Hungary living

He said to them,

 "Go into all the world 

and preach the good news to all creation."

Mark 16:15

As our family's move to Hungary gets closer, the Lord has been speaking to my heart about some aspects of it. I share this as insight but also as prayer points for our family. If you read this, please lift these areas up in prayer for us. We will be eternally grateful for your prayers.  

I have lived overseas twice before and am anticipating a third move overseas in the next few months. I would like to do things differently this third time around, especially based on the Brewster’s advice. 

I spent 1 1/2 years on Okinawa, Japan and another 2 years in Seoul, South Korea. In both locations, I lived on a U.S. military base...little America. While I did not stay cloistered on the base but got out into the community for recreation and, in the case of Seoul, for church, the vast majority of my time was spent with other Americans. I rarely took public transportation, my shopping was usually at the base commissary and I learned very little of the language. 

Despite my lack of immersion into the culture, God did develop within me a great love and affection for both the Okinawans and Koreans. I did have one close Okinawan friend who introduced me to some aspects of her culture and had several Korean friends who did the same. One of the most rewarding experiences of my time in Korea was worshipping Christ with fellow Korean believers. 

Since returning to the U.S., my desire has been that we would do things differently next time we live overseas. God has now given us another chance as He has called us, via the U.S. Air Force, to a small town named Papa, in the country of Hungary. This time things will be a bit different from the outset. There is no U.S. military base nearby. We will live, shop, eat and play within the local community. There are few English speakers so our family will, of necessity, need to learn the Hungarian language...which we are already doing.

My desire is to become bi-cultural; to maintain my first culture but become bonded to other Hungarians in my new culture. My plan is that we would immerse ourselves in the culture immediately. While the temptation will be there to rent a house near other military members and associate with them, I am asking the Lord to lead us to a home where we can form relationships with the local Hungarians instead. 

I also plan to follow some of the Brewster’s advice: limit our personal belongings, use public transportation or walk as much as possible, shop in the local markets and begin to use the products that the Hungarians use (rather than stocking up at the U.S. military commissary 7 hours away in Italy) and recreate with the local population. I also want myself and my family to really carry out language learning with the people around us. 

I am also praying for opportunities for us to share the love and Gospel of Christ with those we meet. We will have the unique opportunity to not only meet Hungarians, but military members and their families, who will be stationed with us, from ten other countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden. Prior to our departure in January, and while we are there, we will be learning, as part of our homeschool, about these countries and the countries that border Hungary. My desire is that, just like with Koreans and Okinawans, God would grow a love in myself, my husband, and our children for Hungarians, as well as the people from the other nations we will be meeting. 

This desire and mindset needs to be nurtured in us from the very beginning. Our first few weeks and months in Hungary need to be deliberate. I am asking the Lord to help us do all we can to immerse ourselves in the Hungarian lives around us, and build strong bonds within the community of Papa. 

“Newcomers need to be encouraged to totally immerse themselves in the life of the new community from day one...A bi-cultural person is developing a new outlet for his or her God-given personality...For the Christian missionary, the process of becoming bi-cultural begins with the recognition that God in His sovereignty does not make mistakes in creating us within our first culture; yet in His sovereignty He taps some of us on the shoulder and calls us to belong to people of a different culture so that we can be good news to them,” (pg. 469).  

We are excited and thankful for this new opportunity to go out into the world and share the love of Christ with others.