A Warm Christmas

A German colleague of ours helps support a soup kitchen in Balti, Moldova. One of their regular clients froze to death in her home last week. This is why our church in the Netherlands cooperated with a Sinti and Roma church in Germany to provide firewood for 14 vulnerable families in two different Roma villages in Moldova.
This is aid--giving immediate help. Aid is dangerous, long-term. It is giving people fish rather than working along side of them to catch--or raise--fish. Aid can foster dependency; healthy development fosters their own sense of worth. Aid can rob people of initiative; transformational development empowers people to solve their own problems with their own resources. Aid is not sustainable; it ends when the outside supply of funds and goods ends. Transformational development continues, for lasting change, even when I am no longer around to send money to Moldova or explain the need to potential donors.
In the past, we've passed on firewood funds for a few vulnerable families in the village of Vulcanesti, but for all these reasons I have been reluctant to get involved in aid. I was surprised when our Dutch church decided to take up yet another collection for firewood. This year, they have designated half of their Christmas Thanksgiving Offering for firewood.
Also this year, a Moldovan businessman and a Roma entrepreneur have begun working together on a business plan.
Immediate help . . . long-term transformation . . . Merry Christmas, one and all!

And the Word Became . . .

What is your favorite version of the Word? There are a lot of different English translations of John 1. One of our daughters' favorites is the back-translation of the Kalderash Romani New Testament. Before it was corrected, John 1:1 read, "Before there was anything, there was a sofa . . . ."

Now the corrected version is available through Amazon.fr (France) as well as the French Bible Society.  Romani-language Scripture is becoming more and more accessible.

Some people prefer to hear the Word. For instance, the Eastern Slovak Romani version of the New Testament can be heard through the Bible.is website. Keith recorded this several years ago. Because some people prefer to hear AND read the Word, he has done the sample you see above. This is not the only YouTube option Faith Comes By Hearing uses. They are also dubbing this video version.

The Lutheran pastor in Iceland that Keith has been meeting with this past week was enthusiastic about this last option. He thought it would really help to get the young people in his catechism classes into the Word.

Amazon, YouTube, there are a lot of different ways to connect with the Word. My personal favorite is the very first one:  "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us!"

No Flowers on Sinterklaas

I went out to trim out the nasturtium vines which had finally wilted from frost. The nasturtiums came up like weeds this past spring. Throughout the growing season, I had painstakingly woven the vines through and over two and a half sections of the weathered fence between us and the neighbors. Even this late in the year, December 5, only a few had withered.
But I found myself, once I'd started, pulling down everything. I wrenched every last one of them out from between the fencing and jerked them up by the roots. Even the ones still blooming--deep orange, creamy yellow, cheerful pumpkin--ended up buried in the compost pile or heaped on the dormant flowerbeds. All this uncharacteristic destruction gave me a fierce satisfaction. Half-way through, I realized why.
December 5 is a big holiday in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas and his sidekick Zwarte Piet bring presents to all the boys and girls. Families gather to play games and share jokes. It's a time of warmth and laughter and good fun. Maybe it was too big a holiday for the man down the block. Maybe that's why he killed himself last year on Sinterklaas. And maybe that's why his teen-aged daughter went into hysterics on the front lawn after she found him. The goodhearted neighbor tried to get the girl into her house. When we heard the commotion, I went over to help. The neighbor got the girl's cell phone, stepped outside, and began calling the girls' family members. Other neighbors came, but they also left. I stayed with this grieving girl I did not really know. I stayed once the police woman came. I stayed until the rest of the girl's family finally showed up. And because I did not really know them, I do not really know anything else.
Now I do know, though, why I woke up with such a tension headache this morning and why I ripped out all those nasturtiums. They'll grow again next spring.
Thank God death no longer has the last word. Not even such a death on such a day.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

Between Babel and Pentecost . . .

Fifteen of our Romany friends from Moldova are working just two hours away from us. They are picking tomatoes in the greenhouses in province of North Holland. Two hours isn't far to, say, a Texan, but here it's half-way across the country. And we have no language in common with our friends. About a month ago, we thought we had a Russian interpreter lined up to go with us, but that fell through the day before we had set to go. We prayed that the Lord would provide and set out anyway.
And the Lord did. Our friends work through a Polish employment agency. They found a young Pole who spoke good English. And one of them speaks good Polish. We had a good time together and invited them to visit us.

