The BEST candy...

We were blessed to recieve a care package. In it besides the awesome CD's we got some Jelly Beans... :)

They are the best Candy ever invented...

Tony and Kim, THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH...

Laci, Keri and Lea.

THA BILL...

We just recently got an electric bill, our friend has drawn our attention to what is written on the envelope:

"In case you did not got this bill, please let us know"

Well I guess "rocket scientists" are everywhere... :)

what am I?

Is a huge question in this part of the world, but as far as I know/remember "over the big lake" the situation is kind a similar. what someone think he or she is, is strongly connected to the geographical area you were born in... this thinking leads to a lot of ethnic, nationalistic issues.
This geographic issue makes specially not much sense over here...
I was born in a little city in north Serbia(Vojvodina)called Subotica. Father Hungarian, mother Croatian(Bunjevac). due to the wars on the balkans in the '90 I was "sent" to study in Szeged,Hungary... there they never treated me as a hungarian...
Then in 2005 I moved to Croatia.To a city where It does metter to most people what are you... while living in Croatia, the hungarian government has given me the Hungarian citizenship... while living here I was told, maybe I can apply to a croatian citizenship, because my mother is a croat, and I live in Croatia...
So please tell me what in the world am I? Recently I was asked and my answer was Eastern Europenean. That descrbes it all... since There is no such thing, I am thinking about starting a virtual Eastern Europenean State... If any of you want to join it, or open a virtual embassy just let me know... :)

Add to this whole maddness that I married a beautifull woman from North of Hungary, from a city called Esztergom(On the border with Slovakia)

So...

What are you?

Vukovar Newspaper...

If you click to this link+speak croatian you will understand that the little "Pick up trash" action of our church is mentioned in the Vukovar Newspaper...
The editor is a kind lady(Zeljka Kraljic) and shows very opened heart to publish things that we as church do or organize...
Its kind of cool...you can also dowload the pdf file of the page...
its kind of cool...at least I am happy..."the church that picks up trash..." I think its awesome... :)

Two new sports invented in Serbia...

Hi guys,
Due to the floods the almighty Balkan menthality invented 2 new sports.
1. waterski on the highway
2. water soccer

The are applying to the Olimpic community with the desire to accept it into 2008 Olimpic games in Peking... all you need is flood...and since China is big, they would held these two competition in that part of China where the flood is...

I just like the Balkan menthality, its one thing to be in trouble but the question is how can we make fun out of it... :)

the spirit of the city...

its gonna be long, but endure with me...
I always heard from pastors, that you have to sense the spirit of the city, you have to have a vision etc... last year I heard one guy sharing how wierd is his city, and I kind of felt related to it...
Before, when we lived in Szeged it was easy to sense the spirit of the city. Its a universitiy town, big catholic cathedral, etc...its full of "knowledge", and pride... hard city to reach...
So I came to Vukovar, and I felt nothing...destroyed buildings, hatred in the hearts towards the other nations, every person effected by war, no jobs, kind of melancholic etc...but nothing you can grasp on...
...all till the day of this flood. We went there and have seen the soldiers packing the bags, with sand... we started joking they should have come 15 years ago, but all of them were probably sissy to come and defend the city... so here we go...
The city was defended 15 years ago by 2000-3000 tousand local dudes, many of them unequiped, and mostly barely any weapons...for 3 months they fought the 30-50 000 serbian slodiers armed with all tenks and anything you can imagine... then most of them were taken to concentration camps and many of them never returned alive...
What does it has to do with the spirit of the city? A lot... these soldiers were laughed at(maybe not even true exactly for these soldiers),but in general...if you are not brave to face and fight Goliath you gonna be laughed at...
So you can be one of two... or the one who never gives up, trusts GOD and defeats Goliath or you get laughed at...

May the LORD help us not to ruin our testemony and to bring glory to HIM...

Does this makes sence?
What is the spirit of your city?

Lea the TOP MODEL...

We made official Church T-shirts.
Reasons?
1. we got few for free...
2. we organized picking up trash in Vukovar, kind of a reach out to the community, showing Love to our neighbours, and just living in a nicer community...:)
Here is the best top model, with our church T-shirt(baby size)...

New transmogrifier...

what to say...???
every box is a transmogrifier...

floods...

This spring is full of floods...in Szeged(where we lived for 12 years) seems like they gonna experience the biggest flood in the past 50 years...I started to feel jelouse, that I miss it and its not fair, and etc, but Vukovar got the biggest flood in the past 40 years... its kind a cool, but also scary...Here are some pictures...

