A TRAVEL DIARY IN HUNGARY AND AUSTRIA
MAY 19 THROUGH MAY 31
By Rev. Robert L. Schwenck [with parenthetical comments from Bob Ause]
Friday 5-19-06
We arrived in Budapest at 10:30 am very tired. Going east you lose a day and it felt like they ripped it right out of my head. I immediately started a nasal drip and knew I was headed for a cold. We met Bob Ause and hopped on to the bus and began a trip to Lake Balaton. I kept wondering why the bus was going so slowly, and it became clear that the narrow roads and the strict speed limit were making this a safe trip instead of the dash that we make on the freeways getting home.
Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Europe, 50 miles long and at its widest 5 miles. The Hungarian Reformed Church conference center where the Auses have been staying is in Balatonfured, about one third the way down the lake on the northern shore. Our room was a very comfortable dorm room with four twin beds and on nice tiled bathroom just off an entryway with a large closet. We unpacked a little since we will be spending about six days and nights here.
At lunch time, we presented to the Auses the small heart quilt from the church via the handiwork of the PW Quilters. They were very moved and appreciative. The retreat center consists of three floors with dorm rooms. There is a separate dinning hall and kitchen in the rear of the property. It is a rectangular, cement, building with a little ornamentation on the edges to relieve the harshness of the lines. The building is painted a light yellow with white trim. And if I am not mistaken, the Auses and others did the painting. [We painted 5 rooms on the top floor. External painting was professionally done.]
The food at the center is hard to describe because breakfast, lunch and dinner often seemed to be the same – mostly lunch meats and sliced cheese. For breakfast there was, most of the time, cereal, yogurt and delicious breads with butter sometimes. For dinner there was occasionally a hot dish like meat soup or cabbage rolls. The thing I found strange was I couldn’t predict what kind of food we would be served. It seemed that lunch meats were favored with a surprise fruit here and there. It was all delicious, but seemed strange at first to be eating breakfast food for dinner and vice versa.
Bob and Tammy gave us a little history lesson about the Reformed Church in Hungary. It starts with the reformation in Germany and Switzerland and eventually brings the reformed view of faith (Presbyterian type) to Hungary from the Dutch [Swiss] Reformed missionaries who planted churches in this strongly Catholic country. [Many early Reformed pastors were educated at Reformed Seminaries in Holland.] The story continues through wave after wave of marching armies sweeping over the fertile plains of Hungary some from the east ([Tartars,] Turks, Russians) and some from the west (Austrian and Germans). They have never known a long period of independence, but did have much peace during the reign of the Austrian Hapsburg Emperors. They never had a very strong central government and always represented a breadbasket to the other countries about it. They were allowed some independence just before the First World War, but when it ended, two thirds of their lands were given to the neighboring nations.
When we were interviewing some young seminary students later, they kept alluding to the natural boundaries of Hungary. They were referring to the mountains and rivers that use to define the larger Hungary before the WWI. When much of this territory was divvied up after the war there were many Hungarians caught in a foreign country as persecuted minorities even though they had lived there for generations. The independence they enjoyed after WWI was short-lived when the Germans invaded, and after the war the Russians took over. [Actually, the Hungarians sided with the Germans in WW2. Hitler returned to Hungary the lands that they had lost in the Treaty of Trianon at the end of WWI. The Soviets “liberated” Hungary from the Fascists.] But now since the crumbling of the Soviet Union they are free again, albeit as a small land area, about the size of the State of Indiana.
They are still learning what it means to be free. They’ve recently joined the European Union, but do not yet use the Euro as their currency. One of the greatest difficulties Hungary faces is its language. It is not like any other language in all of Europe. No one knows its roots, but it is not easily learned nor used. So it contributes to their isolation and economic struggles.
The Reformed Church is still struggling with how to be free, much less creative, but small glimmers are appearing and Bob and Tammy have played a role in making that happen. The church is very much tied to the tradition and forms that kept it alive during days of persecution and repression. It would be very natural to hang on to the life raft that kept you afloat during great storms even after the storm has past. This hanging on is partly what keeps the church faithful and partly what makes it ineffective in reaching out to a new world that has engulfed it, and to which it is sent to preach the gospel. This is of course the challenge of the church in every age and in every place. Bob and Tammy have done a little bit of seed planting and our hope is that these seed grow and feed many with vision of hope and creative response to a strange new world.
Just a quick word about Bob Ause, (along with Tammy and the girls). I have never seen Bob more happy, more alive, or animated than when he is speaking with Hungarians in Hungarian. He is constantly laughing, joking, sharing and saying “Yo” a lot. It means [“good”, but seems to be used as] “Yes”, “OK” and “Uh Huh”. Bob is really in his element here, and I wish he could find a way to regularly teach and share his insights with the Reformed Church in Hungary. I’m not sure Tammy and the girls are ready for that. They seem to be ready to return to their comfortable home in San Juan Capistrano and their huge circle of school and church friends.
We were very ready for testing of the beds and hardly had time to say good night before I began to snore.
Saturday, 5-20-06
We met our guide, Virage (Flower), a beautiful young woman who works normally as a lobbyist in Budapest. We took the bus past Lake Balaton. We were told that this lake contains over 40 kinds of fish. It is rather shallow so it freezes over in the winter and is warm during the summer. It is ideal for vacations. There is a bicycle path all around the lake making it over a one hundred mile trip.
The weird little bus chugged up the hill from Balatonfured toward Veszprem and passed through stands of trees with a great variety. Cottonwoods, pines, chestnuts with tall white blooms were gathered together in patches. The rest of the rolling land had cherry, walnut and apricot trees planted in neat rows. The cotton from the cottonwoods was flying everywhere. It looked like a light snowstorm. I captured a puff of the cotton and took a closer look. It had inside its white fibers three seeds, small and black and I suppose ready for the planting. Along the road there were wildflowers: something like Queen Anne’s Lace, red poppies, blue and white and yellow blooms made beautiful boarders for the fields of barley grass and yellow rape seed from which they get canola oil. We entered a valley that followed a stream up to a higher plateau. In the valley were several farmhouses with attached waterwheels, not now grinding grain but proudly proclaiming another era.
Our first sight of Veszprem was the top of a tall twelve-story apartment building, famous for how ugly it is and for being a model of the communist idea of how life ought to be more efficient. They built these apartments without kitchens so that the people would have to come to the central cafeteria downstairs. It would be more effective and produce a few more jobs. Of course it never really worked, but there it is in all its non-glory. Now that Hungary is independent, those who want to rent these inexpensive apartments must promise to build a small kitchen before they can move into the building. There were other socialist buildings in the same area adding to this part of the city a look of a concentration camp. Perhaps that’s not far from the truth.
