When Bryan Holley stepped on the airplane for his first international missions trip, he had no idea that he would land in the very region that God would call his family to serve for the next seven years.
In 1997, Holley went to Romania with a team from Tennessee to build a chapel. When he made a return trip in 1998 with his wife, Karen, and two sons, they were informed of an immediate need for an accountant to serve in the International Mission Board’s (IMB) Central Europe field office.
The idea sparked an interest in Holley, who had worked as a chief financial officer in a hospital for nearly 20 years.
“We decided this (Romania) was where the Lord was leading us,” he recalled.
With that decided, the couple — both born and raised in Anniston — returned to Tennessee to begin the “mountains” of paperwork.
“The Lord started taking care of all the conditions we had put in front of Him,” Karen Holley said.
In a matter of three months, they finished the paperwork; completed their training; paid off all their debts; sold their home, cars and camper; and were on their way to Romania.
With teenage sons Joshua and Jonathan in mind, the Holleys agreed to stay two years — just long enough for their oldest son to return home for his senior year of high school.
It was just under one year into their term, however, that the couple returned to the United States to go through training to be appointed as career missionaries.
Veterans of short-term missions trips, the couple always had a desire for their boys to be involved in missions, Karen Holley said. But the couple never imagined that God would call them to full-time work.
“I’d never heard that God could use accountants on the field,” she said. “I guess He really can use anybody.”
The Holleys served in Bucharest, Romania, until July 2000, when the field office moved to Budapest, Hungary.
“We aren’t normal missionaries,” Bryan Holley said, referring to their work among their people group. “We take care of the financial, business and logistical needs of the missionaries in our five countries. We do budgeting, auditing, accounting, purchasing and reporting, among other business functions.”
The Holleys are currently on stateside assignment in Greenville, S.C. When they were on the field, they were responsible for the approximately 125 missionaries serving in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.
Bryan Holley served as business manager with Karen Holley serving as bookkeeper.
They consider themselves to have been “holding the ropes” for those missionaries, who live in situations from one end of the spectrum to the other.
“Romania and Hungary are as different as night and day,” Karen Holley said. “Romania is still a Third-World country. They didn’t recover well from communism. [But] they are much more open to the gospel.”
More open than Hungary, where sharing the gospel is “like plowing concrete,” she said, adding that although Hungary claims to be a Catholic nation, she believes its people are more atheistic than anything.
“You can’t even get in the front door to talk to them about the gospel,” Karen Holley said. “All the houses have gates with locks, and you spend months and months before you can even be accepted for them to talk to you.”
The Holley family is grateful to Southern Baptists for taking care of them while on the field.
“We are so thankful that because of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, we don’t have to leave the field to go raise money,” Karen Holley said.
“For those that (are there), your support in giving financially and writing letters to let us know you haven’t forgotten about us makes all the difference.”
The Holleys plan to stay in Greenville while Jonathan Holley is in college. Joshua Holley currently serves with the Marines.
“We’re not sure what God has in store for us next,” Karen Holley said.
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