OUR NATIONAL MISSIONARIES
András (National Director) and Andrea Kazár
“Science has proven there is no God.” Growing up in a Communist country, as a college student majoring in mathematics and computer programming, András Kazár believed that Christianity was superstition and only the uneducated believed in God. Then one day his close friend from elementary school days challenged him to explore what he had recently become convinced of—that Christianity was true, and Jesus Christ was Who He claimed to be, Lord and Savior. András began to read many books on Christian apologetics, discovered other students who believed in Christ and who met in secret, and finally in the spring of 1985 placed his faith in Christ as his personal Savior. In the fall of 1985, he began to proclaim his new-found faith in the college dormitories.
András Kazár served with Cru (then Campus Crusade for Christ) for 15 years, working on college campuses. During these years he was also involved in a new church plant in Budapest. He served as the Hungarian National Campus Director for Cru before resigning in order to pursue his vision to establish churches that could minister effectively to the students he had been seeing come to Christ.
He shares his vision in these words:
“I have become absolutely convinced that if Hungary is to be truly reached for Christ many new churches will need to be involved in pro-active evangelism, intentional discipleship, training leaders and sending them out to plant new churches—all within the context of a movement based on spiritual multiplication. Gradually, over the years, my burden to see new believers become whole-hearted followers of Christ and integrated into the fellowship of a local body of believers has grown into a conviction that God has called me personally to help bridge this need in Hungary.”
Andrea grew up in California and came to know Christ as her personal Savior at the age of 17. The ministries of Young Life and Cru in high school and college were used by God to call her to a full-time commitment to serving Him overseas. Living in Europe as a university student enabled her to be involved in reaching other students who had had no opportunity to hear about Christ and how to know Him personally.
After working together for five years in Cru’s student ministry, András and Andrea were married in 1990. They have three adult daughters, who grew up actively involved in the Paulus Movement, having experienced its growth from a Bible study in their living room to a movement with full-time national missionaries and two church plants.
Sanyesz and Esy Nagy
Both of us were raised in non-Christian homes in Hungary under Communism, although Esy’s parents became Christians during her early teen years. Esy accepted Christ at the age of 16, while Sanyesz became a Christian during his freshmen year in college. After his conversion, he was involved in a campus student ministry and came to understand that God’s purpose for his life was to serve Him in full-time ministry. After they were married in 2005, Esy also joined the Paulus national missionary team.
In 2006 we were the first missionaries sent out by the Paulus Diósd church to serve in the war-torn area
of Croatia.
When we moved back to Hungary in 2008, our daughter, Zoé was born, and in 2010, her brother, Joakim,
followed her.
Upon our return, Sanyesz served as the Youth Director in Paulus Diósd and then we were challenged to be
a part of Paulus’ second church. Since 2013, we’ve been leading the Paulus Budapest church plant with a
team of enthusiastic young professional volunteers.
Based on his experience as a student leader in a campus ministry Sanyesz came out of university with a strong
conviction that in his personal ministry, besides evangelism and discipleship, he wanted to put an emphasis on church
planting, too. This was one of the reasons why he decided to join the Paulus Movement, because he saw all three of
these happening in this ministry.
After being a part of planting the first Paulus church, we are still driven by the same desire to see more and more churches in Hungary that are following Jesus and have an impact on society. That’s why we are excited about the Paulus Budapest church plant.
János and Ildikó Kiss
In 2001, János and Ildikó (Ildi) were already in their 30’s when they were invited to a home Bible study group that was just starting up in their hometown of Diósd. Their son, Benedek, was just 2 years old. This home group happened to be the very first Bible study home group that grew into the Paulus Movement. Ildi had opened her heart to Christ a year earlier but had not yet understood how to grow in her new faith. János struggled with the decision to attend this group but finally agreed. Studying the gospel of John for more than a year, he got closer and closer to understanding who Jesus Christ was and what He had done. Then, on October 3, 2002, János accepted Christ as his Savior.
On October 3, 2003, God also surprised them with a kind of “Birthday gift.” One year after János’ confession of faith, their daughter Lilla was born on exactly the same day, the same hour and, as far as they remember, the same minute that János had accepted Christ!
