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

Pizza 108

Somebody asked recently about the places here that we like to eat out. So, since it's getting close to dinner time here and all of us are feeling pretty hungry, we thought we would tell you about one of the two places that will deliver pizza to us. It's called Pizza 108 (we're not sure what the 108 stands for!) and it's about a mile from our house. We usually decide to call Pizza 108 when we've been through a really busy time and we feel pretty tired. We're sure you can relate! We've had a very full schedule over the last several days so the thought of not cooking dinner and just ordering pizza sounds great. We're so thankful that we have a place to call! We usually call in 4 pizzas, one for each of us. That way we have leftovers. The pizza is not bad although it doesn't have much pizza sauce. Guess that's why the Hungarians put ketchup on the top of their pizza! Not all of us do that in our family but Olivia really likes piling on the ketchup over the cheese! Maybe she's turning into a Hungarian. :)

So, that's the report on a favorite restaurant. If you ever visit us here in Hungary, we'll order some Pizza 108 and try to make you feel at home!

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

A New Email Address

We have a new family email address and we will be posting that address on our blog going forward. It won't affect your ability to email us from this blog. But please make a note of it in your address book as we try to phase out our current Brannon family email address. Thanks so much for your emails!!! It's a great encouragement to us to know you read our blogs and then take the time to respond.

New address:

brannons4christ@yahoo.com

Some Prayer Requests

Thank you to those of you that continually ask for updated prayer requests. We do appreciate that and are grateful that you continue to pray for the 4 of us. Also, wanted to remind you that another "avenue" for finding out what's going on with us and some of our prayer needs is to go to the BSF website to read our newsletters. They post a newsletter for us about every 3 months or so. The website will be at the bottom of this blog. If you go to that website, click on FRA letters and you'll see our name under Europe.

So, here are a few prayer requests and some praises:

*Praise God with us for a good, smooth beginning to homeschooling. We started back on January 2.

*Praise God with us for good weather here. No snow!

*Please pray for a strong beginning to the BSF class that resumes on January 9. We continue our study in Romans and really are asking God to increase our enrollment.

*Please pray for a productive visit with our BSF International Director who will be arriving for a visit on January 14. Pray that we will be a blessing to him and that our time together will be full of God's grace and encouragement.

*Please pray for our health and safety.

www.bsfinternational.org

brannons@scsonline.com

Happy 2007!!!

Happy New Year from our family to yours! We pray that your 2007 will be a year filled with God's abundant blessings and that He will show you more and more His love for you.

Thank you for your support and care for us in 2006. It was a year full of ups and downs, new things to learn, and a stretching of our faith in an eternally faithful God. We would love to hear from you in 2007! Catch us up on what's going on in your family and let us know of your hopes and prayers for the New Year.

brannons@scsonline.com

Christmas Memories

Curt, Olivia, and Tessa relaxing during the Christmas holidays. Fun family times had by all!

Our Christmas Tree

Family picture taken at a friend's house

Out at the Budapest Christmas market. Brr! So cold!

Merry Christmas!!!

By the time you read this, Christmas in Hungary will be well into the day. So, we have been celebrating the birth of our Savior for several hours now! Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas Day. We promised to share a little about how Hungarians celebrate Christmas. The following is an excerpt from a monthly newsletter that comes out for the benefit of expats living in Hungary:

In Hungary on December 24th, everything closes around noon, or by 4 PM at the latest. All public transportation stops as well. People get home by that time, and start putting up the tree. (It's rarely done before the 24th - You will not see decorated Christmas trees in Hungary before December 24, except perhaps in stores for advertising purposes!) So, the afternoon and early evening of Christmas Eve is occupied by decorating the tree, together, with the family.
Traditional Hungarian tree lights always included candles and sparklers.

According to Hungarian custom, Christmas tree decorations always include very special holiday candies, wrapped in bright gold, red, or other colored foil and tied with bows, called Szaloncukor. These are chocolate on the outside, with marzipan, raspberry, orange or other flavored jellies inside. Some time before Christmas, Hungarian children have already written their letters to baby Jesus, or "Jézuska," much in the same way American children might write letters to Santa Claus. They tell baby Jesus what presents they want for Christmas. Then they leave their letters, on a windowsill for example, to be picked up by angel messengers during the night, while the children are sleeping, and to be "delivered" to baby Jesus! Baby Jesus and the angels will then deliver their gift requests on the night of December 24.

