New Friends, New Images

Marina & Vasilita exchange insights

This past month our friend Marina drove with me up to North Holland to visit our friend Vasilita and her daughters. Marina is originally from Romania. Vasilita and her daughters are from Moldova. They and many others from the Roma village of Vulcanesti are working in the green houses in the northern tip of the province of North Holland.

On the way up, she talked about some of the attitudes many Romanians have towards Romany. When we arrived and met Vasilita's daughters, both in their early 20s and both working in greenhouses picking tomatoes, Marina privately wondered what kind of a future that was. Didn't those two want more out of life? 

Mary & Marina share a snack on the way home

On the way back, Marina talked about what a big heart Vasilita had and how concerned she was for other people. Marina noted how Vasilita and her two daughters were working for their entire family and also, in a way, to benefit their entire village. 

New friends, new perspectives, new points of reference. 

What Does the Angel Say?

"That doesn't sound right," the priest said. We had come to Belgium to record his voice. He was going to be the voice talent for the angel Gabriel in the Flemish-language version of the Magdalena Project.

"No, that isn't right," Ria agreed. Ria is a native Flemish-speaker. She was being the native-language "proof-listener" or checker for the recording. 

The two looked over the lines again. They consulted a modern translation of Luke into Dutch (approved by both the Flemish Bible Society and the Bible Society of the Netherlands). 

"This is it!" they agreed after reading Luke out loud. "That's the way it is in the Christmas liturgy, too." 

And so they rewrote those few lines. After trying this and that intonation and phrasing, everyone was satisfied with the recording. Soon you can hear it for yourself here:
www.jesusfilm.org/watch/magdalena.html. 

Original:  De Heer is met u, u die de gunst van de Heer geniet!

Changed to:  Wees gegroet, gij beganadigde, de Heer is met u.

Original:  Wees niet bang, Maria. God heeft het goed met u

Changed to:  Wees niet bevreesd, Maria, want gij hebt genade gevonden bij God.

Romeo & Juliet . . . the sensible version

 We're all familiar with the story. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl's family objects. Conflict ensues. In this case, the girl & boy are both part of a Romany church in a village somewhere east of here. Also in this case (as often happens in small villages) they are technically too closely related to marry by law. (Unlike this couple, who had been together for years.)

Note that this did not used to be such a point. Louisa May Alcott had the heroine of Eight Cousins marry one of those first cousins in Rose in Bloom. And Keith, who is a genealogy buff, has found several sets of married first cousins back down the family tree. The boy & girl in this story were far more distantly related than that. Maybe kissing cousins?

Be that as it may, conflict ensued. The families drug the local pastor into the thick of it. He suffered sleepless nights. Many people prayed. Boy and girl decided it wasn't worth all the commotion and split up. 

A sensible Romeo & Juliet make for a calm, wise conclusion rather than a tumultuously tragic one. Now if only the rest of the girl's family would go ahead and choose to wisely conclude their end of the conflict . . . 

More prayer is needed! 

A Tale of Two Houses and Prayer (Partially) Answered

Natasha (right) was raised by her aunt Maria (left) in a Romany village in Moldova.

 

Eventually Natasha had two sons.  

Maria also had a son who was about the same age as Natasha’s. Maria let Natasha’s family live in one half of her house.

It was hard to make ends meet, but these two single moms managed—together.

Children grow. In 2020 Maria AND Natasha’s oldest son asked to be baptized.

 A year later Maria’s son (we’ll call him Ion) was also baptized, along with a young woman he subsequently married. He and his new wife moved in with his wife’s parents.

Three families now share the small house of Ion’s in-laws. Maria passed away from cancer, and Ion inherited the house. Of course, he and his wife (and their small child + the baby on the way) want to move into their own house. But then where would Natasha and her two sons live? Natasha cannot afford any other housing in the village.

The situation has created conflict:  between Ion and Natasha’s family; between Ion and his wife (she really wants to move!); between people in the church (two church members are involved); between people in the whole community.

The local church has been praying for a solution. We asked for prayer for a solution. This is what God has done so far.

There’s a plot of ground available in the village for about €4000 ($4350).
Baptist Church of Arnhem-Centrum, where we attend, has raised 1000+ Euros.
A German NGO headed by a Sinti Romany pastor has pledged at least 1000 Euros.
So far, American Christians have donated $300, which brings the total so far to around $2500 (€2300).
Fellow church members in Moldova would also like to help with funds and with building a two-room house once the plot is purchased.

You can help, too.

Pray with us for a solution.

And if you feel so led, contribute to the house fund via www.classy.org/campaign/mary-vanrheenen; please leave a comment “for Natasha’s house” in the comment section.

Prayer for the Backside

This is Bethlehem Baptist Church, a body of believers in a Romany village in Moldova. 

This is the building where the church usually meets. (It was full for the  baptismal service pictured above.)

This next picture shows the backside of that building while it was under construction. 

There's now a fence more or less right in front of the man talking on the cell phone. The fence (not pictured) separates the church yard from the house and yard behind it. 

Interestingly enough, a recent survey of property lines showed that the church does not actually own this small strip of land behind the church building. 

Even though the church's outhouse (also not pictured) has stood on the far right corner of it for over 15 years.

Pray with us that this bureaucratic headache can be satisfactorily sorted out. Sooner, perhaps, rather than later. 

(Perhaps it aids the "sorting out" that there's been an outhouse on this strip of land--in active use--for 15 years??)

Blessing the Hard Drive

Keith recently spent about three weeks in Kenya. He recorded the Jesus film in Sengwer and the Magdalena Project in Marakwet.

These are just two of the forty or so languages spoken in Kenya. 

Here Keith is walking with the sister who was the voice of Mary Magdalene and Pastor Edwin who was also closely involved with the project. 

The Jesus film is already available in Marakwet. The Magdalena Project is a shorter, woman-focused retelling of Jesus' life and ministry. 

The Sengwer pastors who gathered for the final review of the Jesus film were excited about this tool for sharing the Gospel with their own people. 

They wanted a tangible way to bless the film, so the main translator (who was also the voice of Jesus) grabbed the hard drive of the computer Keith had used in the recording. They all laid hands on it as they sang and prayed. 

The film was blessed  . . . and so was Keith. 

Communion on the Road

 Keith and I recently drove to two meetings, through nine countries, in nineteen days (you'll have to ask him how many kilometers that was in total). 

We officially celebrated communion three times:  first at the Anglican church in Naples on Easter Sunday, 

then with our CBF Europe Team on the last day of our team meeting. 

One team member has such a strong reaction to gluten that her bread could not even be on the same serving plate as the rest of the bread.

The Roma Network Conference also closed with communion.

If you look very closely, you can see Keith, towards the back of the group photo.

And here is Keith again. (Photo courtesy of the Roma Networks website).

We shared communion of a different sort at our last worship service on the road, this time with Tina Boyles Bailey who recently moved from CBF's Asia Team to join us all in Europe. Here she is communing with the pastor of the International  Church in Graz, Austria. 

(Worship services in English & Farsi; delicious cake baked by German church member.) 

Glad to have gone. Glad to be back home, communing with friends, family, and church community here in the Netherlands.