New Year, New Digs

Well, I am about to begin my third school year in Hungary and it is hard to believe!  I have lived overseas for more than two years!  I am really looking forward to the coming year.  Although it will be full and busy, I anticipate a joyful year in ministry.  At the end of last school year, my roommates Emily, Hannah and I moved to a new house.  For those of you that know the Olsens, it is their old house, so it may be familiar.  I am grateful for my roomie Hannah, who got here a week before Emily and I, and cleaned out most of the spiders!  Ick!  Here are a few "cleaned up" pics:

This is the living room

Dining Room and "2nd" Living Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Entryway looking out into the Beautiful Garden

My Room!  They actually built a wall around what used to be a loft to make my room :)

The rest of my room

Animals in the Rubbish Bin

So, this is a delayed post, but it is too entertaining to not write down.  A few weeks ago my roommates and I were at home when our landlord called to tell us there were "animals in our rubbish bin."  Here is how the conversation went between my roommate and our landlord (the "me" is Emily, and Kati is my landlord):

Me: Hi Kati, how are you?


Kati: I am fine, but Emily, there are animals in your rubbish box.


Me: What animals? What is a rubbish box?


Kati: Your rubbish box that you put your rubbish in.


Me: You mean our trash can?


Kati: Yes, there are animals in your rubbish box.


Me: What animals?


Kati: I do not know their names.


Me: Ok. What should we do?


Kati: Fill your rubbish box with water. And Domestos. (aka. Draino)


Me: Uhhhh.....


Kati: Then wash it out. Make sure you do it right away. It is very hot. You do not want the animals in your rubbish box.


Me: Ok, Kati, we'll take care of it. Have a great night.


We decided to all go outside together to check for "animals."  Turns out that our trash can was filled with maggots.  GROSS.  We had a pretty funny time filling the bin with water, domestos and I added some other cleaners for good measure.  My favorite part of the evening is when we couldn't move it because it was so heavy, so Hannah and I had to push it over into the grass.  It was quite dramatic and altogether hilarious!  Here are some pics of the eventful night:

Getting ready to push her over...the box was our protective shiel...

 

Ahhhh....please don't dump the maggots on me

 

What is that...ewww.....

The aftermath...we may or may not have left that all there for a day or two...

Blessings

I'm back!  I have so much to share, but not enough time to write it all down right now, so I will try and share a few things over the next week.  First, I want to highlight my evening last night.  As many of you already know, I am supervising the student council this year.  The new president, Beth, was recently sharing with me her heart to be a group of leaders that is defined by prayer.  One of the ways she envisioned this was through prayer meetings outside of school and our regular meeting time.  Last night we gathered at one of the students houses for an evening of prayer and singing.  What a refreshing time!  As a young adult, I was so encouraged to see teenagers earnestly seek the Lord in how to best serve their school and fellow students in the coming year.  I was truly blessed as we lifted our voices in unison to praise our great God!  The parent whose house we met at, approached me this morning and also shared what a blessing it was to him as he sat upstairs and listened.  Please be praying for the student leaders at ICSB this year as they seek to grow in the Lord and lead their student body.

Last Week

Saturday afternoon, upon returning from the fabulous senior trip to Cyprus, I received a facebook message from one of the senior girls with all the "happenings" this week. Here is the list:
Sunday- Liz's grad party
Monday- Card party at Kim's house (Yes, that is me. Since they are done with class, they think it is super fun to call me by my first name).
Tuesday-Cassie and Michelle's Grad party
Wednesday-Last Bible study of the year
Thursday- Girls day out at the movie (although I am "older" they are allowing me to participate in this fun day of teeny bopper movies and dinner)
Friday- Graduation and end of the year party
Saturday- ???
Sunday- Lunch with Kim (me again ;)

After a week in Cyprus with the seniors, the Lord continues to affirm my love for this class. They are just a great group of students and I am blessed to have taught them and known them. It is going to be a busy (and fun!!!!) week, but I am looking forward to some great opportunities to pour into these girls as they prepare for leaving home (Hungary) and going on to college. It is amazing to look back and realize I haven't even known them a year. That is just the power of Christ working in the relationships of His children. Love it! Please be praying that God would continue to grow the girls in Himself and with each other.

I am NOT a Public Speaker

I know, I know...all three of you who read my blog find this hard to believe. After all, I am a teacher and an extrovert! I do like to "speak" in general, but not in front of large crowds of people. I somehow manage to frequently put myself in uncomfortable situations though. I am a missionary, so last summer I had to get up in front of the church and share before my commissioning. I literally thought I was going to hyperventilate and die up on that stage. I even had friends up there with me! It is really just embarrassing. Why does it have to cause such fear and anxiety? So, I just finished writing a mini speech about one of the senior girls for "Senior Tribute Chapel" tomorrow (yes, at 11pm the night before..we can talk about my procrastinating habits another day). I only have to talk for two minutes and I have it all written out, and yet I find myself getting that twisty feeling in my stomach already. Ridiculous. If anyone reads this before 9:30 am Hungary time, I would appreciate your prayers. It is clearly time to get the focus off myself and my worries and onto what the Lord has for me. I just had to vent about the irony that I could lecture for hours on civics, history or economics, but I get butterflies thinking about blessing a student that has been such a blessing in my classroom this year. Figures.

Staff Farewell, Musical, Senior Day, Senior Trip...AHHHH!

These are just a snippet of May in Budapest for me. Tonight we had our staff farewell. That was after a three hour musical practice and a full day of school. Good times. I am one of those people that thrives on busyness. I would be bored if I wasn't constantly going. Thankfully, ICSB helps me out with this dilemna. So, the staff farewell is a time when we get together to say goodbye to those who are moving on. We also honor those who have been serving at the school for a significant amount of time. It was great to celebrate those who have served so faithfully over the years. I didn't mind the ice cream sundaes either ;) This week is also the big musical performances. We have been preparing for a couple months and the weekend is finally upon us. We have dress rehersals every night and performances on Friday and Saturday nights. I think the show is going to be really great. I am so thankful for the students who the Lord has raised up to be a part of this. There is just so much talent! As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, the goodbyes have started in the ICSB community. One way we send off the seniors is with Senior Day. Basically, we take the seniors out of school for a day of fun and preparation for life after ICSB. This year the festivities will be held at my house. I can't tell you what day this is happening (on the very slim chance that a senior reads this), but please be praying that the Lord would use this time to help bring closure for the students and ready them for the road ahead! I will post some pictures after the big day! Then, in a little over a week we leave for Cyprus for the senior trip. I am really looking forward to this time with the seniors. It also will be "okay" to be in Cyprus "I guess" ;) So, the busyness continues, but so does the Lord's faithfulness in sustaining me! It is hard to believe all the wonderful blessings I have been able to experience during my first year in Hungary! I look forward to what the Lord has in store in the future!

Africa Fair

I love Africa. I have only been there once, and only to South Africa, but it is such a fascinating place to me. The Lord has really given me a heart to pray for this continent. Who knows, maybe someday He will even send me there. For now, I at least got to teach a unit about it. In World Problems, we do a short unit looking at the different issues facing the continent today. The culmination of the unit is when the students hold a fair showing research they did on a chosen topic. This year's seniors did a great job and I was so proud of them. They looked at issues such as women's rights, piracy, water scarcity, river blindness, child soldiers and much more! Here are a few pictures of the fair, presentations and the many visitors we had! For those of you who have never visited ICSB, the fair was held in our High School Chapel.