Amsterdam Airport

Hello, 

It is 4:00AM in Austin, and I am sitting in the Amsterdam Airport. We board our airplane in one hour. Our time in Pecal was very busy; however, it flew by and was very hard to say goodbye. 

All is well. 

It will be nice to be on American soil today. 

Pecal, Hungary

This morning came earlier than I expected. It is about 45 degrees outside and I was able to sleep with the window open. I could have slept all day. 

We arrived at the Karmel Church Building about 9:00AM. 

Robert gave an introduction and then introduced me, and preached this morning. Victor interpreted, and he was great!

After the sermon, Tomas wanted me to prophesy over some people. The first couple I told, "Your house will be the side door to the church." Everyone started laughing. So I stopped and asked them why did they all laugh. The man said we live next door to the church. It was pretty cool. 

One man said that another prophet had come in from England and gave him the same word I gave him. So, God truly blessed me by confirming the words I gave people. 

A young girl came up after the meeting to greet me. Her name was Marta. In 1999, I prayed for her entire family in Bekes at Joszef's church. I prophesied over her that year. A three years later her father died. Her mother and her three siblings moved to Budapest. She told me that word I gave her in 1999 has all come to pass. 

Tonight we dropped Robert off at another minister's home. Joszef Geir is the minister of the Free Christian Church of Budapest. Robert met his daughter at a wedding in Colorado. 

Tomas, Ghingha, and I went back to Gabriel's house to encourage his sister Agnes. Her husband died in July. 

Now I just finished praying for the D'Nagy family. I have to go to bed it is 12:00AM, and I have to be at the airport at 5:30AM. 

Good night. 

Szendehely, Hungary

Szendehely is small little village north of Budapest in the hills. It is autumn and the fall color has not fully come, but it is close. It is good to be here. I was awaken by church bells early Saturday morning. It was about 40 degrees and clear skies. It was great!

I had coffee with Victor, a translator for the group in Elek 2000, and Ilde, his wife and my translator in Gorgorla in 2001. It was great catching up on their history. They said to tell Jerome, Micah, and Justin hello. 

8:00AM was breakfast and Robert started the morning at 9:00. They gave me time to share and prophesy over them. We did as many as we could until 12:30PM. After eating lunch together, we all went directly to church building at 3:00PM where I finished prophesying over all of them by 7:30PM. 

Robert and I went to Gabriel and Anna Marie's home to pray for their son Christo. He has had many surgeries and many visits to the hospital since he was 6 months old. He is 16 years old now. His major problem is his twisted spine, deformed rib cage, lack of strength in his legs, and bone deformation. He is a real trooper and is believing in faith for his total healing. 

Victor picked us up from Gabriel's home to have supper at 9:30PM with Ilde, Joel, and Szoka. We stayed there until 12:30AM. By the time I got to sleep, it was 1:30AM (their time changed in Hungary, so it was 2:30AM). I wouldn't have changed a thing. It was great. 

I must get ready for the church service. It is 8:00AM and I will leave here in an hour. I have to where a coat and tie at this place. Pray for me.  

Leaving on the Train

I had a wonderful experience today. I boarded the train at 1:40PM from Bekescaba and arrived in Budapest at 4:40PM. I should have taken a picture of the small area I was in. It was about 6 feet wide by 5 feet length. The windows open from the top. Bright sunshine and about 55 degrees. It was beautiful. 

Then a young college boy named Mikos (Mee-koesh). He is studying English at the master's level. So he was very excited to talk the entire trip. He asked me many questions about what I was doing. I spoke about my great love for God. He is not a believer. He has no background in any faith, but he wanted to more about my beliefs. It was so much fun. 

When I got off the train, he gave me his email. I told him that God will reveal Himself to you, and when He does, write me an email; so, I gave him my card. 

Tomas was there and he was able to meet Mikos. 

It took about 30 minutes to get to our hotel. The place is very quaint. It has fifty rooms, and a small meeting room. There are about 30 people present. Jerome, Victor and Ilde (ill-dee), my translator in 2002 in Gorgorla and Victor's wife of 5 years, told me to tell you, "Hello."

We ate supper together at 6PM, and we began the meeting with Robert at 7PM. I minister from 8:30PM to 10:30PM. God gave me about 10 prophetic words for the people. Some were confirmed by people who had talked about the very things I said earlier in the day. 

Well it is 1:00AM, and I need to meet with a couple of people at 7:30AM. I will post later tomorrow. 

Bekes to Budapest

This morning Jozsef received a phone call from Tomas requesting me to come to the conference. Jozsef will take me to the train station in Bekeschaba for the 1:45PM train to Budapest. It is 10:30AM and 3:30AM in Austin. 

