At last, in Budapest

After a lot of traveling, some waiting in Gatwick airport, an interesting shuttle ride and a little walking, I am in Budapest! My first day included church, a Hungarian lunch, some site seeing and the introduction to the conference.

The Church service this morning was a very blessed experience. It was a lesson on suffering and relying on the Lord during those times. The message was from the heart of the pastor and was very insightful!

Following that, I was greeted by a dear couple that Jana and I met during New Staff Training, Ellis and Helen Vaughan. At once, when we found out I would be in Budapest, I thought of them. We wanted to touch base but did not know how to contact them. It was indeed a God ordained blessing to go to the church service this morning and meet with them!

After church, many of the MinistryNet participants went into Budapest to go to lunch and do some siteseeing. The lunch was very good, though I am not sure that my dish was famously Hungarian. I saw some that were and they looked very good! My turkey with mango maple sauce, with rice and potatoes was very good regardless.

When we finished lunch, the group split to walk around town. While many shops were closed, we were fortunate to be able to go to the last day of the Spring Festival. There were booths setup selling food, pottery, clothes and many other things. It was a fun environment. One of our number had a person do a drawing of himself. It actually turned out very well and he got it for a third of the asking price! What a deal.

Now, to the reason you are actually reading this post... our first day of MinistryNet: Budapest. We were introduced to each other and without even looking, one notices the multicultural mix of this gathering. I think the final count was 67 people from 27 countries! Originally, this conference was supposed to be a small get together, but when the word went out, many people wanted to come. What an amazing thing! 67 people!

Keith Seabourn welcomed us and introduced his vision for MinistryNet which is his vision for the internet and how it can be included in the Great Commission and Campus Crusades mission of creating movements everywhere. I wish that I could record each of the sessions to come to send them out, since our speakers, if their messages are similar to Keith's, can deliver it much better than I can.

Well, that is all for now. I will keep you posted as things happen!

In Christ,
Thad