Missions is NOT...

Missions work is not volunteer work.
It is obedience to God’s call to service.
When you are a missionary, you are a servant.

Kenyatta Lewis, Wycliffe St. Vincent

I'm Drawing God

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

On April 20, I had the privilege of speaking at Faith Missionary Church's THANK YOU dinner for children's ministry teachers and assistants. This is one of the stories I told that night. There's just something about it I like a whole lot.

Hungary: Budapest & Eger

1. A bronze sculpture of the mythical turul bird guards the Royal Palace. This statue marks the millennium anniversary of the Magyar conquest in 896.
2. Looking across the Danube River
3. Hungary's Parliment is the country's largest building -- and is Imre Steindl's Neo-Gothic masterpiece built between 188401902.
4. Me, flowers, just blocks from our hotel
5. The Chain Bridge, with Szent Istvan (St. Stephen's Basilica) in the distance
6. This monument to Imre Nagy symbolizes the insurgent prime minister's 1956 defection from the side of Communism to the side of the people -- a protest that cost him his life.
7. Hero's Square, where the Millennium Celebrations opened in 1896.
8. "Violin man" was part of the SPRING festivities at Mihaly Vorosmarty Square just a few blocks from our hotel.
9. Chess, anyone?
10. Traditional Hungarian food -- DELICIOUS! I tried the goulash here. Paprika was the most common spice in the food. Instead of "salt and pepper" on the table, it's "sale and paprika."
11. A section of Obuda's impressive Roman ampitheatre. The Romans arrived in the region soon after the time of Christ, building this impressive ampitheatre in the middle of the 2nd century A.D..
12. Sunday afternoon in Eger
13. Eger is a delightful old town
14. Through the castle wall in Eger. The Hungarians are very proud that this is the place where they turned back the Turks. Nearly all of the "monuments" we saw celebrate how Hungary endured and subsequently "kicked out" the Romans, the Turks, and the Communists.
15. St. Istvan Hotel where we stayed for our meetings -- this was the entrance to my room.
16. Flowers in a window box.