Andrew Roo-zeh-boom
Friday evening had been the Son Treasure Island Vacation Bible School closing ceremonies. And the kids were pretty funny as usual, running around in homemade tie-dyed shirts, spilling ice cream, and congregating on the porch steps of the old house, which was more often visited by barn swallows and their leftovers.
Afterward, there was coffee at Picasso’s for the youth who had come: Joe, Ben-Hur, Rose, and Molly, as well as OLeif and Collette.
Back in Hungary, fiver years earlier, it had been a busy Sunday – two-hour church service in Hungarian (with English translator head-sets), including communion, which permanently scarred Collette from any desire to ever again taste wine. Needless to say, she had not anticipated drinking wine for the service, and had a nice surprise when it went down her throat tasting rather like a molding loaf of sourdough bread. Following the service was a potluck lunch for whoever would attend, a VBS meeting, and a conference call back to Diana’s church during their worship service.
In retrospect, Collette noticed something about the church there. They were completely reliant upon one another. The church was their life. There weren’t just a few staff people coming in every day to work. The whole church seemed to be there from Sunday to Sunday, working in whatever capacity was necessary, and discussing things with one another. Seven young couples alone worked just with reaching out to the children, the disheveled mongrels from the Kellenfold district. It was a working body there – their church was their living, their daily bread.
Sunday also hosted their cruise down the Danube on a long boat reserved just for the missionaries and church people, which was quite a thrill. Collette wondered how deep the generous Hungarians had to dig in order to provide such a nice dinner for them on the trip down the river. Hungarians were known to be very generous and very poor. For a meal at McDonald’s, one might have to save up for several months, in order to have it.
During the cruise, Collette suffered the awful embarrassment of being asked to dance with Gratiano, who was asking all the girls to dance. Unfortunately, he asked Collette during a violin piece that Collette thought rather sounded like a Hungarian version of The Flight of the Bumblebee. There was little good to say about that experience, and that all 51 people on the cruise were rather jolly over watching it.
Meanwhile, as Collette attempted to avoid any more embarrassment, a young fellow from another team, hailing from Manhattan, Kansas, had found himself smitten with Diana. He was also 16, and asked her to dance with him. By the time they got to the floor, however, they only danced for about ten seconds before the music ended. And for the rest of his stay in Hungary, he followed them around everywhere, making it more than fully obvious that he had fallen hard for her. And his name was Andrew Rooseboom.
Later, still on the Danube, Diana was even more pleased to play the Hungarian violin for the passengers, with Andrew Rooseboom looking on in admiration.
And then, while a good many of them went back to the hotel, the others decided to press on, including Gratiano, Shazuka, the wonderful Junior Cobble, and, of course, the infamous Andrew Rooseboom. Gratiano had heard rumors of an outdoor concert being held in Hero’s Square that night, so off they went to check out the bands. His rumors were quite accurate. Upon arriving, they were obliged to make themselves a human snake in order to remain together. Later, they heard that 200,000 Hungarian youth and adults had packed themselves into the square that night. Despite the fact that most Hungarians were rather short, Diana and Collette were still having trouble seeing to the stage. And so Gratiano took turns lifting them above the heads of the audience. The Hungarians stared. They were probably watching the Americans more than the Spice Girl visiting on stage at that moment. And of course Andrew Rooseboom helped lift Diana when he had his chance.
As they left the masses, weaving through the crowd, they bought some giant sweet pretzels and climbed some of the smaller statues surrounding Hero’s Square, some of the less-frightening statues.
But perhaps the more embarrassing moments of the week were yet to come. Diana and Collette were not simply assisting with a Vacation Bible School for ninety ragamuffins. They were coming as clowns to boot. And they weren’t just coming as clowns. They were acting out the Wordless Book as clowns. It was to be narrated for the children… in Hungarian.