So we get to church, and we walk in, and everybody was friendly.
We sat down in church, and I'm looking for the pastor.
The pastor wasn't there.
He was ill.
And so this Canadian missionary was filling in for him.
So we walk up to this missionary, and this independent
fundamentalist missionary, whatever.
We walk up to this Canadian missionary, and hi, how you
doing?
We introduced ourselves to him.
We were really friendly to him, told him who we were.
My wife said to him, she said, this is my dad sitting over
here, and I won him the Lord two years ago.
He got saved.
And his kids here, they're not saved.
And she said, I'm a little bit rusty on my Hungarian.
And my wife actually spoke nothing but Hungarian until
she was eight years old.
But it's amazing how you forget things when you don't use
them.
And so her Hungarian was rusty.
And she said, I just don't think I could go through the
whole gospel and everything.
I don't really know all the terms.
Maybe you could get his kids saved.
Maybe you could give them the gospel and try and get them
saved right now while they're here.
And the guy, he looked at us like we had two heads.
I'm not even kidding.
I mean, he looked at us like, huh?
And she's like, my dad, he got saved two years ago.
And the guy's looking at us like, he's like,
wait a minute, I'm confused.
This is your dad?
And she's like, yeah, that's my dad.
I just told you.
And the guy's English was perfect.
I mean, he was from Canada.
I know they talk funny, but English is their first
language, OK?
And she said, this is my dad.
I want him to the Lord.
Can you give the gospel to the kids?
And he's, uh--
I mean, he just didn't even know what to do.
He didn't even know what we were talking about.
And I figured out later why he didn't know what we were
talking about.
But I'll get to that in a minute, why he was so confused
about this story that we're telling him.
And so he starts telling us how, oh, well, you know,
have you ever heard of the Alpha program?
I'm like, no.
Oh, you know, it's this 10 week program.
And if they're interested, we can follow up on them.
And I'm thinking, like, what are you talking about?
I'm trying to get these people saved, trying to give them
the gospel.
And so we sit down for the church service.
I'm looking for him.
No, there wasn't one.
They projected it up on the wall.
And they projected up on the wall this kind of piano.
And there's a girl behind the piano, the girl song leader,
was behind the piano.
And it was this kind of genre of music of like--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You know, it was just this really touchy piano.
And they're showing images on the screen of a sandy beach
and running waterfalls.
And the words they sang, I'm just like,
I didn't even sing it.
I'm just like, fold my arms and sit back and think.
I'm like, good night.
This is the garbage that I was singing, like, 10 years ago
when I used to go to Christian school
and non-denominational Christian school,
singing all these liberal praise worship songs.
So we go through all the songs, the woman song leader.
Then all the women in the church are praying,
one after the other, just praying out loud.
You know, I'm sorry, but my Bible
says that a woman's supposed to keep silent in the church,
for it is not permitted unto them to speak.
Amen.
And so I was just sitting there, and all these women
are praying one after another.
I'm just like, whatever.
So this missionary comes up-- and by the way,
before the service, my wife, after that debacle
about her dad, the missionary-- my wife says,
oh, so you're preaching today?
He's like, well, you know, I'm running the service.
He doesn't even want to say he's preaching.
And this guy was small.
He was really tall.
He was much taller than me, but he was a sissy.
When he prayed, he prayed like this.
You know, like he put his hands together like this
and put it in front of his mouth.
My wife told me the only person she's ever seen pray like that
was this child molesting Catholic priest in her town
when she was growing up.
And he literally was a child molester.
And so we-- man, I wish I knew that Canadian missionary's name
because I'd call it right now.
I didn't catch his name.
You're going to have to forgive me.
But anyway, where was I in the story?
So the Canadian missionary comes up
and he kneels down next to my chair.
Guys, Hungarian was-- I mean, this guy had been there,
you could tell.
He'd been in the country for decades.
Probably in his 50s.
And you could tell he'd been there for decades
because this Hungarian was perfect.
And we asked him, sorry, are you a pastor?
Pastor, church?
No.
He's just a missionary.
He just kind of floats around, you know, doing this.
He's just filling in today, doing this, doing that.
So he comes up and kneels down next to my chair.
OK.
And he says, Brother Anderson, would you
like to come up and say a few words and, you know,
greet the church and tell us a little bit about yourself,
whatever God lays on your heart?
I said, sure, of course.
Absolutely.
So you know, I told my wife, I'm like, yeah,
I'm going to get up and preach something, you know?
So I get up.
