Happy Birthday Olivia!

Happy 17th birthday to Olivia. Today we celebrate Olivia's birthday with a "ladies' tea" at our house for a few of her friends. These pictures are from yesterday's family celebration of her birthday. Thank you to those that sent gifts and cards. She had a pile of gifts to open! She'll probably tell a little more on her blog about the party.

Did Someone Hit Our House?

It certainly looks that way! Our landlord was over today checking on some things. Curt was here at the house when the landlord arrived and Curt went outside to talk to Elemer. Elemer pointed to the concrete section above the garage door. Looked like a dent or a small crack. Earlier in the week, we noticed a lot of white stuff on the ground right outside the garage but just thought some kids had thrown some rocks around. It never occurred to us to look up and see that the wall had been hit! We're thinking the neighbors next door might have had something to do with it. They run an upholstery business out of their house and there is constant activity over there. Trucks pull up all the time with furniture to be dropped off and to pick up things. A lot of times their trucks block us in. So, the dent was high enough to make us think it had to be a truck. Well, no great damage, and it can be easily repaired.

But it IS interesting that the BSF study last week covered the part in Romans 13 about loving your neighbor as yourself! Seems like the Lord gave the Brannon family the opportunity to put that principle into action. We can thank God that He has given a way for this Hungarian family to live a decent living in a very difficult economy. And maybe we can be a little more understanding when they're loading furniture early in the morning or one of their trucks is parked in our driveway. It's great to have Hungarian neighbors!

"Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Romans 13:9b-10

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Missionaries to Serbia

This is a recent picture of Olivia and Curt with our friends from Serbia, Yarko and Elena. Yarko and Elena are missionaries to Serbia and are supported by First Bible in Decatur. (www.fbc.org) Curt has had the privilege many times of visiting these two special people in Serbia and has led several groups from FBC to visit them, as well. This picture was taken when Yarko and Elena were passing through Budapest on their way to see family in Vienna. What they're holding are hinges and doorknobs that our family brought back from the states. The hinges and doorknobs are needed for the church in Erdevik, Serbia. This is the church that the team from FBC will be working on when they arrive for their mission trip in a couple of weeks. We'll update you with new pictures of the work in Serbia soon. Please pray for Yarko and Elena. They serve in a spiritually dark and difficult country.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Prayer Needs

We wanted to pass along a few prayer requests to those of you that would have time to pray for us. Thank you for continuing to pray on our behalf to our Father!

*Curt leaves Sunday for a conference in Turkey. Please pray for safety for him and for the rest of us here in Budapest.

*Time is fast approaching for the work team from FBC that will arrive for the mission trip to Serbia. Please pray for the details that need to be worked out for the trip to go smoothly. Pray for safety for the team and good health. Also, the men desire to be a blessing and encouragement to their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in Erdevik, Serbia, where the team will be serving.

*Pray for class members in the BSF class to remain committed to the end of the study. The last day of class is May 29th.

*Pray for all of us as we come to the end of another "ministry year" (May) and need to make wise decisions for our future.

We are aware of the terrible tragedy that happened at Virginia Tech. Our minds can't comprehend such evil and horror. Our prayers are with the families and friends of the victims. Please let us know if you are somehow connected to this tragic event. We want to pray for you.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Update on School

It''s hard to believe that it's already mid-April and we're fast approaching another year of homeschool completed. We've homeschooled for 11 years (12 years if you count kindergarten!) and we continue to find it a blessing to our family.

Olivia is finishing up her Junior year and Meredith will soon complete her 8th grade year. Both girls have worked really hard to stay on track this school year---despite our crazy, erratic family schedules. Our last trip to the states threw us off a little on our usual school schedule. So, we'll probably school further into June that we normally do. But it's worth it since we got the chance to see family and friends in March!

It's quite a challenge to homeschool here in Budapest. Access to resources is limited and we have to bring most things we need back with us from the states. For example, Olivia is taking chemistry this year. She and Curt do as many of the experiments, as possible. We had to order a chemistry lab package from our curriculum company and bring it back in our luggage. Now that was tricky! Also, we don't have the great libraries that we're used to having. We are thankful, though, for a small Christian library run by some missionaries here. And we also have some access to the library of the Christian school in Diosd.

