She answered that she was doing missionary work in Kazakhstan. "What kind of mission work?" I asked her. Did she belong to a religious order?

"No," she said. She was "just" a volunteer, a lay person. She had been in several countries.

"Which other ones?"

She began, "First I went to Hungary…"

"Hungary!" I said. "I am from Hungary. Where in Hungary?"

"Esztergom."

"I lived there eight years," I told her, astounded. "I studied there. What years were you there?"

"’98 to ’99."

"I was there then."

Her face had looked familiar to me since she walked in. Now I remembered. I had seen her at prayer meetings in Hungary.

"Maybe you know my friend," I said. "Carolyn Cole."

"Of course, I know her," she said. "I taught with her in Hungary."

Suddenly, I felt so grateful to her. If Carolyn hadn’t come to Hungary, I would not be in Madonna House. And this woman had been doing the same thing as Carolyn.

These two women had left their homes in Canada to go all the way to Hungary to bring the Gospel to us. They had gone with Renewal Ministries, a Catholic charismatic group from Ann Arbor, Michigan, a group that began sending people to teach English in schools in Eastern Europe soon after the fall of Communism.

That wasn’t my idea of missionary. I thought of missionary as preaching to crowds of people.

But these women just came and did something so ordinary. They taught English in two high schools, one for girls run by nuns, and the other for boys, run by the Franciscans. English! Not even religion!

I was not in the high school. I was in college. But two of the Franciscan priests started a prayer group for young people, both the high school and college students. I used to go to it. I met Carolyn there.

I was so inspired by her in so many ways, and I would chat with her. I asked her if she would tutor me in English, and she said yes. She didn’t ask me for money, and tutoring in English was expensive especially by someone whose first language is English. After two or three sessions, I asked her, "How much should I pay you?"

She said, "I won’t charge you. Give whatever money you think you should pay me to the poor."

After the English lesson, we would chat, and we became friends. I sometimes invited her to my house.

That prayer group changed my life. I was prayed over and experienced God. After that, I just wanted to know and love him more, and I was so excited that I wanted others to have this experience, too. I wanted to tell everyone about Jesus.

I said to Willie, the woman in the shop, "Thank you. Your decision affected others. If you and Carolyn hadn’t come to Hungary, I would not be in Madonna House."

I suddenly realized the importance for me to be where God wants me to be and to do what I’m meant to do. Who knows how it will affect someone?

Carolyn told me about Madonna House, but she was back home in Windsor when I decided to go there for a long visit. When I told her I was coming, she said she would come to Toronto, pick me up at the airport, and drive me to Madonna House!

That was a few years ago. Now I am an applicant in Madonna House and am due to make promises this June and become a staff worker.

Carolyn and Willie left their homes and went where God wanted them to go. And in Hungary, they did simple things, the things God wanted them to do.

Most of the time, if you do that, you don’t see the results. But every once in a while, you do.