I have packed up all my stuff, and I will spend the next three hours talking to Jozsef before I leave. 

Last night I was able to minister to Gabriel, Jozsef's older brother. It was great. He is a great man, and God is doing wonderful things in his life in the midst of tremendous trials.  

I will minister in the evening meetings today (11:00AM to 3:00PM Austin time) and Saturday morning (Most of you will be sleeping). The conference will end at noon Saturday.

When most of you wake up (from 6:00AM to 8:00AM), I will be on the train. Please pray for Robert who will be ministering in the afternoon meetings while I am traveling. 

 

Cooking Hungarian Gulyas

I remembered after I published the last post that I had taken some photos of that experience (Photos below). 

Bekes, Hungary

Good Morning, 

I arrived in Bekes, Hungary last night about 11:30PM. Robert and I flew out of Bucharest at 5:30PM to Timisoara. Jozsef and Reke, his daughter, met us about 7:30PM. I decided to go back to Bekes rather than go to the Leadership Conference in Budapest. 

The leaders that are meeting with Robert are all from Tomas' church, so I will be able to minister to them on Sunday. 

We were scheduled to leave Bucharest about 1:00PM, but that flight was full; consequently, our late flight forced us to Robert on the train at 8:40PM to Budapest. He arrived about 11:15PM and had to drive another 50 minutes to the conference site. The train ticket cost $14.00 US and it was a sleeper car. 

Joszef, Reke, and I drove to Bekes. When crossing the border at Romania into Hungary the guard asked, "Who is Leslie Boudreaux?" I said, "I am Leslie." He said, "Happy birthday Mr. Boudreaux. I said, "Thanks."

I was born in 1954 and I am 54 years old. 

Our business trip went very well. About 50 people from the Department of Transportation met with us yesterday, and two private design-built highway agencies met with us the day before. It was a good time to visit. Every country that is interested in becoming a part of the European Union will have to do considerable work on their highways. This means huge allocations of money towards highway projects. So it was good. 

We talked to the minister of the Department of Transportation and found out that he will be in New York City at the trade show. 

Today I woke up rather late. Everything and every business is shut down. It is a national holiday. They celebrate the beginning of the revolution. October 23, 1956, the Hungarian revolution began to free themselves from Russian occupation and rule. They were freed in 1989. That year the Berlin Wall fell and Romania was freed from communism.

Jozsef made Hungarian Gulyas (goo--yash). We call it Hungarian (goo-lash--incorrectly, of course). It was great. 

Gabriel, Jozsef's brother, and his children are coming over (Nora, Benza, and Martce).

Got to go. 

   

Meeting Day in Bucharest

Robert and I were up about 7:45AM this morning. We are staying at the Ibis Hotel in downtown Bucharest within walking distance of the Parliament Building. We have a meeting with the Department of Transportation at 10:30 this morning and another meeting with a different branch of the same department at 12 or 12:30. 

We will then come back to the hotel, maybe to talk with Raji about how the meetings went, other things, or maybe to rest. Raji is very interested in these early morning meetings. 

About 4:00PM we will meet with the Department of Defense and Security. 

Hopefully our meetings will be fruitful and prosperous. 

Later on this evening we will meet with Gina Bara for supper. 

Gina has been Robert's and my translator each time we have visited Romania. 

Well, we are about to go downstairs to meet with Raji. 

Long, Long Monday

Hello, 

Robert and I have just returned to Bucharest from Galati at 3:00AM Tuesday. We visited Nellu, a pastor in Galati that I prophesied over in 1998. The first words out of his mouth when he saw me at the train station way, "Do you remember any of the prophecy you spoke to me in 1998?" I had to say no. I didn't. 

He did share with me most of the high points about the word and how all of it has come to pass as we drove to his apartment. There his wife greeted us and served us a wonderful supper. Nellu has two small boys. We ate supper and and prayed a blessing over his family before we left to pray for Marion Stanca (picture below--Robert, Anda, Marion, and Nellu). 

Marion's faith is great and he is even more encouraged about walking after we share Megan Kovac's testimony. We prayed and he felt a feverish heat down his backbone, so did Robert. We stood him up and helped to move, it was more like struggle, around the room. He was tired after about 20 minutes of that. 

He began to share with us many dreams that he had about walking. When he began to share, Nellu shared a dream with all of us about Marion walking. I looked at Nellu and said, "The Lord just told me that you need to step out in your prophetic gifting." Robert said, "That was the other part of your prophetic word in 1998." Nellu said, "That is the only part that is not fulfilled." 