Polish friends in the center of  Moldovan friends,
Baptist Church Arnhem-Centrum

So a couple of weeks ago nine of them piled in a van and drove the two hours to Arnhem to  hear Keith preach.* We had lined up translators for the worship service and the lunch following. But what about the rest of the afternoon? Our Polish friends also came to hear Keith speak. During lunch, they sat next to one of the Moldovans who had worked in Poland for 8 or 9 years. So our Polish friends joined the party for the rest of the afternoon and evening, supplying sweets, a guitar, and translation. Who knew that Polish would turn out to be the new lingua franca?


*Missions Sunday. Our Romany friends also sang.

Warmth . . . For More Than One Winter . . . ?

In previous winters, people from the Roma village of Vulcanesti, Moldova, could pick up firewood off the forest floor. Not exactly legal, but the forest ranger looked the other way. Until this year. So what are people who cannot afford to buy fuel going to do? In a climate where people heat their homes 9 months out of the year?


Enter three different sources of help:  donations to our programming fund; donations from the Baptist Church Arnhem-Centrum, the Netherlands; and donations from Quelle des Lebens, a Roma-and-Sinti church near Bonn, Germany.
So far, we've been able to provide 11 families in Vulcanesti with 2 cubic meters of wood per household. We hope to provide the poorest families in two other Roma communities with firewood, too.



For this winter.
What about next winter?
And the winter after that?

We need help, too. Help in finding long-term, truly helpful solutions.
Help in offering development (sustainable solutions for the future) rather than just aid (firewood for right now).

Trip Report--Moldova, September 2018

Last week we went to Moldova with one goal:  to see what God had planned for us. He had not revealed much of this plan to us in advance.

This is what unfolded, day-by-day.

 Pastor Otta & Kennedy Laubing's church in Germany had a vision. They wanted to partner with a Roma community in Moldova to make a long-term difference.

We found two. One in the north, where we received a royal welcome by various officials in the town hall . . . and another village in central Moldova, where I had visited once before.

We were thanking God that in both places, the Roma could understand most of the Sinti Romani which Otta and Kennedy speak. 

This was particularly crucial when we visited the church in the Roma village of Vulcanesti.  

Our German translator wasn't able to go with us, so Otta and Kennedy were completely dependent on Romani. 

Even though their Sinti Romani is very different from the Ursari Romani spoken in Vulcanesti, Kennedy was able to preach (with a little help) and Otta was able to lead a children's program.

All along the way, 

they distributed  a lot of Christian materials 

in Romani languages . . . 

and 

Puck made a lot of new friends!

What I Saw in Moldova: Innovation!

This humble Moldovan home does not have indoor plumbing (note little house with red roof). It does have a shower with solar water heating (note blue shower curtain).

Their next-door neighbor has a larger house with the same energy-efficient solar-heated shower. 

I'm heading back to Moldova next week. I'll be visiting other Romany villages in new part of the country. I'll also be meeting with a business-as-missions person to discuss innovate ways of creating employment. Prayers, ideas, and solar-heated showers will all be welcomed!

Mary

What I Saw In Moldova: Hope

We were driving back from Sunday worship in a Romany village in Moldova when this rainbow appeared over the road. In retrospect, this sign of hope seems especially fitting. The worship service had been full of men and women. Twelve years ago very few, if any, women regularly attended.
A Romany church leader had preached in his own language. He had kept the services going while the regular pastor had had to go abroad for employment. In the past, when the church had been without an outside pastor, things had fallen apart. This time, they had continued to have youth meetings on Tuesdays, midweek Bible study, and Friday prayer meetings--in addition to Sunday worship.
Earlier that day, this leader and a group of other believers had driven an hour north to another place with a small Baptist church. They had invited the Romany they knew there to the worship service. They had grown themselves and were eager to share the Good News with others.
Sometimes Moldova seems like a hopeless place and the Romany there seem like a hopeless people. But God's promised hope glows here, too.

What I Saw in Moldova--Cherries!

Sweet cherries. 

Sour cherries. 

Red cherries. 

White cherries. 

Fresh cherries. 

Pitted cherries.

Cherries turned to juice. (No, that is not cherry cola.)

Moldova is rich in cherries.

What I Saw in Moldova--Families!

Families sometimes include several generations . . . 

. . . as well as pets . . .

. . . or neighbors . . .

Families may live in their own home . . .

