The Hungarian Baptist Deaf Church, a member church of the Baptist Union of Hungary, has recently started to enter the international (European) arena with its ministry. Their aim is to increase awareness in other European countries, too, of the special needs and opportunities for ministering to people, who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Some recent activities include:

1. The Hungarian Baptist Deaf Church helped to host the international conference of IEWG (International Ecumenic Working Group) held in Budapest in September 2016. IEWG is an international organisation aiming at providing pastoral care to the deaf and hearing impaired people.

2. Two leaders of the Hungarian Baptist Deaf Church participated in February 2017 in a week-long conference held in Germany of EDCA (European Deaf Christian Alliance) and were co-opted into the executive of its subcommittee EDCPLW- European (Deaf Christian Pastor's and Leader's Week). The Baptist Union of Hungary is now planning to join EDCA to extend the ministry of its Deaf Church to have a Europe-wide impact.

3. A deaf graduate of the Hungarian Baptist Theological Academy has started ministry with some regularity in deaf groups that are part of two Baptist churches in the Czech Republic (Hradec Kralove and Prague). At a recently held meeting between the pastors of these Czech churches and leaders of the Baptist Union of Hungary paved the way for a more permanent arrangement for helping Czech Baptists to work among deaf and hard of hearing persons in their country.

Photos by BU Hungary:
1. Pastor Imre Kovács, pastor of the Hungarian Deaf Church of Budapest giving a presentation.
2. European Deaf Conference participants, February 2017.