Leo's music

Being a Christ follower over the years has placed me in a variety of different communities of faith. I've experienced really large churches (over 1000 members), medium sized churchs (300), really small churches (50 plus) and even went to an African-American church for about a year during college. Sometimes I honestly wonder why Jesus said He loves the church and then I remember. It's all about the people. It's not about a building, traditions, forms, but the people.

Since our large American team arrived in Budapest in 2006, our plan has always been to build up the community of faith for people in Hungary. Of course, the purpose in this is not to do it our way but to look for what resonates as Biblical culture for Hungarians and to see God raise up Hungarians. So we work with a handful of different Christian organizations and churches in Budapest, and our goal has also been to bring together people we connect with and who connect with us -- encouraging them to faith in Christ.

Leo is one of those guys who started to come around six months ago. He's an actor and an artist. I first met him at my polish friend Ela's flat when we had coffee together one Sunday afternoon. He told Ela he'd like to come to church with us the following weekend and he's been coming ever since.

Yesterday we met in my flat (since almost everyone is gone for the summer) and Blake and Laura led our small group. I enjoyed the encouraging thoughts - basically that we need to be thoughtful about how we live our lives in the world, remember to always continue learning and growing and finally to laugh often. This is pretty much my life theme anyways "Live well, Laugh Often, Love Much" so it only served to affirm things that are very important to me.

After we were done, I brought out the guitar and we talked about music and how I'm trying to re-learn a few chords. I played the Jennifer Knapp song "Refine Me". Then I asked if Leo knew how to play, just to keep conversation going and keep things FUN.

He sheepishly said, "Well, I do but the song I know best I'm not sure you guys would want to hear. But it has a really great beat and its in Hungarian." We were like, "Of course we want to hear it!!" Then he said, "Well, I just don't know if it's appropriate for here....it's called "I miss my marijuana." Blake, Laura and I were like...."Play it! Play it Leo! Come on!"

Finally, we convinced him.