Definitely different from American customs! But the "custom" that the Brannon family desires for all people is the recognition that God sent His Son in flesh to the world to save His people from their sins. Isn't that amazing that God would love us that much??

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!! We send our love and prayers to you......

brannons@scsonline.com

Check back later for Christmas Day pictures.

Just In Time

We're very glad that the construction outside our house has finally finished! It lasted almost 3 months and we thought it would never end. Check out our September blogs if you missed seeing what a mess it all was. It's been a little tricky getting to the places we needed to go with all the heavy equipment blocking our garage door. But we've decided it was worth the hassle since we now have a very nice street, driveway, and sidewalk. Also, things finished just in time for the predicted weather forecast of snow showers for the next few days! It wouldn't be fun to have all that dirt and snow together---MUD!!!

brannons@scsonline.com

Happy Birthday, Meredith

Meredith is 14 today on the 14th! We actually celebrated yesterday since we're leaving early this morning going out of town for a few days. To us, Meredith is a gift from God and we're blessed to have her in our family!

BSF Team Members

We are SO blessed to be able to serve with such wonderful BSF team members here in Hungary. Bob and Shari Volk, with their granddaughter, Madison, arrived in Budapest in April, 2005. The Volks have become our close friends and fellow workers. All of us serve with BSF but we also serve together to proclaim Christ in any avenue that God allows. The 7 of us have had unique opportunities to plant seeds for the gospel and hopefully to have made some eternal impact on the people here. We are thankful for that! This is a picture of us at our Christmas get-together. We had it a little early since the Volks are going back to the states for a couple of weeks for Christmas.

brannons@scsonline.com

A Sunny Day

Yes, these are pictures showing the sun! Never would have thought we all would be so thankful for a beautiful, sunny day. But we are grateful. It's been over 2 weeks since we've had a sunny day like today and we are thanking God for the weather. No snow yet! Hope wherever you are in the world, it's terrific weather there, too. But with or without sun, isn't it still a wonderful day to praise the Son? The Son of God, that is!

brannons@scsonline.com

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory...." Hebrews 1:3

Mikulas Nap (Nicholas Day)

Happy St. Nicholas Day! In Hungary, Santa has nothing to do with Christmas. He comes today, December 6, to visit children everywhere. He'll make his rounds among the shops, schools, and parades to give children some candy and chocolate in red wrappings. Another part of this day is the custom of children setting out their boots or shoes in the windowsill on the night of December 5. During the night, if the children have been really good this past year, they might get tangerines, candies, and even small presents from St. Nicholas. But if the children have been naughty, then they will get a lump of coal or a bunch of switches! We won't tell you what Olivia and Meredith got in their shoes! :)

Check back on our blogs to find out more about Christmas customs that the Hungarians celebrate. It's very fascinating and we are still learning about this culture.

brannons@scsonline.com

Happy First Sunday of Advent!

The girls got the opportunity to sing on the praise team today at church. Hark the Herald Angels Sing! was one of the Christmas hymns we sung. We just love Christmas music that praises the birth of the Lord Jesus!

Correct Mailing Information

Just in the last few days, we've gotten some email traffic from people trying to clarify our mailing address and the process to mail a letter to Hungary. Thanks for your interest in the mail! We LOVE mail!!

You can address it to any of us by name. Sample address:

Olivia Brannon
Tavasz Utca 4
Budaors 2040
Hungary

Please be sure to put the country! We just got a Christmas card in the mail and it didn't have the country name on it. Don't know how that arrived here!

It costs 84 cents to mail a letter to our address. You don't have to go to the post office for a special stamp. Just plop about 3 U.S. stamps on there and drop it in a mailbox! We would love to hear from you and we're pretty good about sending a reply, too. :) Thanks so much. You all are the greatest!

brannons@scsonline.com

Things We Like About Budapest

Goodness, we heard from a lot of you concerning the recent blog about little things we missed! Thanks for reading our blogs and responding. It was fun to hear about things that YOU loved about the United States.

