Friday, September 9, 2011

Mom to Mom


I have heard about this "Mom to Mom" class a lot in the last one and a half year or so... The child care they provide during the program is very important for every Mom, of course, it makes the class even more attractive...

Unfortunately, in spite of the neat magnet I got for the schedule, I always realized after the event that I just missed a class again...

Finally I made a more conscious effort to change this bad habit, and guess what! I drove to "Mom to Mom" yesterday with a happy Kaleb in the back seat. :)

It was a really refreshing time from 9 a.m. until 11,15 a.m.

There was fellowship, food, safe childcare for Kaleb and message from the Lord!

The coordinators seem very young to me :) with probably no more experience as moms than myself, but I really enjoyed their honest and open testimony about motherhood and their walk with the Lord.

There was particularly one thing that really hit home for me: an other mom sharing was talking about our devotional time with God as moms, which can be very hasty or non-existent sometimes for days - which is something I struggle with myself... "don't give up seeking the Lord"! Yes, I don't want to give up, and I am willing to sacrifice my relaxation time for it, if I need to, and it seems that I need to....

So, I am very grateful for my husband's support, who keeps encouraging me to go to these events...

And this fall I will attend Womens' Bible Study on Wednesday mornings every week (!) beside the Mom to Mom class which is only once a month. There is childcare for this class, too. Isn't that wonderful???!!! Kaleb loves playing with the other kids at child care, so far, anyway. :) What a blessing!

There is another big event coming up next weekend, a marriage conference at the church. I signed up for that, too, yesterday, we still need a babysitter to arrange for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I hope God will provide that important detail, as well.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Double-special Day

9th June... Two birthdays on one DAY. That is really special! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VICKI! :)

HAPPY *6 year* Sobriety BIRTHDAY, MURRAY! :)

So, naturally, it was very exciting yesterday to prepare for the celebration.

Murray had to work in the morning and we planned the festive dinner for the evening...

Chocolate cake was the special request, and my plan was to make it myself, of course. I talked to Mother in the morning through Skype, I gathered some advice from her as to what and how to make the cake.....

While Kaleb had his nap, I got to work: I made the cake and the frosting, introducing a new thing, a Sugar Substitute. ... Later, during the afternoon, when I was ready to apply the frosting on the baked cake (in my husband's company), it turns out the inside of the cake doesn't look good at all. The whole thing was useless....That was hard to accept.......We ended up buying a cake from Albertson's.... :)

I was restless though, so I made a sponge cake at home in the middle of dinner-preparations.....No wonder I was behind schedule: Leslie arrived, and I was not ready. She was gracious, though, she helped out with Kaleb and the cabbage salad.

The mashed potato and the Italian sausage was DELICIOUS. (It has been some time since we had potatoes: we are trying :) to be on this DIET...).

Oops, we forgot to take photos......

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Praise be to God for the Risen Lord!

The signs of spring feel our hearts with joy and happiness, because there is a Creator and a Saviour behind every small flower.

It is even a much bigger blessing that our Easter can be full of meaning because of the Truth of the empty tomb.

We wish you, the reader, a blessed Easter Sunday in the presence of the risen Jesus Christ.

With lots of love,

Murray, Kaleb and Adina :)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

We would be so poor without the Book of Psalms...

I have been working on a translation of a study about the psalms. I find it really enriching and it helps to understand the background and the context of the poems much better.

[Since the Face to face (Bible reading guideline of the church) reading also suggests the Psalms, I decided to make the Book of Psalms my main devotional at this time.]

There is one aspect that stood out for me: the psalms have a very practical side, they are the expressions of an individual or the community on the occasion of thanksgiving, petition or worship accompanied by the actual / physical sacrifice in the temple.

It makes it more real for me, because I tend to read them as prayers only, whereas they are an act of worship in the setting of other believers as witnesses and the offering of sacrifices.

Today's reading raises a question in my heart: do I pray blessings like this for someone? It shows so much care and love and all these blessings are pointed toward someone else and not the self.


Psalm 20

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
3 May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.[b]
4 May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
5 May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the LORD grant all your requests.

6 Now this I know:
The LORD gives victory to his anointed.
He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary
with the victorious power of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
8 They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.
9 LORD, give victory to the king!
Answer us when we call!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Divine beauty

I am rejoicing today in the beautiful truth that we are created with an eternal need for being relational: privacy has never been the plan for us. :)

If I choose to take my own path, it leads to disaster unless God in His mercy plants a gracious obstacle in the way, so I need to stop and get help. Privacy ended.

'This wall I keep bumping into is my own doing', I realize it today. 'Things keep flying back into my face because of this wall: I better tear it down. I need God and I need people to give me a hand to take out just one piece of a stone at a time.'

Funny, how accustomed I am to trying to solve things on my own: that is my good Hungarian pride, I suppose... or not...

I am grateful today for my husband: he helps me in this difficult process of identifying my 'own' private ways...

Yet, I am not deprived: I am unique and I have individual steps to take in my fellowship with God and men. That is a divine beauty!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Family pictures






We have been looking forward to the photo-taking appointment at church (for the new directory) and behold the results (these photos are not perfect, but then we are not perfect either :).

Monday, March 28, 2011

Thinking about the past and the future...

