We are just catching our breath after our three day Festival for the Luton Roma community. c.40 Roma children ran or were carried through the banner each day as their names were called out and they were told that the Good Shepherd, Jesus, already knows all their names. This was the one thing that thrilled everyone and brought us all together.
Each day the pre-school children were introduced to the letters of the Alphabet in their mother tongue, with the long term aim that by the time they start school they will know the letters and be up to pace with the other children when they encounter written English.
We are hugely encouraged by the way the school aged Roma children are entering into Luton Roma Church. It remains a mystery why their parents don't seem to engage with what is happening, only too glad to slip out down town for a few hours.
However, extraordinary things did happen with some of the Roma adults. One Roma guy living in Germany heard from God just two days before the Festival: "get on the next coach to England and go to Luton to tell them that God wants to bless the Roma church there!" As he shared this message with us we were caught up in his testimony of healing, being born again in faith, and longing to bless the Roma in England. His benefits in Germany have just been stopped. His family of 6 is on the brink. All we can promise him here in the UK is a very warm welcome, and the invitation to be part of what we are seeing God do in our midst.
On the second day of the Festival we marked the "Porrajmos" by watching a film of the gypsy holocaust of 1944, and hearing from an Jewish lady who had been brought to England in that year and thus saved. Many of our Roma seem hardly aware that c.500,000 of their people died in this way; none were aware that this was International Roma Holocaust Day.
Passionate prayer is being released for one of our Roma women whose baby is fighting for her life in a London Hospital. We stood together around the bed, crying out for a miracle.
The three day Festival was made possible by a team of over 20 non-Roma people from many different churches in Luton and beyond who all pulled together to bless the Roma. A truly ecumenical effort. I am hopeful that some of these will stay on board and become "Befrienders" to the a Roma family. A last minute grant from a generous Christian businessman provided funding for the Festival. If ever we had been walking by faith and not by sight, it was now. I think God likes to keep it that way!
The three day Festival was made possible by a team of over 20 non-Roma people from many different churches in Luton and beyond who all pulled together to bless the Roma. A truly ecumenical effort. I am hopeful that some of these will stay on board and become "Befrienders" to the a Roma family. A last minute grant from a generous Christian businessman provided funding for the Festival. If ever we had been walking by faith and not by sight, it was now. I think God likes to keep it that way!