We walked through this island of sterility and entered the old part of the city. What a wonderful difference! Here was elegance, satisfying symmetry, and variety without being too ostentatious. Veszprem is a city of about 60,000 souls. It is the birth city of Hungary’s first king, Stephen. He ruled with his queen Gizella around 1000 AD. They are many statues honoring this royal pair all over Hungary. There is a University in town of a bout 8,000 students. It is primarily for an engineering degree. The most interesting sights in Veszprem are the churches. There is a beautiful green onion-domed church dedicated to St. Margaret. This is the same saint to which St. Margaret’s School is dedicated in San Juan Capistrano. There was a cute red stone church that we passed which I did not get information on but would have liked to have gone inside. In Hungary (not true in other countries) you can tell the Protestant church from the Catholic by looking and the ornament on top of the steeple. The Catholic churches sport a simple cross and the Reformed and others show off a kind of spiky globe, a star, I suppose pertaining to Bethlehem’s famous one.
This is the city to which the Ause girls must be bused daily for school. It is a long ride to sit in classes, which were barely comprehensible to them. They are very brave little girls and they have adjusted very well and learned the language.
On the way home, Bob helped us understand the situation in the Hungarian Reformed Church. Among other things which need reforming again is the way the minister and laity understand each other. In our reformed perspective, there is the highly regarded tenet, “The priesthood of all believers.” What it basically means is the every Christian has a direct access to the heavenly Father and that we all have one high priest, Jesus Christ, who represents us to the Father. Thus, we do not need earthly priests as our mediators or go-betweens or necessary bridges between the earth and heaven other than Jesus. The other side of this truth is that we are all priests to each other. We all have the responsibility to mediate the love of and the knowledge of God to one another. This does not mean we do not need ministers. Ministers are called by God to study and interpret the scriptures, lead in worship and give pastoral comfort. But only God is lord of each person’s conscience. So the minister by training and by appointment proclaims, but each Christian has the responsibility to mediate the truth to each of the members of the body of Christ.
What has happened over the centuries and especially during the Communist repression is that the ministers have had to do the whole thing. The people faded back, did not step forward to do the work of ministry as they were individually gifted. The fact that in some cases it was the minister who was the spy for the Communists reporting subversive ideas and attitudes to the KGB did not help the people trust the minister nor the church. So today much of this, “let the minister do it all, teach everything and make all the decisions” is still the style of church life. There is no way to reach out or minister adequately with this attitude. Change is on its way, but is being resisted by some ministers and also by the suspicious people who haven’t gotten over being under communist rule.
This I’m sure is a very inadequate understanding of the situation of Christ’s Body in Hungary, but it is my best for now. Perhaps when Bob Ause returns he will be able to paint a more accurate picture.
Sunday 5-21-06
Our breakfast consisted of cold cuts, bread, butter and jam, cheese and cucumbers. We traveled into Balatonfüred for worship at the White Church; that’s what they call it. It is the Reformed Church congregation of Balatonfüred, and is the church where Bob and Tammy have worshipped, sung in the choir and fellowshipped. Bob had asked me to write a prayer of illumination. The pastor, Rev. Ferenc Miklos, had asked Bob to ask me. We met the pastor before the service in his office. There was no communication between him and me except a few words of greeting which Bob translated. There was much smiling and eyebrow-raising as the pastor prayed before we went in for service. Bob and I processed with the pastor and the elders into the very formal sanctuary. We sat with our group in the front row.
There is an interesting arrangement in this church which I am not sure is followed in others, but perhaps. The front door leads you into one of the sides of a rectangular floor plan. The communion table is in the center of the church on the long axis away from the door that we entered. It faces a long set of pews which go only about ten rows deep. There are two balconies at the long ends of the sanctuary with the organ up in one of the balconies. There are about ten long rows of pews facing the communion table, while the majority of seating is on the long sides to the right and left of the table in the center. The pulpit is high up on the side of the church wall off to the left of the communion table. The pulpit is like a very ornate, large egg made of beautifully polished dark wood and gold trim. The egg is cut about two thirds up, and the top is raised above the preacher’s head. The top part of the egg is filled in with a flat sounding board. Actually, the shape is more like a large vitamin capsule, but egg sounds better. There were no visible stairs leading up to it, so I spent too much of the first part of worship wondering how in the world the preacher was going to get there.
The time came for the scripture to be read and the sermon preached. That was the clue for Bob and me to get up and go to the lectern area behind the communion table. I prayed for the Holy Spirit’s help in hearing the Word of God. I prayed it in English and Bob translated each line into Hungarian.
O great Creator, Lord of wisdom, Source of all love,
We come seeking the truth,
Needing light for our pathways
In a dark and confusing world.
Open our ears to hear,
What your Spirit desires to say to us today.
Empower your servant to preach
Your eternal and creative Word,
So that we may be
More bold and skilled in serving you,
With all our hearts, all our minds and all our souls.
Amen.
When we returned to our seats the preacher was up in the pulpit. I still had no clue as to the pathway into those rarified heights unless he levitated. The sermon began, and, though I did not understand one word of it, I did understand the sincerity and conviction with which it was delivered. The pastor had prepared an outline of his sermon for us, which Bob translated into English.
Luke 10.30-37, The Good Samaritan
It seemed to me that being that high up and enclosed in such a small space would be way too confining. However, the acoustics were wonderful. The singing was strong.
Then I saw it. The pastor reappeared from behind the communion table where there is more polished wood. He came through a pivoting door that quickly closed behind him. And from there he conducted the last part of the service. The choir had not sung at all up to that point and then they treated us of a beautiful anthem. This is the choir in which Bob and Tammy have sung for this year, and the choir has been a very strong social support for them in this strange land. After their choir’s offering, we all went forward behind the communion table and Bob introduced us. We presented a tile to the church with a picture of the San Juan Mission on it. Bob also spoke of the connection between San Juan Capistrano and Hungary. (N.B. San Juan Capistrano is the Spanish version of an important saint in Hungarian and European history. He was from Italy and came to aid of the then leader of Hungary, Janos Hunyadi Corvinus. In the mid 15th century the Turks were attacking and moving closer to the Hapsburg Empire’s southern border, modern day Serbia. Janos and St. John of Capistran lead a decisive battle at Belgrade—called Nandorfehervar in Hungarian—in October of 1456. These two leaders brought together a ragtag bunch of Hungarian peasants and farmers and fought off the veteran army of Turks. This victory kept the Turks out of Hungary for another 70 years until 1526. There is a plaque near the entrance to the Mission that was dedicated by Cardinal Mindszenty that tells this history.) We also presented the church with a postcard picture of the Mission and the text of this plaque in Hungarian on the back.
We took a few photographs of the church and then went in our funky bus with the choir to a vineyard where lunch and conversation was to be shared with them. Several of the Hungarians spoke excellent English and they were scattered around the room. Bernie and I had the good fortune to be next to Bela. He is the owner and operator of a water skiing system on the lake. This is one of three in Hungary and one of 120 in the world. This is an invention of a German (who else) that uses about a mile of cable suspended high above the water by towers. One tower is placed near the shore the others are out in the deeper water, kind of like a watery baseball diamond. There are lines that hang down from the cable on which the skier holds and moves around the diamond at varying speeds, depending on the skill of the skiers. If you fall off the line, you swim to one of the towers and wait for the pick-up boat to take you back to home plate. Bela was very helpful in interpreting what the other Hungarians were saying.