Miklósfalva (Romanian: Nicoleşti) is a little village in Romania, the sweet home for approximately 150 Hungarian people. It is located around 5 miles from Székelyudvarhely (Romanian: Odorheiu Secuiesc) where Hodos and Szőke creeks meet. It is surrounded by three other villages in a 3 or 4 mile radius, that is why the village has 3 parts called Alszeg, Felszeg and Kányádszeg depending on the closest neighbour village.

The village is first mentioned in a document dated from 1332. Until the Treaty of Trianon (the peace agreement signed in 1920 at the end World War I) Miklósfalva belonged to Udvarhely county, and after the second Vienna agreement it belonged to Hungary again for 4 years.

The population is entirely Hungarian and it is mostly Protestant (Calvinist) by religion.

The church of the village was built in 1882 and today there are two monuments in front of it in the memory of the villagers who died during World War I and II.

The sense of a long history and the religion of the forfathers is very strong in these people. They love their families and they work hard for their living. Agriculture is still strongly present, and the older generation together with the young work the fields, traditional and modern methods living side by side. It is common to see a horse and buggy and at the same time hear the noise made by the machines on the fields.

At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 20th century there was a spiritual awakening in Transylvania in the midst of the Protestant and Catholic churches. Some people realized they needed to study the Bible for themselves because they needed answers to their desperate questions. They needed God instead of the theories of the eloquant sermons, a God who would speak to them personally and would change their lives. Some people came home from abroad after Christ had found them there in miraculous ways and became missionaries in their homeland because they saw the need for it.

This is how my great grandparents came to Christ and decided to depart from the old ways of their lives: they decided to study the Bible, pray, meet with other believers, praise God with songs, and lead a pure lifestyle starting from the inside out. They didn’t want to drink in bars any more, they didn’t want to dance, they didn’t want to work on Sundays, etc. They obeyed God and followed Christ’s example in baptism, too (the Protestant and Catholic churches practiced and still practice child baptism), which became the most obvious and disturbing dividing line, which caused the believers to be the outcast of their family and society.

The economical crisis of the 70’s made life in the city with its opportunities become a lifesaver. Many young people and families moved to the urban areas with hope in an easier life (with running water in the house, washing machine, regular monthly salaries, the promise of a pension for the old age, etc.). First my parents around the age of 17, then later my grandparents did the same. My parents still worked the fields in their spare time, they kept the old house in Miklósfalva, but they lived in an apartment in the city, in Székelyudvarhely.

It took some 25 - 30 years for the city people in Transilvania to realize that city life can become too materialistic and busy, or even unhealthy...So, those who more accomplished financially, built houses in the suburbs or just outside the towns, and in the country. Some people moved into a village, because they couldn’t afford the city. Others still thought of the village as a thing from the past, not advanced enough.

If we visited Miklósfalva, we would see people at all ages, from all walks of life. The common thing most of them share is that they don’t know Jesus as their personal Saviour. They need somone who would be willing to share their lives, not only on Sunday, but every day.

This is our family’s plan: to live our Christian life this Hungarian village for all to see. Hoping to be instruments in a unique way.

My grandparents are in heaven. Their house is still standing. J Some of their land is still in the possession of my father, my aunts and uncle.

Stepping out in faith

The first time I heard this expression, I was in a small historic town of Transylvania, in Segesvár, showing my distinguished guest around in its beautiful castle.

(After 6 months of conversing and not meeting face to face, we had the blessing to spend 3 weeks together in the midst of my Hungarian family and friends... )

To return to my original thought, Murray uttered these words in the context of a sermon he had heard at Good Shepherd which had been his church for 5 years or so.

The powerful message of these words made my future husband decide to quit being a bench warmer and actually do something to be part of God's work. This is how he went to Africa, to Mexico and finally to Romania.

We both stepped out in faith when we got married in Romania in December 2008.

We have seen God at work ever since in ways I never imagined it possible.

When Murray returned to US with me in 2009, we left all the security of our new life behind in Marosvásárhely. We were not sure how God was going to work things out for the birth of our son and for our life.

Family and friends were praying for us... My sister-in-law said goodbye with the encouragement of Israel's story when they came out of Egypt and crossed the Red sea without being harmed, having been received this word of God specifically for our move to US in October 2009.

The long journey in itself (25 hours or so) was presented as a trial. ... My concerned aunt who was also praying for us had a dream that angels were surrounding us during our trip, and exactly that was happening by God's grace!

Our faithful and loving family and friends from Good Shepherd and AA were used by God to help us settle down in Gresham and have our baby in the best circumstances possible in November 2009.

17 months have passed and looking back we see God's hand everywhere.

In November 2010 Kaleb and me went to Romania for a short visit. It was a miracle and a huge gift to be able to do so! We were blessed to reunite with my family again and let my parents be blessed by allowing them to see and love their youngest and 5th grandchild.

We would like to thank God, both our family and friends for blessing us in so many different ways and for giving us their friendship!

NOW, March 2011, we see a vision to follow again. We believe God has been gently guiding us towards a drastic change in our lives, which requires sacrifices but will also provide us with the necessary tools for reaching the goals we set before us as a family. We would like to move to Alaska possibly in May.

The first practical steps we took for this end were provided by God's special providence: we bought a trailer and a bigger pick up truck.

Right now we are building up funds for our travel through Canada to Alaska and for our relocation there.

In the meantime our desire is to be connected to our family and friends here, using the time at our disposal wisely.