. . .  or be invited to share the home of a friend . . . 

And some families delight in one another!

Different Kind of Food

Remember this lady (Every Mother's Child, post in May)? I visited her last October. Pastor Petru Ciochina and I brought her a food packet. (Thanks to all of you who contribute to the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering.) Her roof leaked.
Last month I was in the Republic of Moldova again. Before we could bring around food packets again, we were asked to come and pray with this lady. Her family expected her to die. She hadn't eaten anything for a month, they told us. She lay curled up on a couch and periodically asked for a drink of water. In her own Romani language.
We talked with her about the home God had prepared for her, and that He invited everyone to go there. We don't have to do anything but put our trust in Jesus. We prayed for her.
Then, when we brought around food packets, we came by  again. Since we knew she couldn't eat anything, we brought her a small gift and prayed for her again. A number of you also prayed for her. Later, Roma Christians from the church came, too. The pastor and his wife brought her some geranium plants, to replace the ones that had frozen (in her kitchen windowsill!) during the cold snap in January.
A couple of days ago, when I called the pastor and his wife, I asked about this aged lady. Was she still alive?
Oh, yes. She was up, eating again, and moving around her house. Her family, who had all been pretty sure she was about to die, asked the pastor what happened. Well, it certainly wasn't any food packet that made the difference!

What I Saw in Moldova: Romany interested in Scripture Media

Pastor Petru & Olesea Ciochina had driven me an hour north to the town of Calarasi to visit a children's home. The team of German Romany who are going with me to Moldova in September want to connect with an orphanage. We had a nice tour, but concluded this was not the place for them to work.
Then we tried to visit a Romany girl from Vulcanesti who had married someone in Calarasi. She was in Vulcanesti! But another Romany woman turned up in front of her home. And become some of the Romany in Calarasi recognized Petru (white pants; right), they invited us to their house.

 After tea and general conversation, we started talking about faith. Most of the people in Calarasi had originally come from Vulcanesti. Some of their parents had become Christians there. Sometimes someone came by with a guitar to sing songs and read the Bible with them.
Ah, did they know that the New Testament was online in several Romani dialects? No, but they wanted to see and hear it.
The young man quickly got me online through his cell phone. We moved from the Scripture website (Bible.Is) to various Romani versions of the Jesus film on YouTube to the Facebook page of Scripture in a dialect very similar to their own.
This Facebook page also had video versions of each chapter in Galatians. This would not be the most fascinating material to me, but I have read and heard Scripture in my heart language all of my life. These folks had not. The lady on my right listened to one chapter after another.
Then she made sure that the young man copied all of these links for her. She wanted to be sure to find them all again!

The Cost of Corruption

You may be wondering why there are book bags hanging on the flagpoles of these Dutch homes. Like many European countries, the Netherlands has standardized exams that all students must pass to receive their (high school) diploma. Kids in each of these houses passed. And it is an achievement everyone on the street may know about! 

What has that got to do with corruption? A friend in a former East-block country asked us to pray for the young (Roma) Christian leader there who had gone back to take their country's version of these exams. The young man really wanted to pass so that he could go to Bible school. The legislator from his district approached him. The young man could be assured of receiving a diploma. Cost in cash:  a little over $200; cost in character . . . ?

Another friend in the same country, a talented school teacher, was willing to teach in predominantly Roma villages. She met with good success. But even though her placement test scores were higher than any other candidates', her contract was not renewed. Instead, it went to the niece of one of the local V.I.P.s.--who was far more interested in employment than actually in teaching. What did that cost, in terms of the students' future?

And why is there so little work in the Republic of Moldova. A third of the working population has gone abroad (Moldova.org). Often leaving children behind with grandparents, neighbors, or no one. 

Labor would be available in Moldova, and relatively cheap. And it is possible to do business there--if, as a Moldovan friend pointed out--you are willing to "share." 

On my recent visit there, I met a different Roma young man. He had legitimately earned his high school diploma and was studying further. He was also connected with the Centrul National Anticoruptie (National Anti-corruption Center).  Let us pray for those who fight corruption, those who suffer from it, and those who are tempted by it. And let us be willing to pay the cost of countering it.

DAVAR: Bridging to Literacy - Also in Romanian

DAVAR Start Games provide a fun bridge to literacy programs. The Start Games  had been posted on the DAVAR website pretty much in the order that they had been written. Our colleague Alina Ivan Molla recently put these in a better sequence from a learning/teaching point of view.

