Bratislava, the Quiet and Lovely City

Bratislava, Slovakia

We boarded the bus after our final concert in Budapest in the afternoon to head to our next country, Slovakia. And then we began the 4 hour trip to Kosorsko Slovakia. It had beautiful landscape, and a lot of green fields and rolling hills in the distance. We got closer and closer and eventually entered the beautiful hilly landscape. It was absolutely beautiful! Lots of trees and green grass on the hilly green mountains. There were cows and sheep on the hills like something out of a movie.  Truly beautiful with fun mountain homes on the landscape.

The concert there was also wonderful. The Slovaks were more reserved, but we still saw how they appreciated the concert. The church was an old historic church, built in I believe 1879, and it was full! The mayor of the town was there, and both her and the pastor so greatly appreciated the concert. It was really neat because the mayor said when we came, it was like the sun shone and warmed the day, which we had been focusing on that word "shine" in Christ shining through us when we sing. The both of them, I could tell were just so touched by us being there.

They were so kind! One lady came up to us and said in broken English how she was touched in her soul. She was a such a blessing and I was glad she told us.  We left \the church and got on the warm bus (as it was very cold up in the mountains!), and then headed to Vrbovce to meet our host family church. I already blogged about my host family and the great blessing they were. So feel free to check that one out! (With Dakujme in the title)

Our second day, we woke up and had such a nice (HUGE) breakfast  with our Slovak family again. Martin was there to translate for us, which was so great. They asked us about Michigan and we showed them how you can show Michigan on your palms and showed them how to do it. They enjoyed that! We also told them about the beautiful Great Lakes we have in Michigan. We also told them we really liked Slovakia so it wasn't all about us.

We walked to the church and met up with the bus to head into the city in Bratislava and did some shopping and a sightseeing tour. We saw a lot of the city, and had fun in the markets in that city. It was fun as the town is so cute! We also ran into Mike's brother from Michigan state's choir. That was crazy!

But mostly I should talk about the concert downtown Bratislava that night. God was truly working there. It was amazing! It was probably the best one we have ever done. Beforehand, we were so tired and having a hard time focusing. In our prayer time, we prayed for strength in our weakness, and God sure came through! "Prayer" was probably our best song, and almost everyone shared afterward how God spoke to them during that song. We had so many wonderful comments from the concert. We had many smiles and thanks from people at the concert. One lady said she was so blessed to meet us and see us, and wanted to know more about us. I saw her meeting as many of the chorale members as possible.

So on our way back to Vrbovce, we did share time, and so many people had moments in that song. This share time was such a blessing, and joyful. There were many tears shed as we could praise God for him working in us. My moment was in "Prayer" with the words "help me spread your fragrance." I know that was exactly what we were doing, and we needed to ask God for strength to do it. This is what we were doing and we could not forget that it was by his strength that we could sing.  It was really a cool moment to feel God's presence and strength in us, especially as we sang that song. 

Budapest was amazing. Slovakia impressed upon my heart, and I was ready for Vienna!

The Church where our first concert in Slovakia was at! This is an old church, built in the later 1800s!

Hungary... but I really got a lot of food here...

Since I haven't done this story in order, I actually began my trip in Budapest, and then went to Slovakia.  So now I am finally getting to Budapest, and hopefully I will get to Vienna and maybe even Prague tonight. 

It was my first day in Europe - and it was a long day. Almost 9 hours- closer to 10 of flying and waiting around in airports. I slept a few hours on the plane, but kept going until late into the next day. I was definitely feeling the jet lag. 

But the fun stuff - we arrived in Budapest and met up with Olivia and our tour guide, and drove to Olivia's church, and had real Gulash. (Which is soup with meat, potatoes, and other wonderful goodness). It was sooooo good! Then we hung out and took pictures of the church as we waited for host families. Karen, Deb and I stayed with a family who lived across the street - the wife spoke some English, and the son was pretty fluent, so we were able to communicate pretty well. 

Soon after getting settle I got asked to go downtown with their neighbor, another host family, to go downtown. So I went with Alison, Jessica, and their hosts. It was so fun! They showed us a lot of cool things in the town, bought us Gelato (yummm), and we walked around a bit. There were so many restaurants with people eating outside - such a wonderful atmosphere.  It was cool because they they told us a lot of Hungarian culture/ language/ history and taught us some phrases. It was fun talking to them although we could not always understand each other. It took some patience. I learned that when "zo" is on the end of verbs, it means the place to do that thing.  Such as "Teazo."

After that I was about a zombie walking and went straight to bed.

