Old Updates: The One About Amanda's Journey

Spring 2021

I am going to start this off honestly (to be fair, I hope that’s what I’m doing with all of these!), this has been a hard letter for me to write. Trying to figure out how to put things into words and explain well without overwhelming all of you, especially since I am still processing things.

The short story is this: we are not going to be moving forward with opening the brunch spot here in Budapest, instead my role has changed and my new title is Regional Communications Coordinator.

But for those of you that know me well, you know I am not necessarily a “short-winded” person so… please prepare yourself now for the long story:

I think most of you know why I’m here in Hungary, but this story requires a bit of a refresher. Back in the Fall and Spring of 2016 and 2017, I was dating Daniel and praying about what the future looked like. Daniel was called to ministry in Hungary and I loved him, but was I also called to Hungary? It was not an easy thing to work through, there were a lot of things to tease out and I definitely did not want to be “that girl” that just followed a cute guy into anything (in fact, I had been that girl in the past, and it took me some time to learn it’s not a great space to be in). So I spent a lot of time praying. And talking to all different kinds of people who I respected as wiser and more mature than me—from my parents to people at church to friends. And when I say “a lot”, believe me, I truly mean “a lot”. If you were around me in that time, you probably were a part of this story.


                                     

                               An old photo of Daniel and I (for your viewing pleasure) 
                                                  at our last wedding together before our own!

It finally came down to obedience and the prayer I had been repeating every day for over a year “not my will, but yours be done”. I wanted to be with Daniel, but not badly enough to force something that God didn’t want me to do. Just as strongly, I wanted to honor my parents and I loved working in their ministry at Coffeehouse Five in Greenwood alongside them. I didn’t want to leave them, unless it was something God truly wanted. It all funneled down to one day as I was studying Jonah and praying and God kind of clicked everything into place. Jonah was afraid to do what God was calling Him to do. In fact, he was kind of a caricature of a prophet. Please understand me, I am definitely not calling myself a prophet. But in that moment, I realized that God was nudging me, asking me if I trusted Him enough to abandon the comfortable, organized life I had to do something much scarier. And as much as I was scared, I wanted to step into obedience WITH God rather than booking it to Tarsish on my own.

So I started working with One Mission Society and came to Hungary with Daniel to open some type of mission-minded bakery or restaurant since that was my recent background and something Daniel was also working on. And, silly me, I thought that one step of obedience was enough. But if this past year and half has taught me anything, it is that obedience is a muscle that needs to be constantly used and strengthened. As we weathered the pandemic and did all the research we could putting together the business plan for what eventually took shape as Indy Kitchen, an American brunch restaurant in Budapest, things kept getting pushed back (who would have thought a pandemic would make opening a restaurant difficult!) and my physical health continued to decline. So we continued to slowly move forward, praying that God would make things clear along the way.

                                               A sample of the first page of the menu for Indy Kitchen

In December of 2019 through a connection only God could have orchestrated, I found a doctor and surgeon here in Budapest who is internationally recognized as an expert in Endometriosis and Endometriosis-specific surgery. Without going into too much gross medical detail, he determined after a few exams and ultrasounds that my endometriosis has invaded my bowels and I will need another surgery as soon as possible. It will be a trickier surgery that could include a possible bowel resection. This explained the increased pain and fatigue I have been experiencing. Pain that I wanted to ignore, but that kept reminding me that I'm not able to work 14-hour shifts every day at a brunch restaurant. This made it painfully clear (pun intended) that Indy Kitchen would not be able to happen, especially because the financial success, at least for the first, year depended on me being able to work full-time.

So now we are here, in the Fall of 2021 and God has shown his faithfulness and sovereignty over and over again over the past two years and I trust Him as I step into this new role.

In fact, that this role even exists and needed to be filled at this point in time proves that God works in ways my brain could not even begin to dream up. I’m going to be working with the brand-new Regional Communications team to create and share content for Hungary and the entire Europe and Middle East Region. This is a job my time working in Public Relations began preparing me for and running the social media at Coffeehouse Five helped me to refine. It is also a more flexible role that won’t have me on my feet serving customers and baking all day.

Which, to be honest, I am still a little sad about.

But I’m learning it’s possible to be both sad and excited at the same time. Actually, I thought I learned that lesson in leaving for Hungary, but apparently not.