We were treated to some Hungarian folk dances, three different wines and then a tour of the wine processing area underground. The choir sang for us in the cellar which has a wonderful sound.
We returned to the Conference Center for a moment to freshen up and change clothes and then some of us went off to Veszprem to experience one of the few Reformed Church attempts at a contemporary worship service. The Veszprem church building is new and built in a more modern style. This is one of the few new church developments for the Reformed Church and is, therefore, a very important example for new congregations in the future. The pastor is a young female, Zsuzsa (Susan) Zavodi. The worship service was very loose and totally lay-led, which is highly unusual. Some of the songs were familiar, but of course they were sung in Hungarian. So we mostly “Oooooed” along.
This new church building is located in the center of a large cluster of sterile socialist block apartment buildings. These prefab apartments were built to the tune of hundreds of thousands in the 1960s and 1970s. They are typical social country landmarks. These days they are used as starter apartments. Such communities never had churches planned in their zoning and yet they contain huge numbers of people in close space.
A challenge associated with these housing areas is that the occupants want to move on to more desirable housing as soon as they can. Many of the people attending may move to better housing in a few years. Still, these housing areas are huge mission opportunities. As we left the church, the pastor presented me with a book about the founding of the church and the history leading up to it. Inside there were many pictures of children in church school and at church camps but the pictures were from 1939. Bob Ause shared with us that a great spiritual revival occurred after the Second World War. Many of the older people we see in church now became Christians in these revival youth camps. Now, however, there are very few children or young people in the churches. But because of the Communist restrictions on youth ministry and anti-church propaganda their children and grandchildren are not in worship. Now the Hungarian Reformed Church faces a huge task of reaching the new generation without the help of family support. It is an up hill battle, but this new church development is a beacon for the future and it deserves our constant prayer.
We returned to Balatonfured in the rain, had cold cuts for dinner, and did a little writing and praying for these faithful Christians in Hungary, who have had to face more difficulty than I will ever know and yet are committed to serving Christ in an uncertain future.
Monday 5-22-06
Bernie got up early enough to walk down to the Lake. We found it shallow, milky and calm. There were small sailboats tied up to the pier close in. Out at the end in deeper water there were sightseeing boats moored. I was told that the lake is about 30 feet deep in the deepest points. So it is rather shallow in most parts. This is why it is not clear, because the wind stirs up the bottom all the time. This is very similar to Lake Elsinore, except that this lake is 50 miles long. There were a few fishermen on the jetty, most with spinning reels and very long rods, perhaps 14 to 16 feet. I was told there are 40 different kinds of fish in the lake, but it wasn’t clear why the rods had to be so long until I looked at the inside cover of a book on the lake and saw an old etching done of fishermen pulling in huge Sturgeon. I guess they catch one occasionally. I saw one fish caught that had very large scales and another floating dead that looked like an eel. Strange fish!
The rest of the group came down to the jetty and we waited for the boat that would take us out to the large peninsula on which the Tihany Abbey is built. The ride took maybe fifteen minutes and we were met at the new dock by a tractor pulling four passenger cars. We jumped on and it took us out to the tip of the peninsula where one of Bob’s friends from the church choir, Peter, who is a ferry operator, treated us to a ferry ride from the peninsula to the south shore. Once on the south shore we stayed on the boat and returned to the peninsula. Midway going over, the ferry turned a 360. That seemed strange to me. Come to find out one of the Ause girls had requested it and the driver obliged her request. Those girls!
When we returned, the tractor train met us again and then hauled us up to the Abbey. This Benedictine sanctuary has a long and colorful history of changing hands by war and by sale for 950 years. We walked up the hill toward the church with the two towers topped by the onion domes. There was a beautiful view of the lake and the shoreline from the base of the church.
The outside is pleasant though not impressive, but when we stepped inside there was a Baroque and a Rococo golden flourish that left the eyes wide in wonder. The chapel is small, but decorated and painted and covered with marble. There was the High altar and six others on the side crammed into this small space. The angles were flying off the wall, Mary was hovering and praying, the Christ was dying and saints were weeping on every wall and in every corner. It was the thick icing of the wedding cake formed into religious and biblical images. Inspiring, but too much.
During the communist suppression, this beautiful space was made into a poorhouse, but now it has returned to its original purpose, a house for the poverty of our souls. I am richer for having been there, but not wishing to worship there Sunday after
Sunday.
We took a public bus back to Balatonfured and the Conference Center. We were going to be meeting five young pastors of the Reformed Church who have churches in the immediate area. They all speak English and gave us a testimony of their call to ministry and the challenges of their pastoral work. Zsuzsa, the young pastor from the new church in Veszprem was one of them. They represented congregations in a variety of locations: village, city, resort town and military. They are struggling with how to hold on to their past while connecting with the world in which they now find themselves. The tornado has picked up Dorothy and she no longer is in Kansas, and these wonderful young pastors no longer are in the 19th century from which the forms of their faith have come. How do you meet the world where it is and discover the ways God is already present there and still hold onto what is good about the way it used to be? The church always needs its tradition to be a kind of keel for the boat to keep it stable, but the rudder that turns the boat must be the always changing, evolving form that the Spirit is taking at the moment. Let the winds of the world blow, but keep us faithful, Lord.
Tuesday 5-23-06
I think I could learn to hate cottonwood trees. My allergy has led to a sore throat and the sags. This too will pass, perhaps on the way to Budapest. At breakfast we learned a new blessing that is sung to the tune of Edelweiss.
Bless our friends
Bless our food
Come, O Lord, and sit with us.
May our talk
Glow with peace
Come with your love to surround us.
Friendship and love
May it bloom and grow,
Bloom and grow forever.
Bless our friends
Bless our food
Bless all mankind forever.
We left the Conference Center early and headed toward Budapest. It is ridiculous to think we could see this great city and take a ride on the Danube for dinner and return to Balatonfured all in one day. But we intend to try.
Entering the city was blur to me. But when we went to the Fortress Monument on the Buda side of the Danube, we could look out over the city and up and down the river. This over all view really helped me understand Buda and Pest (now one city). Before bridges, it was two distinct cities. Buda on the west side of the big river is up on the hills. It is where the aristocracy lived and where now many of the museums are. St. Matthias Church stands up tall along with Fisherman’s Bastion from which there is a breathtaking view. It is a narrower strip of city because of the hills, but it allows the buildings to stand up to be seen. The tile on the roof of St Matthias is particularly interesting, a colorful mosaic pattern.
On the East side of the Danube is where Pest developed. Here is where the commercial life grew up. It sprawls out on the Hungarian plain that reaches all the way to Romania. Here we found the markets, shops and large parks. Everywhere you look there are small bits and pieces of the former civilizations that have controlled this site. The Romans, the Turks, the Huns, the Magyars, the Austrians, the Germans and the Russians have all been here. The parliament building is incredible made of 365 spires and 80 statues situated right on the river. It was built in the style of the British Parliament, but made to be a meter or two larger in each dimension. There are many significant buildings along both sides of the Danube, from apartment buildings to government offices, universities and the national theater and performing arts center. All these building are lit up at night and are very beautiful. We were told that 70% of Budapest was destroyed during WWII. It is amazing how they have built it back and mostly just like the originals.
