Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 3 year anniversary for living in Budapest, Hungary. What an eventful 3 years it has been! We decided to celebrate God's faithfulness to our family over these 3 years. So, the day was spent together as a family. We started out with a big breakfast of waffles and bacon that Curt cooked for everyone. Then we headed off to Curt's basketball game which they won by about 30 points! He had a great game and the 3 ladies had fun being in the cheering section. After the game, we drove to our favorite "American" restaurant in Hungary. (of course, there are not many of those here!) TGIFridays holds a lot of good early memories of our time in Budapest. We went to TGIFs when we needed a big boost in enouragement and fun.

Thank you to all of you that have stood with us during these 3 years. We couldn't have made it without you and the goodness of our great God!!

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Pull Over!

Curt probably wouldn't relate this on his personal blog. And if he did, it would probably be a couple of months before he got around to it! :) But, he got pulled over yesterday by the police. Or in Hungarian, pulled over by the Rendosheg. Curt was doing one of his usual, fatherly good deeds of going to pick up Olivia from play practice to take her to her FEK leadership meeting. It was bumper-to-bumper traffic getting there so he definitely wasn't speeding. But, as Curt drew closer to an area where the Rendosheg had their version of a "smokey watch" on speeders, one of the officers very emphatically pointed to him to pull over to the side of the road. Curt quickly pulled over and got ready to show off his brand new, or should we say, his brand "renewed" Alabama driver's license that he had gotten a couple of weeks ago while we were in the states. The officer walked up to Curt's window and Curt quickly showed the license and the car papers to him. Of course, the officer rattled off a long paragraph in Hungarian and Curt had no idea what the officer wanted. What's a good 'ol boy from Alabama supposed to do in this situation??! Play dumb. And in the most southern accent he could conjure up, Curt said to the officer very slowly and with a obvious twang that he didn't speak Hungarian yet. The officer paused, looked at Curt with a strange expression and asked him if he was an American. Duh, yes! And when Curt said yes, the police officer quickly gave the documents back to Curt, wished him a good day, and waved him on to leave. Whew! Sometimes it pays to be from the South!

Fun Time with the Brannon Family

Finally got our camera working and was able to download some pictures from our U.S. trip. Above are some pictures from our get-together with Curt's side of the family. We were able to find a date to hook up with many of them and it was so much fun to catch up with what was going on in their lives. We shared a meal together and then spent time laughing at old stories from the past! It was great seeing all of you!

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Upcoming Events

We have a busy, couple of months ahead of us and thought we would update you on that. It's probably easy for you to relate about having a busy Spring! What is it about Spring that causes our schedules to go wild? Maybe the reason why is that it's....Spring! Great weather, summer's coming, and many things come to an end in the last days of May. So, here are a few things we're doing and maybe it's an abbreviated prayer list, as well. We'll give you more info about certain events as they begin to arrive. Thank you for your prayers for us!

*Ongoing BSF Romans class. The last day of class is May 29th.

*BSF Area Personnel visit to Budapest: April 8-10

*Olivia is continuing to raise support and plan for her month-long ministry commitment this summer in Hungary and in South Korea.

*Curt has 2 small groups he's helping to lead. They continue through May. Plus, he has quite a few responsibilities ahead as an elder of Danube International.

*Curt is also in the process of planning for an upcoming Mission Team from First Bible Church. Men will be arriving on May 5 to go with Curt to Serbia for a church construction project. The team will be here for about 10 days.

*Then, we have our regular responsibilities and challenges of home schooling, church life, and family life done in the culture of Hungary.

A full 2 months ahead but we are trusting God to supply all our needs and to give us joy in the work He has for us! As the Serbia trip approaches, check on Curt's blog for info about that and prayer needs, too.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Be sure to check out new postings on Curt's blog, Meredith's blog and Olivia's blog!!

Back in Budapest

Curt and Meredith are safely back in Budapest. Thanks so much to those of you that have checked in with us to see if they were able to get their flight out from Huntsville this past Sunday. (see previous blog) It was a really full flight but no major delays except for some snow in Paris. But that was a short delay and they arrived tired but happy to be back home in Budapest. Meredith is much better and wants to thank those that prayed for her recovery from the flu.

Between pink eye, back troubles, flu, sinus infections, and fever, all of us experienced some health issues while we were in the states! Curt even kidded that he needed to get off this "foreign" mission trip to the states and get back to Hungary before he got even sicker! Just kidding! But we were amazed at how these health challenges did pop up in our short visit back. Yet, it made us even more thankful to be able to get to the doctor quickly and get something done about it. How grateful we are for the American medical system!

After arriving back, we jumped back into ministry responsibilities and school responsibilities. Shay prepared for the next BSF class. Olivia had several FEK commitments. Curt helped with the Men's Prayer Breakfast this morning and will host the Men's Bible group on Thursday and Meredith thankfully took back over all the responsibilities of the pets. It is such a privilege to be back in this place to continue our education on how to serve the Lord overseas. We still have so much to learn and understand!! Will we ever learn it all?? Probably not! Thank you for your patience with us and your prayers for us as we try to represent you and the Lord with integrity.

Check in with us when you can to let us know how you are and what's going on in the mission field where you are. We would love to pray for YOU and for how God is using you to further His Kingdom.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Safely Home!

Or at least PART of us are home. Shay and Olivia arrived back in Budapest on Thursday. Curt and Meredith stayed behind in the states because Meredith had gotten sick with the flu. So she couldn't travel on the day we were supposed to fly. Curt and Meredith's flight was rescheduled for yesterday for arrival today. But the bad weather stepped in and changed everything! The snow on the U.S. east coast must have caused all kinds of problems and many airlines cancelled flights. Curt and Meredith's flight was one of the ones cancelled. So they have a fly date of tomorrow (Sunday) with arrival on Monday. Or, at least, we hope they have that date to fly! We'll have to watch the weather closely to see if it clears enough for them to fly. Please pray that they do get out of there on time and are able to head to Budapest soon.

Thanks so much for your prayers concerning protection for our house and pets while we were gone. Everything seemed to go well and we are thankful! Another thing we're thankful for is the beautiful weather we're experiencing right now. It seems like Spring out our window. What a blessing for this time of the year in Budapest.

We had a wonderful time in the states on our trip. Seeing many of you added to the fun and encouragement! Thank you for your interest in what's going on in this part of the world and for your care about us. Also, the Missions Conference at First Bible was one of the big highlights of the trip. Having our Budapest pastor, Ronnie Stevens, as the conference speaker was a bonus and God really used Ronnie to speak to our family. We thank all of you that worked so hard to put on this God-honoring conference.

Check back later to get an update on Curt and Meredith's flight status. We'll let you know when they are safely home!

brannons4christ@yahoo.com