We talked with Jan over emails while she was in Budapest Hungary.  She is presently on a year-to-year commitment as a missionary representing Eastminster Presbyterian Church.  She has been in Budapest for eight years.  We had a chance to ask her some candid questions on what she does.

Welcome Jan and thanks for joining us. So why are you a missionary?
 

Jan: I became a Christian when I attended a university after I graduated from high school. I grew up actively participating in church life.  I enjoyed that and I believed in God.  However, I did not know God, nor was I concerned about what he wanted from me.  When I first heard that I needed to obey God and follow his directions for my life, I rejected it because I thought church attendance was enough. 

It took time for the truth to sink in.  When I realized that God loved me, and that if I had been the only person he had created, Jesus still would have had to come to earth and live a perfect and correct life so that he could pay the ransom price for me in my rebellion and disobedience towards God.  At that time I asked God to come and inhabit all areas of my life, not just one. I was open to doing anything God asked me to do, and I started by trying to get to know God a little bit each day so I could learn to hear God’s voice and know what He wanted me to do. 

I didn’t intentionally plan on becoming a missionary, but I was willing.  Actually, I ‘knew’ that God wouldn’t ask me to be a missionary because my conception at that time of a missionary was that they are really holy people. I knew that didn't describe me. So I thought I was safe from ever being a missionary. I was wrong. God has a wonderful sense of humor.  Actually twice, about twelve years apart, the pastors of Christ Community Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina and Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Indialantic, Florida had the same observation.  They told me that they saw me as a missionary and that I should be doing mission work and contribute to the life of the congregation in that way. Both times this was mentioned I was working in a clinic as a physical therapist while actively teaching Sunday school classes. Both times, I knew God was speaking to me through those pastors.  I started the process to apply to be a missionary and actively tried to get from point A [active member of a church in USA] to point B [doing cross-cultural mission work somewhere].

What does being a missionary mean to you?
To me it means working in a different culture or sub culture than the one I was born in and am most comfortable in for the purpose of helping people recognize Jesus, and live their lives in ways that are pleasing to him. I don’t usually describe myself as a missionary because that word has thousands of different meanings. I usually say I am a Bible teacher.

Why are you in Hungary?

Well, I am in Budapest right now because I believe God has me here to develop leadership among women in Hungarian churches, and I said I would give it a try. I have and am still learning a lot.

What do you do all day?

Each day is different. I don’t really go to an office from 8-5. Most of my day is taken up in meetings with small groups. I am on call 24 x 7 because I have a telephone. There's nothing really that different about a telephone, but if I were to only work in an office, and then go home at the end of the day I would miss the after hour calls to the office. But since I'm available at home by telephone, people call anytime they want, and I respond, as I am able. I do have an answering machine and I return phone calls.  I may walk in the door, receive my phone messages, return phone calls, and if things cannot be taken care of by phone, I will walk back out the door as needed. This past week, a woman called and said her father was dying.  She called me on the phone when I had just walked in from a long, busy day.  She was in crisis and I needed to deal with it right then, so I did. 

A normal day of activity might have me teaching a group of women that meet in a church building. Or the group may rent a room and meet in a public building. That's what we're doing right now for a new group I just started with another woman.  Once a month a group of us take a train to another city, a 3-hour train trip from Budapest. We meet in the lecture room of an archives building. Women there come together from five different churches usually outside the city.  I teach all day, give out homework for the next month’s session and then take the train back to Budapest, usually arriving late at night.

When I'm not meeting with groups I often just get together with individuals. Sometimes we meet in my flat, their flat, or a neutral place, like an office, church building, library, or a place of business.

When I am not “meeting with people” I am either getting ready for those meetings or doing my own schoolwork.  I am currently a student working toward a Masters of Theology in Missiology from the University of South Africa.

Whoa, South Africa! What was that again, "Theology in Missiology”?  How do you do that?

Well, the classes are held in Budapest and most of my classmates are Hungarian pastors who want the same higher academic degree.  It is rather like an extension program, but our professors are from all over Europe, USA, and Africa. This year I need to write my thesis on a comparison of how God is forming disciples in Eastminster and in a Baptist church in Budapest.  I will be using a narrowly defined interview process based on the Beatitudes in Matthew and asking participants to share how that characterization has been realized in their lives.

Wow, you are really into the teaching and learning phase right now in a very different culture.  How do you make a living?

Well, for instance, I make my living by the grace of God and the wonderful caring gifts of the people of Eastminster.  I guess you could say I earn a living by teaching the Bible.  This case is a little different in that it's not the students who pay for me to teach. I suppose I'm like the majority of Christian missionaries who share with others what I feel God wants me to do.  People, who want to participate in this type of work through me, contribute financially to a fund set up by Eastminster, which pays me a monthly stipend.

Can you speak Hungarian?

Yes, I teach in Hungarian, such as mine is. I am not great at speaking Hungarian, but Hungarians who want to understand will take the time to listen.  As with any American adults who learn their first foreign language, I speak with an American accent. Hungarians have to work at understanding what I say in the same way that Americans have to work at understanding what foreigners are saying when they try to speak English.  When you are trying to communicate the love of Christ there is nothing that compensates for speaking to someone in his or her mother tongue.  I have had occasions where Hungarians thank me for speaking their heart language.  Communication is a privilege when it happens.

So do you eat at Burger King?  Just about every major city in Europe has a Burger King, McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut.

I eat at Burger King when someone asks me to meet them there. Last week three of us got together at McDonald’s, and I got my ice cream fix.
 

If I really need a fast food fix then I'm going for a gyro in a pita. There are many middle-east kiosks selling the gyros. The one closest to my flat is run by a man from Iraq. 

Let's see how that works... an American living in Budapest asking for a Greek Gyros sold by an Iraq guy that probably really likes to eat McDonald hamburgers!

Well hold on.  My other option is Chinese fast food because there are over 250,000 Chinese refugees in Budapest alone. 

Wow!  That's a mission field in itself.  I bet sweet and sour pork is also number 53 on the menu like it is here?

Not sure about that but there are fast food Chinese kiosks on every corner.

Do missionaries ever have bad days or are you wonderful and spiritual every day?

Yes, I have bad days and no I'm not wonderful and spiritual every day. There are some days I cannot seem to put two Hungarian words together correctly in a sentence structure, or find the words I need when trying to communicate something.

There are some days when I deal with things in people’s lives, or in my life that I don’t want to deal with, but I have to. There are days when I make a spectacle of myself because I didn’t do something right in teaching, or I didn’t understand someone correctly, or there is conflict with someone that is not being addressed, etc., or I hold up the whole grocery store line because I weighed my produce using the wrong sticker, and the people behind me yell at me.

It's been great talking with you Jan.  In closing tell us what's the most rewarding part of doing what you’re doing?

The rewarding part of what I do is exemplified by what someone said at a recent Bible study group.  This lady can only come once a month, even though the group meets weekly.  She had questions about the passage in the Bible we were studying. I tried to answer her questions the best I knew how.  As I saw the lights go on in her eyes, she began to express her application and understanding of the passage by an appropriate application in her life. Then she said that she always gets something when she comes to the study and that she has nowhere else to go to ask her questions. I told her that I learn something every time, too, because God is always speaking to me when I prepare to teach a Bible passage, as well as when we study it together.  I love seeing people begin to understand what God is saying to them. I also love it when I understand what God is saying in a situation.

Recent Mission Trips