We were given a tour of the Opera House, which is smaller than the one in Vienna, but no less opulent. We sat in the balcony seats and listened to a young man tell us about the refurbishing and the central box for the emperor. It is said that the emperor came for the opening of this opera house and was so angry about it being more beautiful than the one in Vienna that he never returned.
The Danube is an amazing river. It begins in Germany’s Black Forest and flows through eight countries. It has been a main avenue for trade for centuries and one of the major outlets to the Black Sea. It is the most international of all rivers. The seven bridges crossing the Danube in Budapest were all blown up in the war, but now they are functioning just fine, having been built back approximately they way they were before the war.
We were dropped off at the river boat at 7 pm. The boat made a loop up and down the Danube while we ate dinner and had conversation with some of the people Bob knew while he was working and studying here in the city. It was a beautiful experience. The one thing I wish had happened is that we could have stayed out long enough for the lights on the buildings next to the river to come on. We saw a little of it as we started back to Balatonfured in the bus, but it wasn’t the full effect. Most of us were dead tired and slept a good part of the way home.
Wednesday 5-24-06
After breakfast, we set out for the town of Papa where Bob and Tammy have been teaching a class called Church and Religious English in the Reformed Church’s Theological Academy (seminary). This seminary is the pastor training institution of the Trans-Danubian District of the Reformed Church of Hungary. Each of the four church districts in Hungary has its own seminary. Two of these were closed during the Communist period, and this Papa seminary was one of the two that was re-opened about 10 years ago. (Bob Ause studied at the Reformed Theological Academy in Budapest from 1989-1994.) At the end of September last year Bob attended the opening worship service for the academic year. When he was there, he met four professors with whom he had studied in Budapest 15 years ago. It was like a mini-reunion. One of these professors invited him to speak with the Dean to see if he and Tammy might teach English. The Dean thought is would be a good idea and asked some students to see in any were interested. (In the past 5 years learning foreign languages, particularly English and German, has become especially important in Hungary. Hungary entered the EU in 2004, and university students are now required to know two foreign languages to graduate.) Six students signed up for a weekly class on Church and Religious English. This class continued in the second semester with four young men.
Today we are to be the English-hearing audience for the four students in the class. They have been given the task of presenting to us, in English, a ten-minute explanation of something about their home church—its history or its struggles in the environment from which they came. Bob and Tammy have taught English, but with a special focus on the language of the faith and the church.
One of the young men came from a part of old Hungary that had been given to Yugoslavia. Another young man was from Transylvania, a portion of old Hungary, which was given to Romania. Each of these young men kept mentioning this “unfair” split of Hungary after WWI and how Hungary’s natural boundaries were far larger that they are now. Obviously this Treaty of Trianon still hurts the heart of faithful Hungarians. They are aware that they belong to a church that has been repressed for 40 years under the communists, and which, though free now since 1989, still has the knee-jerk reaction at times of a people under suspicion and threatened by betrayal, a people whose instinct for spontaneity, creativity has been stifled. In 1956 when the Hungarians gave vent to their frustrations and stood up to the Soviet tanks, they were brutally massacred. We watched on TV, but I for one did not fully understand the meaning of it. These young men we heard are the sons of the generation that revolted and now yearn for the church to play a large role in shaping the future. However, the burst of freedom since the break-up of the Soviet Union and the absorbing of the cultures of the west have left the church in Hungary wondering what kind of world it is that they have been called to minister in. The tradition, which saved the church during the time of repression, is now in some ways the stumbling block to the future.
When Gorbachev gave more autonomy to the satellite nations of the Soviet Union, the Hungarians grabbed for it first. And, out of the rubble of the socialist experiment, rose an independent Hungarian Republic. The church too was granted greater freedom to worship and minister more openly, but now, as in the US also, they find it difficult to compete with the attractions of the new worldliness that has flooded in from the West. There are very few young ministers being trained for the church. Yet there is a huge emptiness which atheistic communism has left behind.
Bob and Tammy Ause in a small way have played a role in preparing a few young un-ordained ministers to be ready for this unique task of interpreting the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the new Hungarian environment. The Auses have also befriended, and I believe influenced, five or six of the local pastors of local churches. The financial help, which the people of Community Presbyterian Church and the Los Ranchos Presbytery gave has been used well and will be like vital seed well-planted that produces much fruit. We need to pray for these faithful servants of Jesus and for their communities that are now outside of the modern smaller Hungary and have become persecuted minorities in the new nations. Pray that they will continually learn to be true to their foundations in Christ while continuing to reform their traditional methods for living out their worship and doing their mission.
We enjoyed a very good lunch with the 4 seminarians and moved on to a 3:00 pm date with a world famous porcelain factory, Herend. The process and the labor-intensive handwork necessary to produce this fine china amazed us. We were also amazed by the prices they charge for their work. We returned in the rain to Balatonfured and were treated to a unique and tasty BBQ of pork and spicy sausage.
As I recalled the day, I remembered how I had thought that hearing the 4 young would-be ministers was going to be a boring task that we would politely fulfill and then move on to the really important things. However, the laborious task turned out to be a very inspiring addition to my life. It opened my eyes to the global faithfulness of God to have a witness to himself in every land and among every people. God’s Spirit is at work around the world in every social, political and cultural setting. Praise God for a divine faithfulness that sheds light no matter how dark the times become. Cu-su-num to the Lord. This is the Hungarian way of saying thank you.
Thursday 5-25-06
We began the day with a light breakfast and photos of the group around the new swing set that had magically appeared yesterday afternoon while we were away. Finally it had arrived, the gift from Community Presbyterian Church’s children. The Auses and Olah family (the Guest House directors) had ordered the set a months before, but it did not arrive until just now, the day before we leave for Austria. Very providential timing. In 2005 the Vacation Bible School at CPC took up an offering of $800 for this gift to the children of Hungary. Emily and Erica Ause were responsible for finding the appropriate gift to give on our behalf. The girls made the final choice of the swing set and slide combination to be installed at the Reformed Church’s Conference Center. We had a dedication prayer around it and asked God’s blessing on the children who would use it.
We boarded the comfortable bus and began a ten-hour drive to Mittersill, Austria. The rolling green hills of western Hungary were beautiful and yet became monotonous. A little nap seemed appropriate. When I awoke we were entering the land of “The Sound of Music.” We showed our passports and moved on past the gate. The land almost immediately began to rise up around us. We entered a valley leading to Graz and then through many tunnels, some eight or more miles long, into the inspiring Alps.
Snow covered all the peaks, and the rivers and streams were swollen to the banks from the spring runoff and recent rains. The road narrowed as we turned up a high valley with electric-green slopes and pockets of dark pine that came down to the road. Higher up, granite walls climbed into the clouds. The meadows were rich with white dandelions, bluebells and a riot of yellow flowers with a few red poppies. A few head of cattle and sheep leaned into the hills where quaint farmhouses hunkered down into the green grass. Smoke came out of most of the chimneys. I kept looking for Julie Andrews running across the meadows singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music…,” but alas, she did not appear.
