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July 2002
Dear Friends,
As we approach the end of our first year in mission service,
I am amused at the things that we experienced and relieved to
be through a number of them! At the beginning, we spent six months
living out of suitcases. It seemed like a long time from the time
we moved out of our apartment until we had found an apartment,
repaired it, found some furniture, and moved in. It gives us a
much deeper appreciation of the situation that refugees find themselves
in. They leave their homes with only what they are wearing and
carrying. Often they must sell everything to pay for passage.
Unlike us though, they have no one to welcome them and no immediate
hope for a better life. They are in transition indefinitely—until
they find some country which will accept them so that they can
settle down, find a job, and begin to make friends.
This first year has been difficult in some ways. We left our
children, friends, and family and our church home in the United
States. Here, we would like to make friends with people, but first
we must speak the language and dispel some myths. The language
here is Hungarian. It is part of the Finno-Ugric language family.
A couple of thousand years ago, it was related to Finnish, Lap,
and possibly Japanese. However, these languages have grown apart
and there is no other living language that has any particular
relation to Hungarian. That means that there are very few words
that sound anything like English or German or Spanish or any other
language I am familiar with! And, from my perspective, the grammar
is really different. The words in the sentence are almost in reverse
order to English, making it very difficult for me as a student
of Hungarian to talk without rehearsing the sentence first. This
sure does slow down spontaneous conversation! Hungarian also attaches
all of its prepositions (in, with, for, by, through etc.) to the
verbs. By the time you add things like past tense and who is doing
what, there are as many as 1,140 variations of one verb like walk.
Sometimes I wake up at night wondering how to say something! Much
of the work I (Kathy) have done this year is language learning—five
days a week in school for three hours, plus homework in the evenings!
Joe has been an invaluable help in the language learning process.
He was born here in Hungary and speaks fluent Hungarian. He and
his cousins have been so patient in listening to me struggle through
my first conversations!
A second hurdle in making friends is people's understanding of
us, our motives for being in Hungary, and whether we can be trusted.
At the beginning, people thought we were rich Americans who did
not need to work, who would act like we knew everything, and who
would look down on the local people. People also have had trouble
understanding why I (Kathy) am the clergyperson and wonder what
Joe is doing. (Joe has pointed out that if our positions were
reversed, probably no one would ask what I was doing as his spouse!)
When we arrived, some folks told us that they didn't need any
help in Hungary and couldn't understand why we were here as missionaries.
There is a lot of reason for this sentiment.
The church in Hungary existed even before the United States existed.
It has a long and strong history. The Roman Catholic Church was
the primary church for many centuries. The beginnings of the Reformation
was going on here at the same time that Martin Luther and John
Calvin were working for change in other parts of Europe. The Reformed
Church of Hungary was born of the same Reformation that gave rise
to our founding churches in Scotland and Geneva. The question
that people ask is why the Hungarian Reformed Church needs missionaries
when they are an old established church. I believe that the answer
comes from our traditions in the Reformed family of churches.
We believe that God speaks to all of us, not just to priests or
special people. Therefore, the best way for all us to hear God’s
voice and discern the direction for our lives is together. As
brothers and sisters in the church, we U.S. Presbyterians and
Hungarian Reformed people listen together to discern God’s
call for us. We Presbyterians are learning and growing from this
relationship just as our Reformed partners are. Who knows what
God has in mind for all of us!
One of the specific tasks that the Hungarian Reformed Church has
asked us to do is to help develop a program of mission within
the Reformed Church starting with the Great Church congregation
in Debrecen. It has now been 10 years since Hungary left communism
behind. That was a time in their history in which church membership
and participation was discouraged and punished outright on numerous
occasions. The opportunity to worship freely is a gift which is
new to people under 60 years old. People have had a variety of
reactions, but being openly involved in mission and ministry is
not familiar to most people. Most adults also are working very
hard to improve their lives financially. Salaries are low here
and pensions are insufficient to support the elderly. This need
to work, often well into old age, drastically limits people's
available time to be involved in ministry.
Despite all of the obstacles, God has given the church an opportunity
to serve right here in Hungary. Hungary has about 5,000 people
within its borders who are "refugees." These people
have left their homelands due to war, poverty, famine, and persecution.
Often they do not have official refugee status, which would guarantee
them certain rights by international law. They are officially
just "people in transit" without legal papers. Their
lack of legal refugee status means they have very limited rights
and resources. Two thousand of these people are being housed less
than a mile from the Great Church in Debrecen, near Hungary’s
eastern border. Joe and I have been asked by the bishop of the
Reformed Church of Hungary to help develop a ministry to these
people. This ministry is now in its infancy. We are teaching an
English class at the request of the refugees. We have also helped
to make a connection between the "Open Door" group of
the Great Church and the refugee women. Refugee women are invited
to go to the church on Wednesdays for fellowship and sewing. One
woman from Sierra Leone commented that she felt more love in her
first visit to the church than she had since she left her homeland!
As is true for many new programs, there are hurdles. Communication
continues to be a challenge. It will be a while before I understand
idioms and implied meanings! It is also difficult for us to develop
a network of interested people in a community in which we are
newcomers. Finally, it is a challenge for all of us to learn to
trust God that he will provide the time and money and people necessary
if we work cooperatively with God and each other. Please keep
all of us, the refugees and the church, in your prayers.
In addition to the work with the refugees and the church here
in Hungary, I also work for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in
its activities caring for refugees in other locations in the world.
Periodically, I travel to do some teaching or consultation in
locations where we are helping other churches care for refugees.
The focus of this work is psycho-social care, which includes things
like pastoral care, psychological first aid, helping to reestablish
communities, supporting families, protecting the most vulnerable
(children, women alone, elderly, victims of torture and abuse,
physically and psychologically vulnerable). We are writing a training/field
manual to train people in this kind of care so local churches
can develop this expertise within their community. This is being
done in partnership with the Church of Sweden and Norwegian Church
Aid.
We continue to struggle with some practical realities, and would
appreciate your prayer support.
- After many months and numerous communication, Joe still has
not received his visa for long term residency which will allow
him to live and work for the church here. The reasons for this
delay are unknown (at least to us!)
- Language learning is a daily task. It usually takes foreigners
two to three years to be fluent in Hungarian. Language fluency
is critical to our ministry here and my 50-year-old memory struggles!
- We would love to make more good friends here. Please pray
for opportunities.
- We have six young-adult children and four grandchildren scattered
across the U.S. and one in Europe. Please pray for our family.
Love,
Kathy and Joe
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