"A future and a hope!"

This week one young Roma lad and his brother and sister began school after a long wait.  Much now hinges on how it now goes for him.  This could be the gateway into the kind of life that has been denied his parents all their lives.  Education is the only way these children will be able to realise their potential and find work here in the UK.  All around them are children from other minority ethnic groups who are discovering that it is entirely possible to get an education and not sacrifice your own culture.  

Our weekly meetings provide the Luton Roma a chance to meet up with each other in a safe place on their own terms.  Often they have not seen each other all week, many living several miles from each other.  The minibus round trip takes c.90 minutes to complete.  Tonight the Roma men came into church and stayed. 

But making a commitment to Christ is a massive step. One person who did this recently was in tears a few days ago.  The community can turn its back on you if you turn your home into a smoke-free, spirit-filled place.  You may make many new friends, but when you've already lost your country of birth and members of your own family have turned against you, it can feel like you've moved back into the wilderness, rather than on into the promised land.  Further to that, association with "gadjos" may not always be looked on with approval by some Roma.  Moving from the world of racial divides into the Kingdom of God may not happen overnight.  In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female [Gal 3:28], gadjo nor Roma.  In Christ all the diving walls are down [Eph 2].  For me this is the most colourful and exciting place on earth.  A glimpse of heaven.  A place in which the unseen presence of Jesus fills the air. But for many, it is a threatening place, a step too far.  As today we met to worship, my mind was full of the media images of the Dale Farm eviction just underway down the road in Essex. Fear of the other is deeply rooted in the human psyche.  But when God pours out his Spirit, anything can happen.  Hearts filled with terror melt into hearts full of compassion.  Xenophobia gives way to love.  Jesus shows up, not just as a good idea, but as the single unifying force in the universe.  This is not a well meant experiment in social integration or community cohesion.  It's something worth dying for.    

"Is she self employed or not?" Real conversation today with officialdom

"This Roma mother of four has been recognised as self-employed by the Job Centre. That's why they have given her a National Insurance Number and benefits to support her four children."
"That may be so, but I don't recognise her self-employed status.  That's why we cannot help her with accomodation when she will be evicted from her home in three weeks time."
"It would be helpful for us to know why the Job Centre see her as self-employed and you don't.  Could you explain please as I'm new to this field."
"We simply don't see that the work she has done qualifies her as self-employed."
"What would she have to do to become self-employed in your sight? Are there any criteria or thresholds of income?"
"No, there are no thresholds."
"So you can't say she would have to earn so and so much to be recognised?"
"No"
"Would you say then that you make your decision in a purely intuitive way?"
"Yes."
"What would this Roma lady have to have in place to be recognised as self-employed, if we were to come back in a year's time?"
"It's not possible to define it in that way."
"I see."
"My wife is also a foreign national, but she is recognised as self-employed.  You'll understand why this is proving hard for me to understand.  Would you agree that there is no joined up thinking between yourselves and the Job Centre."
"Yes.  But I tell you what I can do for you.  I'll speak to my superior about it.  Maybe she will make a different ruling that I am doing."

The next interview has been offered days before the Roma mother is to be evicted on the streets.  The home she has been renting for over a year is to be repossessed following a legal hearing that ruled against the landlord.  Watch this space...

Meanwhile, later today...

Why Jesus fed the five thousand- LRC meeting

Finally I feel we are breaking through.  Maybe it was having Bob and Nancy Hitching from Croatia with me... the sheer encouragement of meeting with others who are working with the Roma. Two days ago I was helped by one Roma lady to translate another bible story ready for tonight's service.  For the first time, it felt the Roma ladies present in the service were really following. Both with their ears and their hearts.  If Jesus really is the one through whom all things were created, then he must be Lord of creation.  If so, then he can feed 5,000 with 5 loves and 2 fish.  But why did he do this?  To show off?  No, because he was full of compassion for the hungry.  All his miracles emerge out of his compassion.  All his actions show him to be "the good shepherd".  Reading Psalm 23 had set the stage.  Does Jesus also have compassion on the Luton Roma, for they equally were "like sheep without a shepherd".  Yes! For now God has given them two shepherds: little Martin, and big Stevo!

However hard I may work on the language, everything hinges on the work of the Holy Spirit.  I felt tonight that ears and hearts had been opened tonight.  Any maybe a few mouths kept silent too!  But key to the message is this: yes, Jesus can perform any miracle he chooses, and he invites us to ask for whatever is on our hearts, believing he will provide.  But we pray as he prayed to the Father:  "your will be done, not my will!"   In that spirit all the Roma ladies came forward for Bob and Nancy to pray for them.  Later some of the children came too.

On a practical front we are beginning to get our act together.  A man at the door is preventing the kids running out of the building.  A children's programme is now up and running, helping us get the message over in peace to the adults.  The evening has become much easier now we are only providing tea and cake on arrival.  Getting the minibus outside ready to go when we are finished has greatly helped too.

But we cry out to you Lord: "Bring in the Roma guys!  This must surely be the will of the Father!"