We saw the castle or “Schloss” several miles before we got to Mittersill. It is on a sheer cliff overlooking the town. The bus climbed the steep hill up toward the Schloss switch-backing as we gained altitude. We stopped just off the main road and had to walk up to the castle, about three blocks. Thankfully there was a van to take the baggage up or we might still be pulling.
They had very graciously delayed the 6:00 pm dinner for us since we did not arrive until 7:00 pm. We were hungry and devoured the soup, salad and spaghetti, topped off with vanilla pudding. We were all beat from the long road trip and went to our rooms. Each room was different in some way, but ours was exceedingly large with a spacious bathroom. I think this was the rich people’s suite when the Schloss was a fancy destination for the Hollywood crowd in the 30’s.
Schloss Mittersill is a true fortress/castle over 800 years old. It was first built in the 12th century. It has burned down a few times but achieved its current form about 500 years ago. It has had several functions over these centuries. For most of its history, it was the outpost residence, business office and jail for the local “sheriff.” The district of Austria that it belongs to is called Land Salzburg. This district had a unique form of government since the leader was both political and religious leader. He was called “Prince Archbishop.” This title and position were not passed on by birthright. This ruler lived in Salzburg but appointed regional governors or sheriffs to collect taxes, enforce laws, administer justice and watch over the smaller subunits. This castle was such an outpost. In the 20th century, the castle came into private hands and was, in fact, a resort for the European and American jet set until the Anschluss of Austria by Germany in 1938. After the second World War it again had private ownership until Stacey Woods, the founding president of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship arranged for its purchase in the late 1960’s. He wanted a training center in Central Europe where Christian young adults from the Communist Bloc countries could get Biblical education. So Schloss Mittersill was purchased and became an educational center. It has been used as such for nearly four decades. In recent years with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break up of the Communist Bloc and Soviet Union, many of Christian educational missions have moved into the former Eastern Europe. So Schloss Mittersill is adapting its mission and vision in response. Nevertheless, we did meet young Christian students from Poland, Ukraine and Hungary. They are finishing up a bible school-type curriculum. The Auses have brought groups of youth leaders here from Hungary for years. They have also attended Christmas house parties, which are intended as a Christmas celebration for exchange students and missionaries who don’t return to their homes during the holidays.
The view from the castle was extraordinary. Across from us on the other side of the valley beyond the village of Mittersill were some very high peaks. Somewhere over beyond these is the highest peak in Austria at nearly 12,000 ft. It is too bad that the clouds kept the setting sun from illuminating more of the mountains’ glory. We are hoping to get a little clearing sometime while we are here at the castle. However, right now I think it is a good idea to sleep on it right after I read and give thanks for our safe trip here.
Friday 5-26-06
I awoke early and decided to wander around the castle before everyone else was up and about. It was cold and eerily quiet. I was looking for hidden passageways, but I found a nice balcony overlooking the valley instead and took some very nice pictures. However it is still overcast and therefore darker than I would like. After breakfast we went down into Mittersill to wander around. I wasn’t looking for any hidden passageways, just some unique items to this area. What we found mostly was made in California and China. The ladies were very disappointed. So there was not much buying as a result of all the looking. I think that is called shopping.
We wandered into the Catholic Church and admired the ornate altar and side chapel. Outside the graveyard completely surrounded the church. Each gravesite seemed to be a family site. There were several names on each headstone, and the small areas around the headstones were covered with freshly-laid flowers. There are no protestant churches in Mittersill. This southwestern portion of Austria is almost exclusively Catholic, except for the Schloss Mittersill. It is the study center for a protestant, international evangelical group who want it to become a university for training church workers, not necessarily ordained. They are dedicated to reach Europe with the Gospel. They have a staff of 60 and can have up to 120 students studying, although there are very few right now.
We returned to the Schloss for a fish lunch and a tour of the castle. Oh boy! Finally the hidden passageways and dungeons. We were told sad tales of war, taxes, fire, persecution and inhuman torture that “Christians” had done to others. Then the Nazis used this castle for the SS research work of the Arian Race, which was supposed to exist on high mountains. Bunk on top of bunk.
At 3:00 it was time to rest a little (that means nap) and then to wash out a few things so that they will have time to dry. After a delicious chicken dinner, lo and behold, the students invited everyone to the communications room to see – can you believe it-“The Sound of Music” with Julie Andrews. What a wonderful movie. I had forgotten how really beautiful and entertaining it is. Of course the story takes place in Austria just as the Nazis take over the country. The male lead in the story is Christopher Plummer, who plays Captain Von Trapp. Captain! Yet another mystery! How does Austria have a navy? The answer is that Austria use to have access to the Adriatic Sea. It had the 4th largest navy in the world after Germany, Great Britain and the US. The story revolves around the fact that Von Trapp was ordered to report to Germany for duty in the German navy. He hated the Nazis and did not want to serve them. But if he refused his family would be in jeopardy. So the answer was to escape Austria with his family, which they did, of course, singing all the way. I was very glad to have been treated to the pleasure of seeing the Von Trapps hiking over the mountains to safety. God bless those who have integrity and the courage to back it up.
Saturday 5-27-06
We awoke to see low clouds down in the valley. Not a good prospect for a day of sight seeing in Hallstatt, about 70 miles from here. Hopefully the clouds will lift and allow us to see one of the most awesome places in all of Austria. The trip to Hallstatt retraces a lot of our original trip to Mittersill, but seeing it going the other way allowed us to see it with fresh eyes. It is like going back through a museum the opposite way. It is amazing what you see that you missed the first time through. There must be some profound comment about seeing things from all angles so that the whole truth is revealed, or something like that.
Village after village was scattered up the green hill sides at the foot of granite spires which poked their points up into the clouds. There was always at least one tall steeple with the onion top and cross on top in every community. The homes on the outskirts of the villages were very substantial with rock walls on the first floor and weathered thick wood on the second and third floors. All the homes had the typical alpine pitched roof angle. Bob Ause joked that if you wanted to sell one of these home, you wouldn’t even think to put in the ad “home with a view”. It would be redundant. There isn’t one of them that doesn’t have a clear unobstructed view of alpine meadows overflowing with wildflowers, cradled between dark green forests just below magnificent mountains.
The road into Hallstatt was narrow and winding, very difficult for the bus, but our driver was a real professional. The village of Hallstatt is squeezed onto the steep side of cliffs that come right down to the lake’s edge. The lake is miles long and is one of the most picturesque places on earth. It’s Yosemite, but the floor of the valley is a huge glassy lake. Because of all the rain and spring melt, the lake was right up to the brink and in some places overflowing into parking lots. I saw several docks that look to be about two feet under water. The waterfall that falls in the middle of town near the church was running full, spewing out a mist like very wet clouds. All the rivers flowing into the lake and out of the lake were muddy and roaring.