The next day we had our first concert in Szekesfahervar, about an hour outside of Budapest. But first, we had breakfast with our host and some wonderful sightseeing. We went to the fort/ castle thing, and the Matthias church.  We continued walking through the streets, by the "castle" and palaces where we saw some wonderful views of the city from the Buda side.  Akos gave us a lot of history of Hungary, it was interesting to hear the background on these people. Then we went to Pest, I exchanged money to forints, and went to Starbucks!

Then we traveled to our concert. It was an amazing 1st concert. They way we connected with those people was truly an act of God. Although we didn't understand each other, we found common ground in Christ and in the music. It was beautiful. Everyone sang beautifully and was engaged. I was overwhelmed because I knew this is what God had called us to do - to declare the love and light of Jesus to people.

Olivia's family was there and it was great to see them and watch her mom so engaged with the music.

But I felt so blessed watching the Hungarian's faces as they were touched by the music. Especially on Esti dal, they knew the words, and I watched their faces light up. It brought tears to my eyes. Later that night, I was listening to All Sons and Daughters, and these words fit what my heart was feeling.

"All will sing out, Hallelujah, and we will cry out Hallelujah!"

This is so true.  The people were brought into God's presence tonight. Not by us, but by what God did. I am so thankful for the vision Dr. Walters had, and how this trip was made a reality.  I am so blessed!

Afterwards, we ate dinner which was wonderful. I think their potato salad beats the Schaefer family recipe. The people were so hospitable  We sang for them, and they for us. One guy came up to us, saying he had no words for how much he enjoyed the concert, but that it really touched him. 

They also gave us pins with Hungarian flag colors, like they wear in March for what I believe is their independence day.

Our third day in Hungary, we did some more sightseeing with Akos. He took us tours to the Hero Square, and the real fake castle... (not exactly sure...). We saw some great things including a hot spring! And of course I knew that they had the most of them in Iceland...
But anyway, afterwards, we went to the Holocaust memorial museum. It was definitely hard, and an emotional experience for many of us. It was hard to see because so much history had happened right there in Hungary. I think the site of the Museum itself was a containment for Jews in WWII. We had a very quiet bus ride following where we then prepared for the concert.We  had a pretty good concert, but a hard beginning as we were all tired from a long day. It was another great concert. It was amazing how many people we could connect with.
It was fun too because there were some probably high-schoolers who really wanted to talk to us, and we tried many languages, but none of us knew the same ones.
The next morning we sang in Olivia's church! It happened all so fast, but it was a third great, and final concert in Budapest. Then we were off to Slovakia! Which I already blogged about. 

And hopefully our Bratislava concerts coming. And as soon as I can, I will write about Vienna, and Czech. I have about a 7 hour bus ride tomorrow, so I will try to work on it then!

Picture time!

View of Budapest from the Citadel. 

Ďakujem.... Ďakujem.... Nie ďakujem.

So I know I haven't blogged yet on this trip, but that is because I have not had proper internet yet. So sorry. We are now in Austria, on hotel stays, have internet, and no concerts tonight!!
Absolutely loving Europe. Love the coffee! Way better than in America. Have to also get used to the wash closets (bathrooms) cause they are literally closets. Also getting used to the food. I am eating like 3 times the amount of bread and meat that I normally do. Like I eat both three meals a day here. Its crayyyy.

We left Slovakia this morning, and for me with some tears and sadness. After the wonderful time and great connection we had in Budapest, we were a bit unsure about Slovakia. We had concerts in Kosariska, and Bratislava. We stayed in Vrboche which is an absolute adorable little mountain town. The people there were so hospitable and it was so joyous to stay there! Most of the host families spoke no English, including Karen and I's. I'll share a little bit about our stay there as it was probably my favorite part of the trip so far.

So we get paired up with our hosts, and of course the lady who we go with, speaks no English. "Oh well", I thought, "I am down for charades." So we leave the church with our luggage and she grabs her bike, "oh, we're walking...." Its dark, we're in a foreign country, with a lady we don't know who we cannot speak to. So we follow her down the streets until she finally enters a gate of a cute green house. We go in the door, and are greeted by a precious old man who has a great warm smile. We also see a younger boy - close to our age and gave a sigh of relief when he spoke English. "Grandson," he said. "I am here to translate for you."

