Day 3: Healthcare Ministries

In May 2011, Dorothy Cluff, short term volunteer from Orange Baptist Church, Orange, VA, shared with Roma women girls how unique and special they are. Using her experience as a nursing educator, Dorothy presented programs on women’s health and pregnancy to over 300 women in north central Slovakia. Taking the time to answer individual questions, hold a hand or say a prayer allowed her to show God’s love to this despised people. After the success of this first program, we were asked what else we could share and when we could come again.
The week of 30 April – 4 May 2012 will be the next session focusing on chronic health issues like hypertension and diabetes. Dianne McNary, CBF field personnel, who is also a nurse will be the presenter.

Prayer requests:
-Preparations for upcoming session 30 April- 4 May in 8 villages in north-central Slovakia.
-Volunteers to share their love and expertise.
-Opportunities to share God’s love with individuals during this time.

Day 2: Church Starts and Faith Sharing

Sergio, an 18-year-old Roma, lay in the hospital ward thinking of death. He was admitted with severe burns following an accident at home. As a week passed two of his ward-mates succumbed to death with burn injuries. Sergio was sure he would follow the same path. Yet he had been to church a couple of times and knew about God’s love for him. In complete humility he asked God to forgive him in his final days. God forgave him and healed him!
Sergio shared this testimony with a hushed audience of middle-school Roma at the Ruth School in Bucharest. Upon his release from the hospital Sergio joined the local church and professed his faith and invited his father to join him. Nowadays Sergio leads the youth group at church and is attending the Gypsy Smith School for ministry training. Sergio serves by sharing the love of God he has felt and received in his heart.

Prayer requests:
--Pray for Sergio as his calling to church leadership develops
-Pray for students at the Ruth School to accept Christ as their Savior from hearing testimonies of other Roma testifying to the love of God
-Pray that graduates of the Ruth School who re-enter Romanian public education will experience success and have enough self-esteem to overcome discrimination from fellow students.
-Pray that teachers at the Ruth School will instill in their Roma students a strong sense of God’s love for them and exhibit good cross-cultural skills in teaching them.

My Disciples Have Love for One Another

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35

A lot of people don’t love Gypsies. Even in the supposedly tolerant Netherlands a prominent politician is attacking “Romanian & Bulgarian immigrants,” i.e. Romany. But Christians aren’t supposed to be like “a lot of people.” We’re supposed to be like Christ and love each other without first weighing costs vs. potential benefits.

But face it, there aren’t a lot of obvious benefits to loving one another when the other is Gypsy. As economic conditions worsen, so does the position of minorities like the Romany. Do you and I dare love people targeted by legally elected Neo-Nazis? If we do, what does that love look like? Firstly, that love looks communal. We love one another. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Romany Team work within communities of missional practice to share Christ’s love with Romany. This week of prayer will highlight some of those missional communities to explore ways we can “have love for one another.”

Prayer requests:
--Teach us to receive as well as give love, Romany as well as non-Romany;
--Show us how to we need to love in the face of rising hate, and give us the courage to act out that love;
--Thank You for giving us the living example and the on-going power to love.

Note: Romany, Romani, and Roma are all common terms for the same group.

Ministry of Education

During a recent visit to the Roma school in Kosice, Director Anna Koptova gifted us with the first copy of the new Slovak-Romani Dictionary which she co-authored.  This dialect of Romani is spoken in north-central Slovakia and was codified by the Slovak government in 2008.  What an honor it is to support the important work of educating young minds.  Impacting the next generation by being the presence of Christian is the responsibility and honor for those called to serve in educational ministries.

If you are interested in educating young minds, there are opportunities for you to serve alongside of CBF Global Field Personnel around the world.  To find your place of service, check out the opportunities for short-term ministry in Education on the CBF website by following this link:  Education


- Pray for Anna Koptova as she leads the Roma Gymnazium in Kosice.
- Pray for the Ziga family - two children are to graduate this year from the Gymnazium but they are having problems getting citizenship papers from Slovakia (they have joint citizenship in the Czech Republic) and this can keep them from graduating.
- Pray for Tanya and Jon Parks as they prepare to relocate to Kosice this summer to begin their ministry.

International Roma Day

Posted on the Roma Virtual Network by Romano Liloro:

8th of April: A Call for Unity!   

Roma around the world celebrate this day in tribute of the first World Roma Congress held in Orphington, near London in 1971.      

Since 1971, decisions of the World Roma Congress largely shaped our struggle for dignity. Ever since, a moral high ground enshrined in those decisions elevates our determination to the cause. They present a transnational political code for future generations of the Roma people.

Since 1971, we are resolved to be called Roma. We stand up beneath the green and blue flag embellished with the red, sixteen-spoked chakra wheel. We sing a common anthem that echoes our history of determination to peace and unity. We speak Romanes, the language whose endurance is a living source of connection with our brothers and sisters all around the world. We are citizens. We are proud to be a Roma Nation. We commit to live together with other people and Nations in peace and mutual respect.

With these words in our hearts and minds, Roma world-wide could celebrate International Roma Day together in unity under the motto: United in Peace, Prosperity and Solidarity!

On 8th of April 2012, at 12:00 noon all the Roma around the world can unite through the flow of the rivers, seas and oceans. Let us gather at noon to cast flowers into our nearest river, sea, ocean. Let the spirit of the International Roma Day unite us!

A large group of Roma activists in Budapest will gather and cast flowers into the Danube. We call on all Roma to organize celebrations, cast flowers and share this information with others in order to initiate the unity of Roma in the world.

Organizing Committee, Budapest 8th of April

Our three graduates

The Roma church leaders gathered in Bucharest at the Ruth School this week for their quarterly classes. They readily admitted it was hard to concentrate on Philippians and Missions & The New Testament with the beautiful spring weather.

Our March class

The leaders shared openly during their worship service on Wednesday night and again on Thursday night for our graduation celebration. For three men this marked their eighth course so they were given certificates and Bibles.

We have a break in classes during the late spring, summer, and early fall months because so many of our leaders are able to get seasonal work. We will meet again in October.

Thank you to all who have supported the Gypsy Smith School through prayer and support. It is making a difference in the lives of the Roma leaders and their congregations.

Sisterhood

This season of Lent I have been on the lookout for the Kingdom of God. Jesus' main message was that this kingdom, this reign of the Most High, was "at hand." He showed us what that kindgom would look like. This new order of things has started to break in here on earth. We catch glimpses of it, like the one in this photo. Two women share smiles on a summer day. They happen to be in a Romany village in Moldova. One is the oldest sister in the local Baptist church. Her house, her road, her education, her income would be considered substandard by many. The other woman, a professional with several degrees, lives in a propserous town in the Netherlands, but she grew up as a refugee in post-W.W. II Germany, first under communism, then as an escapee from Eastern Germany. What brings these two very different women together? What does either of them have to smile about? They are both sisters in the kingdom of God.