By Alicia Jones
Not every Roma community is the same. In fact, I would say every Roma community is unique; they all have a story, a special place in this harsh world. Some communities have had a group of faithful Christians for more than fifteen years like one village we ministered at on Thursday evening. They still do not have a church building, but with joy they fit as many people as possible into one of the larger homes among them to sing praises to God, to pray for healing spiritually and physically, and to listen to the word of God.
Very near the Hungarian/Ukrainian border there is another village. The work of God in this place is vibrant. The new body of believers is just one year old. They too meet in a home to sing praises, to pray and to listen to God’s word. Their hunger for the word of God is evident. This village is just twenty kilometers from the one previously described. The gospel came to them because their friends living in the first village asked the pastor of New Life Roma Church to share the gospel with these Roma brothers. The community welcomed the message of Christ and is being transformed. Glory to God!
Saturday evening together with the pastor’s family I visited a family to congratulate them on the birth of their second son. The parents said, “This is a son of prayer, we have prayed for him.” They are searching for a biblical name for this gift from God. After we saw the precious new child we gathered around a feast, ate, talked and looked at pictures of weddings in the family. I have visited this village many times this summer, nearly weekly. Saturday night as I looked at pictures from before these people knew their Savior and then looked around at the faces at the table, I marveled at how full and glad these ordinary people were now that they are in Christ. Surely all people were made to be in a relationship with their Creator! Most of the congregation was baptized this summer at one of the two baptisms; see the joy of the Lord on their faces.