Join Trish and Agi on their European tour, aimed at passing a leadership baton from an American to a Hungarian. Have a map handy, put on a little sunscreen and be prepared to travel vicariously with these two intrepid women, and to learn how they saw God's hand along the way.

Helpful links

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| Speaker Name | Start Time | Text
| Laurie | 00;00;04;03 | Hi, friends. Welcome to Entrust Equipping Leaders. I'm your host, Laurie Lind, and this week's episode is quite different. As you know, we have been featuring pairs of interviews with people who have written articles for us which you can find on our website about various aspects of training and equipping leaders in ministry situations. I've got more of those coming up, a couple of interviews about contextualization and about an adult learning theory called Constructivism with professors and people who serve God full time.
| Laurie | 00;00;41;11 | And even if you're not exactly training Christian leaders right now, there will be ideas for you right where you live and serve. And actually you might be doing more training than you even realize. So plan to keep listening. We release a new podcast episode every other Friday. Thank you for subscribing to entrust equipping leaders and sending a review.
| Laurie | 00;01;03;25 | Please keep those reviews coming, share the podcast with others and encourage them to subscribe as well. So today you are in for a treat right about this time of year. Late February we're getting a little tired of winter, especially if you live where I live, which happens to be North Dakota. And so we're going to get out of town for a little while.
| Laurie | 00;01;26;15 | Today, we're going to visit a bunch of countries in Europe following along with two interest women who did sort of a Paul and Timothy like learning and discipleship trip together. They're going to tell us some stories, funny ones, stories about food, travel mishaps and spiritual learnings along the way. So ready, everybody. Bags packed, passports in hand. Here we go.
| Laurie | 00;01;55;17 | So today's episode of Equipping Christian Leaders is a very different one and I think a pretty exciting one. I've got two guests today, one from the U.S., one from Hungary. And they have been on quite a journey that they're going to tell us about, which I think has lessons in it for all of us. So let's start off, if you could each please introduce yourself, because I can't always pronounce certain names correctly and tell us just where you live and how long you have served with Entrust
| Trish | 00;02;26;10 | My name's Trish Barrett. I currently live in Baltimore, Maryland, hoping to move to Blacksburg, Virginia, to be near family soon. And I have served with Entrust for about eight years. But I've known about Entrust for probably almost 20 years.
| Agi | 00;02;46;25 | And my name is Agi Szekely, and I live in Budapest, Hungary. I've been with Entrust since 2019, but I was introduced to the trainings two years ahead of there. I working with equipping women mostly, and yeah, just doing the trainings and organizing trainings.
| Laurie | 00;03;10;26 | Well, thank you for that. Now, the I think it's important I hope you aren't offended if I ask you both how old you are. It might have a factor in our story, if that's okay with you.
| Trish | 00;03;21;19 | I just turned 68 last week.
| Agi | 00;03;24;14 | And I'm 45.
| Laurie | 00;03;26;08 | All right. So we have a 68 year old and a 45 year old one from the US. One from Hungary. And the two of you went on quite an epic journey. Augie, tell us, how many countries did you visit over the course of how much time?
| Agi | 00;03;41;25 | So I would have visited eight countries in six weeks. We started off and of all August and went onto tens of October.
| Laurie | 00;03;52;25 | Eight countries in six weeks around basically around the continent of Europe. So, Trish, how did. What was the idea? How did this trip come about and what were the goals and the purposes.
| Trish | 00;04;04;12 | We have to go back to when I first took on the role of European regional team leader for equipping women with and trust. Our overall director at that point had challenged me and I said, But I don't know the women. And so after a training in Switzerland, we were both there and we did a shorter version of this trip.
| Trish | 00;04;32;24 | I think it was maybe four or five countries in 2 to 3 weeks. So the idea for meeting people in person actually came about when I took over my role. So now I am transitioning. I'm getting older. I don't feel I can do quite as much travel as I did in the past. Plus, our goal has always been to have a European in charge of the European regional team.
| Trish | 00;05;03;07 | And I just felt that trip with Corrie had done so much for me that I wanted to do that kind of turning the role over to Augie the same way.
| Laurie | 00;05;15;11 | Agi, how did you feel about this whole idea when you heard you might travel for six weeks around the entire continent of Europe with your friend Trish?
| Agi | 00;05;23;29 | Well, I was excited. I love travel. Plus, it wasn't six weeks away from home for me because I got to spend some time in Hungary almost. I think it was about eight days because it was two weeks, but we took a weekend trip by a train from Prague.
| Laurie | 00;05;46;00 | Aha. That's a city that has, is near and dear to my heart. I got to live there for a while. So before the trip, Agi, what excited you or what made you a little bit nervous?
| Agi | 00;05;58;14 | I was full of confidence, which later on turned out have had some basis. But not all of the basis is. But yeah, it was exciting to meet the ladies I have met online a couple of occasions to meet them in person and to actually it's always, not always, but sometimes it's surprising because you only see the head and the shoulders and sometimes it's surprising how they look.
| Agi | 00;06;29;20 | Sometimes it's just good to get the hug. So I was really, really looking forward to seeing all the ladies.
| Laurie | 00;06;38;03 | Were you nervous about any aspect of it?
| Agi | 00;06;40;14 | I feel really comfortable traveling within Europe. I have done it a lot of times and that's why my first mistake was a bad one, because I thought, Oh, we are going to be traveling in Europe. So I only need my I.D. So I left my passport at home and I realized that in Riga that we are in the United Kingdom, which is no longer in the European Union and no longer in the Schengen zone.
| Agi | 00;07;11;04 | So I had my passport period over to me, to Riga, but I missed my plane. So I had to go one day later. And that taught me a lot of humbleness because before so the other hiccup we had in Riga was that Tricia's luggage didn't come with her. And I was thinking my flight was so smooth and everything.
