From August 24th through September 13th, Rachel and I had the privilege of leading, guiding, and orienting our newest crop of volunteers here in Central Europe as they prepare for their year-long ministries throughout the region. Much to my delight, some of our volunteers enjoy running. Naturally, I invited them to run with me on… Read More 1031Run Orientation
City Park Lutheran and the Budapest-Fasori Evangélikus Egyház are committed to being connected in meaningful ways with their neighbor’s in Christ both near and far. Over the course of my internship, I was able to be involved in many of the ways that these congregations connected with others in our community. First, in December, our… Read More City Park Lutheran Internship Part 4: Outreach and Future Planning
City Park Lutheran Church has been around for about 5 years, and has a history of diverse people coming together for worship. As the intern pastor at City Park, it has been a wonderful experience to contribute to the community building inside and outside of worship that happens at City Park. Throughout the year, we… Read More City Park Lutheran Internship Part 3: Worship and Community Building
Young adult confirmation is an important part of how we pass on our faith and traditions to the next generation of believers. It was a real privilege to get to teach confirmation to Jonathan, the one young adult in the English language worshipping congregation. This post is to give you a quick overview of how… Read More City Park Lutheran Internship Part 2: Confirmation
Last week, Zach and I were invited to help out with a vacation Bible School this last week in the village of Križevci, Slovenia. From our understanding, Vacation Bible School, as many young children who attend church might experience in the summer is not terribly common in this region. Pastors Mitja and Judit were excited to… Read More i feel sLOVEnia
Throughout my time as an intern at City Park Lutheran, I was also a Lutheran Religion Teacher (Hittan Tanár) at Városligeti Magyar-Angol Két Tanítási Nyelvű Általános Iskola. This translates to City Park Hungarian-English Bilingual General School. At the school I taught four small classes of students: 1st Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, and 7th Grade.… Read More City Park Lutheran Internship Part 1: Religion Teacher
The road to an all-inclusive, all-welcoming, all-participating church on earth takes us down many unique and diverse roads. Over the past few months, I’ve been pounding the pavement (and some dirt roads), on the road to running 1031 miles in this Reformation 500 year. This past week, I hit a big milestone on the reformation… Read More 500 Miles : 500 Years
The Kirchentag, or “Church Days,” event is held every other year in Germany. On the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, Kirchentag was held in Berlin and Wittenberg. With over 2500 events within five days, 100,000 full-time visitors, and 30,000 active participants it is no small event! The theme of this year’s event was “You See… Read More “You See Me” Kirchentag 2017
This week, Zach and I had a chance to gather together with other pastors from mainline Protestant denominations who serve English language congregations in Budapest. Together, we shared a meal, ideas, prayers and community. It was a wonderful experience to get to know some of our other siblings in ministry here in Budapest. Pastors from the St. Columba’s… Read More Ecumenical Lunch in Budapest
The hymn by Martin Luther “A Mighty Fortress is our God” is a popular anthem for many Lutherans around the world. In Hungary, “Erős vár a mi Istenünk” (Hungarian for “A Mighty Fortress is our God”) is more than that title of a hymn sung on Protestant Reformation Day, but the greeting offered between Hungarian speaking… Read More A Mighty Fortress is Our God: YAGM Lenten Retreat in Romania
