Meet Toma Maris...

Meet Toma Maris, a Roma man, currently enrolled in the Baptist seminary in Bucharest, Romania. Toma has a dream, a calling from God, to minister among the Romany in Bucharest. He became a follower of Christ in 1990 and participated in the Gypsy Smith Leadership School through Project Ruth. Toma's vision is to start a church for Roma with worship in the Romani language in the Ferentari neighborhood - the location of Project Ruth.

Pray for Toma as he studies to have a foundation for fulfilling his calling. Pray for provision for Toma and his family (wife, 2 children) to have their daily needs met. Pray for the hearts of the Romany in the Ferentari area of Bucahest to be softened and open to hearing God loves them. Ask God to provide fellow believers to walk along side Toma and assist him in his vision of a church plant. Praise God for this Roma man committed to following God wholeheartedly.

pictured: (L) Ralph Stocks (CBF Field Personnel) (R) Toma Maris

Clista Adkins & the Gandhi School IN THE NEWS

20/04/2010 - In this video, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) Field Personnel Glen and Clista Adkins talk about their involvement with the Gandhi School.　
The Gandhi High School in Pecs, Hungary, was founded with donations from several Romani organisations in 1992 to be the first Romani high school and has been running since 1994. It was named after the Indian Mahatma Gandhi, to emphasize the Indian origin of all Romani groups. The purpose of the middle school is to provide a school-leaving exam to improve the prospects of Romani children in Hungary and to foster pride in Romani culture. The school is financed by the Hungarian government with additional funds from the EU and donations. The school consists of 6 classrooms where about 250 male and female pupils study, mostly until the ages of 14 to 18. There are also programs for adult education. The first group of pupils who started in 1994 took their school-leaving exam in 2000 and of 18 pupils, 16 have applied to universities and 7 have been taken up. Less than 1% of Roma in Hungary are university graduates. Although the school is open to all, currently only five non-Roma are enrolled.
Link: http://dreamzz2020.blogspot.com/2010/04/working-with-roma-people-at-gandhi.html

Spring is Here!

All over Europe trees and flowers are blooming as the earth awakes from the long winter... and a long, nasty one it was! It is a time of rebirth and renewal. A time for cleaning out and letting the warm breezes blow in. Please pray for the Roma ministries as they too rev up after the slow down of winter. Pray for leaders as they guide their congregations to a time of renewal of following Christ. Pray for CBF personnel as they minister along side the Roma believers bringing the Good News of New Birth to the Romany.

Side note: This cherry tree is in our (Stocks) front yard and if it has as many cherries as blooms, we're going to have a bumper crop!

Easter in Vulcanesti, Moldova

This year the special music was really special.

And international.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Rock Stars? No, it's FBC, Greensboro's Youth Choir!

The youth choir from First Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC spent a week during their Easter break giving concerts with their voices and with handbells. The also participated in outreaches at schools, Roma churches and an orphanage. The choir was extremely talented and the handbells were unique to Hungary. This combination made them greatly received where ever they went. Click on their daily blog to get a glimpse of their experiences among the Roma of Hungary. http://www.fbchungary.wordpress.com/

Gargage

How often do you put out the trash? In our town, trash is picked up once a week--one week the green container which will be composted & the other week the gray container which will be burned to generate electricity. The trash containers have a chip in them, and we are charged for each time the container is emptied. This to encourage recycling rather than tossing trash. Consequently, Keith and many others in our neighborhood engage in the ritual trash dance. This involves climbing up on something high enough to allow one to stomp down the trash and get more in the container. Very Dutch to want to save the additional fee. Due to Keith's dancing, plus our recycling and generally simple lifestyle, we manage to only set the trash out every six weeks or so. The Romany village of Vulcanesti does not have the luxury of household garbage pick up. They throw their trash in the woods across the road from the church. The pastor would like to change this . . . with or without dancing.

Ladies' Day #5 - 'Berencs

"Thank you God that you love us as women as much as you love men. Thank you that for you we are not nothing and you do not look at us as people without value..." This was a portion of the prayer of one of our ladies today. A woman who has had a difficult life having lost all eight of her children. She told us of being contently married for 25 years and a Believer for five. Her face told us she carried a heavy burden - she looked much older than her 48 years and she rarely smiled. However, it's hard not to smile and laugh once the cake icing is handed out. One of the team members compared it to giving play dough to preschoolers. It's therapeutic to stir the color in to the icing, fill the bag and then create something unique. It didn't take long before our new friend was smiling and seemed to relax a bit.

The 'Berencs church room is small and we squeezed in 17 women along with our 8 team members. We moved church benches around for a make shift dining area and raided the owners home for a few extra chairs. The weather cooperated too so we could have the door open to allow the fresh air in. (After a week of breathing wood smoke we were ready!)

Thank you for praying for this week of Ladies' Days. Our goals were to tell of God's love for all, encourage the women in their faith, and give them an opportunity to have fun without the worries of their normal day. Our prayers were answered as we saw this happen each day. It was apparent as the ladies left at the end of the days that they had enjoyed themselves. Join us in giving thanks to God for a fantastic week!

And thank you Women's Missionary Union of Virginia - women all around Virginia - for supporting this project.