Hello! My name is Elyse Hill and I am an AGWM Missionary Associate. I served two terms in Budapest, Hungary, from January 2018-May 2023 with Riverside Church Budapest, an International Church in the heart of Budapest where I served in a wide variety of ministries. My chapter in Budapest is coming to an end, but … More About Me
View this email in your browser Half of an announcement…This is going to try to be a short newsletter because I am only able to share half of my announcement today, but the rest is coming as soon as everything is confirmed.Just a few weeks ago marked 5 years since I landed in Hungary for … More Half an announcement… (Early February 2023)
View this email in your browser Ministry Update!Fall has flown by in a flash! In August and September, we welcomed three new families onto our church staff. Fall started off with a bang as we had our official church building dedication on the church’s 8th birthday. Then life groups, young adults, and our other regular … More Fall & Christmas 2022
View this email in your browser CHECK OUT MY LINKTR.EERiverside Kids PandaMania Day CampIn early August, we had our summer VBS/Day Camp with more than 40 kiddos. I helped out with some of the prep for camp including painting our giant bamboos, decorating, organizing craft supplies & goodie bags, and more. Then, during camp, I … More August 2022
View this email in your browser Ukrainian LunchesA little more than half a million refugees have come into Hungary from Ukraine, many of them landing in Budapest. Almost all of them are women and children. The size of the crisis is such that there are many organizations set up to serve them. With all the transitions … More Summer 2022
View this email in your browser From Communications to Construction…Serving at a growing church means ministry includes a huge variety of opportunities to serve. From communications, construction, carpentry, & connections to planning, painting, & photography. It has been a hot second since my last update, so I’m going to try to hit some of the highlights … More April 2022
View this email in your browser If you have changed your address or credit/debit cards in the past year, your giving may not be coming out automatically. You can check out the new AG Giving page by following the button below. If you haven’t used AG Giving since October 2021 you will need to create … More Merry Christmas 2021
View this email in your browser It’s almost September?!?Y’all I started writing this update at the beginning of the month and was shocked that we were in August, and now we’re almost in September. Oh, how time flies! It has been about 4 months since I arrived back in Budapest. In those months, I have gotten settled … More Summer 2021
View this email in your browser Welcome Home!On April 19th I arrived at the airport with all of my suitcases, family in tow, ready to check into my flights. 2 hours later I departed the airport…in a car. With new tickets booked for the next day. Traveling during a global pandemic is quite an adventure … More LIFE ON BOKRETA UTCA 2.0
Thankfulness, excitement, and partnership. I want to start this with a huge thank you to all of you who have joined me on my Journey in Missions, in whatever way you have partnered with me. March was my highest giving month ever with nearly triple the average monthly giving! Thank you for your generosity and … More Budapest, here I come!
Change is in the Air Friends, it has been a wild year so far in 2021. In addition to working on raising the last bit of funds that I need to return to Hungary and all the preparation that comes with moving back to Budapest, I also am unexpectedly packing up all my remaining belongings … More Countdown to Departure: February Update
View this email in your browser Welcome to the New YearToday, January 7th, was meant to be THE DAY, the day I hopped on a plane and headed back to Hungary with way more stuff than I left with (thanks Prime Day/Black Friday board game sales). Yet, like most things in 2020, and so far … More New Year, New Opportunities
If you are interested in becoming a ministry partner I’d love to connect with you in person or online to talk with you about what that might look like, but in case you’d rather set it up on your own I thought I’d share with you the basic information & frequently asked questions about financially … More Giving
View this email in your browser If you didn’t receive a physical Christmas card/letter in your mailbox, click the button below to sign up/update your information. Sign Up HereCheck out this video to learn a little about common Christmas traditions in Hungary.2020: A year to go down in infamyWe had high hopes for 2020, it was … More Merry Christmas 2020
Today is Giving Tuesday 2020All around the world people are coming together today to invest in the things they believe are changing the world. As believers, we know there is one message above all that changes the world, the message of Jesus who loved humanity so much he came to earth, lived as a man, … More Giving Tuesday 2020
I don’t know about you, but 2020 has me regularly thinking about the world and my impact on it. We live in a weird and sometimes scary world, but as people of faith we know that our hope is not in culture, politics, or world events. Our hope is in Jesus who came to this … More Changing the World One Person at a Time/November 2020 Update