| Agi | 00;07;34;23 | I got there pretty nicely during the night, and then I was like, Oh yeah, I'm a European. I don't need to worry about this kind of travel hiccups and and I'm good. And then the Lord taught me a lot of humbleness and I had to ask for help for people to get into my apartment and couriered that passport over to me.
| Agi | 00;07;59;02 | So that was a learning I will not forget.
| Laurie | 00;08;02;07 | No, exactly. Well, I think let's talk about your trip in two parts. First of all, well, we'll talk about the Travelog part because you went to some interesting places and a little bit about like what you who you met and what you did there. And then at the end, I'd like to talk about your relationship and what you two learned as kind of partners in ministry together.
| Laurie | 00;08;26;02 | So let's start with you two. As you began, I believe you two met up in Latvia. Was that your first country together?
| Trish | 00;08;34;17 | Yes. Yes. And we had that scheduled because there was going to be a graduation of the first group who had been trained with the equipping equipment form E modules in all Latvia, all their national language. And we wanted to be president for that event. So it was a wonderful time. We had time with individuals, time with the small leadership team for Latvia, and then time with about 30 women for that graduation in Latvia.
| Trish | 00;09;10;15 | Now, not all of those were graduating. There were about eight or nine graduating, but others were there to support them or had taken different modules.
| Laurie | 00;09;19;26 | So what were some highlights of your time in Latvia for both of you?
| Trish | 00;09;23;29 | Either of you mind was seeing women there that I had trained in some of the earlier modules that still brings tears to my eyes to see the way they have grown spiritually grown in confidence, grown in leadership skills.
| Agi | 00;09;41;16 | It was great to meet up with the ladies I know and the there has been one lady who was taking us on a Sunday to church and translated for us and then we went for lunch together. We went to the seaside together and it was so great that we clicked from the first moment like we had a conversation and and then, you know, just a little bit after that, we were already great friends.
| Agi | 00;10;09;26 | So I appreciate these encounters and I appreciated the food. You will hear about this quite a lot because one of my highlights were the food all over and it was very good. It was very, very good.
| Laurie | 00;10;25;20 | In fact, I think we should just talk. Everybody wants to hear about food in different countries. And one of the highlights of visiting a new country is trying whatever their special food is. So what did you have there, Augie, and what did you love to eat?
| Agi | 00;10;40;07 | Mostly potatoes and meat, but in certain ways prepared in a certain way with a lot of for us national soul. So that was that was lovely. Plus, they have a very similar version of a salad, which my mom, she's from Poland, which my mom is making in the spring. So that was really special. So every time we went to the restaurant, they had that salad.
| Laurie | 00;11;08;08 | Would that be the one cause shocks qui sont? No.
| Agi | 00;11;12;15 | I'm not sure. So I don't think so. Yeah. The restaurant was ladle and the salad was lettuce and radishes. Also dill. And it was all in sour cream.
| Laurie | 00;11;27;22 | Oh, okay. We'll have to look it up. I know. I've read some funny things that Latvians write about themselves, and they always say when in doubt, add dill. So they must have a lot of dill in a lot of their dishes in Latvia. What else about the country or the culture? Did either of you enjoy trips? What were what are some of your favorite aspects of that country?
| Trish | 00;11;50;00 | Laura You and I have been there together, so why are the things that you will remember is that Riga, the capital where we stayed, was such a walkable city, though Augie and I, we needed transportation to the church and to the big event and from the airport. But other than that, we walked almost everywhere and it's a beautiful city.
| Trish | 00;12;14;26 | I've really started telling people it's one of my favorite cities in Europe.
| Laurie | 00;12;19;07 | Yeah, Latvia is a lovely country, right on the Baltic Sea. So as you said, you are so glad to go to the ocean for a little bit to the seaside and put your feet in the water maybe. Or was it to call?
| Agi | 00;12;29;25 | It was very cool. It was very cold and rainy and windy, especially the first day we went out for a walk, but we only got to a coffee shop and then the rain just didn't start. It was raining heavily. So we went back to the apartment and we have not dare to go out in that trade. But yeah, we couldn't swim.
| Agi | 00;12;59;13 | But we all on on the beach.
| Laurie | 00;13;02;27 | That's so nice. At least that. So from Latvia. What country did you go to next?
| Agi | 00;13;09;04 | United Kingdom.
| Laurie | 00;13;10;11 | Tell us about what happened there. Let's talk about both ministry wise and what you enjoyed about that country. Well, countries, United Kingdom, multiple countries.
| Agi | 00;13;20;13 | No, we were only in London, actually, so that. Exactly because we had a trip to Oxford. But what I really enjoyed was getting to know our hosts. We had accommodation, a young couple was hosting us and they were a great couple and they shared my food dinners. So we had we weekly, we had a great time together. We met with some ladies and we hope to have some training for them, most probably either full online or starting online and finishing up in person.
| Laurie | 00;14;02;28 | Well, because at this point in time, as we record this interview, interest hasn't had officially any ministry training happening in the UK, is that correct? So part of your trip here to come to this part of the world? The UK was a bit pioneering though. What about what? What were highlights ministry wise or relationship wise with people there?
| Laurie | 00;14;25;20 | You said they were foodies, they were warm. You enjoyed them a lot. What were some of your interaction like with them?
| Trish | 00;14;32;17 | Again, tell them about what you cooked for them.
| Agi | 00;14;36;25 | Yeah, I made them this polish stuff. Pasta with pierogi. Yeah. I've made three different batches and everyone seemed to enjoy the output, so that was good.
| Laurie | 00;14;49;17 | I love the international flavor of this girl. Yeah, actually, you are half Hungarian and half Polish, right?
| Agi | 00;14;56;16 | That's correct. Yeah.
| Laurie | 00;14;58;19 | So you bring Polish food to the UK and your hosts, were they British?
| Agi | 00;15;04;21 | American?
| Laurie | 00;15;05;24 | Oh, they're Americans who live in the UK. All right. So did you have some interactions with Brits there, too?