I was so thankful. They bring our bags upstairs, and tell us to come down for dinner. It is probably 9:00pm or later, but Dorina (host mom), made us a ton of food anyway. We were able to talk to them, learn some Slovak, and they asked questions about us. It was so great to be able to really talk to them, and get to know their culture. They welcomed us in their home and we shared in some traditional Slovak traditions and food. It was seriously such a fun and crazy night. The family was really funny, and we definitely laughed a lot. Karen and I went to bed going, um... what just happened? We LOVE Slovakia! Dorina kept telling us "eat everything", "eat more" and to be kind, I kept shoving in more food. It was seriously God's grace in letting all that food fit in my belly. Not sure how it happened.
It was fun to see some of the English phrases that Martin (grandson) knew. "Bon apetite" which is not English, and "bottoms up." It was also great because he said his grandpa was a boss, and he knew what a bro fist was.
Martin also helped us learn some Slovak, such as ďakujem - which is thank-you, and dobrú noc (goodnight), and dobrý (good). He also taught us ano (yes) and nie (no) which he later said after we refused more by using nie, "I should not have learned you 'nie'." It was so funny! It was great watching Paul (host dad) and Dorina's face light up when we used the Slovak phrases. Except Dorina also made fun of us because we said dakujem a lot because we didn't know much else... :)

We wake up the next morning to another huge meal - bread, cheese, meat, kava (coffee), cukar (sugar), chai (tea), more bread, and tons of sweets. I seriously am going to gain so much weight here I feel like. I do not go hungry.
But anyway it was so great visiting with them and getting to know them more. Paul had the greatest smile, especially when he was laughing at us. Saying goodbye this morning was very hard. We took pictures together, and gave hugs and kisses (like the classy cheek kind (: ), and Dorina kept holding my hand or would link arms with us, and kept touching my hair and cheek. It was so motherly and kind. Martin said she was so glad to have met us. We gave her the typical host gifts including a card, and she put the card on her shelf with the family heirlooms and whatnot, saying we were a part of the family, and up with the family forever. She also gave us these corn-husk dolls that she makes, which are a Slovakian tradition. (Saw lots of them at the markets.) I was so blessed that God could show himself through these people. I truly felt a part of  their family, they were so kind, but I could not even communicate without Martin. We did not even sing a concert in their church, but it was so great to feel like I belong even though I am very far away from home. I will remember them forever in my hearts, as Dorina asked us.

So I will hopefully tomorrow write about the time in Hungry, as well as the concert in Bratislava. It was so amazing it deserves its own post. God has been so good and faithful on this trip, and this is just a very small piece of what he has done!

We are a part of their family

My Slovak family!

Here I go....

Hey everyone! My trip is finally here!
I am literally sitting in the airport, I can see my plane that will take me to Germany. I am so excited for all we will experience. I can't even imagine the ways God could use us on this trip!

Hopefully I can keep you all updated on how things are going. You can check here or on my Tumblr, I'll probably update both (we'll see how great the wi-fi is), but primarily here!

So for those of you prayer warriors, here are some things to pray for!

1. Pray for safety in travel
2. Pray for spiritual warfare that we may encounter. Lots of European countries practice cult worship etc.
3. A few students are a bit sick, pray for their health and the good health of other students!
4. For God to move in people's lives
5. For opportunity to share our faith, unhindered, and without fear.
6. I have to learn the programs for my summer job... Just that I have time and ability to learn it well.  Also just for the transition from Europe to my summer job, I start the day after I get back, and have to have the program learned by then!
Thank-you everyone for your support and your love. Soon I will be across the world!

To the glory and praise of God!

Prague, Czech Republic - one of our stops on the Tour

The Pitfalls of Moralism

So I know I don't usually get on shaky ground, but I feel like this has been on my heart and I want to share it.
Moralism. Something I've been learning about in class, and from observing around me. People tend to make all these positive statements about themselves as if to prove to themselves that they are a good person and okay. "I've got this," "I am confident." I would ask them, "Are you really? How is the power of your self helping you?"

No, I'm not just a cynic - but the reality is, the world and people that God created have become corrupted because of sin, and we can't do good on our own.  Jesus says this, and I don't think enough Christians really take this seriously. John 15:4-5 says

"Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

 Because of our sin, we can do nothing on our own. But through the power of the Spirit, we can do whatever is in God's will. Our problem however is that we think we can do so many things. After a bad test, we say, well, I can study harder next time. I can do better. But according to Jesus in this passage we can't. When we try to do things in our own will, we don't get very far.

"The Christian life is what you do when you finally realize you can do nothing." - Dallas Willard

And don't get me wrong, I find myself trying to do things on my own power just about every day. I spent the greater part of my job last summer thinking I was a superhero out to save souls. But God kept reminding me that it was his hand working in those youth to change their life, not me. It is so easy, we want all the glory, but it is God's alone. That is the purpose of John the Baptist's ministry - to point other to the come one, Christ, who would redeem the people of their sin.

Paul warns us of this, and also encourages us through it. Check out Romans, especially chapter 8. He begins by saying "there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." We are not condemned for our sin and times we messed up, but "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do" (v3). So God knows that our flesh is weak, so that's why he died on the cross, so we can live a life of the Spirit, abiding in the vine.

"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace... Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." (Rom. 8:4-8)

But the good news is that we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, and believers have the Spirit living in them. So we can do good, but not by the power of our own self, the flesh. And through the Spirit we are sons of God, and the Spirit bears witness to that.

