Parting ways

YAGM Central Europe eating our first lunch of in-country orientation together at the Betlehem Evangelikus Pihenház, the retreat center where we spent our first two weeks.

After four weeks of living life with my wonderful Central Europe cohort, we have finally gone our separate ways.

Four weeks ago, we were strangers. Now we have grown to know and to love each other. It’s been four weeks of sharing rooms and living out of suitcases. Four weeks of stumbling through our extremely limited Hungarian and navigating around new landscapes and cities. Four weeks of ice cream runs, midday walks and late night talks. Four weeks of card games and random songs.

Together we have already grown so much. We’ve started having those tough conversations around topics such as systematic racism, privilege, discrimination and oppression, as well as what it means to be in relationship with each other. We’ve worshipped together and prayed together. We’ve listened to sermons entirely in Hungarian, not understanding any of what was being said. We’ve sat around a campfire together in Bodrogkeresztur singing songs and enjoying each other’s company. We’ve laughed together and cried together.

And this is still just the beginning. Despite the fact that we will no longer be spending every minute of every day together, we will be continuing to grow as a group and in relation to each other as individuals. We may be spread across Hungary and Serbia in Budapest and Pilis, Pécs and Szeged, in Békéscsaba and Szarvas, Nyírtelek and Nyíregyháza, Kötcse, Berettyóújfalu and Novi Sad, but we are all still one team. (Go Team!)

May we each be filled with joy and grace this year. May we find new places and faces to call home. May we learn and grow. May we lean on each other through the struggles and challenges. May we enter each day with open hearts and open minds.

If I know one thing for sure right now, it is that I will miss these wonderful humans.

Thanks for everything. Here is to many more great memories together in the future. See you all in October.

Our cohort right before our final sending service, after which we all went our separate ways to join our various host communities throughout Hungary and Serbia.