Dan after the Doctor visit. See, it is not that painful! Dan did fracture his left collar bone, but according to the Dr. it was a "lucky break"since it did not separate so there is a lot less damage and it should knit together in a few weeks. The doctors and nurses at the clinic all enjoyed having an American patient who tried to speak Hungarian, they all smiled and laughed as Dan gave them some comic relief in their day. This won't slow him down ... much. Thank you for your prayers!
Many Confusing Languages
The differing languages in the world are a a result of a judgment of God due to the wickedness of man at the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9. God "confused the language" so that man would not be so proud and bold as to try to reach heaven / God on their own. This division of languages has resulted in many challenges, frustrations, and even wars. God knew what he was doing. Imagine the greater cooperation and therefore greater progress (and sin) of mankind if "the whole world had one language and a common speech". The negative effects of this is extremely evident in Eastern Europe where often you can not communicate with those in the neighboring countries. When misunderstandings arise, this inability to "talk it out" can lead to war. At the Bible Institute we see this in a much smaller scale as a student will get offended due to a misunderstanding in languages. Last year there were two students who started as friends, but shortly became unfriendly for the balance of the year due to a misinterpretation.
This cereal box has 11 different languages on it. We once had a snack box printed in 21 languages. In the US we get bothered when we see a second language. There are over 6900 languages currently used in the world.
In Europe each country is often compared to the size of one of the US states. Such as, from East to West and from North to South, Hungary is roughly similar in size to Pennsylvania. But, in Europe when you cross a border 1) You know it because you meet men with guns who want to see your passport, they can search you and your belongings if they want to, and they have the power to "ruin your plans". 2) You are in a different culture and you need to change your behavior if you don't want to standout or offend anyone. 3) No one over the border speaks the same language as everyone did just five minutes ago. It is easy in a day to cross through five or six different language groups so, even if you know two or three languages it still can be a challenge. Living in America we have little or no concept of this. Imagine as you cross each of these borders you enter a different world. Imagine if that is how the states were...
Sometimes the language difference are humorous. Once Natalie called a girl ignorant just by mispronouncing her name or when Dan changed one vowel in a word and referred to a man as a dresser drawer.
FYI: Never use the word “cookie” in Hungary or “preservative” in Romania – don't ask why, just don't do it! We learned the embarrassing way.
No, there are not whales in Hungary, but we do have this whale of a tale. One of our Hungarian teachers was trying to explain what a mystery was when we heard him say “a mystery is like something that is under the whale”. Well, at this, several of the English speakers looked at each other and Dan began to whisper to them “it must be a Hungarian saying that when something is under a large whale you can not see it so it is unknowable, like a mystery”. At that a young man sitting behind us who speaks both English and Hungarian fluently leans up to us and whispers, “a veil, a veil, it's under the veil, not whale”. Well this one still makes us chuckle whenever we tell it. Many Europeans don't use the letter "V" like we do, even those who speak fluent English still use a "W" for a "V". Another funny example of this is the way they pronounce "Veggie Tales", of course it becomes "Weggie Tales". Now how do you explain that one?!
Natalie and I were with a Hungarian staff in the woods when they saw some large berries and we asked if they could be eaten. He replayed “they are bitter until after the FROG bites”. Well, we had never heard of the need for a frog to climb a bush and bite a berry to make it sweet, it must be a Hungarian thing we thought. When we questioned the staff he said “no, I meant FOG bite”. Ok, this is another phenomenon that we were not familiar with. As we questioned farther we realized that he meant “FROST bite”. This still has us laughing.
Below is a very cold Natalie with Peg, an American missionary who has been here for 5 years. Peg teaches Hungarians the English language and has had formal intense Hungarian classes. She still has difficulty with the language. The other day in Budapest we had her interpret an advertisement for us. She was able to interpret all the words but still not one of us knew what it meant. Not only are the words different but many languages put them together in a very different manner.
Open Air Evangelism (OAE) is one time that we normally have interpreters along so the message is clear. This past two weeks though, our family went without an interpreter and shared the love of Christ with few words, but much communication. Two weeks ago we spent an hour with this gentleman using what little Hungarian we know, drawing pictures, doing charades, and communicating the Gospel to him the best we could. We always have Hungarian language tracts that we leave with them but, I am sure he felt the love of Christ long before we left him with a Gospel tract to read and share with his family. The best communication is not in the words we say but in our actions.
This week we went into Budapest sharing the Gospel with “the least of these” using Hungarian Gospel tracts but, also giving the homeless and hungry sandwiches. We gave them the sandwiches to meet their immediate physical need and the Gospel to meet a much greater and much longer lasting spiritual need. Even though we could not communicate well, the gratitude for the food was able to be read on their faces and we saw many reading the Gospel as we walked away or passed by later. Unfortunately, many times our actions speak so loudly that people will not hear a word we say. So, in a way, it is refreshing to not say much and allow our actions and the Word of God to speak for us.
English! In Budapest we can find some people who speak English. We were able to share God's love more clearly with the man in blue since he spoke a little English and he interpreted for us to the others. When we walked up, handing out sandwhiches, another gentleman thanked us in German, not because he knew German, he thought we looked German. :-)
Sometimes the language issue breaks your heart. The man below took a sandwich and Gospel pamphlet but he began to cry and speak to us at length in Hungarian. After several attempts at understanding each other the best thing we could do was pray for him.
There is a saying in the rest of the world that goes – If you are fluent in four or more languages, you are multilingual, if three languages you are trilingual, if two you are bilingual, and if you know only one language you are.... American. Thanks the Lord that God can hear our prayers in any language!
The end of the Day - Daniel and Mom and Dad at Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest. Hannah was blessed to be able to spend the day with a friend at the mall. Daniel is taller than Hannah and almost taller than mom!
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