The Seed That Sprouted After 50 Years

It all began in 1936 in Budapest, Hungary, when my father Eno Vamoshi, met Michnay Laszlo, a Seventh day Adventist pastor who lived and worked in Hungary’s capital, just as we did. My father began to attend the Adventist church services, and soon, convinced that he had found the truth, became a Seventh day Adventist Christian.

It was in Budapest that I too first became acquainted with the good news of the gospel - through the same pastor. My father was 44 and I was 17. My mother and my sister, although they came with my father and me to the church, never accepted the belief that Jesus is the Messiah.

As the Germans and the Fascist Hungarian authorities controlled the country during World War II, we found ourselves in a battle for survival - we were Jews. In 1944 our plight became very serious, our people were being exterminated. What were we do do?

The Adventist church to which my father belonged began to hide several Jews in the church building. It didn’t matter whether the Jews were of the Jewish or Christian faith. All those hidden in the Adventist church were saved. However, the building could take only so many. Pastor Michnay and his family came to us and suggested we try to hide another way.

Since the documents used in those days had no pictures, it was easy to use someone else’s papers. So the Michnay family made copies for themselves and gave us their originals for my father, mother, and even for us girls. If they were caught, their lives would be no more valuable than those of Jews.

The pastor then sent us away from Budapest to a village called Vats. We stayed at the home of another Adventist family on a hill at the periphery of the village. Soon after we arrived another Jewish family (not Adventist) joined us in that small house, consisting of only a room and a kitchen. We managed in that way until the end of the war.

Bible Games

Each evening we played Bible Cards. I will never forget one particular evening when I pulled out a card containing Psalm 124:7,8. It read: “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” When I read these verses, I knew that we would survive.

Five years after the war, in 1950, I immigrated to Israel, alone. At this time my name was changed from Iuliana to Yehudit, and by marriage from Vamoshi to Carmeli. My father died in 1953 in Hungary, and ceased to practice what I once knew about Jesus. I never stopped believing in Him, but I did not observe any of the teachings, not even the Sabbath. Three years later my mother moved to Israel and lived with me in Haifa almost until the day she died in 1987.

Back to Budapest

In 1995 I went back to visit Budapest and met some of those who had put their lives in danger in order to save mind. Through them I found out that there was a Seventh day Adventist church in Israel too. In fact, there was one in Haifa, where I was living. After coming back to Haifa, I contacted the church in Israel, and Pastor Otinel C. Ianeu officiated at my baptism. After 50 years the seed that my Lord planted in my heart sprouted and brought fruit.

You see, although Jewish by birth, we never practiced any form of religion before my father met Jesus. I had to meet Christ in order to keep the Sabbath. Today, more than ever, I feel and know that I was, I am, and I shall ever remain a Hebrew, the seed of Abraham, through Christ.

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