Márta Miklós watched the world disappear as retinitis pigmentosa—a degenerative eye disease—took her vision. She was recently married and knew blindness would eventually come. Yet still, the reality of it struck her hard. Bitterness and depression set in, and her marriage to Tibor suffered. But it wasn’t long until Márta received healing in a different way than she’d longed for. Along with her husband, also diagnosed with the disease, she became a Christian. God gave each of them the eyes of faith—and a heart to make Him known.
As her vision deteriorated, Márta visited the Hungarian Federation of the Blind to learn how she could thrive in a sighted world. And it was out of this connection that she and Tibor launched a discussion club for the blind, using the Bible as the foundation for their community.
“We worked a lot in this club,” Márta said, “but we didn’t see fruit.” They abandoned the group, wondering if they’d wasted their time. But they pressed on, enrolling together in a Bible school. They had a daughter, Noémi, and when they’d completed their studies, Tibor began a career in government. All the time, they poured themselves into their small church and considered how to make a difference for Christ.
In John 9, Jesus explained that a blind man lacks vision not because of his personal sin “but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Márta said when she first heard this, she felt angry. “You tell me that God is nice and loving, and He shows me His kindness through my blindness?” According to her experience, the blind sometimes consider believing in the love of Christ to be an obstacle, “because they think they are being punished.”
“You tell me that God is nice and loving, and He shows me His kindness through my blindness?”
When the disease finally took Tibor’s vision, he entered a difficult season of his own. To make matters worse, he then lost his job. But God was at work, clearing a path for them to serve in a much bigger way.
For the past two years, the Miklós family has been to every corner of Hungary, uniting churches and giving Messengers to the blind. The device’s Bible is often the first one these men and women read on their own.
At each stop, Márta and Noémi—now a young woman—sit together and receive the long lines of people who’ve come for a Messenger. And they collect email addresses in order to help the people grow in the months and years ahead. “God changed my life,” Márta said. “He allows us a very meaningful, glorified life.”
Photograph by Ben Rollins