Marion's wife along with all of us agreed that Marion will walk. They know that God is going to heal him. They had just talked about how there is nothing medical science can help them with anymore, so they are placing all their trust in Jesus' healing power (not mine or Robert's-- we have none). 

After we left Marion's home, Nellu drove us to Stephan and Gabi Enache's home. They invited Robert and me to watch a video of Robert's last days. Amazingly, little Robert was very happy and upbeat throughout the last year of his life. He was born on Gabi's sisters birthday, and he died on her wedding day. We prayed. 

Gabi recognized me the minute I walked in the door. She was one of the translators in Elek, Hungary in 2000. 

Stephan and Gabi have a small baby named Emanueleta. She is 1-1/2 months old and looks like a little doll. 

After we prayed a blessing over them and the baby, Stephan drove us back to Bucharest. 

Well, I have to go to sleep. I need to wake up in about 4 hours.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us today. God was truly with us. 

Thanks, thanks, thanks. 

BB  

Bekes, Hungary to Timisoara, Romania

Hello, 

Tomorrow morning at 5:00AM we leave Bekes, Hungary for Timisoara, Romania. Joszef will drive us all the way to the airport. There we will catch our flight into Bucharest. We have no meetings in Bucharest on Monday, so Robert and I will board an early train to Galati (see the Romanian map). That is a 3-1/2 hour train ride so that we can pray for Marian. Then someone from the Galati Church will drive us back to Bucharest that night. 

We will meet up with Raji on Tuesday morning at the hotel. It is in walking distance to the Parliament Building in downtown Bucharest. We have three meetings on Tuesday in that general area. The first meeting will be with the Department of Transportation, and our second meeting will be with another division of the same department. The third meeting will be with the Department of Security. 

After all of our meetings, we will have supper with Raji and say our goodbyes. Robert and I will then stay at a hotel near the airport. We leave Bucharest on Wednesday morning to fly back to Timisoara, Romania. Joszef will pick us up from the airport and drive us back to Bekes. I will be staying in Bekes Wednesday and Thursday, but we will put Robert on the train for Budapest. 

He will spend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Leadership conference. 

I will catch the train on Friday morning to prophesy and minister on Friday night and Saturday morning to the leaders. 

Sunday we are schedule to minister in Tomas D'Nagy's church. Tomas is Joszef's older brother who organized the leadership conference. 

Monday we fly out of Budapest to New York. 

Hopefully, I will have internet everywhere I go. 

I hope--so much--to send pictures of Marian walking. 

BB

  

Sunday Morning in Bekes, Hungary

Good morning back home. 

It is 3:30PM in Bekes and 8:30AM in Austin. 

Today Robert and I spoke to the church in Bekes. It was great seeing many old friends. 

I haven't been in the church since 2005. It was great to see Reka playing the piano on the worship team. It was fun to here Open the Eyes of My Heart in Hungarian.

 

Robert and I spoke to the church and Bob Makovei, Ildiko's brother, was our translator (picture below).

I spoke about intimacy with God. After the meeting, we had a time of prayer. God gave me about 4 or 5 prophetic words for people and both Robert and I prayed for many more. It was fun for me. I told everyone that I prayed for, "Freely God has given to you, freely give." I had a team of about 5 people who prayed for others. God gave them prophetic words as they prayed for them. It was awesome. They were enjoying it as much as me. They were also being ministered to as they were ministering to others. God is good! 

After the meeting, Gyula (gue-lah), an old friend who worked with us in our Elek outreach in 2000, invited me over to his home to pray for his wife. Heni (Hen-ee) his wife had an infection in her jaw that she was taken medicine to relieve the pain. Balazs (Bah-losh), their 6 month old baby has been affected by the medicine. She told me that she felt much better after we prayed. 

It has been a lot of fun with Joszef's children. Joel is six, Barbala is 10 today. Orsi is 13-1/2, Gergo is 15, but we haven't been able to see him. He isn't feeling well. Reka is 16, and Kinga is 18. We were fortunate to see Kinga at home because she is usually at the University. She has just finished mid-terms, so she was able to take a long break until Wednesday. 

Susan and Helen cooked lunch for Robert, D'Nagy family, and me, and it was great--as usual. 

We leave for Romania tomorrow morning. We are trying to find out if we have meetings with the different departments of the government tomorrow for the fencing project or not. If we don't, Robert and I will go straight to Galati, Romania by train to pray for Marian. He has been bound to a wheelchair for years. If we have meetings then we will go to pray for him at night. 