| Trish | 00;15;11;22 | We didn't have a lot of British interactions. We met some through a church that we attended with our hosts and it just seemed that the direction we thought we would go and be with Brits a lot, it all of our contacts were internationals.
| Laurie | 00;15;30;20 | Well, there we go. That's part of this whole trip is some things you thought might go one way, actually went a different way. So let's talk about that. I know already early in this trip last year, by the time you've been to Latvia in the UK, you guys have encountered, as you would say, some hiccups with documentation or luggage.
| Laurie | 00;15;53;20 | Just tell us a little bit about that trip. I know that no trip ever does go as planned. And trips, you definitely had some hiccups that maybe God use. Tell us about those.
| Trish | 00;16;04;02 | Well, I know that I had expected to have my luggage and a couple of days, but then there was a strike of Lufthansa pilots, which I did not get luggage for six days. The ones that had my clothes in it, I had carried on a lot of Bibles because we were giving those as gifts to the graduates of the training in Latvia.
| Trish | 00;16;31;00 | Normally I would have carried on extra clothes, but I wanted to make sure those Bibles made it. So it was quite interesting to wash out my clothes and have to sit around in my raincoat because I didn't even have pajamas to sit around in and out. It was yes, it was very interesting. And as I said, it was a humbling experience to wear the same thing, clean or not, for six days.
| Trish | 00;17;01;15 | I don't think I've ever done that before in my life.
| Laurie | 00;17;04;28 | So that was most of your time in Latvia. You really didn't have a change of clothes. The day.
| Trish | 00;17;09;23 | I left, I had a change of clothes.
| Laurie | 00;17;11;15 | For goodness sake. Okay. So that yeah, that's ongoing. And then again, you were dealing with this problem. Could you even get well, you could go to Latvia without your passport, but then you weren't able to get into the UK. So did you have your passport couriered to you in LAX?
| Agi | 00;17;27;04 | Yeah, yes. Yes. The good thing was that that host was very flexible about it. She said, you can stay as long as you need this. This is a lady I've met in Hungary. She was here studying and then she went back to Riga and she said, Whenever you come to Riga, I will toast you. And she bought this apartment we were staying in and she was just renovating, so we had the place to our own and she was very kind.
| Agi | 00;18;03;29 | She furnished it with cosmetics, food, everything was there.
| Laurie | 00;18;11;07 | Wow. How kind. That's. And this was the Latvian lady. Mm. Well, fortunately, your passport arrived in time for you to go as scheduled over to the. No.
| Agi | 00;18;22;29 | No. Another scheduled one day later. So I had to get another ticket.
| Laurie | 00;18;28;03 | Mm hmm. So just in these first two adventures, the luggage in the passport, you both had lessons in humility, it sounds like. But did you see God use those hiccups in other ways?
| Agi | 00;18;41;25 | I don't think these ones. But one other hiccup is coming, which God used trees in magical. I mean, it was just such a special way.
| Laurie | 00;18;53;00 | Okay, we'll get to that hiccup. I think I might know, but I want to hear that story. So after your time in the UK or any other highlights, I mean, what did you also love about the UK?
| Trish | 00;19;04;04 | Well, highlight in some sense is we actually were there when the queen died, when Queen Elizabeth died, and so we had to walk some that next day after her death to find a store for some items. We made it and we walked on toward the palace and saw all the people grieving, all the little children with their flowers to lay at the gates of it was it was a very moving and emotional time to be in in London during that process.
| Laurie | 00;19;40;22 | Of all things. And little could you have possibly had known you would be there at that historic moment.
| Trish | 00;19;47;07 | Right. And that caused us actually, one of the things that worked out was I told Auggie she had a very early flight. We were on separate flights to Portugal, and she had a very early flight. And I said, I think I'll check and see if we can get a hotel at the airport so we don't have to be nervous about you getting transportation because so many people were pouring into London.
| Trish | 00;20;13;20 | Transportation was tough. It ended up that just worked out beautifully that we were there because the the train we took, the day we even went, was delayed by a couple of hours. I think people were borrowing phones and chargers to try and change their flights. And here we were just going to a hotel. We didn't have to be worried about that because the next day we were late.
| Trish | 00;20;39;15 | So God, I think really placed that thought in my head and we were very thankful we did it that way.
| Laurie | 00;20;46;00 | And so country number three on our travel on here is Portugal. All right, let's pick up the Travelog part. What was amazing about Portugal, whether this is scenery, culture, food, what did you guys love about Portugal?
| Agi | 00;21;02;03 | Yeah, the food again was excellent. Our colleagues cooked for us typical Portuguese things. But as we went, we her to a local restaurant that was great and local cafes. The highlight for me was obviously meeting with the ladies. But more than that, she took us to a market like a local market. They sold all sorts of things. That was really special.
| Agi | 00;21;29;21 | I enjoyed that time.
| Laurie | 00;21;32;04 | And you say typical Portuguese food she cooked for you. What would that have included?
| Agi | 00;21;37;10 | It was a face to what she did, so we were really short time there and we ate out also some. So she made for us a stew.
| Laurie | 00;21;48;10 | And what were some highlights about this country for your church?
| Trish | 00;21;52;11 | Neither of us had ever met any of the women in that country before. When Cory and I had made our trip, we were not going into Portugal. So meeting these women was just a highlight. And the the leader of the interest work there, that three or four different coffee times for us to meet various people. So we didn't have one large group we were with, we were with one woman at a time, three women or four women just sitting around in a cafe, either eating a snack and drinking coffee or just drinking coffee.
| Trish | 00;22;33;29 | It was so special to see the women who had had some of the training and were interested in taking more. The women who had had a couple of trainings and our CO facilitating because this is a new work and when you have a new work and people need to be taught in Portuguese, then we get the other women involved very quickly, which is what was happening.
