CEE Story From The Mission Field
Roma Reaching Roma
May 18, 2004
Last year we reported on the first Baptist Romany Missions Conference held in Romania. We marveled at how God had brought 70 missionaries, pastors and church planters together to forge a plan to reach the Roma of Eastern Europe. Fortunately, we can now report that the work continues and Roma are still reaching Roma with the Gospel.
In the past year the Roma Church in Glina, a second generation church, started a third generation mission in a poor squatter village known as Little India. Volunteers from the United States had spent time in the village digging a well to provide fresh water for their bodies and hope for their hearts. Now services in this third generation church are held biweekly.
Pastor Marian Toma from a Roma church in Tunari, Romania has been trained in home Bible study methods and attended the Missions Conference. He was recently able to put his training to use in a nearby village. A young man came to his church in search of a place to begin his Christian life. He had had a dream in which God told him to repent of his sins. He woke up and told his wife about his dream and his plan to obey what God had told him. The next Sunday he went to a nearby Bretheren Church and announced his decision and then asked to preach. They were shocked and said they don't allow new people to just start preaching. He then visited a Baptist Church and received similar reactions. Undaunted, he went to a village further away, Tunari.
Pastor Marian saw the potential in this man and asked if he could begin a Bible study in this man's home. This young man was excited and invited all his friends and relatives. Now Pastor Marian is discipling this man along with his family and neighbors with the prayer and vision that through him a new church will be started in this village.
A layman in the Bucharest area, Cristi Nae, has put into practice the training he has received through several seminars, including the Church Planting Conference. He is using several approaches to reach the people in 2 villages outside of Bucharest and one neighborhood in Bucharest. With the help of some youth from his village, Jilava, they have begun a children's ministry in the neighborhood of Progressu on the outskirts of Bucharest, near their village. For many months they prayed about starting this ministry, and, when they felt God leading them, they made contact with the people in this area.
Through a team from Gibson County Baptist Association, Tennessee, medical and dental needs clinics were held, as well as prayer walking and an afternoon children's program. Now, the children's work meets weekly with 25-30 kids attending regularly. They are doing a puppet ministry with the youth from the Bible study in Jilava. The parents are very pleased with the work and we pray that they too will soon desire to start being a part of regular Bible study.
Another approach that Cristi is using is to cut cords of wood that the elderly and others have bought for heating their homes for the winter. He does this free of charge with a chainsaw provided by Gibson County Baptist Association as a means of showing a Christian witness. Many have marveled that the service was done for free and are beginning to see that Christians do care about them.
Cristi's wife, Cornelia, is also excited about church planting and wanted to start a women's Bible study in their village. Together with IMB missionary Charlotte Whitley, Cornelia has been leading the study once a week. Through a volunteer from First Baptist Church of Gallatin, Tennessee, a quilting project was also begun for the women in the Bible study group. Through funds for a women's ministry, material and a sewing machine have been purchased as an incentive to help them financially, as well as to draw more women into the Bible study.
The women now meet twice a week to sew and during one of the sessions, they have the Bible study. God does work in interesting ways as through the Bible study and witness of the women attending the Bible study 2 men have received Christ as their Savior!
Cristi Nae is also co-leading three other home Bible study groups in Odedeni, Dobreni and Sintesti with IMB missionary Jim Whitley, as well as the youth Bible study that meets in his home in Jilava.
Pray that God will raise up leaders from these groups to continue the work in each of these villages as well as reach the villages around them.