Robert has talked to Raji, a long-term friend who lives in Arad, Romania. He is organizing all the meetings. I will report to you tomorrow when we find out. 

Robert told Gina Bara, both Robert's and my translator in Romania on past mission trips. She wants to visit with us while we are in Bucharest, so that will be great to see her.  

We will be in Romania two days and then we will travel to Budapest following our meetings with Raji. 

BB 

  

On My Way To Bekes

Hello, 

On my way to Bekes. On the Hungarian map the city of Bekes is written Pecs. Look on the southwest portion of the map. 

Yesterday, Friday, Robert, Jovica, and I went to Novi Sad. It is a major college town. We walked through the campus, went to their major shopping mall, and sat in their coffee shop, equivalent to our Starbucks on campus. The only thing that was different was the language barrier.

Today Robert and I went downtown Zrenjanin in the morning. We had espresso from a local coffee shop and talked to Jovica. Do you notice a repeating theme? There are coffee shops up and down every major thoroughfare. It is amazing.  

Jovica is an interesting person (picture below). He is very much a testimony to friendship evangelism. He makes friends with many people, and as soon as possible he will begin a Bible study in their home. He has Bible studies in many of the neighboring villages. He is awesome.  

He is a very caring person, plus he loves God in a very genuine manner. 

We had to leave Serbia today. We will minister in Joszef's church tomorrow and then early Monday we travel to Arad, Romania. 

Jovica drove Robert and I to the Hungarian border, which took approximately 3-1/2 hours--in a Yugo. Yugos are a the product of the old Yugoslavian state. It is a very inexpensive and poorly built car, even Jovica makes fun of it and tells many jokes about them (picture below). Well we were thoroughly beat up by the time we arrived at the border. 

Bob, Joszef's brother-in-law, took us into Bekes. 

We arrived to find a tupperware full of danishes, two gelaton (sp) and fruit pies, and a coffee cake from Susan and Helen. Ildiko told me that my the ladies are making my favorite dinner for tomorrow. Joszef, Ildiko, Kinga (19) and Reka (17 on Monday) were very excited to see us and stayed up until 12:00AM talking to us. Robert went off to bed, while I went out to see Joszef's 16 foot wooden fishing boat he built from scratch and all by himself. It is beautiful and he did a masterful job. 

Well it's about 12:34AM and I better go to bed. I have to talk in the church tomorrow morning. I will go to their early prayer meeting and then speak at 10:30AM. It will be great to see all of my old friends.  

BB 

 

We Are In Zrenjanin

Hello from Zrenjanin.

We had a wonderful time walking around the pedestrian mall in downtown Belgrade this morning. Belgrade has 2 million people and only 600 Christians. Serbia has 8 million people. I wanted to walk around to see if we could talk to someone or pray for someone. I did not see one person with a wheelchair, anything broken, or anything that we could have remotely prayed to heal. All I was able to do was have a good cup of expresso. 

Robert and I left Belgrade about 11:30 and drove with Joszef and Ildiko to Zrenjanin. 

We met up with Jovica (Yoe-veet-sah) about 2:00PM and lunch with many men from the church. They were pouring concrete on the entry to the church. It is not a house church, but a congregational church. Jovica said that the way people are led to Christ is over a long period of time through friendship. The communities are very close in relationships that it takes a long time. 

We went to a house group in a gypsy community. The community Taras (Teh-rash) was established in 1202. Honestly. A community of 1,200 people for 806 years. 

The men of the home were fishing, so we met with their wives. Jovica shared with us about praying for their business and God blessed their trip last week with a huge catch. We prayed again for them last night. 

Sonya is married to Mica (Mee-chah), Dot is married to Gale (Gall-ee), and Faith all greeted us at the door. Dot's husband Gale is Sonya's son. They have three children. 

I shared with them a few of the testimonies of healing we have seen and the answered prayers in Steven and Nikki's life. They were very encouraged and asked us to pray for them. 

They had many small things ailing them. We prayed for them and Dot was filled with the spirit. It was great. She said she felt something go through her body when we prayed for a hernia. She felt a little queazy. 

Faith had a daughter that was going to have her eye operated on this morning. We went to Faith's home to pray for her. Jovica buys fresh milk from Faith. She has several cows. It tastes great. It is 100% milk. Wow!

This morning we drove to Tomas' home, a member of Jovica's church, to use his internet. 

I don't know what we are doing today. We are probably going to a Bible study tonight, and we will continue to meet with people today. 

 

I am unable to call on Skype, and probably won't be able to talk until Saturday from Joszef's home in Bekes. 

