"The Pure in Heart - An Epistle from the Romanies"

For Christmas I got a Kindle.  The first thing I bought from Amazon was my own book which tells the story of what God did amongst us in my last parish in Kent.  How the English Romanies came to faith and changed my life along the way!  You can buy the Kindle version of the book for only £2.64 Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Heart-Epistle-Romanies-ebook/dp/B005W2FG5A

Any money that comes my way through the sale, I continue to put straight back into the ministry with the Roma people.

Bible Stories live

We started up again after a two week post Christmas break.  Neither of our Roma pastors could make it to us from London.  Stevo is facing eviction from his home which shocked all our people when I told them. Somehow we all thought this kind of thing couldn't happen to Stevo, an international preacher!  So we prayed for him and his family.   The leading of our worship fell back to me.  We sang again a capella.  Loud.  Each chose their own tonality.  "Dake duxo le develesko ei andre mande, me gilabau sar o David!"  I don't think we sang quite like King David! We need more musicians Lord!  Then I we heard the story of the prodigal son.  One new Roma guy who [the one who had taught me the song] had helped me earlier in the week to translate the parable.  His dad had been a pastor, he knew the story well, is literate, and was very particular.  I had to correct some of the Lutonian-Kalderash-Romani phrases and grammer before he was happy.  In the service two English helpers acted out the Father and the Older brother (with a few nudges from me) and the Younger brother was a 9 year old Roma boy who was brilliant.  I then invited everyone to consider "who are you in this story? The younger son? Older son?  Father? Fatted calf?"  "Where are you in this story?  On the road to ruin? Starving?  Repentant and on the way home?  Back home?"  Then the invitation went out: "who wants to join the party? who is staying outside resentful of all the celebrating?"  Nearly all came forward. We prayed for them. The kids had been wild, but one Roma lady physically took them in hand.  A break through. At last one of their own taking responsibility for their church.  The chief challenge remains the same: to get the men to come.   Stevo thinks that if we were to move to a Sunday afternoon service we would get more.

Meanwhile, our aim is to have a DVD for every home by the early summer.  On it there will be c.15 Bible Stories with visuals and background music and the spoken words in either Luton-Romani or in English. You can choose.  So they will be able to learn English and the Bible.  Every Roma home I've ever been has a DVD player ON.  So this could prove a great way to get the simple message across in a very accessible form.  They often watch the Jesus video.

Several Roma babies will be born here in Luton over the months to come.  Every one, made in the image of God, and so reflecting His glory.  Yes, there are questions one might ask.  I just want them to be born into a smokeless zone and into a community of love.  Dake o Del chi tradia peske shaves te del kris e lumia, numa te skepil la! For God did not send his son to earth to judge the world but to save it!  Jn 3:17

If you are reading this and want to know more about becoming a mentor to a Roma family in Luton do email send me a message!  We need you!