For the past week, we were at a conference called “The Awakening” and I have to say, it was pretty incredible. 200+ Racer, past Racers, Staff and guest speakers all over Brazov. I wish I could explain all the things that happened there, but unfortunately, the English language just isn’t good enough (that was for you Weaves).
At the end of the week we were told that we were going to be heading to a country that The World Race hasn’t been to yet. Goodness. Gracious. got to head to Hungary! We have two cities that we have to check out, exactly like the spy’s that were sent out to investigate the Promise Land. It is truly an honor to be sent on a mission such as this from the Lord. We have no contact in the city and no guaranteed place to stay, just a mission that says “scout the land and trust that God WILL provide.”
So out we went and it started with a 14 hour train ride into Budapest. After dragging all of our stuff off, we sat down to regroup and get a plan for the day. We soon found ourselves inside a McDonalds (I’ve never spent as much time in McDonalds as I have on this trip…must be the wifi). After finding some information (about 6 hours later) we decided to move out on a bus to get to our city..I’ll spell it out later… Once we got into the city, we sent out our spies to check the land for places to lay our heads down for the night, so Bambi, Paul and Heather went to check out a local church and Denise and I headed out to look at a local park. Both of our investigations came back fruitless. The 5 of us decided then to team up and look around the city, let me tell you, it is a beautiful city. We found an area with two churches in the same spot, so Paul and the girls went to check one while my bride and I went to check the other. Inside we met a wonderfully sweet lady who spoke no english, but was willing to help any way that she could. It was no use though, we just couldn’t communicate. We left, feeling a little disheartened because we thought that was surely our best bet to find a place to house 14 Racers who were tired and wondering what was happening. About 5 minutes passed by and the little old lady we met came running after us, this time she had a young couple with her…THEY SPOKE ENGLISH! We talked to them for a while and went to look at a few places with them and suddenly the remembered a campsite inside the city that they said was fairly cheap. So Paul and I checked it out and it was PERFECT! We talked to the man working and said that we would be back that night if it was ok, and he said that he would wait for us. Excited we went back to get the group.
By the time we left the 2nd McDonalds of the day, it was pure dark. And while the group was tired, they pushed through and got to the campsite and set up camp for a peaceful sleep. Thank you God for providing yet again!
The next morning, the leader of Beautiful Feet (the team we are with for the month), Tres and I got up and went to talk to the manager about prices and how long we would be sticking around. We got in and found our quickly that he spoke no english, and to his dismay, we spoke no Hungarian…or German. So we communicated with numbers. He gave us the standard price for tents/people and we just couldn’t afford to stay in the campground for that much money, but it was difficult to communicate that to him. And then God provided yet again, He sent a younger guy who spoke english to us! We were able to communicate now. Once he found out that we could not stay for that amount, he asked us what we could stay for, so we first asked for half the original rate. He agreed! So we tried one more time to lower it, this time to a third of the originally quoted price…….HE AGREED AGAIN! Tres and I decided not to push our luck any further and now are able to stay at a beautiful campground for 5.50 USD per person! Not bad when originally it would cost about $16!
We are so excited to watch how God provides this month. Our next goal is to secure a contact for AIM to use for future racers, please pray that God sends one our way!