BB

 

We Are In Belgrade, Serbia

Robert and I arrived at about 3:25PM. We were greeted by Joszef and Ildiko D'Nagy from Hungary and Neca (Netsha) and Goca (Gosha) from Belgrade.

We were taken to our hotel where we freshened up a little bit before we went to eat supper. 

Neca and Goca were telling Robert and me that Belgrade only has 600 believers in the entire city. 

They have a small outreach to couples where they counsel marriages based on Christian principles. 

After we ate at the restaurant, we went to their home to have turkish coffee and pumpkin pie. They have three children, a 11 year old daughter named Johanna, a nine year old son named Nicholae, and a six year old son named Vojin [Voighn (one syllable)]. 

We are now back at the hotel. We spent about five hours talking. It was great learning about Serbia's history. They said that they are so excited that we came to visit. No one, in their opinion, comes to Serbia. 

Both couples will pick us up at about 8:30AM tomorrow morning. That is 1:30AM Austin time on October 16th. 

BB

 

 

Arrived In Paris

The entire trip from Austin to Paris was 12 hours and 55 minutes. From Austin to New York, I talked to a young Senegalese Couple, who studied in Paris, and lives and works in Madrid, Spain. They are both bankers. They were very interesting to talk to, and I did talk to them the entire time. It turned out they are Muslim. They were still very interested in my trip and my work. 

They both told me that it was hard to be black, muslim, and living in Madrid. It was hard for them to make friends. They were very curious as to why I was so engaging to  them. 

It was none stop question and answer about Christianity, why I have four children, the Presidential election, what I hope to accomplish on the trip; however, they are interesting in having children and they wanted to talk most of the time about raising a family in the world today. 

It is 8:46AM in Paris, which means it is 1:46AM in Austin. 

The flight from New York to Paris was not full at all. I was able to sleep for about 6 hours.  Yeah! I imagine I looked a little scary, but I am rested. 

Robert said he was able to sleep from L.A. to New York and New York to Paris. So, he is very rested. 

We have 5 hours here in the airport and then on to Belgrade. We leave at 1:00 and arrive at 3:30PM. I will pull out my camera once we arrive. I'll take a few shots and try to post them. 

We will get settled in Hotel Trim in Belgrade. 

Hopefully, it will have internet connection. 

BB

Prepared to Leave

Well, 

I am ready to go. I have received an unexpected large group of followers and people who have committed to pray for this trip to be successful. I want to thank everyone who has responded either by email, comments, and phone calls to support me on this trip--even before I leave. THANKS!!!

I depart Austin at about 11:50AM and arrive in New York about 4:49PM (or 3:49 Austin time). I will meet up with Robert Vidaurri in New York. We depart for Paris about 6:15PM and there at about 7:45AM. It is a 12 hour and 55 minute flight. We leave Paris that afternoon at 1:00PM, October 15th and arrive in Belgrade at 3:30PM. 

I will post some pictures as soon as I get a chance. 

Thanks for all the support. 

BB

P.S. The Serbia map is labeled. 

The Romania map has Bucharest as its capital. 

The Hungary map has Budapest as it capital. 

This was suggested by Eric Steen (alias--Max Turbo)

The Day Before Leaving

Hey, 

Today is Monday, October 13,2008 and I am starting the blog coverage for my trip to Eastern Europe. Tomorrow I leave for Belgrade, Serbia. This is the first time I have ever been to Serbia. I will be traveling with a good friend of mine, Robert Vidaurri. I will do my best to post our trip each afternoon. I will bring my camera and do my best to take a few photos each day.

Proposed Itinerary... (very much subject to change)

1. Belgrade, Serbia
2. Nis, Serbia
3. Zrenjamin, Serbia
4. Bekes, Hungary... A good friend of mine, Joszef D'Nagy, will pick us up in Belgrade and drive us to his home. It has been about 6-7 years since I have been to his home. 
5. Joszef will drive us to Arad, Romania where we will fly into Bucharest, Romania. Robert and I have some business there for two days with an old friend, Raji. 
6. While we are in Bucharest we will travel at night to Galati, Romania by train to pray for a young man with a back injury. 
7. Budapest, Hungary. Tomas D'Nagy wants Robert and me to teach and minister at a Leadership Conference. 
8. Back to New York City on the 27th of October for a Trade Show. 
9. On the 28th, I will be able to spend the entire day with my sister, Cathy, and my brother-in-law, Bill. 
10. I will return to Austin, Texas on October 31st. 

If you have a map, you will see that Serbia, Romania, and Hungary all have touching borders to their countries. 

Well, I will try my best to keep you informed and up-to-date on everything we are doing. 

Please pray for the success of this trip.