Dance Evening

We ended the day with a Hungarian music and dance evening. After watching some of the dancing we were taught a number of group dances - it was like an aerobic workout but it was over 30 degrees with so many people!  Great fun but so so hot! Also attached is a picture of our lovely community team with Zoltan (the minister of Gyula) and Reka (the ministers wife) and translators included!

Reflections on a Gipsy Village Visit (by Gina Lillywhite)

Today I had a refreshing time at the Gypsy Village. Saw how hard it can be to live in their conditions. Makes me feel bad because I have so much which they don’t have back in Claygate. I am so happy I was part of today’s experience. Seeing blessings in a tight atmosphere. God is still looking after them in miracles. The people there are very welcoming. A young lady allowed me to hold her 4 month baby. To allow someone to hold your baby is an honour. Especially someone who she doesn’t know. The kindness in the village is memorable. Can’t wait to go back! 

Below is a photo of one of the gypsy ladies in her beautiful garden!

Musings from the school in Gyula - (by Beth Sadler)

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Greetings from Gyula! 

As we come to the end of our fourth day in the school it seems strange that it is all nearly over! Today we have had a wonderful time celebrating all things sheep. Making shepherds in art, meeting baaabra the puppet sheep, Singing “baa baa he’s the good shepherd” to name just a few. The children have been learning about how God is the good shepherd and they can be his sheep. We have consistently had around 140 children each day, this is a little lower than our limit of 180 due to the provision of a youth group this year. However it has meant that each child has got full use of all the activities in school. 

It is wonderful to feel so supported with love and prayer from Home. Please pray for energy levels of the English and the translators as we have our final celebration day tomorrow. Despite a few challenging children it has truly been a blessing to meet the wonderful children. 

We have been keeping busy with a wonderful range of activities in the evenings, dinner with our hosts, a village supper, milking cows, making jam and my personal favourite some (very sweaty) traditional Hungarian dancing. We are thoroughly spoilt by the warmth and hospitality of our hosts. Opening up their homes for us. Please keep them in your prayers until the end of the visits on Sunday.

Thank you again for your on going love, prayers and support back in England.

Beth xxx 

Long Day for all - but in positive spirits

The medical mission is in full swing as it transferred from Akli to Gyula villages - the school was full of children loving the holiday club - and the community team were all busy with a pensioners club that we had been asked to set-up and run (see previous blog).

In the afternoon the youth and community team visited the nearby gipsy village - a community suffering discrimination and other hardships here - but nevertheless the people we met are certainly praising the same God with songs and prayers - and are cheerful and happy despite the hardships and hospitable to our visit.

We then had a Christian band visiting with folk songs and dancing in the evening for those of us who were up to it bearing in mind the early start in the morning.....

Connections - in Gyula Ukraine (by Vicky Schmidt)

Today Aug 8th we held our first Pensioners Club at the Community Hall in Gyula - what a lovely morning we had inspired of course by HTC's Connections.  We had about 20 senior ladies from the village enthusiastically join in with either hand massage, craft activities (thank you  Sue!) or Bingo (thank you Gina!). It must be said Bingo stole the show as most of the ladies have a latent competitive spirit and wanted to win a prize - so our Claygate Teatowels went down well as prizes!  Thanks team great morning !

Another hot, busy but fulfilling day.

Another very hot day with temperatures in excess of 35 degrees.................

We were lucky enough to find our lost supplies - the medical, school and youth teams were all working hard - and the community team reached out into Uj Akli and Batar.

It was great to see new team members thrive in their new surroundings - for the Hungarian medical students to be working so hard alongside the translators from Beregszasz - for the first "youth" session in Akli Hegy to be so well attended and to have such moving contributions from Sue and Isabelle Burdess and Emma Coy in the Thanksgiving service in Akli tonight.

We hope tomorrow to have time to post more contributions from others but in the meantime leave you with a couple of photos one of which shows you a heavily laden Lada going to market today - and the other showing that a medical team meeting can be fun - particularly for Phoebe and Andrew Cope whilst out here in the heat!

Sunday - a hot day to revisit old friends and be prepared for the week ahead - Blog Post from Emma Coy

“Has anything changed?” is a question I've been asked numerous times over the past 24 hours. It’s hard to answer. In some ways nothing has changed. The streets still look the same, the cows still take themselves home in the evening, the roads are still just as bad (the Jonas centre pot hole filling team would have their work cut out here!). However, things have moved on in the 12 years since i was last here. The houses are perhaps a little bit more modern, a little bit neater and more people seem to be growing flowers in their garden. Sitting in church this morning I reflected that the church has grown in numbers and also seems to have grown younger, with more families and young people than i remember. What is obvious is the way that the relationships between our communities have flourished over time. Many of the team have been out on multiple visits and friends greet each other warmly. There is a level of trust that exists that makes everything run very smoothly and certainly things seem a good deal more professional and organised than they did in the early days! This afternoon I have been helping the school set up for tomorrow, I'm sure the children will be having a fabulous time over the next week. It has been wonderful to catch up with the headmistress, Kati, who i first met in 2003 and to see the improvements she’s been able to make to her school, partly with our help. The floors are now all beautifully tiled, the wobbly desks have been replaced, there is much more colour around the place, I spotted TVs in a few classrooms and the school now even has it’s own computer room. What is most obvious is that this partnership has been a tremendous blessing to all involved and it has been a huge joy and privilege to be able to come back after so long and see how something i was involved with at the beginning has grown and changed and mean't so much to so many people. 

A tiring but successful day

Up early and a nice breakfast in the Novotel Budapest - then a very long journey in 34 degree heat through both the Romanian and Ukrainian borders.

Am pleased to say that we all met our Hungarian medical translators and other translators from Ukraine as the sun was setting so all safely with our host families for supper by 8pm.

A long, tiring but successful day - but the real work starts tomorrow.

Please pray that all the resources arrive in time so we can start work on Monday morning as planned and the enlarged group (now almost 60) work well together. All of us send our love to friends and family back home in Claygate, Petersfield and beyond...........