1493.jpg is the Romantic Restaurant on the Danube side...called "Vrske"
1495.jpg the romantic bench...
- the cross is a monument to those who died defending the City...
1536.jpg city center, the bridge over Vuka...almost higher then the bridge...just few centimeters(inches) before it goes over...


Well thats pretty much it...But I will have to post one more, on the "Spirit of the city"...its intresting... :)

Few Lea pictures...

She is much fun...I wil try to post some pictures also on how she is sliding on the slide in Vukovar...she loves them...Crazy like her mom...:"its dangeourus? lets do it..."

Catching up....

A lot has happened since our last post... We went voting at the Hungarian Embassy in Osijek, we finsihed our diet... I have lost 13 Kg, Keri 9, huge floods all over eastern Europe..., etc etc...Lea is a one sweet girl...giving us a lot of laghter...,
Good things are happening in the ministry too, so I will try to catch up...:)
Oh yeah...I try to read bunch of books and stuff...Any news ON cloneing? It would be really nice to have at least two of me...
I am trying to catch up with reading many of your blogs...but I just don't have time...lately everyone has a blog...I found a really good picture...Here you go...Little offensive... ?

believe it or not...

Believe it or not, if you endure a little more you will be able to read a new post soon...actually several of them...
I needed some time to regain my creativity so I went to the nicest places on the world and had done nothing just sunbathing...and enjoying GOD's creation...After that I went skiing in the Alps and then to Peru...
So after weeks of not doing a thing, not caring for people, not even trying to be a good husband, father and a pastor...and all that...I will write...



Of course, before someone thinks its true I am being sarcastic... :)

Adventures with CHRIST...

Ministry is wierd.
Just few weeks ago I was doing my first funeral in my life, and was doing it in a foreign land. Well GOD willing I will do my first wedding that is also legal in front of the Republic of Croatia.(In Croatia like in the states you can do official weddings as Pastor, so people don't have to do 2 weddings like in Serbia, or Hungary or other places...) So now I applied to become official in front of the government...
Who am I gonna marry? Its a student couple at the ETS in Osijek. I am planning to do at least 5-6 marriage councellings, to prepare them... Even if they know so much in Theory about it... Theory and practice are not always the same... :)
So its an adventure to serve GOD... :)

You wanna here an intresting joke...After I did Vlado's funeral, I got a phone call "Slobodan Milosevic just died". Then we started jokeing...
1. exactly in the same minute when Keri and I got married Arkan got killed in Belgrade...
2. When I did my first funeral Slobodan milosevich dies...
3. So Voljislav Seselj will die when I do my first wedding...

Well if somebody can inform Vojislav Seselj in the Hague, please let him know, that he will die in May or June... :)

Lea in the Clinics for Children in Pecs Hungary...

It should be a sad post, but it will actually be a neutral... She still has weight issues and the doctors requried a 2 days testing fr Lea. First day was very hard . Lot of blood tests that required pain...so a lot of crying...
The second day was better...
But both days were awesome, Leah was smiling a lot and enjoying the time...the nurses loved her and walked her into every room, because she is so friendly and so smiling all the time... even right after the tests were done... here are few pictures...

An a sirious level, she might be alergic to more, not only milk and egg. we need to wait 4-6 weeks for the results...

And then we got home, and she emptied the kitchen cabinet with joy... :)

Time savers or gadgets/toys for man... :)

I could subtitle this post also as Pastor Nokia.
I heard a story once(I can't remember who told me) that a pastor in Finland told the congregation before the service:
"Please if you have a Nokia turn it off, and if you have a sony erickson in the back of the church there is a thrash throw it in."

I am not sure if it is true or not but its a good joke for sure...

My friend Tom posted an intresting thing on this issue

I had a sony erickson for years... But my daughter opened our eyes to the week points of that phone, so we got a water proof, and unbreakable phone. This Nokia...
I am not sure if it wil save me time or not, but it has a compass, thermometer, etc...

Transmogrifier

If the title does not mean anything to you, that is a definite proof, that you have never read Calvin and Hobbes...if you have read it, just by looking at the picture of Leah you know what she was doing...
For those of you who have not read Calvin and Hobbes, I would describe Transmogrifier as a machine that can pretty much turn anything into anything... a little kid into a dinosaur, etc... it can be also a spaceship, etc...
I guess Leah invented the same thing...she wasTransmogrifying herself into another dimension, because daddy was too boring... :)

REPUBLIKA BUREK...

