Weather, Roommate and Suicide

A storm front made its way to Budapest just before I arrived last week. Every day the weathr seems to fluctuate but mostly it's just cold. My immune system has to get used to everything here again. It seems I caught a cold and I'm fighting it with every vitamin known to man. I opened my packet of hand sanitizer from the states and started using that on the metro too.


My new roommate, Anna, is wonderful. Although she has been really sick as well, I know that once we both start feeling better we're going to have a ton of fun. Last weekend we met a bunch of South Africans at a wine tasting festival and it was a divine contact. Tomas is the managing editor for Diplomacy and Trade. He and his wife are Hungarians but lived in South Africa and South America as kids. They are believers and were telling me about an intercessory group that meets regularly. Tomas offered me to write for the magazine here in Hungary. It's an english publication on a variety of topics but of course somewhat centered on diplomacy and trade. We will see what happens with that.




I've spent most of my time with Peter and Nori, the two Hungarians God has brought into our sphere of life. Last spring it was exciting to be a part of Nori's journey to faith in Christ. Now, she is living it out and learning so much. We are going to start getting together again soon so we can talk about the basics.

The American teacher that I worked with last year called to say that another student at our school committed suicide. I didn't know or teach him but nonetheless it has been a traumatic event for students. I spent some time this week looking into this phenomenon as suicide seems to be a "solution" for Hungarians who have problems. Apparently, according to the World Health Organization, Hungary is ranked 6th in the world of known suicide rates per 100,000. I'm always a little hesitant about posting statistics because this probably doesn't include other parts of the world where little is known or where people cover it up to protect those who died. Nonetheless, it is a resident evil here in Hungary. People think that this will bring them ultimate happiness. Last year I had a suicidal student and I had an opportunity to talk to him about a lot of things. I told him it was selfish and that it wouldn't bring him happiness. I do pray God gives us the creative ideas and opportunities to speak into this area, how to save a life.

That's all for now.