Evangelical Church!

I have spent a very long week in Romania. It was a week that was amazing, but it was tiring. I am now in Budapest and tomorrow I head back "home" to Geneva. I am so glad that I will get to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night and I have will be able to cook in my own kitchen and I will hear people around me speaking a language that I understand (even if it's not English) and I will be with my friends.

I went to church tonight with my host here in Budapest. She goes to a church that is associated with Calvary Chapel. It is a bilingual (english/hungarian) church. I do not know that I have ever been to a Church that is 100% bilingual like this one was. Most of the congregation is Hungarian, but the pastor (at least the one that preached) is American. There are many people there, though, that are foreigners and either speak little to no Hungarian.

Even with the language differences, the church felt very much like most of the other evangelical churches I have been to before. The service began with "worship" - which is the very modern music. I enjoy the music because I think it evokes the emotions that are often glossed over in more traditional churches. Tonight was especially poignant because the music was mostly in Hungarian - but almost all the songs also had English lyrics. We sang a few verses in English too. I found myself singing in Hungarian. It was a very strange feeling to really worship God in a language that I cannot speak. (Although I have to say that I sang in many languages this past week and I felt that I was truly worshipping God - especially when we sang this one, Swahili song). The worship in the service was really good.

Then there was the sermon. The priest preached on loneliness. The text he used was Ecclesiastes 4:1-12. I have never heard this passage preached on before in such a way. His sermon made me realize that I need to be more authentic with my friends. I need to be willing to be vulnerable with them. I have many friends that I am not being as open and honest as I could be. He also made an interesting comment. The last verse of this section says that "a three fold chord is not quickly broken" - basically, if we have a friend (or more) and God to support us that we will be stronger people. I think that having the relationship with God is so important. This string of friendship is strong when it is just based on human relationships, but becomes even stronger when the relationship with God is added.

I am looking forward to going back to my friends especially after this sermon.