Sailing along

R. (our boy from Afghanistan) received refugee status. We were happy that after so many rejections we finally received some good news. Things are going nicely. The children in the school programme are starting to complain about things. They at first, frustrated their teacher who was tired of their lack of gratitude (they had been thankful always before). But we realized that their complaining was actually not a bad thing per se. It meant that their basic needs were being met, that they felt safe and secure and they were starting to think ahead, to plan and have ideas for the future. This entailed examining the present situtation and realizing things could be better. It's good that they see that, it means they have drive but...our job is to tell them that "Ok, you want to go to university, great. But to get there you need to learn Hungarian properly, study to get excellent grades because it is difficult to get into university here."
Plus, I was telling the teacher, they are teenagers - it's normal for teenagers to be concerned about themselves and complain. It means that they are developing normally.

But most of the kids are very thankful. I showed them the prayer calender from my home congregation and showed them that they were being prayed for. Babli, Joel and Richard asked me to thank you for praying and asked that you please continue.

It's really quite amazing, because they were prayed for last Sunday, I prayed for Joel too that day because he initially had his residency visa extended only for 30 days but he returned last week to school with his visa extended for 60 days. He will submit another claim for asylum and the whole process will begin again for him. This time we will help him with his statement (so that it is clear and coherent) and we are helping find supporting information for his case.

The young men I am teaching in the evenings are also coming along nicely with their Hungarian. The challenge is that as adults, they don't study at home. So, I have to maximize practice and instruction in the time that we have. Initially we had 4 lessons a week at 1/2 hours each. I reduced that to 3 lessons at 2 hours. This was just a choice on my behalf because I think it is good for me to have two weeknights free. One for a Bible study and another for traveling, in case the guys I teach or I need to go away for the weekend. I think this works out.

It's flu season here. The winter has been quite mild, so it is going around. Most of our kids have been hit with it. Their resistance is pretty low (they don't eat well) and so they get hit pretty bad. I went to visit Yamisi in her dorm room this past week. It was good. We had a good talk and we read a Psalm together and prayed. She likes the Psalms.

Tonight we will have a pancake supper and talk about Lent. The kids will most likely come. I hope they will like it.