Gedeon Oláh

I think I can say that I had a series of miracles in my life. The first miracle was my salvation. I grew up in a Baptist Christian family. That unfortunately, did not give me an advantage. I fell into the trap that somehow I just became A Christian. At 14, I made a decision as every else at my age, and got baptized. My life barely changed.

Within a short time, I was deeply into the things of the world. I lived like any other unsaved teenager, but sometimes I went to church too. Later, I came into acquaintance with a serious Christian girl. Because of her, I improved my life. We were married and started our life together. We went to church for every service. I always felt that something was not right. We thought that the problem was with the church. Because of this, we moved to Derecske and began attending the church there. However, my life didn’t change there either. I felt very helpless, even though I had a successful business and we built a new house and lived well. One day my sister-in-law invited us to the United States of America to visit and we went.

While we were in the States, we were searching for a relationship with God. Because of this, we attended the Faith Baptist Church in Warren, Michigan, where I immediately became impressed with the loving atmosphere. The Pastor there, Dr. David Cummins, had a great effect on me even though I did not know English. The Lord gave me an interpreter so that we could communicate. Dr. Cummins was a tool sent from God in my life. After six months, as we were preparing to go home, he asked me, “Why do you want to go back to Hungary? Don’t you want to stay here?” To which I answered (I myself don’t know why), “Because I would like to serve the Lord at home.” He then brought to our attention missionary Jim Knies who was already in Pécs. When we got home to Derecske, Jim Knies traveled to our home and invited us to Pécs for the first service of the church that was starting there. The Lord continued to work in me as I started to hear the simple gospel preached. I felt with my wife that we could help him, but at first it seemed like too great of a sacrifice. After serious thinking we moved there in March of 1995.

At the beginning of our ministry, Brother Knies asked me to tell him about my salvation. I could not tell him a satisfying answer; just that in 1977, I got baptized. He then showed me Matthew 7:21, Ephesians 2:8-9 and then 2 Corinthians 13:5. I finally realized that I never really got saved and that 18 years of a Baptist church membership is not enough – that you cannot get saved through works. After this, on my knees, I prayed and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.

The second miracle was how the Lord used the Bible in our neighborhood. We had an opportunity to rent an apartment at the southern edge of the city of Pécs. This did not make sense to us as we thought the church would be inside the city. We later understood that a city church was not God’s plan. After my salvation, we started witnessing to our neighbors. We shared our hope and the gospel. Because of this, many of our neighbors got saved and here at the edge of the city the Bible Baptist Church was formed.

The third miracle is that God called me to full-time Christian service. As I read the Bible, God brought before me Philippians 3:7-8, 14. I read these verses several times and I understood that God wanted me to serve Him full-time. All this happened on February 22, 1998. I stared working two days in my private business and five days for the Lord. After I took this step of faith, God worked in the heart the congregations of some churches to support our family. I am very grateful to the Lord that He has provided a place where we can study His Word. Seeing the great need in Hungary, the desire of our hearts is for our family to plant a new church. Praying and waiting on Christ, we wait for Him to show us when and where the next church is to be started.

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