Heat Wave and Health Care

"It is finally cooling off!" Our car measuring the outside air temperature. We saw it register as high as 106 degrees, the highest we have ever seen our 10 year old car measure outside air temp!

It has been the hottest in 100 years here this week in Budapest, so the locals say. As is true of most Hungarians, we do not have air conditioning and the nearest pool is nearly 30 minutes away. Here are some unique coping skills we have learned.

We learned the value of the “siesta,” an idea that most Americans despise or don’t understand. But when you have no air conditioning, you learn to get up early (4:30am to 5am), get the work done while it is still cool and take it easy during the heat of the day, only to re-emerge with the cool of evening.

This began as a water balloon but was left in the full sun on our deck. It melted into something consistent with blue latex paint.

Get the cool air into the house early but by 10am, close the house up, draw the curtains and keep out the heat. This worked early in the week but after 5 days of 100+ degree heat, it just wasn’t cool anymore in the mornings. I could not even sleep outside at night on our deck because the tiles on our terrace even at 2am were still radiating enough heat to make me sweat as I was out there.

The big grocery stores all pulled their frozen foods from the freezers. The freezers displaying the frozen foods could not keep the food from thawing.

I would pull a t-shirt out of my closet and it felt hot as if it had just come out of the dryer.

5 AM: The sun rises menacingly over our Hungarian village.

On another note, I had an outpatient procedure done at a local hospital here in Hungary. It was very clean, the paint was fresh and pretty, the staff smiled and were courteous, no one mocked me for my need for further testing and everything was professional. EB accompanied me and we waited for the procedure to start in a private room. That room had your standard hospital bed as well as a single normal bed next to it. Not bad for a country with socialized health care.

But wait! Before you call Michael Moore; this was a PRIVATE hospital independent of the socialized health care system of Hungary. You have heard plenty of horror stories of our experience with socialized medicine. Before you become a fan of government run health care, please come spend a week with us and we will give you a tour of contrast between private and public health care here in Hungary.

I must give a “shout-out” to this private hospital. Google “Telki Hungary hospital” and surely you will find the hospital we visited. My procedure? Well, lets just say that George W and I had a lot in common medically this past weekend. I’m fine; everything checked out okay.

Seeds of Change in the Balkans

Is a country worth our missionary efforts where evangelical Christians across the entire country are outnumbered by those in attendance on a Sunday morning at a typical American mega-church?

If so, I would like to present you with TWO such countries in Southeast Europe: Serbia and Montenegro.

One can find plenty of religious expression across SE Europe but personal faith in Jesus is the only answer to the despair and emptiness of her people.

Although stunning in its beauty, these countries are spiritually dead. EB and I, along with Savannah, Rebekah and Quentin were in the small city of Sutomore on the Adriatic along the Mediterranean Sea. We were in Europe’s newest country of barely 15 months: Montenegro, which seceded from Serbia, what is left of the former Yugoslavia.

Our Serbian ministry was having an English language camp for students there at a 2 star hotel along a beach covered with Eastern European tourists. In the context of teaching English, we were able to build friendships and share Christ with the Serbian students attending the camp. Some gospel conversations I had went deep into the night. Please allow me to introduce you to a couple of Serbian students with whom I shared.

Anton (on the left) did a mean Frank Sinatra on karaoke night.

Anton: (not his real name) Anton once studied to be an Orthodox priest. Most Americans categorize Christianity into either Catholic or Protestant. There is a third category: Orthodox. Yet the priests who were training Anton led him into all sorts of sins. These sins were so damaging that Anton does not like even talking about it.

But it didn’t quench his thirst for God. Anton heard the gospel many times at camp and he told me that the friendships he developed at camp, particularly with the American Campus Crusade college students who were helping to run the camp, were more important to him than his Serbian friends.

Speaking about Jesus with Fedor at a coffee shop along the Adriatic.

Fedor: Fedor has his doctorate in Film and Movies and is a member of Mensa, the society for the “super intellectual.” Fedor said he heard that this English camp had a religious twist to it and he came expecting to be preached at. He also came ready to do battle with the “religious zealots.” But, he told me, he was disarmed by the kindness and genuine faith of the people he met.

When I gave an optional seminar on the Historical Reliability of the Bible (same as I gave a two weeks before in Sarajevo), Fedor sat in the front row and asked honest, seeking questions. I explained the gospel several times to Fedor and he said he found the gospel message “very attractive.” Fedor, to the best of my knowledge, has not trusted Christ yet but seems oh so close. Please pray for Fedor! He text messaged me after the camp was over and said, “I count this time spend at (the English language camp) as best summer experience ever. Thank you for being an important part of it…”

Teaching American culture to Serbian students, like country-western dancing, was part of our English camps.

There are many city blocks in America with more evangelical churches than all of Montenegro, which has only 3. Please continue to pray for the Balkan countries of Southeastern Europe. Many Christians chalk these countries up as a part of Christendom but there are more Christians in Middle Eastern countries than exist in many of the countries of the European Balkan Peninsula.

Quentin and Rebekah at the beach and EB and Savannah celebrating the 4th of July.

EB and I felt like this English camp might be a great place for families to bring kids and do evangelistic missions work. It is right on the beach and in a beautiful part of the world. Let us know if this even might be a possibility for you for next summer.

In addition to significant ministry, there are beautiful cities to explore such as Budva, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its beautiful but there is much work to be done for the sake of the gospel along the Adriatic Sea. The Balkans need authentic examples of the gospel and they need laborers who will live it out. Please come!

Dubrovnik: A jewel of a city along the Adriatic coast.

A few cultural notes: At the border into Montenegro, the border guard examined our family’s passports, noticed the Georgia plates on our van and asked if we were Americans. Reluctantly, based on cool responses elsewhere in Europe, I said yes. He gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up and waved me into his country. Throughout the country we saw signs announcing USAid, referencing the fact that America is helping this country get started in its tenure as a sovereign nation.

A truck wondering if it can get through a hand-dug tunnel on a Serbian highway.

I am also learning that I can measure the “sophistication” of a culture based on how many Coca Cola options they have. For example, a trek into any Super Walmart or Super Target in America gives you a whole aisle of Coca Cola varieties to choose from. Yet in Montenegro, we felt fortunate to find a place that sold good ole normal Diet Coke, known as "Coca Cola Lite” in Europe. The Americans at the English camp were frequently asking each other, “Do you know where I can buy a diet Coke?”

While looking for a parking place, a tiny Eastern European car (a Pulski Fiat) was straddling two places. I tried in vain to wedge our big ole minivan into the spot. But waiting behind me was a silver Audi with Romanian plates (read: Mafia), the kind of car that usually travels 100 mph on the highway and flashes its headlights at any other car that dares to drive in the left lane. So I let the parking place go and searched for a new one. However I was flagged down immediately and waved back to the parking spot. It seems the occupants of the silver Audi with Romanian plates got out of their car, picked up the tiny Eastern European car, moved it 3 feet and ushered us into the new parking place they just created!

Our van in its parking place next to the Pulski Fiat

Hey! If you have read this far, drop me an email and let me know. I always wonder how much of what I post gets read.