Jesus did not die on the cross for us to do righteous and good works. Jesus died on the cross to redeem our sinful nature so that we can learn to love him. If you are a Christian and struggle by your conscious telling you to do good works, let that go. Instead, seek Christ, live by his Spirit, and these things will be the byproduct.
Next time you find yourself entangled in sin, do not let guilt and shame get the best of you - rather seek Christ and find love in your sin, for it is sin that turns God's children back to himself. I dare say, don't shy away from sin, if you're only going to let it set a moralist pattern. Instead, find grace despite and within your sin.

This is why many people fear ritualistic acts in the church - because it becomes a cycle of doing an act instead of loving the God the act was created for. Ritualism can creep into any areas of our life if we let it. Ask the Spirit to be a part of your everyday life. Spend time in centering prayer focusing on him and opening yourself to him and see how your life will be transformed. I think this is what Paul is getting at in Romans 12:2: "Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Let the spirit transform and renew your heart.

So how do you know if you are a moralist? First, their conscience acts as a moral tutor with the response "I'll do better." They use truth that leads to conviction, which leads to shame (something is wrong with me), which then leads to guilt (as fear).  This then leads to the neurotic self talk and feelings of moral failure where people use obedience as an antidote to shame, guilt, and moral failure.
However, a healthy conscience is a tutor to Christ. They take the truth which leads to pangs in conscience and feelings of guilt, shame, and moral failure, but instead use healthy self talk to lead them to Christ and confession.  Healthy self talk looks like this: "I don't want in my own power to keep the will of God to deal with shame and guilt. I cannot do it in my own power." From here, this person decides they don't want to hide or cover their sin, but confess it and open their arms to forgiveness and freedom.
The bottom line from this is that obedience (moralism) is not the answer to guilt and shame which we all feel from sin.

My dear brothers and sisters, take this to heart and open your spirit to the Holy Spirit's work in your life. Drink from the living water and run into the embrace of your Savior, for nothing is greater.

I hope this all makes sense and was not condemning in any manner. I aim to write as God has been teaching me. Believe me, if I knew how to not be a moralist, I wouldn't write this. And I would love more discussion on this, whether here or in person. I don't have all the answers. God bless!

Great thanks to Dr. Phillip Bustrum from Cornerstone University, Dr. John Coe from Biola Universtiy, Dallas Willard

Going to Europe

Jehovah Jireh

Jehovah Jireh, my God provides!

God has literally done a miracle. The money for my Europe trip was due yesterday, but God did some serious provision work.

As of Friday before our mini-tour weekend, I needed $2,038.50. (Or something like that). What seems to human hearts as something impossible to raise in two weeks. But God showed me how he is bigger.
This weekend our Choir went on a mini weekend tour around lower Michigan with stops in Luddington, Charlotte, Lansing, and Hudsonville. And from the very moment we walked off that bus into Luddington High school for our first gig, God was working. I'll tell the story of Mr. Parker and what happened in Luddington later, but first I want to explain my money situation.

So the first night we stayed in Luddington and my cousin Karen and I were visiting with our host family. They were a great family with two younger girls. It was great to get to know them more. The next morning though, we had to leave and as we were leaving, they handed me a check for $400!
I shared this huge praise with our director and he was excited for me as well!

The next day was Sunday, and my mom called me to tell me that someone handed er a check at church, another said a check was on the way. Awesome! But then my mom shared that I needed money in a very short time frame as a prayer request in her Sunday school class - and someone decided to anonymously donate the rest of my tour funds! It was literally a miracle and I was in tears when she told me.

Just earlier that week, I had decided that I was probably not going and didn't want to get my hopes up. Then the speaker in chapel that Wednesday, the speaker said something along the lines of "I know you got money troubles, but don't give up - you go get it, and get it to win!" It kind of put me in my place and I felt God was saying to me, "why are you giving up?" Then that weekend all my funds were provided.

I tell this story to not only say how grateful I am for generous people, but for how grateful I am that God moved in hearts of people, and provided for me to go on a trip HE has called me to go on!
Since then, I had a few more donations as well, enough to cover my cost and a little left over to help others. Also this is probably more exciting yet, all 30 of the chorale members raised money in similar ways, that are only by the mighty provision of the Lord! He is so good, and called us to go, and so we are rejoicing because we have the opportunity to do the Lord's work in Europe!

Praise Him today for he is Yahweh, Jehova Jira, El Shadai. (Lord, the God who provides, and God with us).

Just some words I needed to hear in my time of need:
²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:27-29)

And our theme passage for this tour:

My heart is steadfast, O God,
    my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
     Awake, my glory!^[b]
Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the clouds.

 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!

(Psalm 57:7-11)