View this email on MailChimp This update is a little different because I want to take some time to share what it might look like to serve as a ministry partner, so whether you’re here for the first time or you’ve been on this journey with me for a while, I’d like to introduce you … More August 2020 Update
In early July my first season in Hungary came to an end after two and a half years of diligently working to Bridge Culture and Share the Good News one friend, church service, family dinner night, small group, and laser tag night at a time. It has been an amazing few years of friendship, ministry, … More July Update: Season 2 Coming Soon
Thank You!As my first term in Hungary is coming to an end, I find myself so thankful to those who have given faithfully during these past two and a half years. We are three months into a global pandemic that has had consequences in nearly every area of life, and many churches and missionaries have had … More Thank You! A Mini Update
USA Here I Come! On June 15th I board my first plane on the way back to the US. That day, I will step foot on American soil for the first time in almost two and a half years. It is crazy to think of how quickly the past two and a half years have passed, … More May 2020 Update: USA Here I Come
Today I am Thankful for…If you’ve been following along on my social media (Facebook & Instagram) you may have seen a few of my stories over the past couple weeks. Each day I have challenged myself to share something that I am thankful for that day, and then I have asked you to do the same. In … More Today I am Thankful For
Two years, wow! It’s hard to believe that I arrived in Budapest just over two years ago, but my Journey to Hungary really began about four years ago when I was first approved as a Missionary Associate to Budapest, Hungary. I hope that you’ve been following along on my Journey in Missions, but if you’d like … More February 2020 Update: What’s Next
With love from Budapest, wishing you a very Merry Christmas!It’s hard to believe that another year has passed and it’s already Christmas! I am so thankful for another year of ministry partnership with you and look forward to seeing what is in store for this next year. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas … More Merry Christmas 2019
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope it was filled with food, family, and friends! Here in Budapest, I enjoyed our young adults Friendsgiving on Wednesday and our missions team Thanksgiving on Thursday! This time of year is crazy between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday. If you aren’t familiar, Giving Tuesday is … More Happy Thanksgiving & Giving Tuesday 2019
Friends! It has been a crazy, but great fall here in Budapest. In my last Journey in Missions Update (you can watch/read it here if you missed it) I officially announced that I will be extending my time here and will conclude my term in June instead of January 2020. I am so excited about what God is … More Fall in Budapest – November 2019
It is hard to believe that a year and a half has passed since I first arrived in Hungary. The video above is just a brief glance at what is happening here in Budapest. I hope that you’ve been following along on my Journey in Missions, but if you’d like to go back and see more … More July 2019 Update
Happy Spring!I hope this Journey in Missions update finds you well. I am excited to share these springtime updates with you and hope you enjoy them, but first I want to say thank you so much for all of your prayers and support because your prayers and support help make this ministry happen. Riverside ChurchGod … More Spring 2019 Update
It has been one year since I boarded the plane on the final leg of my journey from GEG to BUD (Spokane to Budapest) with a few suitcases, a lot of excitement, and a little trepidation. One year since I said goodbye to a chapter in my life and hello to the next. One year … More Welcome to Year Two
Happy New Year!This time of year I am reminded each day of all that God has done in my life, especially over the past six years when my Journey in Missions first truly began. This time of year six years ago I was beginning the process of applying to serve with ENGAGE in Thessaloniki, Greece. … More January 2019 Update
Five years ago I started a New Year’s Eve tradition. A few hours before the fun and festivities began, I took half and hour or so to go through all the little paper mementos I kept throughout the previous year. I thought about the memories that they represented and all the people who were a … More A Year in Review
Merry Christmas!I am so thankful to have you in my life and pray that you have a lovely Christmas full of time with friends and family. Thank you so much for your prayers this year, it has been such a blessing to be able to serve in Hungary knowing that there are so many people … More Merry Christmas 2018
Hello Friends, They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I figured why not go all out and make you a video to show you some of the things that I’ve been up to since my last newsletter instead of trying to summarize it in words. I hope that you enjoy the video, … More June 2018 Update
For my April 2018 Journey in Missions Update I created an Adobe Spark page with some great photos of my first few months in Hungary. You can view it by clicking the photo below.
