It has been a busy few weeks with visits to Hungary, Serbia, Chicago, Denver and this weekend - Seattle. The travel is often a drag but I pinch myself that I get to help influence and shape CRM teams and their amazing people - from those living with the poor to others developing new forms of church in the West.

This weekend I am attending Off The Map with a team from 3 tribes within CRM. I am looking forward to listening some more, learning some more and enjoying the company of some great people. The primary purpose for CRM is to further this relationship with the audience set that attends an event like this, some of whom may be well suited to participating further with one of our teams.

Santa Ana winds are blowing fiercely tonight - they are dry and gusty and bring high temperatures. They are acting as the spark for a very dry environment and people are losing homes and dreams in numerous raging wildfires. We are not threatened in our suburban environment but tonight there is a strong smell of smoke in the air and the moon is blood red in the smoke.

For ongoing reports see the LA Times.

I have been home for a day and I am now in Chicago to spend 2-3 days with the InnerCHANGE recruiting team who are here developing relationships on a couple of campuses and holding their recruiting summit. It really is a privilege to hang with these guys - they are a different breed in their service amongst the poor of the world.
Peter Schrock, our photographer and whom I just worked with in Hungary has posted a great blog post featuring some of the images from the first half of his trip - to CRM’s work with Russian orphans in St Petersburg. Great images. Amazing stories.

Here I am in an “Irish” bar in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, watching the All Blacks play France in Wales on a French TV. The most surreal moment, seeing the All Blacks get beaten - our worst result ever in the Rugby World Cup. New Zealand goes into mourning and national shock - ahh, the important things in life!

As I write this I have just returned from Serbia, specifically Novi Sad. A fascinating experience of meeting Serbian church leaders, listening to their needs and understanding just a fraction of Serbian culture. In a population of approximately 8 million, only 10,000 - 15,000 are evangelical Christians. Traditionally to be Serbian is to be Orthodox.

As I walked along a dusty, bumpy street full of early morning traffic I was struck by the great need of this wonderful people. We drove along the Danube where bridges destroyed by the NATO bombing have only just been replaced - it is the general populace who suffers the effects of war.

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The above photo is of Budapest Castle which sits atop a hill overlooking the Danube River. We spent the day filming yesterday and the evening in downtown Budapest putting the pieces of the creative puzzle together. We crossed over the Danube on our way home.

Hungary has a fascinating history. The predominant people group are the Magyars who are not Slavic - as one might expect. They are in fact most closely related to the Finnish people and their languages are the most alike. That being said Hungarian is a difficult language - in listening to locals speak there are no commonalities with English to pick up on such as there might be with French for example.

In the past few hundred years Hungary has been dominated by many outside forces. These include the Ottoman Turks, an uneasy alliance with the Habsburg throne of Austria, Nazi Germany (with which Hungary initially sided) and most recently the Soviets. Following defeat in World War I the Treaty of Trianon significantly reduced the Hungarian borders - as a result a significant population of Hungarians live in surrounding countries.

This afternoon we leave for one of those surrounding countries, Serbia. More to come.

As I write this I am sitting in CRM Hungary’s Budapest offices. We are about to film an Hungarian church planter telling his story. CRM Hungary is a partner of CRM-US and they have asked for our assistance with developing a communications portfolio (web, print, film, visual ID) for them - both for developing their work here with the Hungarian church and for their US based donors.

Budapest sits on the Danube river and is a mix of classical elements, Communist era rather drab buildings and a skyline of construction cranes that are busily building the infrastructure to support this expanding city. Tomorrow we leave for Serbia - about 4 hours or so from here.

This photo is of Peter (our photographer/designer) doing his thing in the street this morning, outside CRM’s offices.