Today and tomorrow, the boys are spending a special evening with their best friends from ICSB. Two other Korean boys exactly their age will be returning to Korea and we will be going to England this summer. This will be the last opportunity they have to see each other for what may be their lifetime.

That has been one of the hardest things about following God's call. Leaving wonderful friends in many different places.

This coming week, we will travel to Greece for our Annual General Meeting. A time filled with fun, learning and rekindling friendships from across Eastern Europe. Please pray for the many people coming from across the continent.

We pray that you have friends scattered across the globe with whom you share special memories. Thanks for being our friend.

Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

This past Sunday in honor of Father's day a week early, the boys (and Elaine) took me out for a special day. I had a wonderful day. We went to church and then ate out at Pandora's with several other friends. The afternoon/evening was filled with special memories and time spent with the boys. Thanks guys, I love being your dad.

This past weekend we took a small road trip to the town of Miskolc in Northeast Hungary and Aggtelek. Near Aggtelek are Europe's largest cave systems between the border of Hungary and Slovakia. This was a great weekend trip to see some of God's wonderful creations. We took along Andrew, another MK here in Budapest who is in Nathan's class at school. The boys really enjoyed the cave tour, then we went down to the Miskolc Tapolca (which is Greek for a swimming pool in the caves). Here, we swam in natural hot springs inside a cave. A really neat experience. The natural hot springs makes for some great warm water and the cave atmosphere was incredible. This Kansas farm boy kept thinking "Wow, How did I get here?" Growing up on the wheat fields of Kansas working the farm, slopping pigs, working cows, etc. I never would have dreamed that I would be swimming in a hot springs cave. WOW!!!

Ok, the fat boy needs to loose some weight.
Nathan, James and Robert inside the Baralda Cave, Aggtelek Hungary

James, Nathan, Andrew and Robert with Father Christmas (the cave formation in the background)

There are about 75 more pictures on the photo gallery page of our web site. www.riersons.com

Good Sunday Morning to you. I have a few minutes before we are off to church. Our church is having the morning service in a park in Budapest as an outreach event. The choir I sing with is singing a couple of songs in the worship service. You can find information about the choir at http://gospel.golgota.hu/new. I thought I could catch you up on the past month.

As you know, Elaine's father passed away April 18th while I was in Armenia with the Singing Men. I flew home the next morning (A total of 26 hrs in Armenia) and then we flew to the states. The next two weeks were a whirlwind of funeral arrangements, bank appointments, cleaning and moving items from the house, meeting realitors, etc. We ate out way to much and gained about 5 lbs each. It was incredible how the church and friends loved on us and showed us they really cared. Ed was prepared for his passing and everything was arranged. This made it very simple for us but still very difficult and a extremely busy time.

We celebrated Nathan's 10th Bday with his Oklahoma friends at Andy's Alligator Park. James also invited many of his friends and we had a great time. A final present from their Papa Bus.

Here are some pictures of that event.

Nathan and Jackson "His best Bud from Oklahoma"

Pizza and Soda's - Good fuel for playing hard

James plays on the bumper cars

James and Jarod

The kids wait in line for the GoCarts

We returned to Budapest on May 6th. As you might imagine, being gone from the office for two weeks left a pile of paperwork for Robert that he is still wading through. The work just doesn't ever stop. Nathan, rather than have a big Bday party in Budapest (Which he was going to have but missed) decided to have a couple of very special friends over and spend an entire afternoon/evening with them. He also got to open the presents for his Bday that got left in Budapest.

We then celebrated James Bday and he had a Bday party going BobSledding with the boys from ICSB 2nd and 3rd grade. Not to be left out Charlotte had to come and can really hold her own with all those boys. She must have older brothers or something.

We did take a small road trip on May 16 to see Eger. This is a wonderful town in the North Eastern portion of Hungary. Here in 1552, 2000 Hungarians held off a huge Turkish army of 50,000 plus for several weeks and prevented the Turks from further invading Europe. The book "The Stars of Eger" was written about it and has been translated into many languages including

Englush.

Well it has been over a month since my last post and many important dates have happened in the family.
Nathan turned 10.
James turned 8
and today, Robert and Elaine turned 17.

That is correct. That wonderful women agreed to marry me and said "I Do" seventeen years ago. What a true blessing she is.

Safe to say, since I haven't posted, we have been extremely busy with work, finishing up school, moving the office to London, getting Elaine's Father's estate organized. We will catch up soon and I promise to post some pictures.

I just didn't want to miss the opportunity to say Happy Anniversary to that wonderful women.

First, I need to say how sorry I am for not posting in over a month. I said I would never be one of those people who you check back and back and back and it is months before they say something. What can I say. March and April have been extremely busy. First, thanks for your prayers and Happy Easter. We celebrated a marvelous Easter here in Budapest. Second, in preparation for my Armenia travels, I have been working overtime trying to get things done so I could be off for a week.

As many of you know, I was traveling to Armenia to sing in a concert tour there. I flew out Friday evening to Vienna and then to Yerevan overnight. Actually a 4 hr flight and 3 hrs time difference. I arrived early Saturday morning. The rest of the singers arrived throughout the day and we gave a wonderful concert Saturday night. During the concert, I received a text message from Elaine to call her immediately.

As many of you also know, Elaine's father passed away early Saturday morning. That was the message she needed to give me. So, after getting to bed around 12:30 am, I got up at 3:00 to take a taxi to the airport to fly back to Budapest. Now I am feeling like the singers who arrived from the US.

Tomorrow, we board a plane to the US for the memorial services. Please pray for our family as we travel and as we celebrate the life of a wonderful husband, father and true Man of God - Ed Hutton. Below are a couple of pictures I snapped during the 24 hours I was in Yerevan.

This is an old church in the city center. Sorry, I don't know the name of it. If anyone can interpret the sign below, it will tell you about it.

After the concert, we gave out bandana's used during one of the concert songs. As I was not going to be there any longer I gave away all of mine. These are college students who I spoke with. They described themselves as "Intervarsity Students". They were great to talk with.

Blessings to you and thanks for your prayers

Victoms of the Reign of Terror in Hungary from 1945 - 1995

Pictures of Victoms and a Soviet tank like the one that crushed the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. We were able to visit the House of Terror yesterday with another co-worker and see the terror that the AVH and AVO put the Hungarian people through during the Nazi Occupation followed by the Soviet Occupation of Hungary. Over 12,000 people were arrested and tried following the failed revolution in 1956. Over 350 were executed in mock trials. The musuem is very well done and does an excellent job of explaining the many facts surrounding the occupation of Hungary from WW-II forward. It was a gorgeous Spring day with sunny skies and the first warm weather we have seem in quite some time. We enjoyed the day immensly.

Nathan and James slide down the slides of Gellért Hill in Budapest. As I said, we took an outing to see the city with a friend from Lima Peru. We climbed up the Citadel on the Buda side of the Duna. This hill, named after a missioinary priest who was killed trying to convert the local tribes, is one of the highest points surrounding Budapest. There are great views of the city from the top. In addition, there is a large play area with many different slides for kids. The boys enjoyed the day but were very tired when we got home.

The citadel fort was built by the Habsburgs in 1851 to demonstrate their control over Hungary. Surrounding the fortress are artillary guns for kids to play on and on display for the musuem. The Liberation Monument is also on top. A statue of a women holding an olive branch. You can see the statue from almost anywhere surrounding Budapest. It was a great day.