She drew on years of teaching experience in Romania in both Roma villages, experimental schools, and her own highly praised kindergarten. (In fact, even a year after she has married and moved to Sweden, the parents of her former pupils are still begging her to reopen!)

I drew on days of patient, cautious cutting and pasting to rearrange first the English, and now finally the Romanian Start Games into this new, improved order. The PDF downloads are not yet there, but the text is. This blog post celebrates that milestone!

Now for the MATH GAMES and PARENT-CHILD CLUB in English . . . and Romanian . . . .


Tél:
Copii sau adulți, indiferent de vârstă, învățământ și practică abilitățile necesare însușirii cititului și scrisului.

SCOP:
Oferă o punte spre cunoaștere, prin programe, o activitate și jocuri care vor asigura asimilarea cunoștințelor necesare în învățarea cititului, scrisului și gândirii matematice. Să atrag pe copii în procesul de învățare prin aceste activități și jocuri și să-i ajute să descoperim că învățarea academică este mult mai ușoară și mai distractivă decât au experimentat ei (probabil) anterior.

Raționament:
Este eficient și bine cunoscut principiul didactic, de a folosi ceea ce se cunoaște, pentru a explica necunoscutul. Atunci când elevii folosesc limbajul și mijloacele, pe care elevii le cunosc, în predarea temelor noi, elevii se vor simți respectați și în egală măsură motivați să învețe. Aceasta va crea mediul pozitiv necesar de capacitate de a acumula noi abilități și de a învăța noi concepte.
Chiar dacă au depășit vârsta preșcolară și anii de școală primară, oamenii încă pot învăța să citească și să scrie.Pentru ca persoana să deprindă cititul și scrisul mai întâi ar trebui să învețe anumite deprinderi; exercițiul este vital pentru a dezvolta partea secvențială a creierului, care este implicată și contribuie la procesul de învățare a materialelor școlare.

Language is Flowing III

Some claim that music is the universal language. In this case, it certainly was. None of the five people in this photo speak the same language at home. But they all sang together with gusto.
Left to right:  Romanian Romany; Bulgarian Romany; Romanian Moldovan; Moldovan Romany; English-speaking Australian.

Song:  tune known to many Christian Romany; Romani words close enough in all three dialects to sing along.

Location: recent Rroma Workers Network conference in Hungarian-speaking part of Romania. 

Languages Are Flying II

This was the most complicated situation at the Rroma Workers conference this past week. The first man spoke in Hungarian. The second man translated into Romanian. The third man translated into English. We all understood.

Communication with a Romany brother from Bulgaria was actually more straight-forward. He spoke English to me; Russian/Bulgarian to Petru from Moldova; Russian and Romani to Eduard, a Romany brother from Moldova.

I made an instant connection with a lovely young woman from Romania when I asked for "pani" (water), one of the few words I know in Romani. Fortunately, it is the same in practically all Romani dialects.

And in the midst of all the Australians, British folks, and English-as-a-second-language speakers, it was a sheer delight to meet a man from the state in America where I was born. Someone who spoke my dialect!

Mary, born in Kalamazoo

Languages are Flying

I'm at a conference sponsored by the Rroma Workers' Network in Romanian. But take a close look at this sign we passed on the way here. There are two languages on it:  Romanian and Hungarian. The fancy bus stop has a bit of a Hungarian wood-carving look to it, too. This camp is in the Hungarian-speaking region of Romania. And if that is not confusing enough, three of the guests just spoke to each other in Russian (two from Moldova; one from Bulgaria). And then the Bulgarian guest discovered that one of the Moldovans was also Romany, so they chatted a bit in Romani. 

Yes, languages are flying. Fortunately, the conference offers English and Romanian translation. The ethnically Hungarian Romanian with us speaks both of those languages, more or less fluently.

Mary, on the road

Is Someone Going to Fix that Lady's Roof?

The last post told of an elderly Roma lady in Moldova who had serious holes in her roof. Someone responded by asking, "Is someone gong to fix that lady's roof?"
Is that someone you?
You could join us in praying, the next two weeks, for a solution.
You could come to Moldova and swing a hammer (or whatever Pastor Petru Ciochina has in his hand there).
You could move to Moldova and help develop employment there.
You could donate funds (Holmes/Van Rheenen Programming) and let us know that they are going specifically towards this lady's roof.
I'm curious to see what God--and you?--are going to do.

