My dear, beautiful mother is now where she so longed to be: at the presence of her Lord and Savior whom she so loved, adored, believed in and worshiped!
Many of you have prayed for her as she was hospitalized three weeks ago. After being in the hospital for two weeks, she seemed to be doing much better and was released. Two days after she went back to the nursing home, she developed horrible abdominal pain again. She was taken back to the hospital. That’s when I got a phone call that she is in critical condition. Edina and I was on our way to Orlando for a conference. I’ve bought a ticket from Orlando back to Budapest. The doctors had to do an emergency surgery. Six hours after the surgery she died - it was too much for her weak, broken body. 24 hours before I could arrive home, she went to be with Jesus. I was able to talk with her on a video call the day before her surgery. She was so ready to be freed from all the sufferings of this life! She had an incredibly difficult life.
She was born at the dawn of WWII, she lived through communism, had a very traumatic childhood, suffered through abusive marriages and countless, painful health challenges. I don’t know anybody who had a harder life than hers! Yet, she was the most amazing mother who saved my life when I was 12 years old! She rescued me from my father’s abusiveness when every legal path was already closed. She raised my sister and I in incredible poverty under communism. There was nothing she would not give for her two children and four grandchildren. She became a believer in Christ later in life. She said that the most joyful moment of her life was when I prayed over her after she was baptized. She always talked about how thankful she is that God forgave her sins! She worshiped God while she suffered from terrible pain!
She had so little. All she had fit in a tiny little room. She had a bed, a chair, a TV, a washing machine and a few cloths. And her Bible that she read every day. She had nothing, yet she was so thankful. She invested into what really matters!
She was so proud that we became missionaries 30+ years ago! When God called us to serve overseas in the U.S., far from her, with tears she embraced the sacrifice this meant for her. She knew that we will not have birthdays, family gatherings, Christmas dinners together and she will have very rare moments with her grandkids. She embraced that as her calling from God.
So many people have heard the gospel around the world because how she raised me and how she was willing to make the sacrifice of releasing us into the mission field. Without her, none of our ministry we had the privilege to do and lead in the past 30+ years would exist. Very few people know, that YTL exists because she was the connection who introduced us to the government official who helped us launch YTL. Because of this connection hundreds of thousands of students and educators in 62 countries heard the gospel. And now she receives her reward for her sacrifice and for her unrecognized, selfless service!
There are no words to tell how we miss her! I can’t tell you how it hurts that my obedience to God cost her so much! What Oswald Chambers points out is our reality: “If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in… We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.”