| Trish | 00;22;58;23 | So it was very exciting to meet those women.
| Laurie | 00;23;02;11 | In fact, I have to confess my ignorance. I don't think I'm aware of the name of who's heading up the work in Portugal.
| Trish | 00;23;08;24 | Foreign Trust B is actually not with interest. She is with Greater Europe Mission and her name is Nancy Zellers.
| Laurie | 00;23;17;01 | Oh, and does she?
| Trish | 00;23;18;06 | But she's lived in Portugal 2728 years.
| Laurie | 00;23;22;12 | So that highlights something else about interest. We definitely have partnerships with other ministries. It's not just us. And so women have already been taking courses in Portugal. In Portugal, she's Portugal. Portugal, because I know there's Brazilian Portuguese, but that's a bit of a different language.
| Trish | 00;23;42;20 | Yes. And they are doing translations. In fact, we met the translator that was one of the women that we met.
| Laurie | 00;23;50;12 | Were there any hiccups or adventures, happy or sad in Portugal for the two of you?
| Trish | 00;23;56;25 | I'll this is where the Portugal to Budapest is, where a big hiccup for me happened. Again again, we're on different flights because I have so much luggage, I can't really travel on one of those low cost airlines in Europe because I'd pay a fortune for my luggage and I'm traveling for six weeks. So I had two bags. When I left Portugal to go to Hungary, we didn't know it.
| Trish | 00;24;28;14 | So one of the hiccups was the conveyor belt had broken. So my luggage did not make that flight. So we didn't even know where it was for a while because it's just in the middle of this dark tunnel on a conveyor belt off. So I got to one of the places where I needed to change planes and I missed my connection.
| Trish | 00;24;55;15 | And that was actually in Austria to go from Vienna to Budapest. I missed the connection, but across the aisle for me was the man. I could hear him talking. I could tell he was missing his connection to Budapest as well. Behind us, somebody was leaning forward so I could tell she was missing hers. So the flight attendant says, when you get to Vienna, we're switching from Brussels Airlines to Austrian Airlines.
| Trish | 00;25;25;27 | Go try first to see if maybe the plane has been delayed and then talk to the gate agent while they did not hold the plane, even though there ended up being six of us, that missed it. And we go, the agent is not there. No one is there. I've stopped. I kind of took charge and stopped at another place and ask an agent, what do we do?
| Trish | 00;25;49;29 | And they told us, go downstairs near baggage claim and there is an office. So we go down and we get in line for that office and I'll meet and start talking and they decide they will put us up overnight and send us the next day or by bus or most of us had things we needed to do either attend the conference.
| Trish | 00;26;11;18 | I was meeting women with Auggie at church and after church, and so we said, We'll take the bus.
| Laurie | 00;26;18;28 | We're still in Austria at this time. We're still.
| Trish | 00;26;20;24 | In Austria. We're in the.
| Laurie | 00;26;22;07 | US trying to get to Budapest, Hungary, which isn't that far away, but okay.
| Trish | 00;26;28;07 | So a bus is a chartered bus for a tour group of elderly people because they had missed their flight, I think it was 39. They said, Hey, guys, put us on this bus with this driver who's obviously very tired because it's midnight by now and we're waiting on this 39 person group who we watch these older people pass us by, get on another bus and leave.
| Trish | 00;26;58;11 | What ended up their tour guide had booked them another bus.
| Laurie | 00;27;01;23 | So, you know, people how many are in your group, by the way, that are sitting on the bus with the.
| Trish | 00;27;06;06 | Die.
| Laurie | 00;27;07;04 | By.
| Trish | 00;27;07;12 | The guy? One guy took the hotel and the next day, like five of us are on us.
| Laurie | 00;27;13;13 | Five of you are sitting on the bus waiting for 39 elderly tourists who go right past you, get on a different bus and here you are still on your big empty bus with a tired driver.
| Trish | 00;27;23;18 | The Austrian gate agent person comes out and they don't believe us that they've already left, so they don't want our driver to take us. So we set for probably another hour to an hour and a half. So here are the five people on the bus. It's me. I'm the oldest. There is a Hungarian lawyer who had been to an ancient on track law conference.
| Trish | 00;27;52;23 | There are two people from Brussels, a woman who was born in South Africa, living in Brussels, and a man who was Arabic Lebanese living in Brussels. He was quite young and he was Muslim and a Hungarian woman living in Brussels, going home to visit her mother, who was a little closer to my age, probably in her 56 days.
| Laurie | 00;28;21;06 | Okay. That's our characters in this unfolding movie here. Okay.
| Trish | 00;28;25;16 | So the the lawyer, the next time the gate agents came out, he said, you must let this driver take off. We need to get to Budapest. You're the ones who said we could take the bus. It's not our fault you didn't communicate with that last group. You're. You're getting us to Budapest. So finally that I agree. So, again, 1 to 2 in the morning, we are traveling and we're talking.
| Trish | 00;28;56;11 | I ask the lawyer what kind of paper he presented at the ancient Greek, ancient Law Conference for contract law. And he starts explaining and everyone is listening. And it had to do with the difference between Greek contracts, free birth of Christ and post Birth of Christ, plus Latin contracts and the Word for hope because Greek contracts had that word.
| Trish | 00;29;29;15 | So he said they were making a contract for a future event and it was the same Greek word used in the Bible or hope. And then he said when it switched to Latin, they would only make contra checks for things that were what he called a certainty. And everyone's listening. And I was able to say, but that's the way the New Testament also uses that word for hope.
| Trish | 00;29;57;11 | It is a certain hope. And the Muslim guy leaned forward and it said real and we started talking about that certain hope that we have in Christ and found out the lawyer was Catholic and also a very well trained singer operatic voice. Of course the Muslim was Muslim by birth, but not so much by faith. The South African woman had been very hurt by parents who profess to be Christians, but three just mistreated her and the Hungarian woman just kept being quiet.