Every Mother's Child Deserves a Meal

Sunday is Mothers' Day in much of the Western world. This lady's story is particularly fitting because she has never been a mother. She lives in a Romany village in Moldova, a country with a really minimal "old age pension." So minimal, that without the help of adult children, ordinary village women like her are almost certain to live in poverty.

Last October I was able to go with Pastor Petru Ciochina and his wife Olesea as they picked out items for food packages and as they delivered them. Each time they deliver food packages, they choose 10 different community members most in need. This lady lived in a home as neat as a pin. Flowers bloomed from the inside windowsills. A crocheted rag rug graced the floor in the entrance way. She herself had carefully combed and pulled back her hair. She was as clean and well-groomed as she could make herself. What she could not make was repairs to her roof. 

As we stood in that entrance way, I could look straight up through one hole in the ceiling to the rafters on through several other holes in the roof to the blue sky above. The lady thanked us for the food package with manners as gracious and pretty she was. We could not fix the holes in her roof. Thanks to the Texas Hunger Offering, we could supply a bag of staples chosen to see her through the next month and beyond.

We thank the Texas Christian Life Commission. Their offering to combat hunger makes programs like this possible. Want to know more? Check out their Mothers' Day Offering. Might be just the gift your mother--or a non-mother like this woman--is looking for!

Grandmother Speaks—From Where?!

Each year, PASSPORTkids Camps gives kids a different hands-on missions experience. This summer they will focus on CBF's Romany Ministries. This is a story we went which they may (or may not) use at part of the camp. We thought you would enjoy this story, too.

What kind of stories do you like to tell around a campfire? We used to tell ghost stories. This is not exactly a ghost story, though it is about someone’s grave. Sister Aliona’s grave, to be exact.

In the Roma village where Sister Aliona lived, people dug graves at least three feet deeper than normal. Why did they do this? Did they like to dig? Did they need the dirt? No, not at all. They put stuff in the grave, lots of stuff, before they even started lowering the casket down into it. What do you think they put in a grave? They would start with expensive things to drink. Fancy bottles. Colored bottles. Vintage CocaCola! Well, maybe not that. Then they would put in things to eat. Expensive things that were hard to get in Moldova, where they lived. Pineapples and kiwis. Exotic fruit. They might not have much money, but they used all they could to just load that grave all up.

Why did they do that? I don’t know. Maybe they thought the person they were burying would need all that in their next life or on their journey to that next life. Or maybe they thought that would make the dead person happy, so the dead person wouldn’t come back and haunt them. I don’t know. I do know it was not because they believed in Jesus.

Sister Aliona believed in Jesus. She believed that He forgave all her sins when she asked Him to. She believed that He loved her, that He lived with her all through her life of raising children, of burying her own husband, of watching her grandchildren grow up around her. She grew old herself. Her ears stopped hearing very well. Her eyes stopped seeing very well. She knew one day her old body would stop altogether. She was not afraid of this because she knew that then she would live with Jesus forever.

Sister Aliona

And that’s just what happened. Last year Sister Aliona died. Her grown children wanted to honor their mother with the best funeral they could give her. But two nights after she died, Sister Aliona’s oldest daughter, Silvika, had a dream. Her mother, Aliona, came and spoke to her. Aliona told her that the place where she was incredibly beautiful. It was so very beautiful that she wished Silvika and all of her other children would believe in Jesus. Then they could go to that beautiful place, too. Aliona also said she wanted a Christian funeral.

Silvika listened to her mother. After all, her mother had spoken to her in a dream all the way from Heaven! So she and her brothers and sisters gave their mother a Christian funeral. Sister Aliona’s grave was not any deeper than it needed to be. There was nothing in it but Sister Aliona’s worn-out old body. And everyone said it was a beautiful funeral.

Families . . . Basic for Education

A colleague recently shared this information about
an initiative for basic education of Roma. It is aimed at Roma adults and families (for inter-generational learning) in Europe. It consists of manuals in the different national languages of a number of countries, that will assist those who want to help Roma people learn to read and write. The program encourages the use of whatever local language the Roma people speak.

There will be a presentation of the handbook/manual for Romania on May 10 in Targu Mures.


https://ec.europa.eu/epale/en/blog/bera-basic-education-roma-adults