Church Youth Group

A few weeks ago, Heidebeek hosted a youth group from a local church for a “survival” weekend preparing them for a missions trip they will be taking next summer. They slept in makeshift tents in the woods behind our house and were given all kinds of challenges, such as hanging from trees with ropes, eating around a campfire and getting pulled out of bed in the middle of the night to go on a hike through the forest.

Saturday morning, it was time for an “international” breakfast. They were sent out in groups of five to various houses here at Heidebeek for an African, Danish, Indonesian or American breakfast, the last one served up by none other than yours truly. This was intended to help them get a “taste” of missions.

Together with our (grand-)parents*

Furlough in Arizona

As many of you may know, since we got to see you while we were there, we were on furlough in Arizona in July. We enjoyed getting to see many of you even though we would have loved to have spent more time with most.

One of the main reasons for going in July was because my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in a big way. They decided to do this on Sunday morning in church with their entire church family, and it was a great way to do it, in my opinion. We would like to thank all of you again who had a part in making the celebration service(s) so special, both by your hard work before and during, but also by your presence there. Even though it was my parents anniversary, it meant a lot to us as well.

“Reverend Rodney”

Of course, any report about our furlough would be incomplete without mentioning the fact that on the last Sunday there (July 31st) I got ordained as a minister with the Pentecostal Church of God (PCOG). This was a very special service and it was even more so because I got to celebrate it together with our River of Life church family. Also, thanks to everyone who helped out with the celebration meal afterwards. A special shout out to Sean McDonald who took the wonderful photos and to Lynn and Ken Greenwall who opened up their home for the celebration meal afterwards.

Reverends Rodney and Tony Blevins*

Ordination Service*

New Staff

New Staff

In September, five new staff started working here at Heidebeek. Jolanda and her co-workers from the Personnel Department and the Staff Care and Development ministry organized a two-day staff orientation seminar. This intensive seminar is required for all new staff and helps get them acquainted with Heidebeek, living in community, the staff handbook, mentorship and living by faith, among other things.

Leading worship during the staff days

A “spirited” life

In September, Heidebeek also kicked off a the new season with their yearly staff days. The theme was “Living a Spirited (Spirit-filled) live”. We were challenged by several different teachings on the different aspects of living a Spirit-filled life. The time was very intense (or at least that’s how I, Rodney, experience it) but good.

Takin’ it to the streets

Wednesday afternoon, during the Staff Days, all Heidebeek staff took the afternoon to go out into the surrounding cities and villages to evangelize. We and our kids joined a team together with two other families and went into the local village to see if we could get into contact with people on the street. We didn’t see anyone come to Christ, but we had some good conversations. Most importantly, though, we have introduced our kids to evangelism and that they also play an important role in telling other people the Good News that Jesus loves them.

Out on the street with our kids, showing people God’s love

YWAM’s International Communication Network

On November 11th, I, Rodney will fly out to Colorado Springs, Colorado for a visit to YWAM’s International Communication Network. These are my colleagues who are helping to serve YWAM’s communication needs globally. Among the many excellent ways in which they do this, they started and help oversee the regional communication team initiative, of which EuroCom is a part, they publish the GO Manual which is YWAM’s big book of all the locations and schools worldwide, and they help maintain ywam.org.

Currently, one of the things they are doing is running the School for Mission Communication (SMC). This school, on top of the many other excellent communication schools YWAM has to offer, focuses specifically on training communication staff who will go back to their bases, nations and regions to work there. They have invited me to join them, to network with the students (maybe do some recruiting for YWAM Europe), sit in on classes, hang out with the ICN staff, etc. I have made several friends in the ICN over the last few years, but this is my first time visiting their offices, so I am excited about that.

As an added blessing, since I will be there for Thanksgiving day, my parents will be coming up to be with me and we will celebrate that together.

* photos taken by Sean McDonald

YWAM Budapest

We’ve been back in The Netherlands for almost two months now, and already a little used to being back again. And did it ever take some getting used to; being back in our little house here after living in such a castle for five months!!! Ha ha!

We have both dived back in to our work here at Heidebeek, which brings mixed feelings at times. I (Rodney) am finding it a challenge to get back into the swing of life here at Heidebeek. The office in Budapest was just so quiet compared to the busyness of Heidebeek. Jolanda is getting settled back in fairly well, but she also feels ambivalent as she stays in contact with the work she started doing for YWAM Central Europe. One thing is certain, though, that having tasted working and living in Budapest, we certainly miss it!

The most frequently asked questions!

Budapest

Since we’ve been back in The Netherlands, many people hav asked us: “Will you be going back to Budapest?”

We are hoping to have everything worked out so that, sometime next year, we can take the big step of returning to Budapest. We both feel strongly that God has given us a clear “yes!” about Budapest. This has been a process that we have been in for more than a year, but having lived in Budapest and especially now that we’re back in The Netherlands, we feel the confirmation more strongly than ever.

