be or what materials I might have. But I do know that it will be an intense time.


God has given us this trip to help prepare us for our real outreach. We will be going the weekend of November 24, yes thanksgiving. So for those of you that are prayer warriors, his is a major area to be prayed over.

Also other things that could use prayer. Our group really needs unity. There is a lot of cliques going on here and underlying challenges that could turn into problems. There is a sense of disrespect and possibly some other things. We need to be united totally in order for us to properly corporate as a group. Thank you to all of you who pray, it is surly noticed.

Creative Worship

So every week here we do this thing called creative worship, every week we participate in ways we can worship God other than music, it has been a blast!

One week we had a feast, we all brought food and shared it. We sang the song about his banqueting table. It was a time of fellowship. We talked about, what we had to bring to the table of the Lord. How even though some people forgot to bring some things, there was still plenty to go around, with God there is always enough to satisfy.

One week (my favorite) we put paper on our back and spend a half hour walking around writing encouraging words on each others back. Then we sat down and read it all. How wonderful to have a paper with notes from 20 different people. We worshiped God by showing his glory to other people. This one was very encouraging.

This week we are doing show and tell of some object that has meaning to us and our relationship to God, something that will edify the body. We have spent weeks doing poetry, drawing pictures, painting together. We are learning how worship is a lifestyle, not just a Sunday morning ritual.

I love learning all this because I believe this is the way life should be. We worship God with what we do. We don’t necessarily have to set time aside to paint each week, but if the opportunity comes, lets use that time to worship God. This is something that I want to take home. Something that I want to have follow me for the rest of my life. Something that I want my children to learn and appreciate.

Kiss me softly, rock me hard

Beautiful Jesus, lover of my life, I hold you so dear, I give you my life. All I am is yours, even when I feel I have nothing left to give, I give me. You are my joy. You are my lover, the one who knows my secrets, the one who holds me dear. You are the one softly whispering in my ear. You say my name, you call me your own. It makes me surrender, the pain of joy makes me groan. I weep in your arms for you are strong I am confess to you Father God, you tell me I was not created wrong. I pledge my life eternally to you, I wear this as a promise on my finger, never do I want something new. You make me complete for without you where would I go? What would do? You lead me, guide me, we walk holding hands. When I am at the beach, I know I see you in the sand. I would die for you to life on in the lives of others. You did this for me, giving your last breath to forgive me, even for the sins I have not yet done. You love me despite my faults. You look into me and see all that I am, but you hold me still. You don't hold back you are my lover, protector, guider and life. My husband, my father, you lead my day and night. Your word says a woman goes from the protection of her father to the house of her husband. But you oh Lord are both to me. You are jealous of me but you share your loves still. We are intimate together - but I alone don't want to be the one to experience you. I want to share my love (you) with everyone. I desire them to have intimacy with you. Your love to me is extravagant. You give all you are, I want to give that back. Our relationship is two sided, I give al lin return from what I have received. Help me to receive more, to not push you away. I want to be with you every single day. I want to wake up seeing your face, smile through the day as I feel your embrace. I want to share my storms, my rain and my sun. I want to smell you till the day is done. Fill my nights with dreams of you, le nothing else fill my thoughts. Forgive me for the times that of you I have forgot. I offer to you all you can take, then scrape at my walls - peel my build up away. Search my heart, please reveal what you find. Give me your gifts, make them freely mine. Show me how to use them, how to increase your glory divine. For what was once locked, I give you possession of the key. I don't want to be by myself, I don't want to be just me. Jesus, lover of my soul, fill me up, make me whole. I don't want to fall into love, I want to be swept off my feet. I desire to be the light and the salt to everything that I meet. Take me, mold me make me yours. I want to live in your presence and always hear your roar. Kiss me softly, rock me hard, hold me tightly in your ever lasting arms.