Dear James,

We always so love this time of the year. For us it’s a time to slow down and just enjoy the whole Christmas Season. We try not to get pushed into all the “busyness” that can so easily take over our lives. We do all we can to “Remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”

You may enjoy the TWO MINUTE video Christmas update by clicking the video below.

For us here in Budapest we decorate our house to make it feel like the Christmas’s that have so many memories. We have some of the special decorations we have had for years and years.

So as we celebrate our 25th Christmas here in Hungary this year, our two daughters will be with us. Our son’s and their families will be in Orlando and Nashville. We will miss being with them.

We will watch Christmas Movies and many Hallmark Movies and the wonderful smells of Christmas will be in our house with all the baking.

This year has been another wonderful year of serving and reaching this part of the world with the Gospel. Thank you for helping us do this!

So from our house to yours, “Merry Christmas” from Budapest,

Brenda and Jim

Dear Special Friends,

On November 8th we celebrated 41 years of being married.  Back when we said “I DO” in Gainesville, Florida we never dreamed of where “life” and God would take us.  It’s been an amazing and wonderful time. Anniversaries in America, Costa Rica, Russia and Hungary.  41 years!!!

Now here in Hungary we celebrated by taking the day to visit one of the historical Hungarian Castles/Palaces (Gödöll?),  just outside of Budapest. It was wonderful as we talked, walked, and just enjoyed the day and the memories of the last 41 years. So nice it was….

We love the Fall Season and the coming Holidays so much.  We have had so many Thanksgivings and Christmass here and we have always loved them.  Of course we miss our families during these times, but we have always been so thankful we get to do what we do as missionaries.

Special Ministry Update . . .  This past month and a half I have been in Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia and Bulgaria. Even though we have been working with pastors to start so many churches all these years, we are always humbled when we get to talk and hear the stories of the people we work with and how committed they are to reaching their countries with the Gospel.

Some of the of the names of the people I met with are Zoran, Marek, Anton, Stoyko, Klara, Milena and Hervin.  Names that are not common in English, but amazing people in our eyes. If you would meet them, we are sure you would agree and feel the same way.

This has been another amazing year of ministry, with almost two months to go.  We are expecting great things.  Plus looking to see at least SIX churches started next year. We are already planning….  We continue to focus on cities and towns with no or sometimes few churches.   We continue to invest $4000 in each of these new works.  Thank you For helping us change the cities and towns of Eastern Europe….One city and town at a time…

In Awe of His Faithfulness,

Jim and Brenda

 

P.S. We would ask you to prayerfully give a SPECIAL CHRISTMAS OFFERING… You can do it by TEXTING “cmiworld” to 77977 or by sending an offering to our office in Jacksonville.

 

Dear Special Friends,

We are already having an amazing start to the Fall Season here in Hungary.  We are so excited about these last few months of 2021.

Like many people in the world, these last 18 months have been different for us and our ministry over here.  For us it’s not been able to travel to countries like Bulgaria, Macedonia and Poland like we have done for the last 20 years.  Normally we would be visiting so many of the churches and leaders we work with on almost a weekly basis.

But we have had to adjust like so many people, families, churches, etc.

We remain so encouraged about the future.

Even yesterday I spoke to one of our key leaders we work with in Albania.  This Albanian Pastor right away talked to me about more churches he wants to start there.  We are excited with him as, of course we will help him do it.

So we go forward looking forward to what God is going to do the rest not only of this year, but plans for 2022.

One of the countries we have been able to travel to easily is the nation of Croatia, which is just to the south of Hungary.  Its been wonderful to see a new church started there just earlier this month that we were able to help them with.

We stay excited. We stay focused on what we feel has called us to do.  We stay in FAITH!  We expect Great Things.

Thank you for standing with us in all we do here in Hungary and the Nations of Eastern Europe.

In Awe of His Faithfulness,

Jim and Brenda

Dear Special Friends,

We are in the midst of an amazing summer here in America.   In just a couple of weeks we will be back in Hungary and Eastern Europe to start our 25th year there.

After being away almost two years from America we have been able to “almost” make up for it by seeing our kids/grandkids and family and friends all summer.

We are so enjoying our time in the USA.  We believe America’s Greatest Days are still ahead of her.  We get to be a apart of them.

But this summer we are  relaxing and resting and so enjoying ourselves.  In July we took a long vacation our WEST.  We started out in Denver and got a car and traveled to Wyoming, South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, Montana, Idaho, Washington and ended the trip in Tillamook, Oregon along the Pacific Coast.  Along the way we saw family and friends and hiked so much.

At the end of the vacation we were so RELAXED AND REFRESHED.   Having lived overseas for almost all of the last 4o years it was wonderful to see America from the “car windows.”  America is soooo beautiful.

We are also so looking forward to getting back “home” to Eastern Europe and continuing what God has for us there.  We will continue to help key pastors and leaders in all these countries to help start new churches.

Thank you for helping us do what we do. Please know we well know we couldn’t do what we do without your generous support.

Jim and Brenda

 

 

Dear Special Friends,

A Few days ago we were in Croatia and we were amazed once again at the opportunities we saw there. Croatia is just to the south of Hungary and about 4 hours drive from our house to the Capital, Zagreb.    We met some amazing people there and look to make an impact upon this nation this year.

We are so excited about 2021 and all that it will bring.  We are expecting big things and this year once again we will look to see new churches started here in Eastern Europe.

It was was back in January 1982 that we first left the USA to serve as missionaries and now this year we are entering our 39th year, serving as overseas missionaries.  And WE STILL LOVE IT!  See photos below.

Like most people in the world last year didn’t exactly turn out the way we planned. So many things were different.  For us it was not being able to travel throughout the countries of. Eastern Europe like we had been doing for the last 23 years.

