A Wedding, a Poorly Timed Stomach Virus, and a Move to Budapest

      I would like to introduce Theresa. Theresa and I have been working with the same missions organization for about the same length of time. Middle of last year we started dating and quickly realized that God was calling us in the same direction, and was calling us there together. So we decided to get married. 

     So, on October 11th, We tied the knot, as they say.  The wedding was lovely, we got married in North Carolina in the woods behind my parents home, and then had a lovely little picnic reception. While the ceremony was great, the day was... well funny. Theresa and I always talk about how a wedding isn't about the wedding day its about the marriage. So I find it funny that what followed the ceremony quickly launched us from wedding ceremony into marriage, and quickly initiated Theresa into the Rogers' family. 

     I have always had a weak stomach. On family vacations growing up my dad would always carry around ziplock bags in case I, or one of my siblings, had to throw up out of the blue. Us Rogers kids seemed to have proclivity for throwing up at inconvenient times and places. So, I probably shouldn't have been surprised after the reception when I started feeling nauseous as we were getting ready to set out on the two and a half hour drive for our honeymoon spot.  

    About ten minutes out of the driveway I had to pull over. I barely got out of the car before projectile vomiting...I now remembered that there was a stomach bug going around. Ten minutes later again I had to pull over. After this cycle repeating 4 or 5 times, I no longer had the strength to drive the rental car and had my new wife take over. From there it was now her job to pull over every few minutes for me to spill my guts. We are sure there are probably some photos online somewhere from puke #350 where I was laying in the back seat, head hanging out of the car, heaving, while Theresa was pumping gas in her wedding dress. The last bit of our now FIVE and a half hour trip was on a main highway with no pull-offs. "No place to pull off? just get there." I said, reenacting my childhood as I grabbed a nearby plastic bag that just happened to be in the back seat. "BARFFF."

Later Theresa would have to drive around holding this 'puke bag' as we didn't want to smell up our honeymoon cabin with the smell of vomit. At the end of the night when my puke-o-rama had finally ended, I was able to utter to my wife "welcome to the Rogers family, you have been initiated.  While an unpleasant few hours, I look back on this as a funny story. A small reminder that marriage isn't about smiles and dressing up and eating cake. Its about being there for one another when you're having a gastro - intestinal apocalypse. 

In sickness and in health. 

In other news, our ministry has dreamt about moving to a more strategic location for the past couple of years. Our dreams are finally realized as our whole team has now moved to and settled into the city of Budapest. Over the past couple months Theresa and I have made our apartment into a home and were able to get settled in over the holidays. 

Now that everyone is settled, we are getting back into the swing of ministry. We are looking at an office space to work from and are hopefully moving in over the course of the next week or two. Our team leader Amy has been connecting with people local outreaches to women in prostitution. And we already have a busy schedule for this year connecting with ministries and anti-trafficking organizations throughout the region in countries such as Kosovo, Romania, and Greece. 

Please pray for us as we get back into the swing of things in our new location! 

Theresa and Sean