| Trish | 00;30;36;03 | She didn't say much, but it was a very interesting way to get to share the certainty of the hope we have in Jesus with a quite a different group of people. But the next interesting thing was the bus started to sweat and we realized our driver was going to sleep. So our Hungarian also spoke a little German. So between the Austrian, German and the German, the Hungarian spoke.
| Trish | 00;31;05;24 | He kept them awake for a while, but when that didn't work, he started singing. And so then we finally got him to stop and we tried to get him a cup of coffee. He didn't drink coffee, but he did have something. And the rest of the way he stayed awake. But it was a very interesting trip. And the Hungarian woman, of course, I was getting a little nervous about taking a taxi.
| Trish | 00;31;32;16 | Augie's place and four in the morning alone. Yeah. And she said, I know how the airport works. I will get you a taxi. I will make sure I know where you are going and I will get you the first taxi. So we all see you get in and everything. And she did that and when I got to Augie's, he actually my taxi driver got out, stood there, watched me meet up with the person I knew and go inside.
| Trish | 00;32;03;12 | So God really protected me and I feel like he used me in the lives of those strangers on the bus.
| Laurie | 00;32;11;00 | Also, didn't that Hungarian woman who hadn't said much? I think I heard this story. She had kind of an interesting comment at the end of all of this drama.
| Trish | 00;32;20;16 | He did, because, you can imagine people at ten, 11 at night missing their flight. They're very impatient. And I have missed a lot of flights before. And I know you just go with the flow and praise God. Even though I'm not a patient person, he gives me patience as a proof of the spirit. And she leaned forward and she said, You are a Christian, aren't you?
| Trish | 00;32;40;24 | Because I see you were the only one who was patient.
| Laurie | 00;32;44;13 | I love that. You know, you'll never know how God used you in the lives of those five. Interesting characters on that bus. Maybe that driver, too, we don't know. So at this point you arrive in Hungary and at this point we're going to stop. Take a little break. We'll be right back. This is the and Trust Equipping Leaders podcast.
| Laurie | 00;33;03;07 | Thanks for joining us. And we will be right back. You're listening to a special edition of Entrust Equipping Leaders. Today, my guests are Maggie S.K. from Hungary and Trish Barrett from the U.S.. Both are on staff with interest. Trish had served as our European director for Entrust Equipping Women, and she was in the process of passing the baton to her younger protege, Auggie.
| Laurie | 00;33;31;01 | So they took a trip around Europe to introduce Auggie to the women that Auggie would be working with and where new work might begin, and at the same time to just share, fellowship and grow in Christ through the ups and downs of traveling together for about six weeks. So far we've traveled with them to Latvia, then the UK, then Portugal.
| Laurie | 00;33;52;07 | And we have just arrived in Budapest, Hungary. So will you pick up the Travelog? Audie, we're knowing your own home country. What were the purposes of your time in Hungary together?
| Agi | 00;34;06;25 | There were a couple of people I really wanted to meet, and the lady we are working with was the was ministry coordinator in their new church, my church, it's an international church I go to and also medical facility later for the Tuesday evening Bible study. And while we were there, we went to the Tuesday evening Bible study, which is for ladies.
| Agi | 00;34;33;16 | And we also have a coed study on Wednesdays. But we managed to go that was the main thing to do. We met with a couple of ladies who are trainings just making connections and Trish wanted to meet my mom, so we managed to go and see my mom too.
| Laurie | 00;34;53;04 | Certainly because our as you take over our European Women's Ministries director, naturally, you already know people in Hungary because you live there. So this was so much for you to new people, but maybe it was it to introduce more people to the concept of what interest has to offer?
| Agi | 00;35;12;15 | Well, most of these people we've met know already about the interest not only from my migrants, but through the work of other colleagues who have been living in Budapest, like Mark and Beth from Biber or Barbara and Jeff Allen. And not to leave out Ronnie Stevens who pastored, then you'll be international Church for quite a while.
| Laurie | 00;35;37;03 | So yes, people in Budapest are somewhat aware of interest and and trust has a long history in the country of Hungary, of course. So. What were any either highlights or adventures on this part of the trip in Hungary for you too.
| Trish | 00;35;53;14 | One of the highlights was it really in some ways was a blessing that the pastor's wife was there by herself because she really was able to give Augie some ideas about presenting, equipping women, training to women of the church, some things that she thought. And she said it would go so well right now with the church's goal of looking at Danube International Church as kind of a place people pass through.
| Trish | 00;36;29;11 | So one of our goals is that they leave being equipped and your training just fits into that goal. So that that was so exciting to hear. I feel like she would have said it anyway had her husband been there, but the fact that he wasn't. We got to talk more about how you would plan something like that.
| Laurie | 00;36;51;24 | God orchestrates everything, even things that are not what we thought was going to happen, it seems. Were there any hiccups, this portion of your journey together?
| Agi | 00;37;02;09 | I don't think there were in Hungary. That's really it's my home turf, so I really know how things work. The hiccup, which I would like to mention, was coming back from France to Hungary. I mean, both of us, we needed to get to Paris through my shares. But our meeting was with the French team and there has been an accident involving a person.
| Agi | 00;37;30;23 | That's all we knew at that time, that we were waiting for the train and we had to go finally by bus a couple of hours later because never knew how and when the railway system is going to be back up. So we were in communication when everything was in French and I learned a little bit of French, but I didn't understand much.
| Agi | 00;37;58;05 | So we found the lady who had us to translate what is going on and we managed to call our host. And then she came and picked us up and we got a bit of rest, some dinner, and then we left for Paris at 1040 in the evening. Instead of being there in Paris at 7 p.m. last. The challenge was that the bus took 5 hours and the train would have taken two and a half.
| Agi | 00;38;31;02 | So was quite a difference. So another night ride for Trace and we managed to get into the hotel exhausted at 3 a.m. during the night. We had to wake up around seven seven ish the next day because at I planes were 5:00? I think so, yeah. That was quite a challenge.
