BIOGRAPHIES by Rozalia Makai
Istvan Varga & Rozalia Makai website



Congratulations to our 83-year-old András Balczó pentathlete!
May God live for a very long time among His beloved family!



He is raising 12 children with Emperor Mónika, who was an Olympic gymnast in 1972.




Andras Balczo
the thriple olympic and tenfold world champion pentathlonist,
his achievements and mission



Results

He was born in Kondoros, Bekes county on 16 August 1938. At the age of 16 he got acquainted with sports as an athlete in Nyíregyháza. From 1957 he was a selected pentathlonist. When he was 20 years old, he appeared at the world championship in Aldershot. In 1960 he became a member of the team who won the first price at the Olympic Games in Rome, and among the singles he became the fourth. In 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico in a team he won the first price, and among the singles he got the second price. In 1972 at the Olympic Games in Munich his team won the second price, and as a single he got the first price. His mission and extraordinary talent helped him to win in 1960, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1969, when he became world champion as a single. At the world championships he won 20 medals, out of which 10 were gold. The triple olympic and tenfold world champion pentathlonist was able to run in a way nobody else did.



Retirement

He retired in 1973. Unfortunately he did not get a support that would have been rightful. He became an basic equestrian at the National Horse Breeding Inspectorate. Ferenc Kosa made a film of his career intitled "Küldetes" ('Mission') in 1976. Sandor David wrote a book with the title "Balczo". He is a member of the advisory board of the International Transylvania Foundation. From 1983 he has been working as a freelance intellectual professional. In 1996 he received the Hungarian Heritage price. He has got the professional degree as a Fencer and pentathlonist trainer. With his wife, Monika Csaszar, who became a Olympic Champion in gymnastics in Munich, are bringing up their 12 children in love and peace in their home in Budakeszi, that Andras built himself. He first became a father when he was 38 years old.



Mission



Andras Balczo, confessing his Christian faith, holds lectures and talks about his experiences both in Hungary and abroad. Since the film Küldetes ("Mission") appeared, he met people in this way approximately 2500 times within and over the frontier. He has always tried to pay attention on others so that they can understand exactly what he intends to say.



Therefore: "I have considered my mission for a long time to go and meet groups and try to talk to them about what we are in the world for. Coming round this question, I have to look for the suitable moment when in a worthy way I can mention Jesus who says about Himself: "...you can do nothing without me." (John 15:5b) Who died, gives life so that I can live. I received the capital from Him, Jesus, that I invested, and now I can give it back with the profit. For his profit and to my joy."

Happiness does not depend on success.



He held a lecture entitled
"Sport, politics and faith" in Tolna.

Will

"I thought: if I win a first price at a world championship, I will be the happiest. And when in 1969 I won the fifth world championship, I still did not feel real joy... Was this all? I started to look for my lost will, scared."



Faith

"As a member of a pastor's family, I attended church of course. As I became an adolescent, I rather sat at the gallery during the church services; there I could relax more. When I got to the capital city, I was completely sure of that there was no God. Once, in 1962 I was walking at the bank of the river Danube. A friend appeared on a motorboat. He shouted that my father had died. And then in two minutes it became clear for me that God exists. I knew. Just like an unappealable truth. He cannot be seen but He is reality. Just like love."



Church

"I was living the average life of head sportsmen. Struggles for results, black marketeering at the customs, I had even got a divorce. I did not dare to pray for the competitions' results. I thought: if I win like that, God will give me an invoice I will not want to settle and then I will have to become a faithful believer, one who come out of a mass with an oversmiling face. Now I already know that attending church compared to having a faith is just like when somebody is clearing his throat before starting to sing."



Happiness

"I found a sentence in the Bible that I had already read several times before, but I only understood when scared I was looking for my lost will.
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:24) Or, if somebody imagines that he can solve his life without God or that the reaching of his goals will make him happy, is very wrong. Happiness does not depend on success. The fear of not winning withholds the feeling of joy all the time. However, when you do not want to win at every price, at that moment you will get free."



Suitability

"I actively took part in competitions until 1973. After that I obtained different kinds of qualifications, and with my ticket number 1, I was waiting for being asked to come. I hoped that I could give the younger sportsmen all the things they needed and missed. I did not want to use any unfair means, joining the Party, becoming an agent in order to get along, because I was afraid of losing my right to educate honourable sportsmen."


Resignation

"I was waiting for getting entrusted for ten years. I worked as a "beginner" equestrian at the pentathlonist stall. This was a kind of fag job. Everyone saw that that guy was not fitting there, but what could you do... Then one day I bought a demijohn of wine, and shared my tools among my colleagues, and I left with my work book in my pocket."



Liberalism

"Democracy is for adult people, and not for misled people. Until now all our governments were a dummy government led by outside. The West eats us, we are not able to get out of our debt trap. There is no possibility to supervise privatisation. Looseness, immorality and liberalism are conquering. The situation is further complicated by the fact that there is nothing to steal left in Hungary any more. Everybody blusters. The common denomination is missing: Jesus. The good concentrates in God. On the contrary, liberalism is the cover name of God's denial."





Abortion

"For the price of a lie that the mother's circumstances are hard, the child can be aborted. Our law on abortion is shameful. If the embryo's murder was forbidden, it would bring a change in thinking. A generation, a nation behaves in a different way if they have someone to bring up."



Family

"I became a father of many children because of the lack of self-restraint. It seems, earlier I had so much self-restraint that I ran out of it. In my first marriage no children were born. Then I was single for nine years. In 1975 I got married again. We wanted four or five little Balczó, but then the sixth came, and a last one always came. Our twelfth child is two and a half years old. I told many times, thanks God, You are nice, but You would be nicer if You left us a bit of rest... However, of course we accepted the little ones with joy." Once he was running for the victory without expedience; that was the victory of the whole nation. Today he lives in the same way he had run. However, the goal of his life is not obtaining an Olympic gold medal but the "unfading girdle" , that Jesus Christ accept him as he is, without having to play the role of a hypocritical pharisee. We confess together with Apostle Paul: "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14)




God bless Andras Balczo and his family!

"You are the salt of the earth."
"You are the light of the world."
(Matthew 5:13a,14a)

How wonderful the Lord is in all His acts!
Glory to His Holy Name!

Translated by Eva Varga

Soften my heart

Words and music Graham Kendrick

Soften my heart, Lord soften my heart;
from all indifference set me apart
to feel your compassion, to weep with your tears
come soften my heart, O Lord, soften my heart.

Translated by Eva Varga

Kósa Ferenc: KÜLDETÉS, portréfilm Balczó Andrásról



BIOGRAPHIES, STORIES and TEACHING by Rozalia Makai

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
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Compiled by Rozalia Makai      http://www.vargamakai.com

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