Hallstatt had its beginning as a town for the workers in the salt mines above the town in the cliffs. There is a gondola ride that takes you up to the mouth of the mine. A thousand years ago this mine and its owners ruled much of this area because of the wealth that salt represented. Their power lasted hundreds of years. Salt was not just valued for its power to season food, but it represented the only way to preserve food without ice and refrigeration.
We all enjoyed a very tasty lunch and later a little apple strudel. What a glorious place this is. Sitting there on the edge of the lake, partaking of the strong coffee and delicious strudel, you get the feeling life is good, and we are very privileged to be here soaking it all up. Speaking of soaking it up, it started to rain fairly hard, and we got no sunshine by which to take photos that would do this place justice. Alas, life is unfair! But I’ll take it. Bernie did strike gold, however. She found a pair of unique earrings and bought them. Make her show them to you. Virginia is a real trooper. We pushed her in the wheelchair over the cobblestone streets and sidewalks. I thought she would vibrate to death, but she kept smiling and enjoying the beauty all around us.
We left Hallstatt at 3:00 pm so that we could make our 7:00 pm dinner at the Schloss Mittersill. The ride home began to reveal patches of blue sky and spots of sun. The peaks stood out and glowed against the gray clouds. Wonder and beauty were everywhere. “O Lord, my God, how excellent is your name in all the earth.” “O Lord, my God, how excellent is your name in all the earth.” “Oh Lord, my God, how excellent…
Sunday 5-28-06
Our eyes opened and we were in the clouds. Low clouds surrounded the castle. The town below and the fields of Mittersill were completely veiled from our view. The castle floated above the valley between the great peaks. And the tops of few pines reached up out of the mist from below and gave us a tether to the earth or we would have floated away. It was magic.
Breakfast at 8:00 am, worship in the castle communications room at 10:15 am. I began wondering how people, living in places where faith was a small part of their lives, kept their lives on track. How did they keep their lives from floating around tethered to nothing solid, stable or secure without a faith? How do they not float around in fantasy until their lives become so heavy with care, insecurity and fear that they come crashing down? When sleepy minds, made blurry by a false bravado induced by drugs or alcohol or repression, come awake and the clouds of unconsciousness dissipate and the truth about their lives becomes clear, how do they not crash? Maybe they do, and that is why so much work goes into staying asleep or fuzzy-minded.
I think if we help the clouds go away or try to provide for clarity, people will not like it. I think people, including me, hang on to our fantasies about ourselves because we are afraid of the truth. But the Lord loves us in truth not fantasy or lies. If only we believed that with all our hearts and souls.
Worship was a very spiritual experience. It was very casual in outward style, but the inner structure of the flow was very liturgically sound. It was very human, very humorous even a bit fumbling in its casualness, but that did not distract. I paid very close attention to how traditional the outline of the service was. Songs of praise, prayers of adoration, praise, confession and intercession were offered. Assurance of pardon was given. The scripture was read with meaning and it was interpreted well in the sermon. A benediction was offered. The Presbyterians wrote it down like this years ago in the Book of Worship.
The sermon was based on the 4th through the 6th chapters of Ecclesiastes. Not very promising at first. However, the theme was “plain talk and honest communication is absolutely necessary in order to reach the new generation which is biblically illiterate.” The writer of Ecclesiastes addressed the difficult circumstances of life in non-spiritual, non-religious language, the way people outside the religious community do. This must be our approach also. The writer does not feel obligated to try to give an answer to all these prickly problems, like why is there so much suffering in the world if God is so Almighty and Good? There are times when inquiring people with these questions do not need an intellectual answer. What they need is an affirmation of how real and important the anxiety, confusion and struggle they are experiencing is. They know that all honest people experience these things, including faithful Christians. We, like the writer, need to be honest about the fact that we do not always have answers and experience the anguish and tension that the biblical writer felt.
After the service I greeted Matthew who preached and told him how much I appreciated his message. I said that one of the key areas of our faith, which needs that kind of honesty, and plain talk is the death of Christ, or more to the point, the Atonement. We have so many religious phrases about Christ’s death and the importance of that event that are no more than confusing jargon and Christian babble to non-Christians. The atonement is flooded with non-biblical imagery, imagined spiritual connections and references that do not really speak to people where they live nor where God’s grace wants to take them.
We enjoyed lunch and set out in the bus to go higher up on the mountain to take a walk in the woods. However the rain began to fall and most of us opted to have hot chocolate or strudel in the restaurant. Led by Tammy and Bob with the girls, we who were brave got some exercise on the soggy road, but not much of an improved view of the Alps.
Returning to the castle at 3:30 pm, we had time to read and nap. The staff had prepared a special candlelight dinner with red and white wines, a tuna fish salad, with coronation sauce, tasty pork chops, special large tater tot-like things with cheese sauce within them and mixed vegetables. Dessert was a thin pancake like thing wrapped around cream cheese and two scoops of ice cream drizzled with raspberry sauce.
Bob and Tammy gave every one of us a ribbon (made of paper), and announced the awards for the trip. I of course got the “Why Isn’t Anyone Fishing that Stream?” award. Following these award ceremonies we retired to the large and comfortable room with a fire in the fireplace blazing hot. Each of us had opportunity to share with each other some highlights of the trip. The most consistent element mentioned was the people we were privileged to meet along the way, especially the dedicated young Christians headed for service and mission. There were tears of joy, laughter silent remembering and finally prayers of thankfulness and healing.
Up the old worn stone steps we went to once again pack, pray and sleep in readiness for our bus trip to Vienna tomorrow. Praise God for those who live and work at Schloss Mittersill and who prepare for mission around Europe and beyond.
Monday 5-29-06
We said farewell to Schloss Mittersill and its cold walls and warm staff. Richard Rodriguez stands out in my mind because he served us most of the meals. His good humor and sly smile betray a light heart at peace with God. May God watch over this 25-year-old talented and dedicated young man and all like him who serve Christ. He and his like are the hope of the faith in Western Europe. We walked down the switchback road one last time, and Bela, our driver, headed the bus for Kitzbuhel, a famous ski town where the winter Olympics has been held. We climbed out of the valley into some massive granite cliffs, took a stream’s path down toward the rolling countyside of northern Austria. The stream grew into a massive roaring river full of silt from the recent rains. Bob Ause said, “Boy I sure would like to kayak down those rapids,” and I said, “I know I could catch fish in that river.” To each his own.
As we traveled on the autobahn toward Salzburg and Vienna, we passed a meticulously manicured patchwork of fields. It was miles and miles of Amish-like country with beautiful farmhouses and crops laid out like a Mondrian painting. It is obvious that the Austrians have a different attitude toward their land and yards than I’ve observed in California. They take great pride in the appearance of their land. There are no rusting hulks in the backyards. No broken fences. No barns half collapsed. No fields unattended. It was a delight to the eyes and made me wonder about our American mindset as portrayed by the look of our farms.
Moon Lake was particularly beautiful. There were some sleepy miles during the next seven hours of travel.