Now things are slowly getting back to normal and hopefully by summer borders will be back open.

But in the mean time we go forward with what we fell God has called us to do.

So our plans for this year are to see SEVEN new churches started.  So many have been in the planning stages for over year now. We are ready to go with them.  We are in regular contact with leaders in Albania, Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria.

Someone asked us recently from America, “how long we were going to stay in Hungary?”  We still feel like this is where we are supposed to be and currently have no plans of leaving.  Its God’s Grace…

Thank you for helping us do all we do over here. We are well aware that we couldn’t do what we do with the support of so many in the USA that support us every month.

Excited about 2021

Jim and Brenda

 

 

Dear Special Partner,

Blessings from Budapest, Hungary once again.

Christmas!  It always been one of our favorite times of the year.  We always think of our own childhoods so many years ago for me, growing up in Wisconsin and Colorado and Brenda in Florida.

Our own families, who probably didn’t have much, but made Christmas so special for us as kids.

This Christmas will be our 24th Christmas in Hungary.  So nice.  Its usually cold here and sometimes snow on the ground and lights on the houses.  Our house will be decorated in our own traditions that we brought from America to make it feel so nice.

Of course this year, like most places around the world will be different.  For the first time our youngest daughter Audrianna will not be with us. She will stay in America and probably celebrate it with my family (Jim) in Colorado.  She is not allowed to come to Hungary because of border closures because of the Covid Virus.

But our 26 year old daughter Alexandra is with us here in Hungary so we will have her with us. So nice.  Our other three kids and their families will stay in Orlando and Nashville. We are so happy for them and a little sad for us.

But we will totally enjoy this Christmas Season.  We are soooo blessed.

We wish you an amazing Christmas. We pray you totally enjoy your Christmas Season.  I know we will… God has blessed us so amazingly we never take it granted.

We are EXPECTING GREAT things in 2021 as we continue to minister throughout the nations of Eastern Europe.

Merry Christmas to all from us here in Budapest.

Jim and Brenda

Dear Friends,

On November 8 we celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.  Yes, on November 8, 1980 in Gainesville, Florida we said “I do.”  Florida girl with a Colorado guy.  So nice.

At the end of every Summer here in Budapest we can’t help but be reminded that it was the end of the summer back in 1997 that we left the USA to first moved to Budapest. 

We think of those days when we moved here with our four children, that we thought we would be here, maybe 1 – 3 years.

Now we are starting our 24th year here and continue to love it and feel this is where we are supposed to be in God’s plan for our lives.

We are still here but three our our four children now live in the US and we have three grandkids.

As we always say, thank you for helping us reach this part of the world with the gospel. In the midst of all that is happening in the United States and around the world, the gospel goes forward. 

Special Note From Brenda…

It is such a blessing to have our daughter, Alexandra here with us. She and I love to go for walks together and we both love music. But she is a daddy’s girl, he has a special place in her heart!

We are so thankful that even though we are 5,000 miles from the rest of our family, we are able to spend time with them through video chat and internet phone calls.

Its neat to watch online at least and hanging out with our younger son in Nashville and his family on their back porch and listen to our 3 1/2 year old grandson tell knock-knock jokes, play games with him and play peekaboo with his baby brother and watch his face light up and and hear him squeal!!! That is so special, even if it is via video chat.

Also it’s so awesome to watch online our older son and his family at the beach and to see our 5 year old granddaughter in Florida ride a wave in with her Daddy on a boogie board!

On her 5th birthday we were there at her party and saw the excitement on her face as she opened the presents we sent her and hear her sweet voice as she chatted with us via video chat! Special memories!

Also talking with our youngest daughter, Audrianna, who lives in West Palm Beach, as she was walking on the beach, I could hear the waves splashing on the shore. It’s almost like we are walking together. But not quite. We have had some great conversations!

Of course it’s not the same as being there in person but we are so thankful to stay connected and we feel so close to our kids, such a gift from God!

Jim and Brenda

Dear Friends,

We are so enjoying our summer here in Budapest. Of course we miss seeing our families in the US but we have made the decision not to dwell on things we can’t really control.

Mexican Food is my favorite (Jim) kind of food and I can never have too much of it. So for my birthday Brenda took me to the local Mexican Restaurant here in Budapest called La Iguana.. As you can imagine it’s just a little different than maybe what you might find in the US but we love it. Of course I had Chicken Fajitas and Brenda some kind of Tortilla dish.

We think you will enjoy the three minute video below. We share just a little of how we travel over here and show some of the neat people we get to work with. Just click the video Link here.

Click Here or the Photo Below to Watch The 3 Minutes Video. 

As we always say, thank you for helping us reach this part of the world with the gospel. In the midst of all that is happening in the United States and around the world, the gospel goes forward. 

Since we moved here in 1997 we have lost track of how many times we have traveled to all these countries that we work and minister in.

In the first years we moved here there were very few highways in Hungary and Eastern Europe. So we took trains a lot. That was and still is so nice.

Now there are highways going in all different directions from Budapest. Here they call highways “Autópálya” (Hungarian) or use the German word, “AUTOBAHN.”

Now it’s pretty easy, even going to Slovenia or Serbia for the day and may other countries and coming back in the same day. There are speed limits on the highways. It’s usually 130 kilometers per hour. Which is in the low 80’s in mph.

The highways are very safe and we love to take them everywhere. Sometimes we take the trains or even fly as it’s pretty convenient. Budapest has direct flights to to all the major cities in the countries of Eastern Europe.

Fortunately we both love to travel so rarely do we get tired of going to so many places. The nice thing about living in Budapest in the center of Eastern Europe is that when we do travel we usually are not gone for more than one or two nights. We so like “our own Bed and Pillows.”

In Awe of HIS Faithfulness!

Jim and Brenda