But to make it balanced, we thought we would come up with a few things that we DO have here in Budapest that we particularly appreciate and thank God for:

*A BSF ladies' class that has the privilege of studying Romans
*An International church to worship with on Sundays
*Electricity! We rarely have problems with this and we know other missionaries in other parts of the world sometimes do.
*The Internet
*A garage to put our car. This is wonderful during cold months!
*Plenty of food. A little different than what we're used to but we're not starving.
*A good landlord
*Wonderful ministry teammates to work with here
*A reliable car that gets us anywhere we need to go
*A great public transportation system

Just a few things but our list could be longer. We do feel the Lord's grace and protection here and we know that is because of your prayers for us. Thank you!

brannons@scsonline.com

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Thanksgivings here are obviously a little different. But this year will be especially different since Curt and Meredith are in the states. We're so glad to know that Curt and Meredith are getting to go to Headland, Alabama, to be a part of the big Thanksgiving celebration there. This is Curt's side of the family and he has many relatives there that mean so much to all of us. Every Thanksgiving, anyone connected to the Brannon family that's within driving distance of Headland, will come and celebrate together. Many times in the past, we've attended this event. So much food! So much talking and visiting! So much fun! It's a blessing to be with family members that we rarely have the opportunity to see. Curt and Meredith will stay with his grandparents, Nana and D-daddy. We know from past history that Curt and Meredith will be treated like royalty at their house. So, hello from Shay and Olivia to everyone in Headland! We love and miss you and send hugs by Curt and Meredith. Eat some turkey and dressing for us!

brannons@scsonline.com

Little Things

Shay and Olivia were thinking today about little things that we love and used to take SO for granted when we lived in the states! Would you like to know some of those things?? Maybe you have little things you love, too, and appreciate about life in America!

Things we had there but not here:

*Mail on Saturday
*Chocolate chips for chocolate chip cookies
*Two cars
*Walmart and Target
*Newspapers in English
*Clothing using American sizing and not European sizing
*Waffle makers
*HGTV
*Reliable mail system
*Beautiful Christian church buildings
*Christian bookstores (we have one little one here)
*Central heating
*Magnolia trees for Christmas decorating
*Large ovens and strong microwaves
*English measuring system instead of metric

Oh, well. Nothing to lose sleep over and nothing that keeps us from finding joy in living here and serving God here! The most important thing we appreciate about America is YOU--our family and friends!!!

brannons@scsonline.com

U.S. Visit

Curt and Meredith will be leaving tomorrow for a 2 week visit to the states. Shay and Olivia will stay in Budapest and hold the fort down here. Hopefully, Curt and Meredith will get to see many of you to thank you for your support of us. Please pray for their safety in their travel and for protection for Shay and Olivia in Budapest. Thanks so much for caring about us!

brannons@scsonline.com

So Much Fun!

Shay's working on Meredith's hair before the performance. Lots and lots of hairspray to last!

Not a great shot but one of the few taken during the actual performance and Meredith's solo.

Check out Meredith's blog later in the week for more pictures and how she felt about the opportunity to be in the Cinderella play. About 260 people came the first night and about 250 the second night. Meredith didn't seem nervous at all performing in front of all those people!

Cinderella

Meredith has her Cinderella play this weekend. She's really been working hard attending practice, learning her lines, and singing the parts she's responsible for. These pictures are from one of the Saturday practices they had. We're really excited that she's been given this fun opportunity and she's had a terrific time being a part of the production. The International Christian School of Budapest is putting the play on with the middle school students. Although Meredith is homeschooled, they were very gracious to allow her to audition for one of the parts. She plays the godmother in the play. We'll let you know how it goes!

brannons@scsonline.com

Dr. Hannah

Dr. John Hannah is in Budapest this week teaching at a Campus Crusade event. He also preached at our home church here, Danube International Church. Shay had the opportunity to sit under Dr. Hannah's teaching while she was at BSF Institute this summer. She found out during that time that Dr. Hannah would be in Budapest in November. So, we got an opportunity to meet him again and greet him on behalf on the BSFers here in Budapest.

Lunch With The Prime Minister??

The man facing the camera is the Prime Minister of Hungary. The lady to his right is April Foley, the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. She's new to Hungary and took the place of George Walker.

Curt and Shay tried to look professional in hopes that no one would realize we've never been at a luncheon with a Prime Minister and a U.S. Ambassador!

