Ippistle 20

February 21, 2010
Jack and Cindy Ippel

Dear Family and Friends,

We have just returned home from Gazdagrét Reformed Church where we worshipped and then enjoyed a community meal, perhaps better known in America as a “potluck”. What a blessing to be a part of a church fellowship, celebrating the providence of God with fellow believers. Sunday worship is vital for us here in Hungary. Gazdagrét is our second church home after Calvary Chapel. These two churches are quite different. We appreciate many aspects of Calvary; translation is provided, the sermon is presented in English, the worship style is very contemporary, and perhaps most importantly that Orsi and Zoli usually join us for the noon service. Gazdagrét has a more contemplative, reverent feel to it. It does feel very reformed, with emphasis on the preaching of God’s word. Old fashioned is not the best adjective to describe the worship, but sometimes we feel like we have gone back fifty years—and it is OK! Some of the psalms and hymns are right out of the old black songbook, and the rest are folk renditions of more recent worship songs. We also appreciate the fact the there is such a family atmosphere there, with many children as well as the elderly.

We now understand that Hungarian will be the language spoken in heaven. Why? Because it takes an eternity to learn! This joke is courtesy of our Hungarian friends who understand the difficulty of learning Hungarian. We are finding that we are recognizing more words all the time. We are starting to catch certain commonly used words and idioms like persze (of course) hat nem (um…no) természetesen (naturally) hogy hogy (how come) sajnos (unfortunately). Lately we‘ve been watching lots of Olympics since Eurosport broadcasts olympic events 24 hours a day, all in Hungarian. We are getting good at picking out certain words in this context as well…though when the announcer says hoppa or jaj (pronounced yaw-ee) you know there’s been another crash.

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been able to experience a variety of new-to-us Hungarian cuisine. We had heard about the delicacy called kakas here pörkölt (rooster testicle stew) but we finally got to sample it. Surprisingly good! Then last week Zoli made his favorite dish for us pacalpörkölt (cow stomach stew). We will post some pictures on our blog for you to enjoy.

Our decision to stay here in Budapest for another year must be made by the 15th of March. We are quite sure that God wants us here for another year, as we see many new relationships developing. We spent last weekend in Veszprém with Balász and Dori Kovács and their family, getting acquainted with their mother Anikó, who hopes to spend a month in Michigan this summer. We will host her for part of that time. This week Cindy met with Zsofi Simkos, a former exchange student at Northern Michigan Christian High School in McBain. She is from Miskolc and came to the United States with Pannonia, the same organization that brought Orsi to us in Zeeland. Zsofi and her family will be hosting us over the Easter weekend, along with Cindy’s college roommate Edith (Benthem) Bain and her niece Erica. We have no doubt that God puts new people into our lives for a reason, and look forward to how these relationships will bless both them and us. We often think that we have been brought into a relationship for God to use us in blessing the other person and we find that it’s often we who receive the blessing!

Since beginning this Ippistle on Sunday, Jack has come down with a bad sinus cold. He saw the doctor this afternoon and was given several prescriptions including one that says he may not work until next Monday. This is very typical and necessary if you want to get paid for “sick days”. Hopefully the antibiotic will help knock this bug out of Jack’s system. Unfortunately, we had a pizza party planned for Jack’s 9A class that will need to be postponed. Please pray for quick healing so that Jack can continue his work here.

If you want to check out some new pictures and stories that we’ve posted on our blog,
go to: www.hopeinhungary.blogspot.com

Blessings!

Jack and Cindy