Countdown

The countdown begins...  The Ruth School starts September 12th.  Teachers report August 29th.  Please begin to pray...

French and Italian Authorities Aggressively Evict Roma

No Place for Roma: French and Italian Authorities Aggressively Evict Roma



Budapest, Marseille, Rome, 11 August 2011: The Sarkozy Government’s infamous campaign to evict and deport Roma from France, which rose to prominence one year ago, is continuing aggressively. In Marseille, between June and August 2011 alone, a minimum of 500 Roma have been evicted from camps. A large-scale eviction of around 150 people happened just this morning. In a similar vein, Roma in Italy are constantly victimised by ongoing and repeated evictions. The ERRC and its partner organisations sent letters to French and Italian authorities expressing concern about the continuing forced evictions of Romani communities in Rome and Marseille.



Read more on http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=3922

Roma Road in Auschwitz-Birkenau

After spending a full month with the five members of the student.go Roma Road team, I am still deciphering some of the conversations we had.  I have done my best to become functional in the local language.  That we spent two weeks in countries other than Slovakia tested my language skills – though Czech is similar enough and Polish is, well, Polish.  However, it wasn’t the ‘foreign’ languages which were the challenge; even the vowel-free Strč prst skrz krk was easy to teach (stick a finger through your neck).  Most trying was the YouTube-inspired short-hand speech most of the team seemed fluent in.

I think I was asleep during the part of training when it was told that I would be carrying on conversations by only quoting Bon Qui Qui or Potter Puppet Pals.  The vaguely familiar “Thee before Thou except after Thine” from Vintage21’s Jesus stirred memories of Vacation Bible School at a fundamentalist church I was bussed to as a child; but any connection with reality was lost when the next phrase included reference to SpongeBob.  The language barrier with the Polish was sometimes less than with the Americans I was ministering with!  That is, until we got to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.

Whether it was the cold rain that began to fall on us as we reached the crematorium or the inscription on black granite reminding us that the site we were looking at was where the ashes of those killed by the Nazi death machine were tossed, silence replaced the YouTube-inspired banter. 

This was the third trip I have made to the Death Camp with a group of students who have come to Slovakia to minister among the Roma people through CBF’s student.go.  Especially this year when our itinerary included a look at the history of the Roma people and visits to sites of historic interest in this area, the visit to Oswiecim, Poland and specifically to the building housing the exhibit Extermination of European Roma was an important stop in the journey to understand who the Roma people are.  Almost none of Roma children we ministered with during three weeks of camps know anything about their history as a people.  They don’t know that their language pre-dates most European languages.  They don’t know that their ancestors arrived in this area over 600 years ago.  They don’t know that in the Czech lands almost 90% of the pre-war population was decimated in Nazi death camps.  They have no idea.

Roma Road Team

Over two days we visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps.  I warned the group about trying to understand everything which happened and about trying to take it all in.  The group was quieter then than during our whole month together.  It’s hard to quip about an “out of the hood program” or quote ‘Jesus’ saying, “I walked on water, I think I can walk through the door” when faced with the naked atrocities of what humans are capable of perpetrating upon one another.  Silence in the face of atrocity may be a natural response, but it is not sufficient.

The oppressive darkness which still weighs on visitors to the Camps can be overwhelming.  But the visit was in vain if it results in silence.  Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said during his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway in 1986, never “be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”  We cannot be silent in the face of atrocity.  We must speak to bear witness to the history of atrocity and are compelled by the ever-pressing love of Christ to raise our voices today when fellow human beings suffer.  The world toils in darkness and all creation yearns for a clear witness against it. 

After a still-muted lunch in Wadowice, Poland, birthplace of Karol Wojtyła who went on to become Pope John Paul II, we got back in the car to head on towards Slovakia.  It was still rainy and the roads were sometimes crowded.  Slowly the conversations started up again - tempered by what we’d witnessed, empowered by a conviction not to remain silent, and peppered with postmodern clichés . . . at least we weren’t silent.

Faithful Friends

Magdalena’s question about needing to read the Bible to be able to go to heaven and how she must depend on people to come and read to her was a topic of interest in Cinobana a couple of months ago.  Among other reasons, her eyesight is so poor that she is unable to read.

Hearing about Magdalena, friends from Arkansas responded immediately with a solution.  Faith Comes by Hearing is a partner with CBF to help put Scripture in audio form so that people without access to books, who are illiterate, or for other reasons cannot read can have the Scriptures in their language.  

We received a package from CBF of Arkansas with a solar-powered player that had the Slovak New Testament ready to play.  When we were in Cinobana with the Roma Road Team last week, we presented the player to the fellowship there.  With the blessings that it is for Magdalena and to benefit the whole fellowship, we listened to that night’s Scripture lesson on the player. 

Thank you to faithful friends and for your quick response to the needs of your Sisters and Brothers in Christ.

Worth a Thousand Words

That’s the Cinobana ministry house with a newly completed roof thanks to the generous support of CBF of Missouri and her member churches!

CBF Celebrates 20 Years...

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship celebrated its 20th anniversary this past week at our annual General Assembly in Tampa, Florida.  It was a wonderful time of remembering our early beginnings and looking toward the future.  Our Gypsy Team also celebrated the comissioning of Jon and Tanya Parks who will join us in ministry among the Romany.  (more on the Parks to come)

Thank you to all who have supported Gypsy Ministries through the years with prayer, service, and giving.  We are looking forward to the next 20 years and what God has in store!

Trips That Make a Difference...

You have the opportunity to see God at work through the ministries of the Fellowship this October. CBF is committed to ministry among the world’s least evangelized and most marginalized people. The Romany are among Europe’s most despised and unwanted people. For nearly two decades CBF field personnel have been sharing Christ’s hope. Now, you can experience ministry firsthand among the Romany people in Eastern Europe. Travel October 7-17 with CBF field personnel and staff to witness how God is changing lives.


Estimated cost: $2,600 (airfare and accommodations)

Destination: Eastern Europe, including Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic

Contact: Jennifer Graham at (678) 313-3999

Report on Medical Mission Trip

In Velka Lomnica, Slovakia, Jana (not her real name) came to the health presentation by Dorothy Cluff, a retired nurse from Viginia.    After the presentation, Jana stayed behind to ask questions about her diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer.  With her five-month old child on her hip, Jana shared her fears.  After we answered her questions and encouraged her to follow her doctor’s advice, Jana was still afraid.  So I offered the only thing I had to share – I prayed for peace and healing.  We parted with a hug and a teary smile.

Group near Stara Lubovna, SK

Pray that Jana will be healed and can look forward with hope to the future with her family.

Dorothy came to Slovakia to share during a series of presentations called Healthy Moms - Healthy Children.  A total of 320 women were present for the presentations which took place during one week in eleven different cities.  Praise the Lord for such a good turn out and for the lives which were touched.

Pray a word of thanks for servants like Dorothy Cluff who are hearing and responding to the call to minister among the Roma.