“Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Phillipians 4:16-19
These verses might seem random but I put them in this blog because of an incredibly gracious family that, with NO hesitation, housed SEVEN world racers…WITHOUT meeting us. Just to further show that God provides and everything works together for the good of those who love Him..
God’s provision this month has been beautiful.
3 ½ weeks ago we arrived into Hungary not having a place to stay and knowing no one. We parked our packs in the Budapest Keleti train stations for hours waiting for anything. We prayed. We traveled in teams to the nearest McDonalds to get on the internet and look up hostels, churches, missionaries, contacts (and I got a coke. ;)) We prayed. We didn’t feel like we should stay in Budapest because we were given 2 cities to check out for this month and we really felt that God was calling us to Szekesfehervar first (as I’ve already blogged) so God’s provision was incredible there with a beautiful church accepting us with open arms and dined us! Then our teams split up and three people from my team, and 3 people from Beautiful Feet and myself moved onto Gyor our second city to see in Hungary. There we found a campground and prayed. We didn’t find much ministry there…this month…but it was largely a time of personal restoration and just basking in Jesus and all of His goodness. Then we felt called to return to Budapest because we knew of several potential contacts there. So. We board a train to Budapest. We get into the city and decide to check out a hostel next to the Keleti train station (again) and they offered us an amazing deal of 6 euro a night per person! So we agreed to stay for 4 nights. That FIRST night…I get a skype message from the Long family. And I had contacted them the first day we got into Szekesfehervar to see if they knew of any ministries in Hungary (because they were located in Budapest and I just happened upon their blog which is long4hungary.blogspot.com and they’re amazing!). So I didn’t hear anything from them until the moment we stepped back into Budapest. So we skyped in our hostel and I was just letting them know who we were and what we were doing in Hungary. Long story short the next night…sketchy things happened and we knew we had to leave the hostel. So we asked for a refund for the next 2 nights and he gladly obliged and we decided to go back to McDonalds and look up other hostels in the city (oh and PS this is the McDonalds that the day before we saw a guy try to steal Nicole Marett’s purse but because God is good, Denise saw him and grabbed it and gave it back to Nicole, and this guy also stole another girls wallet and we got the police on him..) so. We go back to this McDonalds ..
and take over with all of our gear and I skype with the Longs’ again and tell them the story and basically they said “we will pick you up and you can stay at our house.” So. Here we are, 7 Americans, 2 backpacks each AND food bags and they are letting us stay in their living room. They have taken us around the city, (and this is one of the things we saw:
let us watch AMERICAN football, cooked us CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (which are NOT common here), let us TAKE OVER their living room, use their kitchen, bathroom, washer, internet, they invited us to church…basically. God has provided through this amazing family. They are missionaries with OMS here in Hungary and they are reaching out to the youth and families here, working with English camps and opening their home to bible studies, youth functions, and yes housing world racers. It has been amazing to see. So. that’s just a little update on where we are in Hungary as World Racers…I am blown away each month at God’s mercy and provision.
Thank you for your prayers. I love each and every one of you.