It occurs to me that some of y’all are only recently joining me on this #JourneyInMissions and perhaps I haven’t had the opportunity to share with you what it is that I actually do, so I wanted to take a bit and go into a little more detail about what ministry can look like for … More Ministry is…
I have officially been in Budapest for two weeks now, and it has been such an adventure. I’ve been chronicling some of my adventures on Facebook (if you haven’t been following along add me on Facebook) but I’ll give you a recap. GEG to BUD: For once I had actually arrived at the airport the recommended … More Two Weeks In
Several years ago I decided to take a little different approach to the idea of New Year’s Resolutions, I decided that rather than setting a goal to add something new into my life that I would instead set a goal to stop doing something. I decided to stop letting fear, or comfort, or cold weather, … More My New Year’s Resolution
So today I came across a video on my computer that came with some bittersweet memories. After three months in Greece I had experienced authentic community in a way that I had never before been a part of. At the end of those three months a friend made a video for all of us who … More Thanks for the Memories…
This weekend I was babysitting for a family at church and while I was there I took a few moments to tidy the little girl’s room since she had asked for a few minutes of down time to watch videos. While I was doing so I came across something that reminded me that this season … More The Little Things
My financial partnership development journey began about 16 months ago and I was dreading it. You see, partnership development involves many of the things that frighten me the most: asking people for help, calling people on the phone, talking to strangers, and speaking in front of people. I am a background person, I love to … More Why the money is irrelevant…
When you set out on a journey in missions you expect to be stretched, but I didn’t realize how much so until I was in the thick of it. There are two kinds of people in this world (well, maybe a few more than two): those who wear their heart on their sleeve and those … More Three Cheers for Vulnerability
I want to tell you about my day today. Now normally I would attempt to start with an interesting hook and a broad concept which I’ll connect with an experience I’ve had, but today I just feel like talking. I woke up this morning 20 minutes before I was supposed to leave for my first … More October 19th, 2016
A few weeks ago I attended a seminar in Snoqualmie, Washington (about 4 hours west of Spokane). My seminar started at 9 am, so rather than stay at a hotel the night before I decided to get up at o-dark thirty and drive. Personally I like to avoid o-dark thirty (more commonly known as 4:30 … More Life in the Rear View Mirror
I have a love hate relationship with Facebook’s “on this day” feature. Sometimes it reminds me of great moments of my life, but other times it simply shows me cringe worthy posts from my high school immaturity (though I find myself very thankful that Facebook wasn’t around during my middle school years). Though I don’t … More On This Day…
Friendship is a funny thing. Sometimes it sticks around for years, perhaps a lifetime, and other times it flits in and out from one person to the next. I love the analogy of life as a hiking trail. As we walk along the trail of life there will be ups and downs, sharp turns and … More Thoughts on Friendship…
Have you ever reached a point in your life where you’re so stressed that you can’t function, can see the good in things, you’re frozen, turning in circles, looking for a way out? No? I’d pretend that I haven’t either, but I’m so over pretending. When you’re in leadership, when you’re called and approved to … More Too Stressed to be Blessed…
Last year I was on my way home (to Spokane) from Portland and decided to stop at Multnomah Falls on my way. When I got there I intended to walk up to the bridge, take pictures, and then turn around and leave like I always do. But on that particular day I was feeling especially … More At the Top of the World
I read an article on a popular Christian blog recently that essentially said that Christians should not care about their appearance. Thought I didn’t disagree entirely I think that the author’s focus was on the wrong thing. There was an underlying assumption that any effort toward outward appearance was the heart equivalent of vanity, so … More Beauty Inside and Out
What is average? A social construct that seeks to understand the commonalities between people. In math you take all the numbers–from the highest to the lowest–add them all together and divide the total sum by the quantity of numbers in the list. The number that you’re left with is the average, typically somewhere near the … More Other than Ordinary
Millennials are: lazy, stupid, screwed, the worst, narcissistic, broke, godless, entitled, and the list goes on. Do a quick internet search on millennials and these are the kind of descriptives that come up. There is a general perception on the millennial generation that is severely skewed toward the negative and that perception is not entirely … More Millennials are…
Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? Why do we have noses? Children seem to be constantly asking questions. Some make sense while others seem utterly ridiculous but all of their questions serve a single purpose– to discover the world. What if adults asked questions too? I mean really asked questions expecting … More Why?
A Journey In Missions 