-Kidnapped In Budapest-
Andy Dietz

Andy Dietz was Texas born and raised with his twin brother, Phil, and older brother, Mike. At the young age of eight, he and his twin began singing, in harmony, for small church groups and eventually in major coliseums around the world.

 

During his high school years in Texas, Andy was selected to the All-Area Choirs and first chair All-State Choir his senior year. He played football and ran one of the nations’ best times in the 120-yard high hurdles in track. Andy attended West Texas A&M University on a full music scholarship and graduated with a BS in Mass Communications and a double minor in Music and English. During his high school years, Andy and his brother began a traveling ministry as The Dietz Brothers and then joined a gospel quartet, The Royalheirs, their junior year in WTAMU. With the Royalheirs, they recorded four albums and toured with other gospel quartets, including the Stamps Quartet. The summer following their college graduation, Andy and Phil were selected as part of a college ensemble to tour with the USO to the Caribbean, including military bases in Panama, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

 

Following the USO tour, The Dietz Brothers began traveling again and were featured artists in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Florida Youth Evangelism Conferences.

 

In 1981 Andy began student ministry at Second Baptist Church, Amarillo, Texas, growing the student ministry from thirty to eighty. During the years of 1984 to 1987, Andy moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and grew the student ministry at First Baptist Church from four hundred to over six hundred. While there, Andy was asked to help develop the struggling thirty-member student choir and saw it grow to almost three hundred in just six months.

 

Having a desire to raise his family in a smaller city, Andy accepted a student ministry position in Borger, Texas, which grew from eighty to over three hundred students. Missions became a vital part of the student ministry in Borger, prompted by orphanage ministry during the Dietz Brothers’ days.

 

After ten years in Borger as student minister, Andy’s pastor invited him to consider moving to a missions position, as the Borger church had developed such a heart for missions. Andy gladly made the change and has led medical mission trips to China thirty-three times, as well as leading teams to Mexico eighteen times and Budapest, Hungary, five times. He has led and organized other mission trips to Switzerland, Brazil, Russia, Poland, and the Philippines. Over three hundred individual church members from Borger have traveled on foreign mission trips with Andy, and the church has sent out thirteen missionaries from their fellowship.

 

Andy also served on the missions board for the Southern Baptists of Texas and has recently begun to write, addressing topics including student ministry, missions training, truth, and his personal story about his Mafia kidnapping in Budapest, Hungary. He is currently pastoring in Texas.

 

Andy and his wife, Becky, have four children (all involved in ministry) and ten amazing grandchildren.