Alex Katona

Family:

My wife's name is Katalin.  We have three children (two daughters and one son) and four grandchildren.

Testimony:

   We were born in Hungary in the years prior to World War II.  The years during the War were especially difficult.  We were educated in the Hungarian School system and Alex trained to be a mechanic.
   We were both saved in our early teens and baptized soon after.
   Alex served in the Red Hungarian Army for 14 months from 1954-1956.  Then came the 1956 revolution with a quick defeat by the Russian troops.  In the winter of 1957, we escaped by night in the darkness and snow across the Yugoslavian border.  We were married in a concentration camp.  Alex worked in the Belgium coal mines for five years.
   In 1962 we came to the United States where Alex worked as a mechanic at the Volkswagen dealership in Massachussetts.  In 1966 we opened our own automotive repair business.  Meanwhile we continued with our education.  Alex studied Diesel Engineering and we worked on our English.
   We have three children (two daughters and a son) and they have blessed us with four granddaughters.
   In 1977 we moved to Laconia, New Hampshire where we again operated our own business.
   In May of 1978 we recommitted our lives to the Lord to do as He wanted.  We became heavily involved in the ministry of the local church.  From 1981 to 1983 Alex was involved in Evangelism Explosion International III.  He began serving as a deacon in the church in 1980 and graduated from the Liberty Home Bible Institute in 1988.  At different times during those years we had the opportunity to serve as youth group leaders, chairman of the Christian Education Committee, and the Chairman fo the Visitation Committee.
   In the spring of 1990, a young man named Dan Bubar, on his way to serve with Word of Life in Hungary, came to our week-long missions conference.  At that time we made the committment to go wherever He might choose to send us.  That same summer we contacted Eric Murphy, the director of Word of Life's ministry in Hungary.  We went to visit the ministry for a few weeks and were challenged by Eric to join their team on a full-time basis.  In October of 1993, we arrived back to our Homeland, this time to stay and work toward spreading the gospel message to our fellow countrymen.

Education:

Auto mechanic, Diesel engineering, Bible School

Hobbies / interests:

spending time with my wife

Work responsibilities:

Director of Operations

Favorite verse of scripture:

I Corinthians 15:58
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fuly to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."