We do plan to continue homeschooling and Olivia will graduate next year as a life-long homeschooler, God willing. All of us are in the process of determining God's direction for her next step in her education. She's looking at several colleges and has had opportunity to visit a few. We would greatly appreciate your joining us in prayer for this important decision.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Contact Information

Just to answer some questions we've had about our contact information:

*Yes, we do have an American address that is treated like a permanent address for us. The address is PO Box 1943 Madison, AL 35758. This PO Box is checked regularly by Shay's sister and brother-in-law and any mail that needs immediate attention, they graciously take care of that. You're welcome to send mail to us to this address. But please remember that it will be a while before the mail reaches us and we can reply to you. Shay's sister takes the mail received, bundles it up, and sends the mail periodically in a global package to us.

*Yes, we can receive mail in Budapest. It seems like it's getting shorter and shorter for a piece of mail to reach us. It used to take about 10 days for mail to arrive. Now, many times mail from the states reaches us in a week. Our address here is:

Tavasz Utca 4
Budaors 2040
Hungary

*Update on email addresses: Our main family address is brannons4christ@yahoo.com All our scsonline.com accounts are pretty much obsolete. The girls have individual accounts as well and if you would like those addresses, please email our family address and we'll let you know those. Please know that we DO answer our email and we love receiving email! So, if for some reason you don't get a reply from us, we probably didn't get the original email. Happens all the time. We sometimes even get emails a week or two later after the sender has sent it! Please be patient with us and just resend your email. Thank you!!!

He is Risen!!!

This cross overlooks the village we live in. We hiked up to it yesterday to look out over Budaors and Budapest and to pray for the salvation of the people of these places.

Near the cross are some cave-like cuts in the mountain. We think they look just like empty tombs. Very appropriate we thought to have the cross and tomb together!

Easter Morning in Budapest

Olivia and Meredith sang on the praise team for Easter

Shay and Curt taught Sunday School for grades K-2. There were 19 of them! In this picture, the children are putting together a large-size puzzle. Then, we shared the Easter story with the kids. The children are from different cultures and have varying degrees of English language proficiency.

"He is not here. He has risen, just as He said." Matthew 28:6

Easter Is Coming

Hope this finds everyone enjoying this blessed Holy Week. The significance of this week is incredible, isn't it?! As we look around us here in Budapest, we don't see much activity or evidence that others see the importance of Easter. Just since we arrived here 3 years ago, there have been more and more "Eastery" type things to buy. Eggs, candy, bunnies. We didn't see that much in the stores then. Now, there's been an explosion of things to buy. Well, an explosion in Budapest terms! Budapest will never have as many things to buy as Walmart or Target has! But that's it. It just looks like Budapest has "adopted" what people in the West do for celebration of the beginning of Spring. And now, Easter is just about the eggs, candy, and bunnies. At least in America, you DO see a few things in Walmart or Target that are religious-themed. It's encouraging that there is SOME attempt by these retailers to acknowledge the true meaning of Easter.

So, we have had fun putting out our pretty, painted eggs that we've found in Budapest. And we have several Easter baskets sitting around with bunnies in them. (By the way, they don't do Easter Baskets here. We do our own. Must be an American thing!) But we have been reminded that we need to include the Christian emphasis in our decorating, as well, and to emphasize the crosses that we have hanging in our house. All of those have been put in strategic places to help us remember what an unbelievable sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us.

P.S. We only have brown eggs here. Does anybody have any ideas on how we can dye those to make them look nice??! Guess we're used to the white eggs....

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

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

A Few Prayer Requests

We have some prayer requests for the next few weeks and would very much appreciate your prayer for us. A week from Wednesday is our date to leave for the states and there is much to be done here before we leave. Plus, we are anticipating an encouraging time during our stay in Alabama and are looking forward to a meaningful, life-changing, Mission Conference at First Bible Church. Thank you for your prayers!

Please pray for:

*Things to go smoothly for the young lady that will be staying in our house while we're gone. Protection for her, the house, and that she will be blessed by being in our home.

*The ministry reponsibilities we have here. That they will continue fully while we're gone with the people that are taking our places.

*Safety in our travel.

*That the Mission Conference will be filled with God's presence and that the speaker will speak the very words that God has for the attendees.

