First of two parts
With a twinkle in his eyes, Sandor Szenczy (pronounced Shandor Senchy) asks, “Can anything good come out of Hungary?” The ministry he founded 10 years ago is proof than it can and does. Starting with a $25 donation from a widow, Hungarian Baptist Aid has become a world-class disaster relief agency that last year received $5 million in cash and donations in kind of nearly $30 million.
The rather sudden appearance of this ministry on the world scene can only be understood in the context of the man himself. Following is the story of his conversion in his own words.
“I did not grow up in a Christian family. My grandmother was a leader in the Communist Party in Hungary. I had never been to church. No one had ever read a Bible to me. I had never heard anyone pray. I lived in a Communist city where there was no church at all.
“My childhood was very confused. One day I would champion Hungarian pride and the next I would blow up my high school chemistry class. I was told I would never finish high school and would end up in prison.
“I never felt wanted as a child. My parents made it clear to me that they wished I had been a daughter. I saw how they loved my sister and I felt the lack of love for me. I felt rejected by them and believed that I could never make them approve of me. They divorced when I was 14. Although both parents remarried, neither had room in their lives and plans for me — and I didn't want them either.
“For a time I slept at a train station and then I joined with other boys in a gang that broke into an empty flat and lived there. We had fights with the police. As you would expect, we got into all kinds of trouble, including drugs and alcohol.
“At this time, 1987, military service was compulsory, so I went to serve one-and-a-half years in the military. My bad behavior continued in the military, but since my grandmother was a member of the Communist Party I was given special treatment. Finally, however, as punishment I was sent to a secret military missile site where I worked all alone manning a secret telephone line. Soon I began making phone calls on the secret line.
“During one call a man began to talk to me about Jesus. I still do not know this man's identity. I have no idea where he went to church or anything about him. At first I laughed at him. I thought Christians all wore black clothes and were people no one would want to be around. But this man seemed so different from what I imagined. In our calls, he would read the Bible to me. He also played the guitar and sang Christian songs to me over the secret phone. And he talked and talked and talked.
“Now don't fail to see the power of God in this. God was reaching to me through a Communist secret phone line on a secret military missile site using a person I have never met to speak to my heart! Only God could do that. It disturbed me this man spoke about Jesus as though he knew him. It was as though Jesus was his friend who sat by his side.
“When I left the military service, the first thing I did was buy a Bible. A new world opened up for me. I read it for days and days. I then had to decide, ‘Is it true?' There was no middle ground, no way in between. One night I was walking on the street of a small town and I could stand it no longer. There was no church, no pastor, no choir, no nothing; just God and the Bible and me. This was March 12, 1989, and I knelt down right there on the street and said, ‘God, I don't know if you exist or not, but if you do, please come into my life.'
“I got up and didn't feel anything. The sky did not open up, the angels did not sing, no trumpets sounded. But it was a different Sandor who got up from his knees. It was like Peter when Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter said, ‘If it is really you, do something with me that is so impossible for me that I can never doubt it.' I said, ‘If it is really you, please do something with my life that is so impossible that I can never doubt that you have done it.' And Jesus said ‘Come!'
“Immediately, I wanted to do two things. First, I wanted to tell everybody what had happened to me. I went to a Bible store and bought witnessing cards — hundreds of them — and began to pass them around to people on the street. I even remember going to a drunk who was passed out and I pinned to his coat one of the cards with my name and telephone number on it. I hoped when he sobered up he would find the card and call me; but he didn't. Nobody called, in fact.
“The second thing I wanted to do was to study. I wanted to learn everything I could. I went to the Baptist seminary and they asked, ‘Who is your pastor?' I said, ‘I don't know.' They asked, ‘What church are you a part of? You have to be a member of a church two years and to have the church recommend you.' And I replied, ‘I don't have a church!' They said, ‘We are glad for you but it is not enough just to have a Bible!' Not surprisingly, they did not admit me. They cast me away, but I always came back! Finally I met all the qualifications and I was admitted to the seminary in Budapest as a student.
“I have made many mistakes. Even as a pastor, I had to get my life in order and in humility confess my sins. But God is faithful and powerful, and Hungarian Baptist Aid had to be founded. I know why I am on this earth!”
Next week: The amazing story of how God started Hungarian Baptist Aid and what he has done with it since.