The Hills are Alive

The Alps

Living in Ukraine has been awesome, but when you live in a different culture or in a different country, an underlying anxiety can build up over time and it can get wearying. The cure for that-get away! And I had a chance to do just that thanks to friends Viktor, Caroline, Attis, Maris and Andreas. Last week, I visited them in Budapest and got to go skiing in Austria. We went to Austria with a group from 6 different churches from Catholic to pentecostal and everything in-between. Each evening, we would have a small devotional group, which was lead in Hungarian. When we were singing, the only word that I understood was "alleluia", but that was enough. When I was out on the mountain, I saw the majesty of creation and of the Creator. The scenery was amazing, the weather was great and seeing The Alps was a gift for sure.

John, Viktor, Attis and Maris

 Another gift was seeing how the Lord has given me such good friends in America and over here. At one point, I was sitting in Andreas' apartment in Budapest, looked around, and smiled as I saw our own little League of nations: Andreas from Sweden, Caroline from England, Viktor from Ukraine, Victor from Hungary, and me from America. All of us from different backgrounds and lives, but all of us having a common faith and a common love.

Andreas and Caroline cooking curry.

Four and a half days of skiing also gave me a new appreciation of Paul's admonition in 2 Cor.4:16: "Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." My outer man's legs were hurting for sure, but good saunas, good food, good beer (I hope that didn't just cut out the funding from my Baptist friends) and good friends helped renew the inner and outer man for sure.