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Opportunities for Olivia

We're posting a portion of Olivia's support letter that she will be sending out in the next few days to friends and family. She's raising support for this summer's mission opportunities: Speak Out (an English camp) and for a week in South Korea for an evangelism conference. Not that many support letters are going out and we're just trusting the Lord to provide for her. We are praying that through this process of raising support, she will learn more and more to depend on God's generous provision. (a lesson for all of our family to learn!) If you're interested in helping her, please contact us through our family email address and we'll get you the details on where to send your check and who to make it out to. Please don't feel compelled to be a part of this unless the Lord is leading you! She needs not only financial support but prayer support as well. So, if you rather help her in that way, we would be grateful! (See letter below)


February 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

I still can’t believe that we have been in Hungary for nearly three years now! God is just too amazing. He has provided for me in so many ways. I’m so happy that He allowed us to move to Hungary and be a part of many exciting ministries here. I am especially grateful to have been allowed to work as a student leader with FEK. FEK is a Hungarian acronym that stands for “students at the threshold of life”. This ministry puts on a weekly coffee house, Battle of the Bands, fall festival outreaches, and the Speak Out English camp. Serving with other students makes the work so much more fun. Nothing like a little dirt and sweat to bond the hearts and lives of both Hungarian and American Christians!

This summer, I have been given another opportunity to attend Speak Out. In the summer of 2005, I got to serve as an English tutor at Speak Out. It is an evangelistic English camp put on by Campus Crusade-Hungary. Hungarian students who attend learn and practice their English, spend quality time with American students, play fun games, and most importantly get to hear the gospel from the students who staff the camp. I cannot fully express the joy of being a part of this unique body of Christ and I’m looking forward to seeing what God will do this summer.

In addition to the exciting opportunity of Speak Out, I have been asked to join a team of 15 Americans and Hungarians (of which I am one of the youngest) in representing Hungary at a Campus Crusade conference of 20,000 in South Korea. We will join people from 100 other countries in worship, workshops, and training as we learn to better affect our personal worlds with the gospel. I am looking forward to how this experience will stretch and mold me more into the woman God desires for me to be. I have prayed about the decision to participate in the conference and I believe that God will provide the financial means and strength I need to attend.

Love, Olivia

The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength,
so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed.
2 Timothy 4:17

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Not Sick Anymore!

Shay and Meredith have been "sickies" for the last couple of weeks. Thank you to those that regularly check in with us and knew that. We loved your encouraging emails! It was a bronchitis/flu thing that had high temps and lots of coughing. That same type illness is going around everywhere here in Budapest. Looks like Curt and Olivia may have dodged it. Hope so! It's so wonderful to get back to good health and to remember to thank God for that good health. We also want to remember to thank Him for those that regularly pray for our protection, health, and safety. Thank you for your prayers for us!!

Mission Conference in Alabama

We really have a treat to look forward to very soon! On February 21, we leave for the states and will be there for about 2 weeks. During that time, we will get to see family and friends that mean so much to us. Plus, we get the wonderful opportunity of being a part of the First Bible Church annual Missions Conference. (www.fbc.org) Those dates for the conference are March 2-4. It seems like just yesterday that we were being commissioned as missionaries at the 2004 Missions Conference. What a memorable time that was for our family! If you're interested, check back for some prayer requests we will have for our time in the states. We have alot to accomplish in that short period and only prayer will get us through!!

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

So It DOES Snow in Budapest!

Well, our good weather finally came to an end! We can't complain. It's been wonderful to have no snow for almost the entire month of January. It snowed yesterday and a little bit today. Not alot of snow but some. And so cold here now!! There's still no major snow in the forecast for the next week. So, we could possibly escape January with just a dusting. Yeah!

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

International Worship

We are so privileged to worship at Danube International Church here in Budapest. The founders of this church, a little over 10 years ago, described it as a "fellowship of followers of Jesus, serving the English-Speaking Community in Budapest." People from Budapest attend this church plus we have so many visitors from all over that will attend. Someone from Romania might be in the city for a conference and will hear about our church and will attend. Another family from England might be vacationing in Budapest and will attend church at Danube. We have met so many internationals that love Christ and desire to worship at Danube International whenever they have opportunity.

There are many Hungarians that attend our church and they all amaze us with their excellent English. We do have simultaneous translation which allows a Hungarian to use a headset to have the sermon translated for him, if he desires. A Hungarian pastor that has services at his church in the afternoon attends our church. He's usually the one that does the English/Hungarian translation. What a selfless ministry he has!

Our church meets in a rented facility (Mathias Corvinus Collegium) each Sunday morning. The picture is of the front of the "church" where the worship team and pastor leads. Although we don't have our own church building, we are reminded that the church of Jesus Christ is made up of all believers and does not mean just a church building. We take communion with international believers. We sing together and serve together with other believers that have different homelands. It is a privilege to worship with them.

If you would like to listen to our pastor here (Ronnie Stevens), you can check out the church website. You will be blessed! www.danubechurch.org

"After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.' Revelation7:9-10

brannons4christ@yahoo.com