Magyar Egyház, 2006 (85. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

2006-07-01 / 3. szám

6. oldal

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

THE TRENTON YOUTH GROUP IN HUNGARY

This past summer from June 23rd to July 6th, the Hungarian Reformed Youth Group of Trenton, New Jersey went on a mission trip to Mezőtúr, Hungary. The participants in the trip were Frank Király, Elizabeth Király, Gabe Csapó, Magdi Bertalan, Juli Bertalan, Krista Oroszvary, Airlia Oroszvary, Ashlea Frampton, Amber Frampton, and Chelsea Bikowski. The youth group began planning and fundraising at least a year before the trip occurred. Our deepest thanks go out to everyone who supported us, especially the Hungarian Reformed Church of Trenton, who aided the youth group with generous donations and contributions to the almost weekly fundraisers, as well as to Reverend Attila Kocsis of the Perth Amboy church, who set up our contacts in Hungary and without whom this trip would never have been possible.

When we first set out on the mission trip none of us really knew what to expect. Due to an early rumor, we were preparing to work very tiresome, but rewarding, 18-hour days at a Mezőtúr school for handicapped children. After the week at the school we would travel to Debrecen for two days and then Budapest for four days to do a bit of sightseeing and reconnecting to our Hungarian heritage.

However, during our week at the Mezőtúr school and the affiliated nursing home, we were treated like esteemed guests rather than workers. The school and nursing home provided us with transportation to and from the Budapest airport, lodging, three delicious Hungarian meals a day, and countless other luxuries.

Our hosts welcomed us with such hospitality that it often felt like they were doing more

for us than we were for them. During the week the ten of us split into two groups of five each; on Monday and Tuesday five of us helped out at the nursing home and five at the school, on Wednesday we all went to the Nyíregyháza Zoo with the school, and on Thursday and Friday the two groups switched places. Although the nursing home allowed us to wash windows and beat dirt from rugs, they insisted that we drink plenty of water and take breaks in the air-conditioned staff room. Helping out at the school felt like even less work. Our job was simply to spend time with the children. They were the sweetest children in the world and were so fun to be around that it was the easiest job we've ever done.

Although it often felt like we weren't doing as much work as we had first set out to do, there's no denying that we had a positive effect on the school and nursing home and that they had even more of a life-changing effect on us. Despite the fact that none of the children spoke English and only four of us spoke Hungarian, within the first day we were able to overcome the language barrier and really connect to the children. We communicated through gestures and expressions, and after a few days the

kids had taught us a few words in Hungarian while also picking up a little English themselves. After spending every day playing with the children and giving them as much attention as they could possibly soak up, the children would come into our rooms in the evenings as well to spend even more time with us.

The children at the school were between the ages of 9 and 17, and most were either handicapped mentally, physically, or through extreme poverty. Approximately half of the students were gypsies, but despite the negative stereotypes of dishonest gypsies that we had been warned about, the gypsy children were some of the brightest and kindest of them all. Just like our generous adult hosts, the children also made every effort to make us feel welcome and to get along with each other. They loved our little electrical gadgets such as mp3 players and digital cameras and it was a joy for us to let them use them for perhaps the first time in their lives. They were always polite in asking to borrow our items, they treated them with extreme care (even using the small wrist strap on the cameras when we asked them to), and they shared use of the items among themselves without fighting over them. On the long bus ride to the zoo an mp3 player kept getting used by two

different children at once, each one using only one earphone in his or her ear while the other child used the other.

The kindness of the children is put into much sharper focus when we consider how poor they really were. For the whole week we were there, many of them had only brought one or two sets of clothing that were often dirty or not the correct size. One boy's only pair of shoes was a pair of soccer cleats about 4 sizes too big for him. The administrators at the school told us that many of the children only ate when they stayed at the school throughout the week and would go the whole weekend at home without eating a bite, sometimes even being made to lie down so as to use less energy and therefore need less food. Three of the children were siblings from a family of ten kids who all lived in a one-room house with only one bed. Their father had been put in jail recently, which made them so happy and energetic because it meant that they wouldn’t get beaten when they went home.

Although their lifestyle is almost incomprehensible when compared to our own privileged lives, these children were still loving, kind, and intelligent. We are thankful to have been able to spend a whole week with them and to briefly give them the love and attention that each of them deserves. With the help of various outside donations and a very dedicated staff, the Mezőtúr school has been able to take care of these children mentally, physically, and spiritually during every school year. We are honored to have been able to help these children and we hope that sometime in the next 2 or 3 years we'll be able to do it all again. Thank you again to everyone who supported our youth group in this endeavor. God Bless. The Trenton Youth Group.

The Hungarian Reformed Youth Group of Trenton,NJ on their mission trip in Mezőtúr, Hungary