| Laurie | 00;38;55;00 | Now, France. Was France your fifth country?
| Agi | 00;38;58;14 | No, that was the last one. But I just wanted to mention this was a very significant hiccup.
| Laurie | 00;39;05;02 | Another hiccup. So we've gone to Latvia, UK, Portugal, Hungary. And where did you go from Hungary.
| Trish | 00;39;12;12 | Hungary. We took that weekend in between to Prague. We have some women in Prague who have taken our trainings. One of them has finished and actually co facilitated, but we really don't have a lot going on with our specific equipping women modules in the way that we train women with them. And so we wanted to to meet with them to just kind of see where they were and also meet with another staff couple there who have lived there for years.
| Trish | 00;39;46;28 | And she has done wonderful trainings with a lot of the modules previous to this and I say previous in the sense that they have been revised a lot.
| Laurie | 00;39;58;07 | So by the way, when we say Prague, we're talking about the Czech Republic, which is a country near and dear to my heart. I lived there for quite some time. And and the couple you mentioned, I believe, are Gerry and Marilyn Saanich that have lived in that country for quite some time and, yes, served in many ways. So is there some hope to revive or to kind of restart some ministry training among with the equipping women ministries in the Czech Republic?
| Trish | 00;40;24;11 | Or maybe it's going to take more time. There are some things going on personally with some of these women that have had some of our trainings that they don't have the capacity right now. And I think it's so important to keep the relationships going and let them know they're important to us individually as sisters in the Lord, not just as someone who might carry on our training.
| Laurie | 00;40;49;20 | Absolutely. Well, let's move on. So you spent a bit of time in the Czech Republic. Then where did you go? What was country number six?
| Agi | 00;40;57;19 | So from the Czech Republic went back to Budapest. But after that, we both gone to Milan, Italy. We met with the Italian theme, which was great. They made sure that we also get to see Milan a little bit and we walked in a park and we were told that the dome square and we actually went back to go inside that big, big church.
| Agi | 00;41;29;02 | And it's beautiful. But the thing which we didn't really expect and didn't plan for was to take a day trip to Verona, where one or third ladies live. And it was just so special because she has showed us around. She took us to eat again and then we met, seen a couple of really interesting size like Romeo and Juliet balcony, supposedly, as legend has it, that was the place.
| Agi | 00;42;04;26 | But we could say that we were there.
| Laurie | 00;42;08;15 | Oh, Italy. So you were in Milan and Verona, primarily. And again, we do. We have some staff living in Italy at this point or simply who have lived there. And who were you actually meeting with in Italy?
| Agi | 00;42;23;10 | We've met with a lady called Cherie Castle, who has been organizing our European intensive training. She moved to Italy this summer.
| Laurie | 00;42;31;28 | We do have some trainings that take place already in Italian, is that correct? Yeah.
| Agi | 00;42;37;04 | Yeah. They they have a long history and they have a very well established. In fact, in December they are going to have another training in the Milan area.
| Laurie | 00;42;48;07 | I it's almost not even in to ask you what was what was interesting about the food in Italy is sort of like asking no yes Turkish.
| Trish | 00;42;59;13 | Fresh is excited about the Tierra Matthew and the pizza.
| Laurie | 00;43;03;15 | Will here.
| Agi | 00;43;04;20 | We had the pistachio tiramisu, which was very special.
| Trish | 00;43;08;25 | Yes. Yes. So I'm not normally much of a foodie, but I got excited about the pizza, the tiramisu.
| Laurie | 00;43;16;23 | And so what was different?
| Agi | 00;43;18;01 | Another thing which I saw, Joy, on Tricia's face was the scones in London. She got scones and made the truth, the lie on her face. She enjoyed them. Oh, all in the package. Yeah, that was that was neat to see.
| Laurie | 00;43;36;12 | So there were some culinary highlights for you, Trish. What was it about the pizza in Italy that you liked so much?
| Trish | 00;43;42;17 | Just the flavor of the sauce and, you know, the very thin crust. It was just wonderful.
| Laurie | 00;43;49;11 | Not exactly like take out in Baltimore. No.
| Trish | 00;43;55;00 | We want to say about one of the women in Italy. Oh, yes. The Italian women took me aside on one of her walks and she needed to work with a translator. And so she was telling me that she had come to Christ later in life. And that one of the things that was different from the religion she had been brought up in was that that religion was very much about how the religion affects me, not so much about what am I supposed to do to help others.
| Trish | 00;44;28;06 | And she said, I want to thank you for the equipping women training, which has really helped me to reach out to the women in my apartment building at my church. It was.
| Laurie | 00;44;41;26 | Just.
| Trish | 00;44;42;17 | A wonderful demonstration of the need in many places for the kind of training we do that equips women to be able to help other women. And the other thing, Glory, is that in Latvia, the first group of women, as you know, because you and I facilitated DBS for some of those women went through in English and then they translated and they went to a flat again in Italy.
| Trish | 00;45;13;13 | We were blessed to have two workers who had taken the training in English but were fluent in Italian. So the Italian work started in Italian and that, I mean, just put them way ahead of the curve in a lot of ways. So now we have trainings going on in Milan and in the Naples area and it's just growing by leaps and bounds because it was already culturally relevant and in their language.
| Laurie | 00;45;45;10 | That's so important to learn such hard issues in your heart. Language is going to make all the difference. Definitely. All right. What else might we need to know about Italy before we travel on?
| Agi | 00;45;56;10 | We have experienced some spiritual attacks. We didn't plan anything for Sunday morning. And that's when I got the call from my neighbor who was responsible for my flood that she can't go in. So I was pretty much stressed about it and try to resolve the situation. And three, she had a migraine, so we were pretty much staying in the hotel room, not not really being able to do much that day.