Few years ago with few of my friends from Subotica, during the crazy years of Ex-YU falling apart, and everybody wanting to be independent or even worse creating an illegal "semi state" in a legal recognized republic, etc... etc... we decided to create a Republic which gathers all those people and all those Bakeries that are giving good BUREKS...
For many years in Subotica the best Burek place was Pekara Lipa. Now there is a big competitor Pekara Proleće 1 and 2.
Here you can see pictures of few Bureks I have eaten.The first is Meat and mushrooms from "Lipa". The second is Ham and Chese from Proloće 2. I have to mention that their ham and chese was the golden medalist in 2005 Novi Sad exhibition-competition... the third is also from Pekara Proleće 2.. its a Pizza Burek... WOW...

So here is the final grading...
The best Burek award goes to:
1. Pekara Proleće 2: Ham and Chese Burek

The others:
2. Pekara Lipa: Meat and Mushrooms
3. Pekara Proleće 2: Pizza Burek
4. Pekara Lipa: Chese Burek

Few other taste exist... Apple, cherry, Lasagna, meat, ...
But since I was not able to taste all of them in 3 days...I will have to update my list next time... :)
Till then visit Pekara Proleće 2 in Subotica on E-75 road at the Economic University or the Pekara Lipa near the Hungarian embassy in Subotica...

after the hard days

Dear friends.
Thank you for your prayers, support and concern.
I was attacked, with depression and regular flashbacks of the moment when I had to carry out the dead body of Vlado from the bathroom to the cascet...
It was hard for me, but hard for Keri too since she had no idea, how to help me...besides prayer...
Thank GOD, HIS WORD and all that HE has encoureged us with. Verses that some of you sent, verses that we got in our devotions, etc...

We are Ok, and continuing to serve HIM with joy...

I will pubilsh soon few pictures of my gluttony in Subotica... All I was able to eat BUREK's... :)

See you soon...

Hard days..., now travelin!

Speaking of hardship in the ministry...???

Thursday as I was preparing for my teaching I got a call: "Vlado is dead". He was an 73 years old man from our church who lived alone, survived World war 2, and the Siege of Vukovar, The concentration camp etc... Every time he came to the church service he was smiling and always told me with a huge smile on his face: "Pastor Laci, today I was reading this and that in my BIble..."
He was one of the Muppet shows...(you know the two guys on the balcony.. :) ) Well his buddy Lepen and him always walked together to church and simply just reminded us of them...

After the phone call I went streight to his apartment. His dead body was still in the bathroom. The doctor came, have filled the papers and left. I was left there in a foreign land, with a corp in an apartmant...waiting for the funeral company to come...When they arrived I had to help carry out the dead body of Vlado... I had to grab a hold of a dead body...It was not easy... We have carried him out and put him into a cascet...

No family(at this time, who would be willing to take care of funeral and etc) so I started organizing the funeral... Later an aunt showed up and was willing to take care of the details...

That night I had to teach on Joshua 5, circumsizing the heart... Half of the church was crying...
Friday I spent taking care of the rest of the funeral, buying the grave(YES, the Agape Church has an official grave site, if a widow or someone dies who has no grave we will be able to help again...so we are more ready for the next funeral...), and preparing for the saturday funeral...
Saturday:
GOD really blessed it. It was a special time for our church. Since this was my first every funeral, I have to say thanks to Tomo Mogus, Tom Foley, and Damir Spoljaric...THANK YOU.

After this I came home and I slept. I was so exhausted. Spiritually, emotionally...Menthaly.

Today I am teaching on Mark 15:1-20. So I better go and finish my preparation... :)

But tomorrow I am in Subotica...I was not abe to go for 18 months now, because of my army issues and papers...Now all got cleared out... So I am going to visit family, friends and lots of BUREK's... :) I will post hopefully from there...
GOD bless you guys

BUREK

If you know me, you know that I believe that BUREK is a holy, sanctafied food. It should be served for "Lords Supper" in Churches. :)
Unfortunatelly this is not a picture of the BUREK I ate, but reminded me of it. I can't wait to go next week to Subotica to the BEST BUREK place I found so far... and you will get a picture I can assure you.
If any of you ever gets the chance to come to any of the Balkan Republics, a BUREK is a "must have it".

So after of the picture of the Sarma Now the BUREK, the next will have to be a Čevap, sooner or later... I hope sooner :)

P.S. My diet goes great. I am 80 Kilos, lost 12 kilos so far... have 4 more weeks :)