CEE Pray for Workers & God's Word
Word becomes life for Romany believers
Rafal and Janek are Romany cousins. Almost two years ago Janek’s father, Andrzej, heard the Gospel and gave his life to Christ. Since then Janek’s mother and grandmother also have come to Christ. Rafal and Janek are now believers, too, and have responded to the call to ministry. Rafal is the music minister in the church at Nowa Huta and Janek is a home missionary to Roma in Poland. Their hearts are burdened with the lostness of their people and their personal responsibility to reach them for Christ.
When Jerry and Brenda Goss’ family moved to Poland to minister to the Roma, they found hearts that were hard toward the Gospel. Jerry’s first trip to Nowa Huta was with a Polish believer who had been visiting the village for five years with little response. Before that a Finnish man came for two years to share the Good News with the Roma of Nowa Huta, but saw no visible results. Twenty years before that, a Czech-Polish believer visited Nowa Huta to proclaim the name of Jesus, but was stoned, beaten and thrown out of the village. When Jerry came, the time was right and the Roma listened to the message of Christ. Now Rafal looks back on the history of evangelism in his town with regret.
“It’s amazing that God had to bring guys from Finland, Czech, Poland and America to tell us about Jesus,” he said. “It should not be this way. We need to be reaching the Roma ourselves. We know the culture, language and barriers—shame on me if I don’t go.”
Jerry is excited about Rafal and Janek’s understanding and vision.
“At least two of them see it, and God is going to use them,” Jerry said. “If we train the new believers to get out there and win their people, I think God’s going do a good work.”
Jerry’s method of training new believers is teaching them to know and obey the Word of God. Many of the Roma are illiterate, so Jerry has made a point of getting cassettes of the New Testament into every major village around Krakow.
“They have the opportunity to listen to it over and over and over. And that’s exactly what they do,” Jerry said. “And then they commit it to memory.”
When a new believer approaches Jerry and asks, “What do we do now?” Jerry points them to the Word.
“Jesus says to follow him—to do as He does. That’s what I tell him—‘Let’s do what Jesus does,’” Jerry said. “‘So what does God say? That’s what we want to find out. It’s in the Word of God and we’ve got the Word, so let’s find out.’”
The Roma are responding to Jerry’s teaching. They’ve learned that if it’s in God’s Word they should do it and if it’s contrary to God’s Word they should stay away.
Rafal and Janek are discovering how to follow God as they reach out to their fellow Roma. They are learning how to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Jerry gives all the credit to God.
“It’s God’s plan, not ours. We are just obeying,” Jerry said. “We’re doing what God says and they like that. We are doing what Jesus did!”