Curt and Shay got an incredible opportunity to attend a American/Hungary Chamber of Commerce Luncheon this past Friday. The guest of honor at the luncheon was the Prime Minister of Hungary, Ferenc Gyurcsany. Also in attendance was the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. It was a really big crowd because the Prime Minister was to speak and then to answer questions from the audience. Of course, we kept our mouths shut because we had nothing to contribute and we were obviously out of our element! Hopefully, we didn't embarass ourselves too much and didn't look like rednecks from the country! :) The lunch was delicious and it was a rare opportunity to be among people that will directly affect the future of Hungary.

brannons@scsonline.com

Budapest Demonstrations

Some of you may have seen pictures like this on the news this week. Thanks for checking on us to see what was going on during the October 23rd celebration of the Hungarian uprising against the Soviets. The uprising happened 50 years ago this week and this year's celebration was supposed to be a big one. The celebration was marred by demonstrations like this. Many of the demonstrations were peaceful but some protesters are still very angry about the political situation and the current Prime Minister. We stayed away from the area and we feel that there will be no more demonstrations like this in the near future. Please pray for the peace of Hungary--the peace that only comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.

brannons@scsonline.com

International Day of Prayer

Did you know that Sunday, November 12th, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church? In many countries, our brothers and sisters in Christ can not worship God freely and proclaim openly their faith in Christ. They are persecuted physically, socially, or even financially. Many have their lives threatened. We must pray for them and be informed about their struggles! An organization that tracks these situations and informs the world about them is The Voice of the Martyrs. Their website is: www.persecution.com Mark your calendars for November 12th to pray and why not consider adding this issue to your ongoing prayer list? We feel the need to do that at our house!

brannons@scsonline.com

Men's Group

Lunch on Thursdays is men's small group time at the Brannons. Several men gather during their lunch hour for a quick bite to eat and then discussion on issues that face Christian men today. A nice size group comes each week and several of these men attended the group last Spring. There have been 5 or 6 new men that have joined this fall. After the group time is over, most of the guys have to quickly get back to their jobs. But there are a few men that are willing to stay a little longer to pray specifically for a potential men's BSF group. This prayer group has been a great encouragement to Curt and to his fellow BSF teammate, Bob. Please pray with us that God would allow men in Budapest to become interested in a BSF class and that men would be willing to participate as leaders in this future class.

brannons@scsonline.com

Sunday Preaching

Thanks for all the prayers for Curt as he prepared to preach at our Budapest home church. He preached last Sunday on some verses from Nehemiah. Ronnie Stevens, our pastor here, needed to be in the states for a couple of weeks so he asked Curt to preach for him. All the Brannon ladies think Dad/Curt did a great job!


brannons@scsonline.com

Studying Like a Junior

Is that Chemistry that Olivia's studying? Maybe it's Spanish? Whatever it is, it's stuff that a Junior needs to study! Please pray for Olivia as she has the ACT coming up on Saturday, October 28th.

School Continues

Meredith worked on a poster for a school assignment in history. She's studying about the New World of America. Seems a little strange to be studying about the United States since we do live in Europe! But we are still Americans and we do love our heritage and our culture!

Update on the Riots

Thank you so much for the many emails and calls we got from you last week to check on us during the riots. We woke up on Tuesday morning last week to the news that there had been violent riots the night before in the city of Budapest. It caught many people by suprise, including us! Class was on Tuesday morning so we hoped that what had happened the night before wouldn't hinder anyone from coming to class. Everyone got to class safely and we were thankful.

All last week the protests continued and we stayed away from that part of the city. Ironically, one of the main areas that the people were rioting in was just across from the American Embassy which is located in what's called Freedom Square. We think that's an appropriate place for the American Embassy to be! Unfortunately, during the riots, over 250 people have been injured, many of them policemen. Some 200 people have been detained for questioning. After 3 days of violent protests, there have been several days of peaceful protests with thousands of Hungarians taking part. Many Hungarians have vowed to keep protesting until the Prime Minister resigns. At this point, he has refused to do that.

We recognize that we are guests in this country that we have grown to love and care about. What the Hungarians are concerned about are things we want to be concerned about. So, we pray for governmental stability so our visas will be secure, we pray for freedom and democracy to prevail, and we pray for the nation of Hungary to recognize the sovereignty of God over all things.

