Thank you all for your prayers for my trip!
Here are some notes I wrote to my office during the trip. I was originally scheduled to go to Chicago (via Charlotte, NC) then Frankfurt, then Budapest.
—–A quick update here from Charlotte, NC, where my plan is too delayed to make the connection in Chicago. I am now on the direct flight to Frankfurt and it should match up okay with the original flight from Frankfurt to Budapest. The guy here says my bag will be on the plane I’m on, so I think that should be okay, but I appreciate your prayers that the rest will work out well.
Thanks for praying.
——Latest is that the inbound flight here is delayed also, so the connection in Frankfort is cut to 30 minutes. I am backed up on another flight out of Frankfort, 2 hours later than the original, if I don’t make the 30 minute connection. I am so glad that all is in the Lord’s hands, and bags and seats and timing is no problem for Him!
——I was delayed to arrive into Budapest for the handover events of the new DOA for Eastern Europe.
——(The Rest of the Story)
I did in fact arrive closer to 2pm on Saturday, with the intention of just getting to my hotel room, freshening up and being ready to leave for the evening event by 5pm. Only (next) problem was that my suitcase did not arrive with me! Yes! So after realizing that it wasn’t going to come off the plane, I approached the baggage counter and started that process. Had to submit forms at 4 different offices, but for some reason Lufthansa was able to give me 100 Euros for my “pains”. Danny Loe was there to meet me and we got a meal, went to a shop to buy a shirt at least. (All I had was jeans and a rugby shirt but the event at 5 was supposed to be all suit and tie.) Then Danny’s wife Becky started calling staff looking for tall guys, and so we went to Dennis Beck’s house, where I met Dennis and he introduced me to one of his suit jackets and pants and shoes and a tie. Then I got dropped off at the hotel, Holiday Inn, where I had 30 minutes to freshen up and dress. A little tight, but I made do pretty well.
Melissa Crabtree and I both had a great time at the celebration event from 5 to 10 that night. At the receptions we were interacting with many of the American and national staff there, and although there were a lot of comments by those who knew about the suit and lost bag, we were able to represent HRX at those events well. The first event looked back at the 33 years working in Eastern Europe of the outgoing director, Larry Thompson, and included many great memories of staff who served in Poland before and after the wall and communism fell. Stories of ministry and faith and the growth of CCC throughout all these lands were replete through the evening.
The next day we were pretty sleepy all morning, then we took John and Ann Powers and family to lunch, and then attended the 3-6pm Dedication Ceremony for installing Marek and Ala Wyrzykowski as the fully official Director Of Affairs for Eastern Europe. The event was held at the Hungarian Reform Seminary, a classy old building in downtown Budapest. I was still in Dennis’s suit, and we presented the Wyrzykowskis with gifts from HRX and also for Larry and Debby Thompson (the outgoing DOA) (except for the gift plaque, which was in my luggage).
After that event we went back to the hotel, my bag had been delivered PTL! Melissa and I took Danny and Becky Loe out for dinner (I was in my own clothes). I returned Dennis’s clothes to Danny to pass back to Dennis, the gift to give to Larry, and other items from the bag for people there. They took us out to the Danube river opposite the parliament, which was lit up by the flag colors of red and white and green, in celebration of the October 23rd 1956 attempted revolt against the USSR. Very pretty scene.
The next morning’s airplane flights back to Orlando through Frankfort and Dulles (Washington) proceeded much more smoothly and uneventfully, with only minor delays. And I am still awake enough now to write about it all. Thanks for praying friends!
Hungary Trip – The Rest of the Story