Greetings from Baja, Hungary - Day 2

By Tom Rairdon

After getting to know our host families last night we finally got a full night's sleep in some comfy beds. Everyone enjoyed a lovely breakfast with their host families and were joined by a group of students from the Kiskoros youth group and prepared to head about one hour south to Baja Hungary, the home town of our JRHS international student, Beni. We were blessed with the most beautiful weather!  Once in Baja we met up with the Baja Baptist church youth group where we enjoyed a short tour of Baja and enjoyed a walk to the tower overlook at the fork of the Danube and Sugovica rivers. Then we drove back to the church and enjoyed a walk through the town to the local bowling alley. Who would have thought you could have over forty students bowl in four lanes, but the kids had a wonderful time. After the bowling alley adventure, we retired back to the church for a variety of Hungarian treats and pizza prepared by the wonderful volunteers from the Baja Baptist church. Of course, the pizza had corn on it in the traditional Hungarian way! 

After supper, the youth worship band treated us to several English worship songs after an over three hour practice session yesterday. They absolutely nailed it and were so kind and generous to help us English speakers get to fully participate in worship. 

Mr. Hannan then gave a short lesson on Luke 15, our focus for the week, and some of the students gave their testimony. Shout out to Emma Cross, our first student to get up and share her testimony. Pastor István Lados also gave one of our chaperones a short notice opportunity to share his testimony. It was beautiful and uplifting to hear how God has worked and the creativity of His work in His people’s lives. 

We finished off the evening with a couple more worship songs and the group spent the rest of the evening playing more games.

We can’t thank the church at Baja and the church at Kiskoros enough for their beautiful service and friendship. 

As a special thanks Pastir István, his wife Aniko and their two daughters were able to take his son Beni’s host family on a tour of their town Baja and out to lunch at a delicious restaurant that gave them a nostalgic look back home to Texas. Who would have thought there would be a Texas themed restaurant in Hungary! 

Today provided a wonderful day to continue to build the relationships we began back in October and develop new ones. God’s blessing of our students and our school were demonstrated today and we look forward to the opportunities to come and the unending hospitality of our Hungarian hosts.