Thank you for your prayers for our safety and for your interest in this part of the world.

brannons@scsonline.com

Hungarian Hero

Shay and the girls took a field trip to hear a Hungarian hero speak about his involvement during the Nazi and Soviet occupation of Hungary. Dr. Janos Horvath was a fascinating man to listen to. He has dedicated much of his life to the Hungarian people. During the Nazi rule and then the Soviet rule of Hungary, he was tortured, beaten and imprisoned for his involvement with the Freedom Fighters. He and his fellow countrymen wanted freedom and democracy for Hungary. They were willing to risk their lives to speak out boldly for this form of government. Dr. Horvath was part of the famous October 1956 Hungarian uprising that held off the Soviet military for 3 weeks. The "rebellion" was crushed by the Soviet army and after that the Hungarians begin years of suffering under communist rule.

After fleeing to the United States, Dr. Horvath lived there for many years and was an economics professor at a university. During his time in the states, he had many conversations with then governor, Ronald Reagan, about the Hungarian people and their desire for democracy. Dr. Horvath holds Reagan in high esteem for Reagan's part in bringing down communism.

In the early 1990s, after the wall of communism came down, Dr. Horvath repatriated to Hungary with his wife. He successfully ran for the Hungarian Parliament and has been elected for 3 terms. He was recently re-elected in January 2006. Although 85 years old, his energy and enthusiasm for making sure that Hungarians "know their history" is incredible. He's committed to making sure that young people know the important role that Hungary has played in world events.

Shay and the girls thoroughly enjoyed hearing Dr. Horvath speak and it gave us a renewed appreciation for the country we now live in. Please pray that the Hungarian people will be awakened to the truth of their history. More importantly, please pray that the Hungarian people will recognize God's hand in their history and how He has spared them through the years.

brannons@scsonline.com

Family Happenings

Just a general update on what has been going on with the 4 of us these last few days:

Curt: Finished up 6 1/2 weeks of serving Tim and his family while they were here in Budapest during Tim's accident. He got all the family members to the airport when it was time for each of them to fly out. Two of the family members flew out at different times. Also, the men's group that he helps lead has resumed successfully with a large group of men. They meet at the Brannon house each Thursday. Curt's usual trip to Serbia will be soon and plans are being made for that. Of course, can't leave out homeschool responsibilities each day. Curt will also be preaching at our Budapest church on October 8th. Please pray for that!

Shay: BSF and homeschool are the main things she's involved with. The study of Romans is proving to be as exciting as she had hoped! Each Monday is leaders meeting and each Tuesday the class meets. Homeschooling with the girls is such a joy. Both girls stay on course despite Mom and Dad's busy schedules.

Olivia: Her FEK leadership responsibilities consume most of her extra time. She meets on Tuesday nights for a leadership meeting and then Friday nights are the coffee house ministry for high-schoolers. She also meets every other week with her FEK mentor to do evangelistic surveys. She enjoys being a part of our church youth group and hosted that group at our home this past Sunday night.

Meredith: You might have read from Meredith's blog about her new drama part in the school play. She goes each Tuesday and Thursday for practice. The play is upcoming and she's really had a lot of fun with this new experience. Of course, she takes care of Tessa and the rest of the pets!

Check out all the blogs that family writes! You can click on the right side of this blog to go to their blog.

brannons@scsonline.com

Headed to the States

Good news about Tim! He and his father left early this morning from the trauma hospital for the airport. Leaving Budapest behind, they are flying to California where Tim will enter a excellent rehabilitation facility to continue his remarkable recovery. We are praising the Lord because Tim has experienced clear progress even in the last few days. Tim's sister arrived last Saturday. Tim's brother was supposed to have arrived this past Monday but it didn't make much sense for him to come to Budapest and then 2 days later Tim would leave the country! A good reason not to come--Tim has gotten better more quickly than we all thought! So Tim's brother plans to visit Tim in California in the near future.

Tim's sister will leave for the states on Saturday and Tim's mom will leave for the states on Tuesday. It was a challenge to get everyone's tickets changed with such short notice.

Thank you for your prayers throughout this amazing situation. We never thought when we saw Tim that first night in the hospital that he would recover and go home in less than six weeks. Only God could have allowed this to happen.

"For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate...." Luke 15:24

brannons@scsonline.com

What's Going On in the Front Yard??

Major construction is going on out our front door and down the street! We're told that for at least the next 2 months, we will contend with all this heavy equipment, new pipes, and workers. They're putting in drainage systems and filling in some of the ditches along our road. Our garage door has already been blocked a few times and both ends of our street have been blocked. Plus it has rained a lot and mud is everywhere. At least we don't have our windows open as much anymore and we don't hear all the noise! Never a dull moment!