| Agi | 00;46;32;25 | So we knew that we are on the good path because the enemy doesn't do that. If we are not doing anything which hurts him.
| Laurie | 00;46;42;04 | That's really true. So the Lord carried you through and you got past these these obstacles on this day in Italy. Shall we move on to country number seven.
| Agi | 00;46;55;21 | And now Switzerland. Oh, okay. And also from Milan, we went north. It was about 4 to 5 hours by bus and we could see the beautiful lakes and the mountains. And yeah, that was one of the highlights. It was really neat. Place went through, I think one of the longest panels I have gone through, which was interesting. We went, I think more than 10 minutes inside the tunnel.
| Laurie | 00;47;30;10 | So Switzerland definitely scenery. Who were you meeting there? What were the outcomes of some of those meetings?
| Agi | 00;47;38;13 | We have had a meeting with a lady called Catalina. She's originally from Central or South America, but then to Dallas Theological Seminary, and now she's leading a Bible study for women in the state church, the reformed church in Switzerland in this area. We've met with her. She took one of our trainings developing a discipline card, and now we are hoping to have kids coming to Hungary for the next intensive training, the first one facilitating relational voting.
| Agi | 00;48;16;24 | So that was neat. And then we went to the Basel area and we've met with a couple of we used to manage the kids similar facility, but we weren't too many years as a group, a Christian group for equipping women. So we've met with Dianne and Felix and we've met also with one of their daughters and Nina. And again, great food.
| Agi | 00;48;48;28 | They raclette for us, which is a very special Swiss dish with a lot of cheese involved. Yeah, that was a short trip and very positive thing from that visit was Diane's just being on fire for our training and she's recruiting us to come to for us. So she said, I'm going to come and my two daughters are going to come, and I'm talking to a friend of mine who hopefully will come to.
| Laurie | 00;49;19;15 | Is an ambassador for Entrust Equipping women.
| Trish | 00;49;23;26 | Yes. Yes.
| Laurie | 00;49;25;16 | What other highlights or hiccups did you encounter in Switzerland?
| Trish | 00;49;30;21 | Well, I was able to see a friend that every time I've gone to Switzerland for a training, I think I've met with her, but I had not seen her since she had adopted a little boy from Thailand. And so she was able to come to Diana. Felix is home and she couldn't bring her son because he was in school or something, but she brought her picture book, got the adoption and she could talk with me, but also meet Auggie and Diane and Felix.
| Trish | 00;50;00;09 | And I think Nina was still there at that point, so it was just really good to connect again, not necessarily with someone who has taken our training, but with another believer who is serving the Lord. And it was a great thrill to get to see her.
| Laurie | 00;50;18;05 | And so from Switzerland we go on to our final country in this, a country travelog, which is France. Okay. And talk a bit more about France.
| Agi | 00;50;29;11 | Well, I just have a regret that I wasn't able to see the city too much. So all the all the interesting things which are there, I saw some from the window of the taxi I was a little bit then. We have a lot of time that's Paris or Paris.
| Laurie | 00;50;48;08 | Oh that. I've heard of that. Yeah. They have a couple of things to see in Paris apparently. So you really didn't get to do any sightseeing in Paris?
| Trish | 00;50;56;03 | No, but I had asked her if she wanted to spend extra days in Paris. And that wasn't on her bucket list, right?
| Agi | 00;51;04;04 | Yeah. I wasn't so interested about that. But when I was there, I was like, Oh, it would be nice to just go and see. But we had discussed a couple of countries with trash that, Oh, we should come back here for a vacation.
| Laurie | 00;51;20;17 | So who are you meeting in Paris or.
| Agi | 00;51;23;08 | Not in Paris? We went to the French team, had a meeting in Unshared, which is about 5 hours by bus. We took a fast train, which was about 2 hours or one of the high fever and so we took a train there and we wanted to take a train back. And that was the story we shared before with not being able to get back to the hotel until 3 a.m..
| Agi | 00;51;48;10 | We have quite established training in France, in French, so we've met with the leadership, not all of the facilitators, but the leadership team. We also met. That has been a change in the leadership team. Just this summer, a new lady, Marie, has taken over from Chelsea and was leading the French team for quite some time. And we've met with her and we've met with most of the leadership team.
| Agi | 00;52;20;19 | So that was four French ladies and two of us. And yeah, they already have the 3/1 Esmeralda, the Age and the translated, and they are working on translating, equipping women to serve. Yeah, they have done that for quite some years and they have very good established procedures.
| Trish | 00;52;45;12 | And one of the things they are again like with Portugal is the woman who started that actually has now retired, living in Colorado, but she was greater European mission and she was affiliated with what in the United States used to be called Christian Women's Club, and they are the kind of sponsor of our trainings. They use it as their discipleship program and France, which is very exciting.
| Trish | 00;53;15;15 | All these partnerships are so crucial. We don't care if it's self interest all over it with interest staff doing it. I mean, we want people to know it's our they're our modules. But you know, other people are using them to create effect seeing women trained. And it was a real blessing to meet that team which is quite international in and of itself.
| Trish | 00;53;43;23 | Some Americans and a Dutch woman and Johnson was there who is French. And it's it's just so exciting. And now they have been put in touch with some women in Africa who speak French as their second language rather than English. And we're going to try to help them obvious to get materials in French rather than in English.
| Laurie | 00;54;12;04 | My goodness, the networks just keep spreading and spreading and spreading. Love it. We do need to mention French cuisine. Oggi, our foodie friend. What was especially wonderful in France and other outlets.
| Agi | 00;54;25;17 | But with a little different type of cheese, they had not just the basic cheese, the raclette cheese, but they had flavored them with, I think, some green spices and pepper. So it was it was a real treat.
| Laurie | 00;54;45;11 | So let's talk about this whole trip as a whole, the two of you, first of all, traveling in close quarters and sometimes under some stress with problems and changes. How did you get along?