Our first impression of Vienna as we approached the outskirts was one of a typical sprawling, bill-boarded city. But as we got closer to the center of this beautiful old capital of Austria, the facades of the 19th century buildings put on a show for us. We settled into our rooms in the Ibis Hotel on Schonbrunner Strasse, just down the street from another schloss, Schloss Schonbrun. This schloss was the summer palace of the Hapsburgs and was on our itinerary for tomorrow. We decided to take the underground into the center of the city. During our one train change, we had to walk through a very seedy underground shopping area. We saw a commotion up ahead. Then we noticed we were walking through smears of blood, a lot of blood. There were pools of it off to the side and splatters everywhere. Someone had been shot or stabbed. The amazing thing was that the police who were present in yellow coats did not cordon the area off for investigation. All of us commuters and those who just hang there with drugged-out stares just tromped through the blood, smearing it around even more. We decided to get out of there as soon as possible.
After the one train change, we emerged from the heavy smoke and smell of urine into the fresh air at St. Stephen’s Plaza and the very heart of Vienna. The cathedral stands there stained dark with the pollution and supporting scaffolding erected on part of the façade to clean the grunge off. We walked around the cathedral and decided that we needed to find a place to eat. We found Marie Calendar’s. Well not really, but something like it in this culture. Wiener Wald took us in and fed us chicken.
We found the #2 streetcar, which Rick Steves recommends in his book on Vienna and took it on the Ring. The Ring is the wide street that King Franz Joseph of the Hapsburgs built around the old city where the fortress walls used to be. He tore them down to build the road and erected all the important national buildings on the ring, including the beautiful Opera House. All in ten years from about 1870-1880.
After a little more sightseeing, we avoided the underbelly of Vienna, the terminal area with its blood, by walking a few blocks in the rain and going home from another station. Sometimes we use our heads. You can buy a transportation pass for a certain period of time. We paid for 24 hours. This allows you to travel on any form of public transportation in the city: bus, streetcar or underground. You do not even have to show it or put it into a gate unless some official asks you for the pass.
We took the U4 , green line, toward Hutteldorf, got off at Pilgrammer and walked the three blocks to the hotel in the rain. We had had just enough of Vienna to know we wanted a lot more. Tomorrow we would be treated to a very fine, guided tour of the city on and off the bus. We went to bed in our very nice rooms looking forward to the next day.
Tuesday 5-30-06
We met our city guide, Irene, in the lobby of the hotel, and began a very informative tour that took in the Ring again and many other spots we would never have found. She gave us more information that we could take in about the Hapsburgs’ 600+ year run and being kings and queens and emperors of a huge multi-ethnic empire. The pomp, the waste, the showing off seems ridiculous by modern standards. After WWI, the Hapsburgs were forced to leave the country. There are about 700 of their family now living and they all do normal work and live suburban lives like the rest of us. I’m sure there are some compensations or head starts that they received, and one of the greatest is probably that they do not have the burden of an empire on their backs. Trying to manage all that, by arranged marriages, diplomacy, threats, business deals and war has got to be less than fun. Sometimes less is more and simple is more profound.
Our tour included a visit to the Belvedere Palace near the South train station. This was the home of Prince Eugene of Savoy, built in the late 17th century. This was a marvelous example of baroque architecture and it now houses art exhibits. He was a Frenchman who came to serve the Hapsburg military. He was quite successful against the Turks and drove them out of Central and Western Europe in the 1680s. As a result, he became very rich and built this and a couple other palaces around Vienna. This Belvedere Palace had 20th century significance as well. It was here that the Austrian State Treaty was signed in October of 1955. This arranged for the withdrawal of the four occupying armies of the US, France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Vienna had been divided into four parts after WWII just like Berlin, only the Austrians succeeded in negotiating the withdrawal of all of these armies ten years after the war.
From the bus, we caught a glimpse of homes and residences of Beethoven, Mozart, Freud, Strauss. Vienna is a city rich with music and art. We ended our tour in St. Steven’s Plaza next to the cathedral and had about 2 hours to wander down the shopping mall toward the Opera House and get lunch on the way. Bernie and I stopped at a food stand on wheels and watched other customers get their fast food. We stepped up and Bernie asked for a “hot dog”, because she had seen another person get something like a hot dog on a plate and a round bun on the side. The lady in the wagon nodded and proceeded to pick up this humongous long loaf of bread that had a hole drilled in it long ways into which she squirted a gallon of mustard. She took tongs a pulled out this long double-Dodger-dog and began stuffing it into the loaf of bread. It took a while. She looked at me and I looked at her and we began to laugh. I, on the other hand, ordered something very sensible and diet-related, of course. We found a bench and fed half of our lunches to the pigeons. Sometimes less is more or something like that.
After purchasing a yellow scarf and grabbing a Starbuck’s coffee we arrived at the Opera House and met our group. It began to rain harder. Umbrellas are very handy gadgets. We in California do not know how to operate them very well, but we are quick learners especially when it is raining.
We took the underground again and had a close brush with some pickpockets. Marge and Mom Marge were the last to get on the car and a group of young kids came up at the last minute jostling them. Bob Ause saw them and recognized what was going on and shouted out a warning. They had opened Mom Marge’s purse, but had not had time to remove the wallet. The pickpockets got out of the car before the door closed and we were gone. We returned to our hotel rooms thankful to have not gotten taken and began to get ready for a big evening.
First we were scheduled for a tour of Schonbrunner Palace, the summer palace of the Hapsburgs. It was incredible. Each opulent room had its own decorative theme. The theme often was taken from some of the artwork that had been brought from some foreign country (many from China) and integrated into the baroque decorations. Rice paper painting, black lacquered boards with simple brush paintings. Portraits by some of the great European artists of the 18th Century hung everywhere. Huge paintings of some of the important events in the family’s history covered walls. Most of them needed repair, which seemed to have been started but not finished. Heavy crystal chandeliers hung in every room. The floors were done in a variety of special woods and marbles. Many of the rooms we examined on this “Grand Tour” were associated with Maria Theresa. She was the empress of Austria in the 18th century. She was quite a woman. She was mother of 18 children of whom only 13 reached adulthood. Her 11 daughters were strategically married off to royalty all over the world including, Spain, Mexico and France. We all know her daughter who was the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Her husband was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire so she managed the empire at home, the Austrian Empire. There were also a number of rooms where Emperor Franz Joseph lived. He was emperor for 60+ years of Austria and Hungary. His nephew was Archduke Ferdinand whose assassination sparked the beginning of WWI and the fall of his empire. He started ruling at 18 years old in 1848, a turbulent time. He died in 1917 in a room in this palace, just before the end of WWI. Following the tour, we had a few moments before dinner and we walked out into the magnificent gardens in the rain. They were getting ready for a big Mozart Concert in a couple of days. There was a temporary stage, lights and seating set up. The rain better stop or this will be a very uncomfortable concert. The restaurant for our group dinner was in a wing of the Castle, so we did not have far to go. Dinner was a three-course, beautifully presented affair. A choice of wines was offered and then a beautiful salad, with a pate began the event. Turkey stuffed with a delicate something covered with a latticework of pastry together with swirled mashed potatoes baked to a golden brown and mix-vegetables were artistically served by polite waiters. The dessert was a hexagonal piece of layered mouse. There were layers of vanilla and chocolate mousse on a layer of chocolate cake and raspberry jam, all drizzled with chocolate sauce.
