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.

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 

Action re the Book of Acts

Do you remember Dean Jones, the star of Disney films like The Love Bug? After he became a Christian, he helped found The Visual Bible, a company which made Scripture films like The Book of Acts. You can see AND hear the original here.

You can also see and hear it in nine different languages here, including Mandarin Chinese, French, Latin American Spanish, Russian, and two versions of Arabic. The Jesus Film Project now owns the rights to dub this video into different languages.

Before Cru (the Jesus Film people) had the rights, Keith also dubbed it into Sinti Romani. It is possible that others also dubbed it into other languages which are floating out there somewhere on the Internet. If you find one, let us know. 

Since the film follows the Scripture text, some people have used the video in Bible studies. They watch a portion instead of or in addition to reading the text. If you experiment with this or know someone who has, let us know about that, too.

Prayerfully, 
Mary & Keith

Roma at Work

 I love baskets. So I my ears really perked up when our friend Zoltan told me about this Roma basket-maker in Romania. The man is a Christian. During the growing season he, like many other Roma, does  agricultural work. Some people go to Germany to pick soft fruits (strawberries, raspberries, etc.). Others go to Spain to pick garlic, among other things. 

I do not know what this man does then. But during the other months, he makes baskets. One of Zoltan's Roma friends helps sell the baskets. Zoltan had bought a big, sturdy one for harvesting grapes.

In America, baskets for such farm work were often made from split hardwood like white oak. Here in Europe, the weaving material of choice is more likely to be willow. Polled willows were grown specifically for this sort of purpose. These trees, often ancient, are still seen along fence rows today. 

Keith and I will be at the same Roma Networks Meeting as Zoltan in April. Perhaps Zoltan can buy and bring one of these baskets for me. Which would you choose:  an oval one with a handle or a big one for yardwork? 

Whatever you are doing, let your hearts be in your work, as a thing done for the Lord and not for men. Colossians 3:23, Weymouth New Testament

Choosing a Standard

On a weekend visit to a province north of where we live, we stopped in a drugstore to pick up a few things we'd forgotten. We understood the local teenage-clerk behind the counter perfectly well--when she spoke to us. We didn't understand anything she said when she turned to chat with a friend in the store. What was the difference? She spoke standard Dutch to us and the local dialect with her friend. But who decided, way back when, which of the many local Dutch dialects would become the standard? Why the people in the nation's capital, over there on the west coast. (Even our image of typical Dutch costumes comes from the west--photo from 1993 OC Tulip Time.)

Typically those in power in a nation choose the standard. But what if your language isn't centered in one particular nation-state? What if, for instance, you are Romany? After all, it can be really handy to have a standard from speaking to spelling. I don't try to write down things the way my mother pronounced them (upper Midwest accent) and Keith doesn't try to write things down the way his mother pronounced them (TEXAN). No, we have a standard. It's imperfect (right?), but it's standard.*

The International Romani Union realized this. In 1990, they approved an international Romani alphabet to help unite Romani** around the world. 

The Romani Bible Translation Committee also decided to go for a translation into Standard Romani. You can read more about it or read more in that Standard on their website.

You can hear AND read that language in the recently completed Gospel of John. 

And you can pray for the translators, voices, technicians who are making this Standard Romani version of the Gospel available. (Feel free to pray in any version of any language you choose!)

*Our daughter spent a couple of months in second grade at a school in North Carolina. On a spelling test, she wrote down exactly what she heard her teacher say:  "fav." The word was "5". 

**Romani can refer to the language or to the group of people.

FUNdament = Parents and Children learning together

Olesea Ciochina would like to see mothers and children in her community connect more. She will be using the ideas in 

FUNdament as a springboard for a weekly gathering of mothers and (preschool) children in the Romany village of Vulcanesti, Moldova.

Olesea and her husband Petru have worked with the people in this village for many years. They have gotten to know the culture and established relationships with individuals and families. (Photo:  Olesea with Roma friend)

Olesea is also an experienced teacher, of children as well as adults. (Photo,  Olesea teaching teenaged girls.)

Please join us in prayer for this venture, scheduled to start in February. 

May the right people be led to join the group. 

May the group gradually turn from a collection of people into a happy learning circle. 

May Olesea be inspired with the right Bible stories and related activities to draw in and keep these mothers and children learning together.

Amen.

Happy (Old) New Year!

How did (or will) you celebrate the New Year?

In the Netherlands, people eat oliebollen (sort of round donuts) and, at midnight, they watch the neighbors shoot off fireworks. And then they watch the neighbors do this some more, sometimes until 1:30, depending on the neighborhood. 

When we first moved to Missouri, I was puzzled by the supermarket special of a single rose (for the loved one of your choice) and a can of black-eyed peas (?!). My Southern-born husband explained the black-eyed peas were to bring good fortune through the coming year. We now eat them regularly on January 1. (When we first moved to the Netherlands we had to go to a foreign food store to find them and to buy corn meal). 

In Moldova, many are still waiting to celebrate. Our partner Olesea Ciochina explained, "We still have the old-style (Gregorian Calendar) New Year, on January 13. In the evening, the children will go to the houses with wishes and carols.  The next day children go from house to house with a poem for New Year's greeting. They sow seeds (rice, corn, grain, sometimes even dried beans) to wish you a bountiful year, and you give them something in return. I have to cook some cookies & I will buy some sweets for them." 

She never knows ahead of time how many will come by. 

"It can be 10 or it can be 100. They go 2 by 2 or in groups of 3 or 5 or just 1." 

She leaves the seeds in the yard until late in the evening, when she gathers it all up and feeds it to her chickens. She added with a laugh, "When I open to see how many children there are and to listen to them, they can sow seeds inside the house, too." 

It gives new meaning to the story Jesus told: 

A sower went out to sow his seed, and while he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the roadside and was trodden down and birds gobbled it up. Some fell on the rock, and when it sprouted it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorn-bushes which grew up with the seeds and choked the life out of them. But some seed fell on good soil and grew and produced a crop—a hundred times what had been sown. Luke 8:5-8

We wish you a bountiful harvest in 2024, however you started this New Year!

Mary VanRheenen & Keith Holmes 

P.S. Let us know if you want the recipe for oliebollen, corn bread, or vegan black-eyed peas.