| Agi | 00;54;59;18 | Well, I just want to say what the French ladies said. They knew that it's the end of the trip and they said, well, you still talk to one another, you still can smile. So we believe that it has been a good trip.
| Trish | 00;55;13;08 | One of the ground rules we set up before we ever got together this time and I have stayed in August home before, and she had stayed in my home and we had traveled in the car here in the United States together, but never for six weeks. One of the things we said is we wanted to keep short accounts.
| Trish | 00;55;30;24 | So if of us had been hurt or if we thought we'd offended the other, we just needed to say it upfront and get it out in the open and pray and do whatever was necessary to move on. But there were very few of those kinds of things, if any, that ended up happening with Trip. And that was one of those places I think people must have been praying and Satan didn't give his hand into that portion of the miracle.
| Laurie | 00;56;02;18 | Really, that much close quarters can lead to friction for anyone. But also, did you to do any specific kind of mentoring activities together with one another? Throughout the journey.
| Trish | 00;56;16;06 | We always tried to take, particularly if it was the train or the bus time to preview what we were about to go into and then talk about, okay, what were some of the highlights of what we just did? What are some of the steps for follow up of what we just did? How does this fit into the bigger picture?
| Trish | 00;56;36;11 | Like we have a European hub in Hungary are some of these women, women who speak English who could actually do some trainings, either facilitating or take trainings at the hub. So we were always talking big picture.
| Agi | 00;56;52;03 | Well, we already had a very good relationship before and this year has as we transition through, she's giving me the leadership for the Europe team for about a year now. We always had a close relationship and I think that just deepened with mutual respect and love for one another as we dealt with some of the difficulties, like being on that railway station in in shares was really demanding on both of us.
| Agi | 00;57;30;23 | And I ended up on our closed a couple of times. I said I need to discuss this with Chris and then got back to her. So I think that's also where the mutual respect came.
| Trish | 00;57;45;10 | And we did pray together. I would say multiple times each day. But if we were in the same room or available to one another, we prayed together before we went to bed at night. And so there were iron sharpens iron times going on. I wouldn't necessarily call back spiritual mentoring. I think by that point it was just a sisterhood.
| Laurie | 00;58;10;05 | So. RG How is your understanding of interest and and your new role as European Women's Ministry Director? Ben Impact By this long journey.
| Agi | 00;58;20;07 | We made a lot of contacts. I personally made a lot of contacts and I think just seeing these ladies in person have taken our relationship to a whole new level because lots of times we spend time together, meals together, being in their homes. So that is elevating the relationship. One very neat thing which happened was in Verona after we had our meal, the lady told me that we will pray for you and we will support you in this new role of yours.
| Agi | 00;58;59;20 | So that was really neat.
| Laurie | 00;59;01;06 | You know, someone could hear this and think, well, I want to travel around Europe and drink coffee in Portuguese cafes and eat raclette in multiple countries. But obviously this and that is a beautiful benefit of following the Lord. Sometimes we get to have this amazing experience, but how would you describe what was the ultimate like? What did God do?
| Laurie | 00;59;22;20 | I mean, we've said many things he did. But what was how what was God doing in this whole trip, in your hearts or in the Entrust Ministries?
| Trish | 00;59;32;15 | Well, I think Augie got to see in Latvia a work that had started in English that was now totally in Latvia and totally country based run by a team there in Latvia. She got to see a group in Italy that had started in Italian and is run by a team who speaks Italian. But also just the bigger picture of how do we take this in other countries and how is God going to surprise us by going into a country and working with what non first language English speakers who may be able then to train people in their language either in that country, in Great Britain or even online through their home countries.
| Trish | 01;00;23;04 | I mean, how exciting is that? So I personally think there was just a lot of vision casting and praising God for his faithfulness in the past. But getting a vision for what the future, for the European Regional Team Leader, which is what we call her. We don't call her a director, we don't call me a director. It's a European regional team leader.
| Trish | 01;00;46;28 | And we also discussed you were asking about mentoring. I will step off the team in January. I won't even be a member of the team and so we discussed. Okay, Oggy, who who is it you want to ask who's European to be on the team with you.
| Laurie | 01;01;03;08 | So that therefore Oggi the plan is you would be continuing to if you two were Paul and Timothy and Paul is sort of stepping away and Oggi you become Paul who might are you looking for your timothy's.
| Agi | 01;01;17;16 | Definitely not only for the European, but I also want to pass on the Hungarian ministry because I would not be able to do it too much. Hopefully not as much. Travel is coming up next year, but I still want the Hungarian ladies to be raised up and taking the bottom of that.
| Laurie | 01;01;40;28 | If we've wrapped up here, maybe we can say goodbye in as many languages as you encountered on your European journey here.
| Trish | 01;01;49;22 | Then for Oggi, she's the one with the language ability.
| Agi | 01;01;52;26 | One would be this flat does the Hungarian but good by the English. We know that we've been through UK child trials use child for good bias.
| Laurie | 01;02;07;00 | Well and I think child is kind of universal. I think that's in quite a few countries actually, isn't it. Maybe that's a good way for us to sign off from this. Talk about your international travels around Europe. Thank you so much. Blessings to you as you both carry on. And I really admire your example of this intentional trip and all that.
| Laurie | 01;02;28;18 | God, how you let God work in your lives through you on this whole trip. Thank you for telling us about it.
| Trish | 01;02;34;23 | Thank you.
| Laurie | 01;02;35;26 | And there we have it. We have returned home once again. Thanks so much for listening to this special edition of Entrust Equipping Leaders with Agi in Hungary. Trish Barrett in the United States. I'm Laurie, also in the U.S. and I'll be back in two weeks with my guest, Dr. Craig Ott of Trinity International University, talking about contextualization and how we can even pay attention to sort of contextualizing ourselves when we are working with people from other cultures.
| Laurie | 01;03;08;27 | I hope you can join us then. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and we'll see you next time.