Calvin Synod Herald, 1973 (73. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1973-10-01 / 10. szám

6

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

K: Is it only an agricultural project?

C: No, it combines many aspects of life. We have medical work — our people go out into the bush day and night to care for the sick, and where necessary they transport patients out to our Presbyterian Church hospitals in Kikuyu or Nairobi.

We have agricultural and veterinary work — focussed mainly on the improvement of livestock; then there are educational projects, including adult education.

We have built some simple church buildings which are being used also as schools — originally it was we who started these building programmes, but now the Maasai themselves are constructing new classrooms and a boarding school.

Water development and the building of dams is another thing we tackle. All this construction and the regular work first came as something very new to these nomadic people, whose main occupation was looking after animals.

And all this is undergirded by what you might call general mission work: there has been quite a revival among the Maasai, many have become Christians and have been baptized and confirmed.

K: And now this Presbyterian Church of East Africa is going to make you available to another Presbyterian Church?

C: Yes, the Presbyterian Church of Sudan, together with the Sudan Council of Churches has asked the PCEA to release me after my three years contract expires — this year — to go to Sudan where the situation is still very difficult after the 17-year war. I shall be working with the Presbyterian Church in Malakal, in the South, and undertake a feasibility study for fishery development in the White Nile. I shall be seconded to the ministry of agriculture. This whole development programme has wide support from — say — the United Nations Organization, the World Bank etc.

K: Isn’t it unusual for a Hungarian to be sent by a Kenyan Church to a Sudan Church?

C: I suppose it is, but because a Maasai pastorfarmer, with whom I’ve worked very closely, is ready to take over my work, I am now ready to be sent elsewhere. My Maasai colleague is keenly interested in agricultural development work.

K: What do your own people think about all this?

C: At the moment, I am still officially the minister of a congregation not far from Budapest, and my people are waiting for me to return — they are hoping that I shall go back soon and serve them again. But all the time I have been away they have followed my work with their prayers and with great interest; for this I am very grateful.

I don’t know what is going to happen. If it is possible in the future to continue this kind of work for which my agricultural studies have qualified me I shall be happy to do it, but I am keeping an open mind.

RPS/INTERVOX Sept. ’73

JOSEPH HORCSIK

Again the Lord called for another fellow servant in the summertime of his life and had him assigned to his immediate service. Joseph Horcsik of Dayton, Ohio had just been granted the privilege of lay-ministry status with our Synod at our last meeting, because he possessed unusual personal characteristics, qualifications and rich experiences in the practical Christian ministry. By this action, our Synod has commenced a procedure by which we aim to secure bilingual servants for our churches and ministers for our small fellowships.

Mr. Horcsik was born in Hungary 52 years ago in the county of Abauj, in the village of Fuzerradvany. His love for his church started at home and in the local parish, continued during his high-school studies and during his stay in West Germany, with his fellow countrymen who were forced to leave their homeland in the storm of World War II. While in Hungary, he was active in the Young Men’s Christian Association, which, unlike its American counterpart, was engaged in serious religious inguiries.

Arriving in Dayton, Ohio, he immediately joined that historic Hungarian Reformed Church there and served her in various capacities until the day that he died. In times of pastoral vacancies, which were quite frequent in recent years, Joseph supplied the pulpit and made those painful gaps between pastorates possible for the congregation to bridge. Christian ministry for him was not a hobby or an avocation, but a true vocation and calling alongside his secular employment with Dayton Steel Foundry, of which he became a very valued and trustworthy employee. Joseph had the rare capacity to combine these two areas of life in a way and manner in which both were enriched. Perhaps the most precious endowment of his life was his personal faith in Jesus Christ, which he never denied, but it was immediately noticeable to anyone who talked with him. His intense personal faith stemmed from the religious revival in Hungary after W. W. II, which, in the Forties, spread like wildfire and gave hope in those bleak hopeless days for the people.

Lake Side Classis of our Synod welcomed him as a keynote speaker, as well as the Hungarian National Presbyter Association. He had the rare ability to communicate God’s message through personal witnessing. No one ever doubted his integrity, sincerity, honesty and dedication. He was one of the finest examples of historic Calvinistic laymen who understood and consciously pursued the “Universal Priesthood of All Believers” teaching of our faith. Mr. Horcsik not only served as an example, but also set forth a standard of dedicated Reformed churchmanship. His loss will be felt far beyond his local congregation, and is being shared by all of us who labor, pray, and dream for the future of our churches.

He shall forever be missed by his wife, Mary, with whom he lived in blessed harmony, peace and love. Every nook and shelf reflected the features of a true “home” in their lovely new house, which had become so empty and desolate since the master went away... away on a far journey. It was a deep-seated, rich, colorful heritage in Mary’s family which found its match in Joseph’s back(Continued on page 8)