Together János and Ildi began to grow in their faith and serve in the different Paulus programs (Mother’s Circle outreach, Tea House, etc.). Ildi started reaching out to children and organized the first summer kids’ camp.
As the Paulus ministry was growing in Diósd, János and Ildi continued to serve the Lord faithfully, using the gifts they had received from Him. They became full-time staff in 2006. Ildi led the Children’s ministry and János started the Youth ministry. Ministry to children and youth has continued to be the main theme of their lives. Since 2010, as a couple they have been serving in the youth ministries, leading the Junior High ministry and leading the High School ministry since 2013. In 2012 when God opened up a new opportunity to teach the Bible in the public schools, they began with the 1st and 5th graders, and are now teaching in every grade (1-8) -- teaching approximately 100 kids weekly. Their hearts are passionate to reach youth and children with the good news of Jesus Christ and to see the growth of God’s kingdom. In response to God’s call and following the motto of the Paulus ministry, they seek to obey Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:18-20, to „Go and make disciples...”
Their daughter, Lilla, is a high school student in an International Christian school in Hungary, and their son Benedek is now a college student in the United States.
Zoli Márton
When in 1990 I started High school, I considered myself to be a nice guy: I had no need for God. I had never heard anyone talking about faith or sharing the gospel. Since I loved science, I thought, with a great amount of pride, that everything about the world could be understood and explained by scientific methods. And I thought, God did not exist anyway. Until one day…
Quite a few of my friends began attending the youth group meeting of a small Reformed church. After having been invited by them countless times, I finally decided to take a look at what they did every Saturday afternoon. At the end of the meeting, there was a time when people could pray out loud. One person started to pray for me, saying that even though I had just come to the meeting out of curiosity, really it was God who had begun a good work in me. It was at that very moment that my doubt and unbelief started to fall apart, and the great paradigm shift began.
This event motivated me to start to search for God, which I did enthusiastically. A few months later I finally made a decision to accept the Lord. Soon I realized that my whole relationship with God had been made possible by the death of Jesus Christ.
In the university I was involved in the campus ministry and later served full-time reaching out to students with the gospel. This is where I met my wife, Edit, and we were married in 2005. We have both been part of the Paulus Diósd church since the early years, leading worship and involved in different ministries. She teaches in an International Christian school, and we have two beautiful girls, who are both attending this school.
Because I was not raised in a Christian home, I still remember what it is like not to believe. At Paulus one of our distinctives is to reach unchurched people which is a goal I can totally identify with and reflects why I initiated our Paulus English Institute. We began teaching English to children and adults so that we could be present in the community, meet a need, and establish meaningful relationships with non-believers which God can use to spread His message and love. We believe that serving this earthly need of learning English is a wonderful opportunity to open doors to the gospel of Jesus.
Tibor and Bea Áncsán
We moved with our daughter, Anna, to the town of Diósd in 2004. Later, our son, Bálint, and daughter, Nóra, were born. In 2005 we first came in contact with the Paulus ministry through the Mothers’ Circle, Paulus’ outreach to young mothers. In 2009 we began attending worship services, and the following year both of us decided to put our trust in Christ. We were baptized in the church on October 2, 2010, and became enthusiastic church members, drinking in God’s Word and finding that our whole perspective on life changed. We began to serve. Tibor helped with the technical side of the church services and programs, while Bea helped in the Children’s Ministry. We took part in more and more Paulus programs, and this earthly fellowship as well as our heavenly one became a permanent part of our lives.
In 2012, seeing the great administrative need in the Paulus ministry, Tibor gave up his civil engineering job and joined the Paulus operations team. Presently he is serving as Director of Operations at Paulus.
In 2011 Bea took a part-time job in the local International School, helping in the kitchen while attending training for her Children’s Ministry teaching certificate. She also volunteered as a Bible Club leader in the local public school, teaching 7-10 year olds as well as regularly teaching children’s Sunday school at church. She joined the Paulus staff in 2014, leading the Children’s and Pre-school ministries in Diósd. Still actively involved in the Children’s ministry, she is now also working alongside Tibor administrating finances and directing communications.