After dinner we walked in the rain to a small concert hall to hear a presentation of Mozart and Strauss. It included two young opera singers and two ballet dancers. The female dancer looked a little unsure of herself, a little out of sync with the male partner. The small group of musicians played very well. I particularly enjoyed their blend. No one stuck out. Each note seemed played as one instrument. The small number of musicians was probably authentic for Mozart’s time.
We successfully put some of our people in cabs for the ride to the hotel because it was cold and rainy. The rest of us tried our luck with the underground and made it back with no problems to our exit at Pilgramgasse. After a very long day we went to our rooms to do final packing for our flight out the next morning. Wake up call is 5:30, breakfast at 6:30 and the bus leaves with bags at 7:00. Time would be tight. However, going home began to feel very good.
Wednesday 5-31-06
We woke early, rushed getting the bags down, eat breakfast and got on the bus on time. In the middle of breakfast, in walks Bob Ause’s uncle. He was to ride with us to the airport and then with the Auses back to Hungary to stay with them for several days. Close timing.
As I sat there on the bus watching Vienna pass away, I remembered that I had not written anything about The Hundertwasser House. This is an apartment building designed by Freidensreich Hundertwasser and built by the city in 1985. It is an amazing structure built with only organic materials with very organic shapes and bright colors on the façade. The artist left places in the walls on the upper floors for trees to be planted. On the roof there was a virtual forest with water fountains. There is a whimsical quality to the whole building, courtyard and souvenir shop. It is a sight well worth seeing and spending much more time at than we did.
Things went smoothly at the Vienna airport except that Pat Homewood lost her ticket, but Marge Ball solved the problem quickly. Annette was wearing her new Vienna tee shirt. We all commented how in style she looked. The flight to Paris was somewhat delayed for reasons unknown, and it put real pressure on us getting from our arrival gate at Charles de Gaulle airport to the tarmac entrance for our flight to LAX. The Paris airport is an amazing maze that spreads all over the place, with out much of a plan to follow. Efficient transfer is not easy. It is so confusing that the airline sent a special guide to take us from one side of the airport to the other and then back again. Or at least it seemed that way.
Two French young women met us as we got off the flight from Vienna. They gathered us together and lead us on a safari through a wing of the airport, under and runway, up a to a double van where we waited at least 20 minutes, which made a lot of sense, since we were late. In the meantime, Virginia had been taken in the wheelchair by another guide. She was going to be given special attention. Apparently she was given a tour through the rest of France and then parked in a forgotten place.
We finally started boarding the 757 and discovered, that in spite of months of requests and dozens of calls, Bernie and I were separated by an aisle and another person. It seems to be beyond the capacity of Air France to put two people with the same name together and in the seats they requested. We finally just settled for 11 hours of flight, sleeping on some stranger’s shoulder. Marge did a quick reconnaissance of the airplane to count heads and discovered that Virginia was not in the airplane, well not in a seat anyway, perhaps, given the way things were confused, she ended up in the baggage compartment strapped to her wheelchair. Marge got hot! And she got the runaround by the flight attendants. It wasn’t Air France’s problem according to them. The company that Air France hires to give this sort of special treatment is the problem. She tried to relax for our trip because there was nothing she could do from 36,000 feet in the air. One thing that helped was when Marge got up to get a snack, a man leaned over to tie his shoelace. As his pants strained on his ample waist his belt slipped down exposing very ample buttocks and all. Marge said that in all the time she has been flying it is the first time she has been mooned on an airplane. But, when you think about it, this is Air France, so there should be little surprise.
I tried to put my flying anxiety far from me by listening to classical music, but the first time we hit some turbulence, fear grabbed my stomach and tried to yank in up through my mouth. Actually, the trip was fairly smooth.
So Virginia had to sit in her wheelchair for five hours waiting for the next flight. When we arrived at LAX Marge got us going on the shuttle and then she had to stay back the five hours and wait for Virginia to arrive and make sure she got home. What we heard later was that Air France was very apologetic. Too little, too late.
Since our arrival home I’ve been trying to assess our trip, searching for the highlights or perhaps the most profound moment. We saw so many incredible monuments to human ingenuity, human pride and human need for protection. We saw examples of human genius for engineering, solutions to physical problems like bridges, beautiful expressions of faith like cathedrals and altars. We saw beautiful rivers, magnificent mountains, gorgeous fields of flowers and lovely lakes. We heard of the leadership of the Hapsburgs until WWI and saw pretty monuments to war heroes. But the stupidity of the wars was mostly hidden. And the dark powers of the human prideful heart were not very evident. Perhaps they should be left in plain view like the Holocaust Museum so that we do not forget what we humans do to each other, often in the name of religion. What is that saying? “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.”
So what were the key moments for me? This question, I am sure, would be answered differently by every person on the trip. But for me it was faces. Faces and the faith they expressed. The faces of the four seminary students struggling to express their faith and vision of the church, trying to explain their home church experience and the future they believed was out there, struggling to explain something of their faith journey and their hope for the Reformed Church in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. Faces with sincerity shining in them and insecurity about how their faith can survive the waning interest in Christ among the young city people and the dwindling numbers in the village churches where all the young people are moving to the cities.
The faces of the five pastors we had lunch with and with whom we discussed how they saw the future of their congregations and the Reformed Church in Hungary. They were not entirely hopeful, nor sure of the pathway into the future, but their belief in their having been called to serve Christ in the church in these uncertain times was fiercely secure.
The faces of the choir from the White Church in Balatonfured also held something important. They are people who love their God and his church. They love singing God’s praise with the traditional hymns. To me the worship seemed stiff, rigid, and hopelessly tradition bound. I do not think they would like participating in the casual guitar service we experienced in Vesprem. But their faces were very alive to the goodness of our Creator, the love of his Son, Jesus, The Christ and the sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit.
Faces. I’d have to include Emil, the director of the Conference Center, and the Auses in this gallery of faces of faith. I can’t imagine doing what they have done. Moving to a strange country with a difficult language and a resistant tradition, yet there they are. Loving students, encouraging pastors, working on the Conference Center, teaching English and exhibiting to us a faith worth watching and learning from. Their faces are perhaps the most expressive to us because we know them and love them.
It brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart to see first-hand how there are faithful people everywhere on the earth. They may be struggling with how to reach the hearts and minds of their own people, but they are trying, they are praying, they are worshipping and singing God’s praises. They are preaching about the love of God and the grace of Christ and the healing of the Holy Spirit. Some are putting their lives on the line in cultures and religious environments that are hostile to Christ, who is the only one who can bring the peace and wholeness they want. Some are courageously trying to find their way into faithfulness in very difficult circumstances. They know that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and full of grace, that the Spirit is fully aware of the future and will direct the followers of Jesus into that confusing but hopeful future to speak and to live the truth.
At many meals we sang the Doxology, and so I offer it now as a declaration of Christ’s Church everywhere:
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise him all creatures here below.
Praise him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”
God bless the church of Christ in Hungary and Austria.
