Anna Curby | Hungary
Calvary Baptist Church, Avon Lake, OHWhen Anna was a teenager, God called her parents to be missionaries to Eastern Europe. She spent her final years of high school helping them fundraise and prepare, and right as she was headed to college, they moved.
Disappointed by the idea of not seeing the dream
they had all worked so hard for, Anna took a year off to join her
parents in Eastern Europe. During that year, she traveled the region and
saw what God was doing there. She felt God calling her to missions, but
when she returned for college the following year, she felt that He was
telling her it wasn’t the right time.
She pursued her
education and got her dream job as an occupational therapist working
with special needs children, but she never lost sight of her call to
missions. She regularly went on short-term missions trips and visited
her parents on the mission field. Then, her father passed away
unexpectedly in September, and she went to spend time with her mother in
Hungary.
“Being back there gave me a renewed vision,” said Anna. “It felt like going home. I felt God telling me it was time.”
After
she returned to the States, she spent a lot of time in prayer to
confirm her call, and began exploring opportunities to use her skills
and experience to minister in Hungary. As she started making contacts
with people working with special needs children, she found the system
lacking — both on the Hungarian side and the missionary side. Anna is
eager to return to Hungary in the hopes of working with local churches
to help care for families of children with special needs.
“I want to let these families know that church is a safe place for them if they have a child with special needs,” said Anna. “I want to help them with their daily struggles and at a much deeper spiritual level.”