"Advertisement" for BSF! :-)

Have you ever considered attending a BSF class? There probably is a class near you. We just have to encourage you to get involved in this awesome study of Romans! It's only the 3rd week and we're just finishing up the first chapter. But, as a family, we have already gotten so much out of the study. Curt and the girls are following along with Romans by using the Home Discussion Pages that BSF provides. Makes for terrific family discussion! If you're not sure where to find a class, go to the BSF website (www.bsfinternational.org) and you'll get all the info you need. What better way to spend your time than studying Romans each week for the next 32 weeks? If you do decide to go, let us know and we'll look forward to talking with you about how God is using Romans in your life.

brannons@scsonline.com

Medical Update on Tim

Just wanted to update you on the young man that fell from the balcony here in Budapest. It's hard to believe that it's been 4 weeks today since his accident happened. God has been so gracious and kind to allow Tim to survive and to make steady progress toward recovery! It just didn't look that way 4 weeks ago. When we saw him a few hours after the accident and just coming out of surgery, we were not sure that he would live through the night. One of our prayers for Tim was that he would live until his dad arrived from the states the next day. That prayer and so many more have been answered! He has come out of his coma, has had several successful surgeries, and he has begun interacting and responding to the people around him. A miracle! Tim's mom and dad have been here in Budapest with him and have spent many hours at his bedside. The plan is to move Tim, as soon as he is able, back to the states for therapy and rehabilitation. That could happen in the next 2-3 weeks. The doctors are amazed. We are amazed at our amazing God!

Thank you for your interest in what's going on here and for the prayers said on Tim's behalf. Please keep praying and we'll let you know when he's headed back to the states. Tim's brother and sister will be arriving in Budapest in a few days and that will be a real encouragement for their parents. Please pray for their travel safety.

The picture is of the Budapest Trauma Hospital where Tim is being well cared for.

Class Beginning

A good start to the new BSF class year! We started yesterday, which is a week ahead of the U.S. classes. Prayers were answered and new ladies DID come. We are thankful! Thank you for those that prayed and for those that sent encouraging emails.

It was a beautiful day, another answered prayer, and we even avoided a potential catastrophe. On Monday, the day before class, there was not any water in the church building. Not a good thing with women and no ladies' rooms! Nearby construction work on the public transportation system caused the temporary outage. We prayed for water on the inside of the building for class day but not water on the outside of the building in the form of rain! God provided the water where needed and we had another opportunity to thank Him!

Please keep praying for the Budapest Day Women class. We desire spiritual change and numerical growth. Check back for periodic updates on the class.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever!" Romans 11:36

New Friends

God keeps bringing us new American friends to know and love in Budapest! Second from the left is Laura Beth who has come to teach English to Hungarian students. She's from Oklahoma. We're praying that God will work out her schedule so she will be able to be a children's leader in the ladies' BSF class. The two people on the far right are Paul and Jacque. They're our new friends from California who have come to Budapest to care for their son after his fall from a balcony 3 weeks ago. You may have read about that in a previous blog. This picture was taken after we enjoyed a morning of worship at church and then lunch together. It's always wonderful to talk with someone who speaks "American English"! :-)

The Weather?

We got an email from someone kidding us that we haven't done a blog recently on the weather in Budapest! What they're referring to is one of our blogs last Spring apologizing for always talking about the weather here. It did seem for a while there that we were regularly reporting on the status of the weather! But weather DOES seem to be an issue for us because the places we need to get to are usually by public transportation and we're out in the weather catching buses and trams.

Sooooo here goes the report: Until the last couple of days, it's been quite cool here. This past Thursday it was so windy and blustery that we had to wear more than a mid-weight jacket. That was August 31st! Something we're not used to in the south. But yesterday and today warmed up some and was just beautiful. It's going down into the 50s and high 40s in the evenings. We know that cold and snow are not too very far off so we're thanking the Lord for these pretty days we have.

Tuesday's weather for the first day of BSF is supposed to be pretty and sunny. That's good! Bad weather tends to give too many of us an excuse not to come to Bible study!

This will be our third winter here in Budapest and we actually seem to be getting the hang of this "snow thing". It does get a little old after about the 4th or 5th snow--unless, of couse, it snows on Christmas! But then that's a few months off...