Family Update in Photos

In past few weeks, the Long family has had many celebrations. Carter, Corinne and Grant all had birthdays!

The end of October, Carter celebrated his fourth birthday...

And November 11th, Grant celebrated his first birthday!

Now we are busy gearing up for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays! We look forward to sharing more with you about all the goings on here in Hungary!

All A Little Older,

The Longs

It began with a word..."yes". Part 2

"Meet me on the far side of Keleti Train Station in 30 minutes,"I wrote, "I'll get the OMS van and pick you up." An hour later we were piling several large packs, countless smaller back packs, and 7 road weary and wet warriors into our living room. I wish, Dear Reader, that I could say at this point that I had the slightest clue as to what God had in mind, but Mike, Denise, Ashley, Nicole, Ralph, Bambi and Lindsay were camped out in my living room, and my life would absolutely never be the same.

Realizing I had somewhat of a captive audience, I asked if two of them would be willing to share their testimony at our Friday Night Youth and Young Adult Ministry. They graciously agreed.

Friday night came, and they laid out their testimony's with painful tenderness and honesty. In the moments immediately following I noticed Zsofi, a young girl who was part of our group, talking with a few of our guests, tears in her eyes. I suddenly understood, "this is why they are here,"I thought, but how I under estimate God sometimes.

Over the next week I got to take our guests around my city. They listened patiently while I prattled on about the history of everything from Castle Hill, to my street corner. We laughed, we cried, we wore ourselves out, and even froze a little bit. They quickly grabbed on to Zsofi, and she to them, and most of our trips included this 19 year old Hungarian Gem. Zsofi told me, "you need to have Americans like this around more often."

And so it was, during a phone conversation last Monday night that Zsofi mentioned to me that she had felt God's presence the previous evening, and that she wanted to feel it again. After a short discussion I bluntly asked "Zsofi, are you ready to accept Christ and give him eveything?" Her answer "yes", and while I led her through the first lines of the same prayer I had prayed to God, I looked to my left and saw my clock. 9:06 pm. The world stood still. I suddenly realized what was happening.

This is what it's all about. This is why we are here. This was why our beloved living room squatters were here. In a moment all the angels of heavens choir snapped to the edge of their seats. The confetti angels waited with handfuls of gold confetti, and it seemed that all of Heaven held it's breath. Slowly tenderly she prayed with me, and accepted the gift of Salvation from our Lord Jesus Christ. I came out into the living room and wept like a child relating to our guests what had happened. The following day we had a Re-Birthday party for Zsofi at her apartment. Monday, October 26th, 2009 is a day that a new creation was born, and it was in no small part due to the love of God in 7 stranded Americans.

The Bible says that a single soul is worth more than all of the treasures of our world. I would like to thank Mike, Denise, Ashley, Ralph, Nicole, Bambi and Lindsay for helping to make that kind of investment into the Kingdom of God.

When I picked them up that first day, one of the girls told me that I was an Angel. I don't think so, for in complete honesty Dear Reader, they were MY 7 Angels. In a hard moment, when I was lonely, discouraged and struggling, they came to My rescue, and pulled ME from the hard floor, whilst they slept on mine.

One "yes" has ultimately led to another "yes", and I had the privelage and honor of being a part of it. I am utterly amazed, recharged, encouraged, and ready for more. But I can't help but ask myself the question...What would have happened if I had said..."no"? - Jonathan

It began with a word..."yes". Part 1

It had been a dark month. It wasn't completely unexpected, more than once we had been warned by the more seasoned missionaries that the fifth month was difficult. October was meeting expectations. The weight of home-sickness, intense fatigue and financial concerns were taking its wearisome toll both physically and emotionally.

Then one blustery afternoon, I sank into my computer chair and opened my email. With the usual expediency I began deleting the latest round of spam. News updates from 1070WIBC. A deal on a Papa Johns Pizza. Someone sent me a YoVille request on Facebook. But then my eyes hit upon an email address that I didn't recognize.

I read the email carefully, "Hello, I'm Ashley Weaver and I'm with 13 other AIM missionaries in Szekesfehervar." It appears there is a group of people traveling through Hungary looking for ministry possibilities. I quickly jumped to the AIM (Adventures in Missions) website to make sure I knew who they were. I fired the email off to a national worker and made a mental note to follow up with him in a week.

I few days later, I returned again to my worn out chair perched in front of my desk. Pulling up my Skype to see if my parents were on, I read the first name at the top of my contacts, "Ashley Weaver" and God quietly whispered "say hi". Without thinking I wrote a quick greeting and pressed "enter". It was at this moment I thought, "wow, I really don't have much to say."

Ashley popped back immediately in a very cheerful way. She told me that half of their traveling band had been left behind and that they had trekked to Budapest looking for possibilities. Amazingly, I realized that they were within 2 miles of my home in Budapest, so I offered to set up a meeting for Wednesday evening. Then God decided the time to move had come.

Wednesday, as I sat among a crowd of people on the bus, I contemplated the past month. We were tired, we were lonely, my Grandfather had just passed away, and while I didn't admit this publicly, dear reader, I was feeling a lot of pain inside over it. This time Corinne met me at the door.

"Jonathan, come read this," she said with intensity in her voice. I dropped into my familiar chair and scanned the email. Something bad had happened, they were stranded, at Keleti Train Station. I asked her if they wanted to come here, just to figure things out. They said they might need to, their leader Mike had dared getting twisted about in the large concrete jungle that was Pest, in search of new lodging. We waited. Then I heard a whisper. "Go get them." Why Lord? "Go get them," he said again. Ok, Lord, "Yes". - Jonathan