Love As I have
By: Alicia Jones
This Easter many of the poorest of the poor in one Romanian town, where much of our ministry is focused, received an unexpected blessing. There is a Roma community in Northeastern Hungary that is a little better off than their Roma brothers and sisters in the Romanian town. While the two communities are separated by more than 150 kilometers, but in recent times their hearts are being knit together with the love Jesus taught us. Jesus said, “This is My command: love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12).
On March 3rd the fifth annual Roma conference was held in the Romanian town because the Roma church there has a spacious building that could hold the 900 plus people who attended the conference. While the church members from the Northeastern Hungary Roma community were attending the conference in Romania they could not help but notice the poverty of their Roma brothers. They went home with conviction in their hearts that they should help their brothers in need. In preparation for Easter they gathered kilos of flour, sugar, oil, rice, pasta, and other staple foods, but not for themselves or their families, instead for the community in Romania.
On Thursday the congregation sent four of their members to Romania with a trailer full of the goods. The visitors and the local leadership worked to divide the food evenly into 100 food packages for the families of the church. That evening the visitors participated in the church service and shared with the entire local church that they had brought food for the community. After the service they were welcomed into the home of the locals and shared a meal together. Friendship and Christian brotherly love was cultivated. The visitors had a long trip home so they headed out after dinner. The local leadership—at 10 o’clock at night, went on a drive through the Roma camp delivering bags of blessings to each church family. These families were overjoyed because now they would have food with which to celebrate the most important Christian holiday.