About five minutes later, he says, Brother Anderson,
come on up here.
So I get up there.
And I said a few things in Hungarian to break the ice.
And I said, I'm Pastor Steve Anderson.
This is my wife.
These are my kids.
Explained who we were.
I said, you know, I started a church in Phoenix, Arizona
two years ago.
And I said, man-- and I knew--
I was up there to make a point, obviously.
You say, oh, you like that.
Well, look, I don't get up and just flap my gums.
I mean, if I'm going to talk, that's something to say.
And so I got up and said--
I said, you know how I started my church?
And by the way, he's got a woman translating for me.
I don't understand why he couldn't translate.
The guy at St. Gary was perfect.
But anyway, he's got a woman translating for me.
And I said, you know how I started my church?
By knocking on doors and just preaching the gospel,
soul winning, going door to door, giving out the gospel.
And I said, you better know I wasn't handing out flyers
or tracts or invitations.
I said, man, I was out preaching the gospel
to get people saved, giving the gospel
to everybody who'd listen.
I was talking about all the people
that we have saved out, soul winning.
And the members of our church go out soul winning.
And we go out and get people saved.
Talk about getting people baptized
and everything like that.
And I was quoting some verses from the Bible
about, you know, Jesus said upon this rock,
I'll build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
And go ye therefore into all the world,
and preach the gospel every day.
And I only talked for about, you know, five, seven minutes.
I just packed in all this stuff.
And this missionary's just looking at me
like I'm insane.
And the woman who was translating looked at me
like she didn't even want to translate
what I was saying.
She was like, should I even be translating this?
Literally.
So I was confused.
I thought, am I saying something weird?
Am I saying something wrong?
And so the missionary-- then he pipes up.
You know, I'm up in front of everybody, you know,
giving my-- the missionary pipes up.
He says, wait a minute, I'm confused.
He said, you talked about all these bunches of people
getting saved.
Told them about, you know, what the size of our church was now.
And he said, I'm confused because a minute ago you
said it was this size, and now you're saying it's this size.
I said, no.
I said, that's how many people we got saved, you know?
And he's like, well, where are all those people?
They don't go to your church.
And I said, well, no.
I said, a lot of them go to liberal churches.
I said, they go to some liberal church somewhere.
And I said, and some of them don't go to church anywhere.
Because guess what?
And the girl didn't even want to translate this.
I said, because you don't have to go to church to be saved.
You just have to believe on Jesus Christ to be saved.
And the girl was like laughing and didn't want to translate it.
Because I said, you didn't have to go to church in order
to be saved.
That's why he was confused.
Because he looks over and her dad's got long hair, right?
And then in church, did he get saved two years ago?
I mean, this is the way these people's mentality was.
The guy is just perplexed by that.
And he's like, well, will you baptize?
I mean, go to church, at least?
I said, well, some of them do and some of them don't.
I said, some of them go to other churches, like just liberal
church in the area.
He's like, well, but do they continue in those churches?
And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, I put a GPS on everybody
and give everyone the Lord.
And I make sure, did you go to your liberal church this
morning?
Were you down there?
So they've been going to church, you know what I mean?
And so I sat down and just thought to myself, unbelievable,
what are we doing here?
The missionary gets up.
Some woman gives some 15 minute testimony.
And he gets up and says, OK, this is what I'm going to talk
about this morning.
I didn't even use the word preach.
I'm going to talk about-- we're going to talk about faith.
Faith is what I'm talking about.
And how, like, faith must have works.
Talk about salvation, how it takes faith and works
for salvation.
So at this point, I'm like, that's it.
I'm not going to stay here.
Because at first, there were things
that I didn't like about the church.
But I'm thinking to myself, well, maybe your dad
can come here and at least learn something.
This is his town.
Whatever.
But he starts preaching faith plus works, literally.
I mean, he's going to James chapter 2 and Romans 4,
showing how you must have works.
So I said, get me out of here.
So I start to get up.
And I motioned to her dad and his kids.
I said, hey, we're out of here.
So we start to get up and leave.
Missionary says, oh, are you leaving now?
I said, yeah.
I started talking.
My wife, like, put her hand on my mouth, literally.
My wife, put her hand on my mouth.
She said, don't say anything.
Don't say anything.
I didn't say anything, so we walk out.
That's the missive of a husband.
You haven't gotten to the end of the story yet.
Sit tight.
So she put her hand on my mouth and said, don't say anything.
So we get everybody out of the foyer.
