Exclusive interview with Jocelyn & Paul Gracza – Missionaries serving in Hungary

Do you know exactly what a missionary is? And what they do? Meet Jocelyn and Paul Gracza who came to Hungary from the USA 25 years ago. They have served in various capacities over the years and have devoted their lives to helping others. They were enchanted by our country, nation, culture and feel very much at home here.

Have a cup of tea or coffee, sit back and let us introduce to a lovely couple – get to know their stories, life and goals.

DailyNewsHungary: When and how did you come here? What were our goals? Why Hungary?

Paul: We arrived on the 6th of December, 1990. We came to work with the Pentecostal Churches here in Hungary. When I was 19 years old, I felt very strongly in my heart that the Lord was leading me to be a minister, but also to be a missionary to Hungary. My background is Hungarian; my grandfather grew up in Nagybörzsöny, my grandmother in the Szeged area.

Jocelyn: When we arrived on the 6th of December, we didn’t know that it was ‘Mikulás nap’ and our supervisor took us out to the Citadel. It was right at dusk, the lights of the city were just turning on, there was light snow and we had our daughter with us who was 10 months old. He looked at the city and said “Paul and Jocelyn, this is your new city.” It was a very special moment for us; it became our home that moment. The roots of our heart and soul went into the ground of Hungary and they’ve never been pulled out.

DailyNewsHungary: Who is a missionary? What do you do exactly?

Paul: We are supported from churches and people in America. So our financial funding comes from churches mostly. They also pray for us. As missionaries we’re sent out from churches there to help the church here in Hungary just to continue to develop with the programmes and the churches that they have already and help them to grow more. We work in partnership with the Hungarian Pentecostal Church (Magyar Pünkösdi Egyház). We try to help facilitate and work alongside the goals they have as a church.

Jocelyn: When we came, they had a very strong need to start their own college. They didn’t have pastors trained to take the pulpit in some of the churches and there were retiring pastors who didn’t have a follow-up pastor to take their spot. They asked us to help start a college so that they would have a seminary where they could train people to work within their churches. The other thing we helped with was church building, creating their own spaces where they could meet. We would have teams come from the States to help them physically in building their churches.

DailyNewsHungary: Paul, you are the director of the Pentecostal Theological Church. How does that fill up your life?

Paul: We helped a lot starting it, developing the curriculum, helping with teachers; and we had a Hungarian director for the first 5-6 years. Then, he became ill and the Pentecostal Movement in Hungary asked me to step in to be the director. It started out as a temporary thought but I’ve been working with them for 17 years now. It’s been a great joy to see the college develop. In the beginning they had 15 students, now we have 175 students so it’s still a small college in terms of the Hungarian higher educational system. I’m there most of the days doing administrative work and I also teach classes. We have a great team, I’m the only non-Hungarian, which has been an interesting aspect to the job but we work together very well as a team.

Jocelyn: So in the beginning, we didn’t have a curriculum and teachers. We would have two-week block sessions where we would teach two classes at a time for two weeks. One teacher would be a Hungarian and we would have the other come from the States who would pay for the translation of his course. We were able to translate textbooks just by having teachers come from the States and be guest teachers. Then, as Paul said, we were able to transfer into a completely Hungarian based college. This transition was a real success for us.

DailyNewsHungary: Jocelyn, how could you help as a mother and wife?

Jocelyn: We made the specific decision to have our children invest in the Hungarian life. We chose to live as Hungarian as we could. We didn’t want to live an expat life; we wanted our children to live Hungarian. I went to education consultants to find the best way to help them. They said that in order for them to have an educational level of the language, they needed to start nursery school at 3. So although it was hard, we did that. Also, in the first 7 years I was the editor of Lydia magazine (still exists today and is doing wonderful), which is the first ecumenical Christian women’s magazine. I was working a lot and the children were with the babysitter, they spoke Hungarian the same level they spoke English. Then came primary school and we wanted all three children to go to Hungarian schools which we knew would be hard. So Paul asked me if I would give 10 years to being an at-home mom to help partner with our children through school. I stepped out of the magazine and went to being a full-time mom.

DailyNewsHungary: What did you know about Hungary before coming here?

Paul: Well, since my grandparents grew up in Hungary and continued the traditions in the USA, we knew some of the foods, the culture, saw some pictures and I remember a few words from my childhood like ‘nagymama’, ‘nagypapa’, ‘bejgli’, ‘köszönöm’.

DailyNewsHungary: How did your opinion of the country and nation change throughout the time?

Jocelyn: When we first came, we went to language school for about 7 months, Paul continued for longer. He is much better at grammar but I think I have a wider vocabulary. I knew German so I tried using it but our language teacher told me that ‘You live in Hungary so quit speaking German and start learning Hungarian!’ She loved her culture and thaught us to love it as well. She took us to special places because she believed that we have to experience the culture, the people and architecture etc. When I would go to the market everything was new to me and people were kind to me. I would point at things and they would help me. They were also honest with me, when I would put my hands out with my money, they would fish through it to find the right amount. I was very impressed with the hard-working and kindness. We went through everything with the Hungarians. When we came here, it was the first year after the change of regime. Since then, we went through all the changes with them. I think it is very much a part of what we are that we have grown with the people.

Paul: We made a conscious decision to try to make friends with as much Hungarians as we could and that helped us with the language and getting an understanding of the people. That made our transition much easier.

DailyNewsHugary: How did you manage to integrate? Do you have some of your helpers still with you in your life?

Paul: Yes, we do. The Pentecostal Church already had an apartment set aside for us so we got to know the daughter of the owner and her boyfriend. Then there was another individual who helped us with getting some appliances. We still know them, they are from the church and we have been friends for 26 years now. Luckily, we had many people who helped us with integration. Our friendships are such that if we don’t understand something we can ask for clarification easily. We feel very much at home here but we don’t always understand a 100% of what’s going on.

DailyNewsHungary: It seems like the language was the biggest difficulty for you. Do you have some funny stories that you would like to share with us?

Jocelyn: One day I went to the market and I didn’t know that I had to bring my own bag. I wanted to by these big cellophanes, but I didn’t have a bag so I asked the cashier if I could have one. She said no. Then I said ‘Oh, you’re right, I’ll pay for it’ but she very rudely told her colleague that I just want it for souvenir. I told her ‘No’ but she angrily tucked my cellophanes into a paper bag. I got very frustrated and marched home to Mari, who was our first babysitter. She could see that I was very angry and asked what was wrong and I told her ‘Meleg vagyok.’ instead of ‘Elegem van.’ (She basically said ‘I’m gay’ instead of ‘I’m pissed off’) She knew my husband so was pretty sure that wasn’t accurate. I was glad I told this to her not somebody else. ☺