Pastor Jon Palmer performs the rite of baptism on a convert in Hungary. - Contributed WHEN JON Palmer acceded to his grandmother's request to apply for an engineering scholarship in communist Hungary in 1977, little did he know that he would have remained there long enough to help plant about 40 churches there and a few others in other parts of Europe.
Jon had received good grades at A'Levels and had started an engineering course at Columbia University in New York. Just before he entered Columbia, his grandmother urged him to apply for the advertised scholarship in Hungary. He had no interest in going there, but to appease her, he did. While in his first year at Columbia, he got word that he had been awarded a scholarship to that part of the Iron Curtain. He weighed his options. Hungary looked more attractive. He was paying US$10,000 per year at Columbia. The Hungarian Government promised to give him US$500 per month if he took their scholarship. He flew to Budapest and enrolled in the engineering course. He soon discovered that the Hungarian Government had forgotten about the last zero of the US$500, and he was not amused. Jon, who had been a vibrant Christian in high school, became disillusioned in this country which he thought was about 40 years behind New York. A past student of both York Castle High and the Brown's Town Community College, Jon is one of the sons of the Rev. Anthony Palmer, late pastor of the United Pentecostal Church in Bamboo, St. Ann. His mother is Dr. Edlyn Palmer, a pillar in that denomination, having spearheaded the founding of the Jamaica Apostolic Bible Institute. He is also the nephew of the Custos of St. Andrew, the Rev. Carmen Stewart.
ANNUAL MISSIONS CONFERENCE
Jon is in the island this week for the annual missions conference of Swallowfield Chapel in Kingston where he is the main speaker/presenter. It is his first visit to Jamaica in 13 years.
When he did rediscover his faith, he became involved in the work of the underground church ie. those churches that did not meet in a church building and which did not enjoy the sanction of the communist regime. The legal churches were on the decline in Hungary, but not so the underground churches where the numbers soared.
While pursuing a Master's degree in engineering, Jon met and married Koked, an Ethiopian and they convened a home fellowship which grew into an underground church. On completing his studies in 1983, he returned to Jamaica and before long he was back in Hungary pursuing a post graduate degree in Management Engineering. The course allowed him to attend classes once per week and he used much of the rest of his time to devote to pastoring a church. After two years, his growing church earned the jealousy of the legal churches. By this time he had several churches all over the country, most of whom were made up of intellectuals. According to Jon, the legal churches told the police that the reason he had so many young people around him was because he was peddling drugs and working for the CIA.
But Jon was thinking long-term. He himself had not formally studied theology but he knew the day would come when he would have been kicked out, so while there he sought to establish a theological training school to train church workers and pastors for the churches that he founded. Three months after the school began, he was asked to leave Hungary and he went next door to Austria with his wife and children.
It was the year 1986 and within five days of being in Austria and not knowing the language, miraculously a total stranger gave him a flat and US$2000 to help him and his family to settle there near the border with Hungary. He settled so well - that today he is an Austrian citizen. Now he owns residences in both countries.
Austria, his adopted homeland, became his springboard to establish churches in Slovakia, Switzerland.
While in Austria he continued to commute regularly to Hungary to supervise the work of the churches he helped found there. He used friendship evangelism as his prime strategy to attract Hungarians to the gospel. However, he saved perhaps his most novel strategy for wedding. Because he was not allowed to have public meetings, he took advantage of weddings which were held in halls adorned with pictures of Lenin, Marx and Engels in the community centres. "Because everybody came to weddings except the police we preached and hundreds came to know Christ," said Pastor Palmer.
CHURCH ATTENDANCE
With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Jon could hold church meetings anywhere. Similarly, he could register his church and financially the church became better off. With the introduction of capitalism, he said, some members are finding it increasingly difficult to attend church. Under the communists, if the boss did not want to release a person so he could attend church, the person could quit and find another job. This was not hard to do since most persons were paid just about the same wage irrespective of their profession. But with capitalism, church members don't have that option. Increasingly, they are finding that they have to work longer hours.
Immediately after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe,there was a rush of religious groups to get into this seemingly virgin territory. With this openness almost anybody could immediately open up a church and get a following of up to 200 persons, said Pastor Palmer. Now the people have grown skeptical of religion and it is not easy anymore. The Hungarians, he said are effervescent people, who love song, dance and drink. They are also very welcoming of foreigners especially those who take the time to learn their difficult language. In fact foreigners are often treated better than locals, he said.
Jamaicans, he said, are extremely popular in Hungary as indeed with rest of Europe with the possible exception of England. Europe, says Pastor Palmer, "is a dark continent. Almost every other person is into the occult. Hardly anybody in Europe could understand why Americans were uptight about what Clinton had done with Miss Lewinsky. Moral standards are low. Europeans think of Americans as prudes. Jamaica needs to be sending missionaries there. The traditional churches in Europe are virtually dead or dying. The newer churches are exploding in growth. The biggest churches in Europe are led by Africans and it is because Africans know how to pray."
Jon has known hardships. Until he became a citizen of Austria in 1991 the Government would not allow him to seek one of the more prestigious jobs for which his engineering qualifications made him eligible. So he had to operate a taxi and this took him away from his wife and six kids sometimes for up to six days a week. Since March his fortunes have literally changed. He has become a director, with responsibility for Europe, in an exciting new Internet marketing company, Get Moving Today. The founder of the company is a Christian who has a vision of using his business to fund the propagation of the gospel. Without borrowing any money, the company, which is one year old, generated US$85 million. Already it is in 186 countries. Last month, Jon earned US$50,000 from royalties for new products sold in Europe.
Since he has come into this realm of money, he has hired:
A chauffeur to drive him while he works his computer on the road and make telephone calls;
Two persons to pray fulltime for the work in the churches;
Persons to do translation of material related to the Internet company and his churches;
A fulltime evangelist.
With the missions vision of this Internet company, Jon has now has Turkey on his radar. Turkey, the home of such Biblical places as Ephesus, Smyrna, Patmos is also the only Muslim state in the European Union. It is also the European country with a population that has grown substantially since World War II. At the end of WWII the country had a population of 20 million. It now has a population of 90 million. Within 20-25 years, says Jon most of Europe is likely to be Turkish, he observed.
Turkey became a Muslim country through the influence of Arab businessmen who traded there, he said. "God has blessed many Christian businessmen but they don't realise why God has blessed them. They don't have a missions vision. The Mormons have a missions vision. Marriott hotel chain belongs to Mormons, and so too the Forever Living Products a cosmetic line," he said.
He intends to penetrate Turkey with Christianity using the Internet business of which he is a director.
"We are doing a brand new crusade but we are not using swords or spears or guns or cannons. We are using money to attack people with the gospel. The Bible says we are to be fishers of men. Now do you know any bait that is more efficient than money?"
- Mark Dawes
