August 6 -- Oh, Wow ! -- Budapest

Good Morning, It is Saturday!  The sky remains cloud covered following a rain during the night.  Apparently that was not the only storm during the night.  Both Mariusz and I were for a little while awake and listening to loud shouting and disputes somewhere nearby.  But, all is peace filled this morning.  Especially so given that the broken coffee maker at breakfast was replaced by a new electronically controlled model and the espresso is good.  As you recall I have been telling you our plans and paths are being frequently reshaped by Holy Spirit as we move through this trip.  Yesterday was a fruit of the reshaping processes.

You might remember, I wrote to you about meeting Kata at the Metro station when we arrived in Budapest {August 2 -- Exhausting - Amazing - Awe Inspiring -- Budapest, Hungary}.  Yesterday, Mariusz and I made up for the missing coffee at breakfast by going to Calvin Square.  There we had the best espresso either of us have had in recent times.  Just as we finished our coffee, Kata arrived to meet us.  Her face was filled with her expression of friendly intensity.  She greeted us in her fluent English and began to act as our tour guide for the day.

First, she took us to see the '56 Exhibition at the museum.  This wonderful art exhibition commemorates the 60th anniversary of the October 1956 revolution attempted by the precious martyrs of Hungary who were willing to die to set their people free from Soviet tyranny.  Tragically they became martyrs because the Soviets were willing to storm Budapest murdering countless civilians to quell the revolution.  Meanwhile the world stood by watching in horror but unwilling to come to the aid of the Hungarian people.  The notable exceptions were the people of Poland (not its government).  The Polish people sent many forms of support and aid including packaging and sending their own blood to save as many of the injured as possible.  The more we look honestly at world affairs; the more we must conclude the continual compromises of diplomacy are engineered in the pit of hell.  In every compromise engineered by such groups as the United Nations in the name of peace and saving human suffering, we see absolutely no peace and a continuation of human suffering on horrific and often genocidal scales.

It was a precious gift to us for Kata to take us to this exhibition.  In it we were permitted to glimpse the events which continue today to shape the hearts of the people of Hungary.  In Hungary, we find among the people a spirit of friendship and genuine caring about one another which I believe is rooted in their desperate need to help one another through the season of the 1956 revolution and the horror of years of abuse and repression that continued throughout the years of Soviet domination.  There is also a cleanness about the city of Budapest.  It is like the people here have joined their hearts to erase from the city the depressing ugliness and scars still visible in other cities that were dominated by the Soviets.  There is here a greater level of hope than we have seen in most other cities of Europe.

After the exhibition we walked a few blocks to a lovely restaurant next to the university library.  The food was genuinely Hungarian and delicious. Yum !  Chicken with Paprika and a nice fresh salad -- delightful.  After lunch we went to the Duna River (the Danube for you English speakers) and were delighted to discover that our local public transit passes included passage on boats that regularly travel up and down the river from one end of this beautiful city to the other.  Here, of course, every major important site is visible from the river.  What a wonderful tour through the center of the city.  But far more important it was a special time of building our friendship with Kata. She was able to get to know us a little and we were honored to get to know her a little.  She is a delightful, brilliant, young woman at that wonderful season of life when she is genuinely seeking to find the proper direction for her life.  We are continuing to pray for Papa God to reveal Himself to her in exquisite detail. Both Mariusz and I have come to love her and enjoy her friendship.

As evening approached we were all tiring.  The river boat tied up at the large recreational island in the heart of the city.  From here Kata could catch a bus home.  While Mariusz walked with her to the bus stop, I rested my legs seated on a park chair.  Directly in front of me the park began a water fountain display.  The fountains must have had a hundred different steams of water shooting up into the air.  The largest ones shooting to the tops of the trees (perhaps 40 meters or 120 feet high)  the smaller ones half or two thirds that height.  But, all the nozzles were computer controlled and carefully choreographed to dance to the music of the songs being played.  The melodies ran the gambit from Rock and Roll to Show Tunes to Jazz.  It was a marvelous show and a great way for me to be entertained while Mariusz walked.  After he returned we crossed the river on the boat.  We then left it to take tram and train back to our hotel.  

We returned exhausted but delighted.  Kata had blessed us with an introduction to her city and her people better than we could find any other way.  And she blessed us with her friendship.  A package tour of total delights !

His, thus Yours,

  Stuart