Merry Christmas - A Giving Time

Giving out gift bags to each child at the orphanage - calling each child's name.
Singing to the nursing home residents.
Walking through Diosd to sing carols to each of the shops and businesses.



This is our first Christmas in Hungary, and we have had fun experiencing new traditions, some of which I will post later. Christmas always seems to bring new opportunities to serve other people, which always brightens our hearts and makes us feel less homesick for our families back in America. The first picture is our trip to the Velence orphanage. A group from our school went to this orphanage where 94 children live, ages 4-18. Each child received a bag of clothes and toys! The orphans did a small play for us, and our group also had a program for them - a clown who shared the Gospel, and a showing of the "Punchinello" movie in Hungarian. As a gift to us, they presented each person with homemade beigli, a special Hungarian Christmas bread!

Joshua's school also took a walk through Diosd singing Christmas carols to the local shops, police station, post office and city hall. The pictures above are of the children's group stopping in front of each place, while it was snowing!! When the children would begin singing outside, the shop owners would quickly come to the door and windows to listen, quite surprised. At each place the children presented the Hungarians with a plate of homemade cookies and a message about Jesus. In return, the Hungarians produced candy to give to all the children! They always give back when they are given to. After singing in front of the police station, the police would not let the children go until they had something to give them. We saw a policeman take off in his car to go to the store. In a few minutes he returned with bags of Christmas candy to give to the children!! One of the caroling stops was at a small nursing home. The people who live there are very precious, and we hope to be able to return again to visit them.

It's so amazing to be given back to when you are the one who is supposed to be doing the giving. We have been blessed.