Winter Ministry Glimps February 20, 2012

We are loving ministering to and with university students. Below are some pics to give you an idea about what we have been up to. The past 2 weeks have been pretty full: Wednesday – lead Cover music at our weekly meeting Sunday – We share and promote SpeakOut at church Tuesday – lead Bible on prayer Wednesday – speak on “relationships with parents” at our university weekly meeting Thursday – Lead our staff in discussion on the purpose of our weekly meeting and introduce a framework that I have been working on for 2 months on how to best train others within our ministry Friday – speak on “frontline” prayer at our Prayer night Tonight (Monday) – key speaker for an English Club outreach. Pray today (1pm your time). I will speak on the Freedom of True Forgiveness. Pray that students will understand the Gospel and find true joy and forgiveness and peace in Jesus. Rivers and I had the ministry’s Worship and Cover band over for dinner to talk about strategy for the semester… And had an amazing meal. Rivers you are so great. Mark and Robi inviting students to appointments to talk more about the Gospel. We have thousands of names and phone numbers from our Freshman Student Survival Kit Surveys. 6 out of 10 students desired to meet with a Christian to find out more about Jesus. Lila Nap – Girl Guy Day – Students learning about how God made them men and women and his view of relationships. Rivers and I hosted 20 students for dinner that night. I think our family was more blessed than they were. Rivers did everything right. One guy said it was like he was living in a dream since he came through the front door. Our all night Prayer night. This is Mark leading Mark and I each week walk around the university and share the Gospel to students. Keep praying for Hungarian Students to know Jesus.

It Finally Snowed in Budapest – Feb 2012 February 20, 2012

So it snowed and we played. Where did Joy go? Lydia!!!!!

Board Games and Dave’s 35th Birthday February 20, 2012

So since coming to Hungary Board Gaming has become one of my favorite hobbies. If you ever want to know some great games please send me an email. I will recommend to you some that will fit your gaming and competition styles. Here are some pics from the past couple months. (bellow) is Matt who is works at the US embassy here in Budapest and is one of my best friends here. This game is Summoner Wars. My Bday present 2012. (above) Jeremy plays Funny Bunny with me and the kids. He lost. Tigris and Euphrates with Matt Late night Summoner Wars game with Rivers. Space Alert Massive Summoner War game with great friends and men of God. These guys share their faith all the time. It was a great 35th Bday and Rivers and I won our match so it made it even better. Hope you have a good Bday this year…

Around the Partin House – Winter 2012 February 20, 2012

Here is what the family has been up too during this looooooong winter. The girls are growing so fast. Jackson (new baby) comes in 11 weeks!

Partin Fun Night at Eleven Park – Play Gym in Budapest February 20, 2012

Rivers mom and dad gave us a play night for Christmas this year. This was early January 2012. Boy it’s cold outside but this play night was so refreshing.

2011 December Life of the Partins in Hungary December 29, 2011

Here are some pics and stories from December 2011. We hope your holiday season is being blessed a well. Rivers at a mom’s Bible study. Big sister hugs. We had the Pitts family over (family of 9) for lunch and we played some board games. Rivers and I agree that our advent nights were our favorite part about December. Mark and I had a great “year end review” lunch to talk about what God did this past year. Keep praying for his personal ministry. Starting to make goodies for others. Packing up the goodies. The Partins make peanut butter balls no matter where we live in the world. Partin Christmas Eve Board Game. “Don’t break that ice” They are best friends. Christmas Eve Pizzas. The kids put carrots on these….ahhh…. getting too old too fast This is Reni, a student who helps us with language and our girls. She is awesome. Still running the house.

2011 Christmas Outreach December 9, 2011

Our Christmas Outreach was last night and it was a great success.Our staff and student leaders were working together to set up the room: it was awesome! Just imagine: Christmas music playing, everybody moving chairs, and tables, decorating, and while working: just laughing and talking with one another: no stress, but it had a feeling of a big family preparing for guests for a family celebration! The true Spirit of the season filled the room, and our hearts.And when time came, students filled up the room. Close to 200 of them. We never know how many would come, as exams are beginning these weeks. But, this night, a lot of them decided to put everything aside, and come and celebrate. A professional Hungarian musician performed and did great: he played from Bach to modern to post modern, and in between the plays, he cracked up jokes, shared personal stories, and explained what Christmas is about. And at the end, when he and the pianist played the song: “As the deer pants for the water…”, it was compete silence in the room. Just another one of those holy moments. All that to say: it was a great time finishing a strong semester, going into the Christmas break with a great last momentum event. Next week is our annual prayer week with our staff. Hope your Christmas Season brings you joy and peace.

A Week with Dad December 6, 2011

So as many of you know…Rivers went home for a week to join in celebrating Mac and Bud’s wedding in KC. Here are some highlights of the week. I don’t know if it was kids camp or Dad’s camp. Melody is a carrot eater! One night after putting the kids to bed in their room…i came upstairs and found 2 goldilocks sleeping in MY Bed. Needless to say I slept between them from this night on. Lydia learned to use the “all important” mouse while Riv was gone. Go PBS Kids dot org I walked in on Joy reading a book to her sisters. Ok Reading is FUN. Joy is playing the reindeer and Melody was Santa. Arts and Crafts. I’m getting good at Cats and Pink. tower soon to be destroyed So this was my first box airplane. it lasted the week. never flew. sadly. we made dad’s favorite cake we ate it in 2 days Kelly Butts took the kids to the circus one afternoon. Thanks Kel So I put the kids to work…here the are balancing some bank accounts using Excel. Ok here is the Big Girl that ran the house for real. She was nice to us.

2011 Fall Retreat at Siofok December 6, 2011

We had a great time at our 2011 Fall Retreat this year. The worship band did great and the talks were encouraging to everyone. Lydia did start a fever so Rivers took the little girls home and Joy stayed with me for the 2nd half. She acted so grown up and she is so loved by our college students. Joy and Dad having breakfast together. All the boys at breakfast were jealous that I had a meal with a princess. The band lead deep worship and sounded so professional this year. I am so proud of Mark, the student I have been meeting with for a year and a half. I have challenged him to be the worship leader for our movement in 2012, and he has accepted! This year’s worship band. These students are some of the strongest students living for the Glory of God in the whole city. Probably in the whole country. We have 120+ this year at the retreat. Mark doing his thing. They let me play some bass sometimes. Really, I am the least talented on stage often. That “surrender” t-shirt was the first shirt I ever had printed back in 2003 at Covenant Chapel.

Halloween 2011 – Carnival – Murder Mystery Party – Kids Pumpkin Party October 31, 2011

This weekend we had 3 full days of Kids, Kandy and Kostumes. (Ok that was silly but kinda kute) I will let the pictures below tell you about these 3 events. Day 1 – Carnival – at the International Christian School of Budapest they have a little carnival for kids. It is quick-simple-candylicious-and-perfect. Here is joy as a rock star. This is what she wanted for the whole family to dress up as. Dad said “YESSSSS!” Party 5 rocking’ out. Lydia and her best friend Buzz melody is almost running now. crazy fast season.   Day 2 – On Saturday Night we hosted our second annual Murder Mystery Party for the American staff here in Budapest. This year was a Pirate theme. Who did it? Now, the spread on the table was sometimes distracting to the game. Did these guys do it? What do you think? Food or Piracy? Don’t you dare? Friends forever?…..Promise? Food! Day 3 – Kids Party. We made Pumpkins look better and had more candy and played pin the nose on the pumpkin.