The next question people usually ask is: “When will you be going back to Budapest?”

This one’s a little harder to answer. First and foremost we need to increase our monthly financial support. Up until this point, the Dutch government has been our biggest supporter, in a manner of speaking. As soon as we officially leave The Netherlands as our country of residence, we will have to give up about $550 per month of social benefits that we receive from the government. Another important question is the girls’ education: will we homeschool them like we did during the trial period, should we put them in local, Hungarian school, or should we choose for the International Christian School where all of the YWAM kids are going. This last option would be the easiest and best long-term solution for our family, but that will cost about $4500 per child per year!

In other words, to be able to live in Budapest, we need to see our monthly support increase by $1400 to $2100 per month!

“Jumping into the deep end…”

We have faith that God will bring us to Budapest. How and when He will do that, is not yet completely clear. We are taking it one step at a time, being careful not to get ahead of the grace and faith He has granted us. At this time, we feel that God is asking us to start raising support before we can definitely say when we will return. This could change at some point and we ask for much prayer for wisdom that we don’t jump too soon or wait too long.

Of course, we have our share of doubts about the whole undertaking. Doubt can sometimes be good, in that it pushes us to draw closer to Jesus and rely on Him. If we felt complete confidence in ourselves, we might forget to take the time to seek Him, and that would be a big mistake. When God calls us to do something, it is often like “jumping into the deep end”, and comes with some doubt and trepidation. The question is, really, if we are going to push through the doubt onward into all that God has for us. Our answer to this is a resounding “yes!”

We covet your prayers in this and ask you to continue standing with us in prayer. Any words, scriptures, pictures or ideas you have, please let us know.

Equip Workshop in Vienna

Last week I, Rodney, attended the University of the Nations Equip workshop in Vienna, Austria. My primary purpose for going was to meet and network with communication staff working with YWAM in Europe, but I was also blessed and encouraged by the times of worship, messages and workshops that made up the busy schedule. It was also good to get to see some friends again that I hadn’t seen in a while.

Bud Speck, European comm. coordinator, Wycliffe

On Tuesday, I was also privileged to meet up with Bud Speck, the European communication coordinator for Wycliffe Bible Translators who is based in Austria. We spent some time getting to know each other and asking questions about our respective organizations and what our jobs are as communication coordinators. It was a blessing to meet up with him and we even talked about the possibility of meeting up sometime with the European communication people for Campus Crusade for Christ, and Operation Mobilisation (OM).

On Thursday, and informally througout the week, we as communicators working in Europe met up to talk about what EuroCom is and a little bit about what is going on in Europe. We discussed several issues, including what means there are for getting our news out to the different locations of YWAM Europe.

Furlough in the U.S.

In just a few days time, July 2nd, we will be flying out to Arizona, U.S.A.! The four weeks in Arizona are already filling up with activities. We will be giving a presentation in our church there in Globe on July 17th and we also want to visit with as many friends and supporters as possible. Of course, we will also be spending as much time as possible with my (Rodney’s) parents and celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary!

Thank you for the continued part you take in our ministry and our calling!

This will unfortunately be our last update from Budapest for a while, but most certainly not our last one ever. Read on to find out more.

European Leadership Forum

During the first week of March, the Central European office helped organize a forum for YWAM Europe leaders. We were pleased that more than 100 leaders participated in this event, which was held on a “Boatel” (Boat Hotel) on the Danube River. The leaders came to network, discuss and inspire around the themes of pioneering and partnership.

We heard many stories from some current pioneering works in countries such as Ireland, Czech Republic and Norway. Leaders were exhorted through the story of Caleb and Joshua from the Old Testament. Are they prepared to take on the “giants” around them in order to step into God’s promises and experience multiplication in ministries?

This forum gave leaders the opportunity to get in contact again (or for the first time) with other YWAM leaders from all over Europe, to share vision and pray with each other… working together on a strategic plan for the future of YWAM Europe.

New encounters and challenges!

During this forum, Jolanda got the opportunity to meet together with other colleagues who, like her, are working in Member Care. This meeting was very informative (as well as a blessing), to be able to hear from each other and brainstorm together about how better to fulfill their role of taking care of our own YWAM staff here in Europe. In this meeting, there were ten colleagues from Finland, Albania, Romania, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, England and Hungary.

All ten of them work each on their own base, caring for their base staff, but as a joint team they would like to focus on Member Care for all of Europe. There are plenty of small, pioneering YWAM teams in Europe who do not get pastoral help and care but who may be in need of it. As a joint team they want to bless YWAM staff in Europe with their expertise and experience.