And we're out in the foyer, I said, because it's a small town,
I mean, does your dad know these people?
Is he going to have to face these people or something?
You don't want me to embarrass?
And she's like, well, no.
I mean, he doesn't know any of these people.
I said, OK, but I'm going back in.
So I sent them out to the car.
I walked in.
I pushed open the door to the auditorium where
the service was going on.
I said, you know what?
Exactly what I said verbatim.
I said, you know what?
I said, I should have known that I was in the wrong place when
I was-- and this is verbatim.
I said, I should have known that I was in the wrong place.
And half the people there spoke English.
Half of them knew English.
I said, I should have known I was in the wrong place when I
walked in, and we tried to tell you about getting our dad
saved, and we tried to tell you about-- we wanted these kids
to hear the gospel.
I said, you know what I mean?
I said, do you think people have to go to church in order
to be saved?
I said, I'm sick and saddened and depressed to think that
this is the only church that these people have in this town
to go to.
And the guy's like, get out of here.
So I walked out, and one of his members
comes chasing after me.
Wait a minute, he spoke a little bit English and said,
what was that all about?
Problem, you know, what is the deal?
I told him, I said, look.
I said, this guy's not preaching the gospel.
He's a liar.
I said, no, no, no, I think you just misunderstood.
And I've heard that my whole life.
I remember going to church, and as the pastor would get up
and preach heresy, my dad used to go into the office
of the pastor and say, why did you say that?
What are you talking-- oh, that's not what I meant.
I just don't think that's what he meant.
Well, no, they mean it, trust me.
So I told the guy, I said, OK, well, then tell me right now.
What does a person have to do to be saved?
And he's like, well, you've got to believe on Jesus,
you've got to be baptized.
OK, this is what the guy told me.
He said, you must be baptized, and this and that.
I said, wrong.
I said, you need to get saved.
I said, leave on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be--
by grace alone, through faith alone,
to God alone be the glory.
He said, hey, you're wrong.
And I said, and he's a liar, and he's wrong.
What do you believe?
I said, well, there's just faith.
He's like, you're right, that is enough, just faith.
I'm like, are you just telling me anything
to get me to come back or something?
Well, it's a misunderstanding.
He's misunderstanding.
I said, it's not a misunderstanding.
I said, I've known people like him my whole life.
I apologized profusely to her dad.
I said, look, I said, listen, I said, I'm really sorry.
I thought that this church came recommended to us,
highly recommended.
We thought it was going to be one thing.
I said, I just wanted you to know
this is not what we're like.
And I said, these people might as well be--
I said, if you want this kind of a church to her dad,
I said, just go to a Roman Catholic church.
They'll teach you the same thing.
You've got to work your way to heaven.
Do you not comprehend?
Do you not understand that that's the Baptist
church in that town?
It's not the worst one, or the best one, or the church.
I mean, do you comprehend that?
Who is going to give the gospel to those people?
How are they going to hear the gospel?
I'm sorry, but I'm starting to wonder
about the guy over in Budapest.
Why is he piling around with these kind of people
that are heretics that are the cause of Christ?
They don't believe the Bible.
And this is what I said when we got in the car.
We went and butchered a pig.
We went and got in the car.
We went over after church.
We went to a farm, and we slaughtered and butchered
a pig.
And so you say, oh, that's gory.
Well, you know, do you like to eat pork?
Like to eat sausages?
I mean, you've got to do it somehow.
And this is what I quoted to my wife.
I got in the car, and I quoted this verse.
I said, woe unto you, hives and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you can pass sea and land to make one proselyte.
And when he is made, you make him twofold more
the child of hell as yourselves.
That's the truth.
And that's probably what-- if you
ask him how many proselytes he had this year,
it's probably one.
One.
So worth it for that one person.
Hey, look, there's a lot of ones in America, my friend.
But you know, the country of Hungary is not a one.
It's a 10 million.
One.
Proselyte-- problem is, he's not even saved,
because I talked to him out in the foyer.
He was one of their newest converts, they said.
Several months ago, he got saved.
He was their one for the year.
And you know what?
He said, "It's got to be baptism."
Saved.
Now, do you believe that he was saved?
He thinks you must be baptized in order to go to heaven?
He's not saved.
And it's a tragedy.
I tried to give him the gospel, he didn't care.
He just wanted to defend his church,
and that's fine with me.
He can go there and die there and be buried there.
But it's a tragic thing that there's 10 million people
in Hungary, a nation that by and large is going to hell.