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ZSÁMBOK, Hungary
Though it was nearly 30 years ago, Feri Olah remembers the question. He was playing soccer in a field when he was approached by a young evangelist on a mission trip.
“Have you heard of God’s love?” the young man asked him.
Olah—still mourning the recent death of his mother—became angry.
“If God loves me so much,” he fired back, “why did He allow my mother to die?”
Olah rejected the gospel that day, but seeds were planted. As the group of young evangelists continued to visit, he eventually gave his life to Christ.
Olah is a pastor now, leading worship and preaching to about 15 people out of a basement in his home in Zsámbok, a rural village about 35 miles outside the capital city of Budapest. He is also pastoring another church in Apc, a village curled up at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains about 20 miles to the northeast.
Budapest—a bustling urban center—is one of seven cities included in a partnership between the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the International Mission Board called Reach Europe. The initiative aims to mobilize SBTC churches to help IMB personnel and local churches multiply disciple-making movements around the world.
Those movements will also happen in outlying areas such as Zsámbok and Apc.
Olah is a boulder of a man with tight, sandbag arms and a solid frame that appears to be made less by dumbbells and more by hay bales—or as Texans might say, he’s country strong. But he wears a disarming smile on a kind, round face and, beneath it all, has a tender heart for reaching the Roma people with the gospel.
“Week to week, we are spreading the gospel and sharing about His grace. It’s a wonderful miracle when we can see the change that God brings about in people’s lives."
The Roma are descendants of the nomadic tribes of Romania tied together by the Hungarian language. About 1.5 million of them have fanned out into Hungary’s more rural sectors, where most live in extreme poverty—especially by western standards. Many inhabit shacks tacked together from repurposed garbage and discarded construction materials. That poverty, coupled with a longstanding prejudice tied to their ethnicity, drives many who might help the Roma in other directions.
But not Feri, who wants his people to have an opportunity to rest in the same salvation that cradles him. He’s so committed to them he said he now feels called to leave his home of seven years in Zsámbok to live closer to the church plant in Apc so he can evangelize more.
“That’s what we need,” Olah said. “We need people who have accepted God’s love to be willing to give it away unconditionally.”
In May, the SBTC led 39 pastors and church leaders on a vision tour of Europe. The team was divided among the seven reach cities so they could view the ministry being done there and consider future partnership opportunities. The Budapest group saw churches in three phases among the Roma people: the established church in Zsámbok, the fledgling church in Apc, and in Szirák, where there is no church and relatively no gospel presence.
The work in Hungary—a country of 11 million people, roughly a third of the population of Texas—will be both rural and urban. Lamar Schubert, a Texas transplant who has been serving the IMB there for five years—said church partnerships can happen in the short and long terms, with events such as medical clinics and sports camps opening doors for the gospel to be shared. Greg Pickering, who pastors Brazos Pointe Fellowship in Lake Jackson and who was among the Budapest group on the vision trip, said missions teams could also host retreats for pastors who are nearing burnout.
“A lot of these Hungarian pastors could really use some soul care and know that they’re cared for by us,” Pickering said.
That would benefit pastors like Olah, who are willing to exhaust themselves for the cause of Christ. But the toil is well worth the reward.
“Week to week, we are spreading the gospel and sharing about His grace,” Olah said. “It’s a wonderful miracle when we can see the change that God brings about in people’s lives.”
Interested in impacting Europe with the gospel? Learn more about the SBTC’s Reach Europe initiative.
