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.

Seeing Orange

 

Yesterday was the birthday of King Willem Alexander.

It's a fun holiday here in the Netherlands with special activities for the children and adults alike.

One friend claimed that a couple of years ago he was in Arnhem for the celebration and the mass of people carried him along for two blocks without his feet ever touching the pavement.*

Many people, like our neighbor, hung out the Dutch flag.

If you look carefully, you'll see something interesting on the end of the flagpole.

It's an orange tip, specifically put there because the Dutch royal family is the House of Orange-Nassau. 

If you watch the summer Olympics, you'll see Dutch fans wearing a lot of orange, rather than red-white-and-blue. 

I saw a lot of orange on the streets yesterday, too. Orange shirts, orange hats, orange jackets. 

The cashier in the grocery store even wore an orange lei. 

It's a bit of fun, a way of saying, "I belong to this place and these 'orange' people." 

We are citizens of a Kingdom, too, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. 

Our King doesn't have a particular color. But He did say that others would know that we belonged to Him--and to each other--by our love.

M. VanRheenen

*This friend was not know for letting the facts get in the way of a good story.

FUNdament = Fun

Mom playing "Blindfold Copy"

 Bethelehem Baptist Church in the Nisporeni region of Moldova has started a parent-child club. Sometimes as many as 19 children come. Sometimes as few as one additional adult. This past week, there was one adult per child - moms, older sisters, and even some dads. 

"The children were connected with the adults," leader Olesea Ciochina said. "It was amazing. They connected every second. They did everything together. They decided the colors together. They decided what to do and how to do it." 

She added, "At the end (of the meeting) the fathers of the children started coming in," Olesea added. "They helped to finish the handwork." The handwork for this lesson was particularly involved, so it was a good thing they did.

Parents play an important role throughout the meetings. Usari Romani is spoken in most homes, and the youngest children have not yet learned Romanian (the national language) or Russian (a common second language). The Bible story is told in Romanian. One parent translates it into Usari to make sure all the children understand it.

"I saw how interested the adults were in the lessons. They also had questions to understand the subject. Afterwards they explained to the children in their language in some details." 

The group also played several Davar: Bridging to Literacy games. One, based on Letter Game B 8 (Letters on a Flag) involved choosing three letters from the alphabet and matching the chosen letter with a word that began with that letter. Afterwards, each mom (or big sister) spontaneously had their children repeat the letters that they had been learning. 

These three stories are examples of shell books (quality is better in original). 

The illustrations and page set up are the “shell.” 

The shell is designed so that the text can easily be changed to another language. (Again, the quality of the images and the text is better in the original.)

It is simply a matter of “cut-and-paste” to put in Spanish or Slovak or Ukrainian rather than English.

These three books do not require any additional translation. 

The captions come straight from a printed Bible. 

This way we do not need to know the language ourselves to put in the proper text.

We have already used these coloring books in several different languages. 

The story of Dorcas has been printed in Dutch, English, and Sinti Romani. 

The parables of Jesus have been used in Romanian, English, Russian, and Ursari Romani. 

The pages would have to be rearranged to print them in languages that are written right-to-left like Farsi or Hebrew. But it would be possible.

If you are interested in having the “shell” for any of these stories, feel free to contact us. We put these together ourselves. And if you are interested, we can connect you with even more shell Bible stories and coloring booklets.

Happy reading—and coloring!

Mary  & Keith