Central European Member Care

Jolanda and Carmelita at the office

At the beginning of our stay here in Budapest, Jolanda had several conversations with Carmelita, leader of the Central European Region, about the need for Member Care for staff in the 15 countries within this region. Carmelita is looking for someone with the knowledge and experience in this area to oversee Member Care and Jolanda has started taking on the task of Member Care (pastoral care) for this region.

YWAM Central Europe

For example, she is involved at this moment with a YWAM team in Kosovo who are just forming and working through the ins-and-outs of forming a team. Together with Carmelita, she is in contact with this team via email and Skype. YWAM Kosovo doesn’t have a base or even a national structure yet, so they still fall directly under the Central European office in Budapest.

She and Carmelita also process new staff applications that are coming in from people who want to join YWAM in this region. This is a lot of responsibility, but it’s rewarding to be involved with the work of YWAM and with the workers on the ground in countries such as Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic and so on! Most of all, though, it is good to help build God’s Kingdom in Central Europe!

Back to Heidebeek

Unfortunately our “trial period” here in Budapest has come to an end. We have to return to Holland since Lisa and Sarah are required to be back in school there on May 9th. We have mixed feelings about returning to Heidebeek, especially now that we have gotten used to the pace of work and life here.

This trial period has been very good and we feel that God is calling us to return to Budapest to work here with YWAM Central Europe. Before we can realize this, though, many practical things have to be arranged. This makes it difficult to pinpoint an exact time when we will be returning since we want to arrange everything as well as we humanly can.

For now, though, we will return to Heidebeek and pick up our work and lives there. Jolanda will move back into her pastoral role of staff (and student) care and development and is looking forward to once again being part of the training and mentoring of staff and students there. She will also still be available via Skype for the missionaries/teams on the field here in Central Europe. Rodney will continue his work for EuroCom and Central Europe like he did before.

Lisa and Sarah are also experiencing this adventure with missed feelings. Their time has come to say goodbye to kindergarten, dance classes, Sunday School and home schooling. Lisa misses the children at Heidebeek and school in The Netherlands and is looking forward to seeing them again. Sarah misses Opa and her little stroller and baby doll the most. And yet, we’re sure there are things they will miss here: newly-made friends, the shopping malls, the large house, etc. We are blessed with two girls who have adapted well to this new culture, language and environment …. They have done superbly here in Hungary.

We were also blessed to have two teachers with us during our time here. We have already written about the first teacher, Janneke, and now a little about “Miss Jedidja”. She was with us for six weeks and did a fantastic job in providing daily education to our girls. Last week, Jolanda started teaching them, but they keep telling her that “Miss Janneke” and “Miss Jedidja” did it “much better”.

Sunday evening, May 1st we will arrive back at Heidebeek!

Furlough in Arizona

This coming summer we will be going on furlough for four weeks in Arizona. As soon as Sarah and Lisa’s summer vacation begins in July, we fly off to Phoenix. This is something that the four of us, and especially Grandpa and Grandma are really looking forward to.

We want to take this time to re-connect with our “partners” (supporters), family and friends. This summer will mark 2-1/2 years since we were there in Arizona. One of the main reasons, though for going this summer is because Rodney’s parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in July and that’s an event that just can’t be missed. We fly out on July 2nd and return on August 2nd so the girls will be well over jet-lag before they have to start back to school on August 15th.

We are thankful to God that we were able to book the tickets and if you would be interested in giving specifically for that, we would be grateful.

Thank you once again for partnering with us and reading our update. As always, if you enjoyed it, hit the “reply” button and let us know.

Isten aldja! God bless!

Szia (hello) is Sarah’s favorite Hungarian word at the moment. She calls it out to just about everyone she meets. We’ve been here in Budapest two months already, and we’ve already settled in nicely. Every week brings at least one new adventure of some kind or another. Mostly, just going to the store and finding what you need presents it very own set of challenges. Thankfully, most products are easy to find in one of the huge (American-sized) supermarkets or shopping malls. It’s when you can’t find something that the fun begins.

Daily Life

That is how I found myself this week in the hardware store – looking for something with which to treat our septic tank – talking to a French employee who spoke excellent English, but very little Hungarian and a Hungarian employee who spoke some English, but didn’t seem to know what a septic tank was, not even when I translated it for him on my phone (yes, there’s an app for that). With the help of some Hungarian and a drawing the Frenchman made, they managed to find it for me.

Jolanda has been taking Sarah to a weekly “Baby & Mother club” in the village where we are living. There are a surprising number of ladieswho attend who speak English, so Jolanda always has someone to talk during these times.

The girls

Sarah and Lisa are doing well. Lisa gets homeschooled every morning by Janneke, the Dutch teacher who came along with us. Unfortunately, she will be leaving us this coming Friday, but we already have the next two teachers lined up who will be joining us.

Sarah is attending a local, private pre-school and is enjoying it. She seems to be understanding some Hungarian already, but when we ask her to say something, she starts making stuff up.

