Back in Budapest (reflections on our recent trip)

Written by: Amanda Buck

Finally, the review of our trip to Hungary! First off, God's goodness was evident everywhere: in travel, visiting with friends, sharing meals, and experiencing His faithfulness in unexpected ways. 

First and foremost, because it’s us; the food was incredible! We enjoyed traditional Hungarian dishes and were delighted by Hungarian versions of foods we love from home (burritos, pizza, burgers). 

One unexpected joy happened at church when Daniel spotted a familiar face of a friend we had no idea would be there. He lives in another country and was leaving Hungary that morning! (he was actually only in the service for about 30 minutes!)  His jaw literally dropped when he saw us and we got to have a brief catch up on life. It felt like a little gift from God. 

Celebrating Easter in Hungary was particularly meaningful. Witnessing resurrection hope in a place that we had conflicting feelings painted a beautiful picture of what Easter truly means. In many ways God breathed His new life into us in our time there.  

It truly felt like God was “showing off” his love and kindness during our time there. God brought to mind songs about his faithfulness and goodness that we had forgotten about.

We got to see friends that are “family” and have sweet time together, hard conversations, and silly conversations. 

The trip included visiting some difficult places with heavy personal history, where evil had left its mark. Walking through those spaces was challenging, but there was something redemptive about praying through them and seeing the power they once held gone. We felt like God really spoke to us about learning to recognize the difference between a hard place and an evil place. We went back to the NICU, a space that represented one of the hardest times in our lives, and God’s kindness was almost overwhelming. The sun was shining and babies were crying in the open space in the arms of their families (a wonderful sound, not a bad one since babies weren’t allowed to leave their bassinets while we were there!) and He showed us that even though a physical space may be hard and we may even feel abandoned there, it is all still His. 

Amanda also had the opportunity to connect with one of the girls she had met with weekly to have conversation with in our time there. It felt like a vale had been lifted, the conversation was so real and deep. She is struggling with a lot of shame at school (she is incredibly smart!) and trying to figure out what she believes in such a beautiful and honest way. If you could pray for God to make himself as overwhelmingly evident to P as he did for us. 

Even the difficulty of not taking Arlo along was softened by the absolutely amazing time he had with his grandparents while we were gone. We prayed the time would be exactly what we needed (long enough to do and see all we needed) and short enough for Arlo (so he wouldn't feel left behind) and it was exactly that.

We are incredibly grateful that we were able to visit again and be blown away by God’s goodness, especially in a country that we have missed and had complicated emotions about for 2 years now. We kept waiting for the waves of grief or other negative emotions to maybe take us out, but even when we experienced some hard things, God made Himself so evident that he couldn’t be ignored and we left feeling like a weight had been lifted.  

We felt surrounded by your prayers while we were there; yet another example of God's kindness that we can't overlook. Thank you all SO much for praying and supporting us.