Ministry

I, Rodney, continue making the daily (one-hour) commute to the office everyday. The office is located, along with Carmelita’s, with whom I am working, in YWAM Budapest’s ministry center (pictured below). Working with Carmelita just these past 5 weeks or so has already been very fruitful. Working with a leader like her is good not only for my personal development as a leader, but also for EuroCom as well. It’s good to have someone you can talk to about challenges you face, ideas you have, etc. As I have mentioned before, as good as Skype is, there’s just no substitute (yet) for working in the same office.

It has also been good for her having me in the office; someone she can bounce ideas off of and get my feedback when it’s needed.

At the moment, YWAM Budapest is also running a DTS (Discipleship Training School, ). There are four students and four staff from five different countries (pictured right).

Sightseeing

In our free time, we like to get out and see some of Budapest. It’s a beautiful city with lots of things to see and do. We are slowly getting to now our way around using buses, metros (subway/underground) and trams.

The girls, of course, enjoy the malls and indoor playgrounds.

Furlough

We are planning a visit to the US in July, partly because my parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in July, but also because it will have been more than two years ago that we were in the States.

One BIG prayer point is the finances for this trip. It will cost us a grand total of about $3500 for the four of us to fly out there. We see this as being very important, obviously to be with my parents for the big celebration, but also to visit you, our friends and ministry partners.

Thank you again for reading our update. If you enjoyed it, hit the “reply” button and let us know.

Snowball!

It was not without a certain amount of fear and trepidation that we started out on Saturday morning, December the 18th traveling in two cars from Holland to Hungary. And in spite of the wintry weather conditions happening all over Europe the week before (and even that whole weekend in Holland), the trip went incredibly well.

It did take us longer than we had hoped to get to our friends’ house in Austria on the first day, but it was if the clouds and wintry weather had been cleared out before us. We were driving on roads with snow all around us, but only a few, watery flakes fell on us as we were driving. The sun even managed to peek out and greet us on our way. Thank you all so much for your encouraging comments and prayers.

Visitors from Holland for Sarah's 4th birthday

We have been here three weeks already, and we are already settling in quite well in the new house, city and culture. The girls had Christmas break the first two weeks and enjoyed the fact the Jolanda’s Dad and Arlen, an American YWAMer from Heidebeek were with us here. Arlen flew back to Holland on Wednesday, and Jolanda’s brothers flew in on Sarah’s birthday (the 27th). We showed them all around the city for a day, and they drove back, together with Jolanda’s father to Holland two days later.

Lisa and "Ms. Janneke" her teacher

Sunday, January 2nd, “Ms. Janneke” flew in to Budapest. She and Lisa got started on homeschooling on the next day (Monday). The first week of school went well, and Janneke and Lisa both enjoyed it. Lisa is (still) enthusiastic about “going to school” in her own home.

Jolanda has also been homeschooling Sarah a little as well during reading, crafts or teaching her numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc.

Last Friday, we visited a private pre-school in Csömör (the local, public ones are all full) and on Monday the 10th she had her first day of school. She’ll go five mornings a week in the beginning until she gets used to it and then she’ll probably go three days a week after that. After our visit on Friday she was really looking forward to going and kept asking “Do I go tomorrow?” It’s going to be interesting, since none of the teachers speak any English. Three guesses which one of us in the family will be speaking Hungarian first!

Church in Csömör

We celebrated Christmas together with the small YWAM team of the Central European office. We had a great time together at Wolfgang and Chris’ (and their three kids) house along with two other YWAMers.

We have visited a local Baptist church in Csömör twice. Some of the hymns are vaguely familiar to us (and especially to Jolanda). It’s good to be making some contacts in the village around us.

It was just our little family celebrating New Year’s together. Jolanda and the girls had a good time deep-frying yummy, Dutch “oliebollen” (kind of like donut-balls with raisins).

Oliebollen!

In fact, they made so many that she and Sarah decided to bring some around to three neighbors in the street. They were all quite pleased to make our acquaintance and also a great way to make some contacts in the neighborhood. The neighbors have also already helped us out with questions we had about how things work here in Hungary.

I (Rodney) started working at the office last week. Jolanda will be spending most of her time at home for now, there’s certainly enough for her to do there. Now that Sarah will be going to school some mornings, she will be looking into what she can do either form home or here in the office. We’ll keep you posted.

I have already dove into learning Hungarian with my usual gusto, and have been following some lessons I found online. I’m the kind that likes to study first before I start using it, whereas Jolanda likes to start using what little bit she knows to try and converse with people. Interestingly enough, we are picking out a few words which are very similar to Bosnian (which we learned when we were living there). We hadn’t expected this, and it is a pleasant surprise.

Köszönöm (thank you) for reading our update. We also appreciate your emails, Facebook comments and prayers very much.

We will keep you posted on our adventure with God.