Signs of love...

We delivered 10 hampers to nearly all of the Roma families - a total of 27 were made up by the good folk at Christchurch.   Few things communicate the unconditional love of God as well as a Christmas gift like this.  Two other things they would love to have - "Brado Kretchunosko" [xmas tree] and "Stelutsia" [lights].   Maybe one day!

One thing we got wrong though.  The 3 families who went without [as we ran out] heard about it and no words could explain...

Next year:  Count. Make. Deliver. Pray. 

Mentoring Scheme in pipe-line

Luton has a growing number of Christian projects underway that reach out to the most needy of our town. Having seen the London Roma Support Group and heard about the Peterborough Support Group, we hope to launch something similar here soon.  For two years now nearly all the mentoring work has been done by me and one other guy.  We've learnt a lot about the complex, multiple needs of the Roma who have come to Luton.  We continue to do what we can to help them navigate their way through to some kind of a life here, but we can only really scratch the surface.  The plan now is to recruit volunteers to help in this holistic mission, offer some training, and set some good boundaries and accountability.   Below and on the right you will find the two flyers we plan to put out after Christmas.

Steps towards becoming a Mentor …

1.     Initial discussion with team leader, Martin Burrell

2.     Shadow an experienced mentor on a home visit

3.     Apply in writing, giving two references. 

4.     CRB application

5.     Attend an initial two hour induction session

6.     Visit your Roma family with Martin or Richard

7.     Continue to make regular weekly visits

8.     Attend a second induction session

9.     Ongoing training programme for all our mentors

10. Monthly meeting with Martin to monitor work in progress

11. Termly mentors meetings to pray, share and learn from one another

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matt 25:40

FACE TO FACE

In the image of God he made them” Gen 1:27

Despite being the largest ethnic minority in Europe, Roma have experienced persecution and discrimination for centuries.  The continuous discrimination and social exclusion of this community has resulted in various problems, including poor health; the shortest life expectancy and the lowest educational attainment of all ethnic groups in Britain; extreme poverty; homelessness; and limited employability skills and rights.

In the face of such difficulties, our aim is to communicate the unconditional love of God through befriending the Roma families in our midst.  All our gifts of empathy and sensitivity are needed to build trust over a period of time.  We learn to meet them where they are at, try to avoid imposing our culture on them, and come to discover the risen presence of Jesus along the way.   The training sessions are aimed at helping us understand Roma culture, avoid some of the pitfalls, and be more effective as a team of mentors. 

“They are poor yet make many rich”

Here are some of the things a mentor might do…

·      Read and explain official letters

·      Register family with GP

·      Contact people from other agencies in Luton regarding schooling, health, accommodation, employment and benefit matters.

·      Help with learning English

·      Help children with homework

·      Learn some Romani phrases

·      Maybe offer a lift to Wednesday Roma Church, or to Sunday church.

·      Enjoy food offered

·      Show photos of your family

·      Find things they need e.g. furniture, kitchenware

·      Pray for them

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile,

 neither slave nor free,

nor is there male and female,

for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3:28

Mantelo comes to preach

When Pastor Stevo from London is not with us, it's a hard act to follow... to put it mildly!  But this week one of our Roma women invited Pastor Mantelo to come and preach.  He leads leads a Roma church in Walthamstow.  As well as sharing the word of God, he invited two of his own congregation to give testimonies.  The were from non-Romani speaking Roma who speak Romanian.  Mantelo invited me to sit up front with him, so he could translate into Romani for me.  Powerful, life changing stories of men coming out of alcohol abuse and the rest and into a living faith. In spite of the church having no heating that night, we were warmed by the singing and wonderful accordion playing of the visiting worship leader.

Seeds hidden deep in frozen ground

Yesterday's meeting was especially difficult as so many were off sick or having better things to do.  At times, waves of spiritual apathy can sweep over a community leaving the hungry feeling abandoned.  I awoke this morning with a picture in my mind that seemed to capture something important.  I saw a snow swept scene and imagined the seeds of the Gospel that had been sown on good soil that Jesus spoke of in the parable.  The seeds in my picture were buried deep in the frozen ground, still alive and full of potential, but unable to develop in those conditions.  The bible bears witness to long periods when nothing appears to be happening.  Such a fruitless time was in the 300 year period before the birth of Jesus.  All the Isiaianic messianic prophecies had been given: a Saviour was to come.  But hanging in there generation after generation must have been so hard for the faithful remnant.  It felt like that yesterday. The seeds of the Gospel have been planted in the hearts of the Roma, in "good soil" but the circumstances of their lives have frozen the ground over.  I often come away feeling I have ministered inappropriatly -failing perhaps to understand or respect unredeemed aspects of Roma culture and trying to force change too quickly.  I was brought back to "those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy" [Ps126].  When our sense of hopelessness expresses itself in tears, do those tears fall to the frozen ground, and begin to thaw it out?  The imagery linked into the talk I had tried to give last night:  John 4 ending with the "harvest" being brought in from the town of Sychar that had been transformed through one Samaritan women's encounter with Jesus. Psalm 126 picks this up: "those who go out weeping, bearing the seed will come back with shouts of joy, bearing their sheaves with them."  The imagery deepened further when I remembered to story I had told two weeks earlier of the tears of the sinful woman falling onto Jesus feet.  We had actually enacted this story in the service complete with the feet being dried with a woman's hair.  I discovered later that this had caused a "scandal" amongst some of the Roma for whom the scene was too challenging, too shocking.  The ice froze over.  I had told the story "in memory of her" - and again last night I told the story of the Samaritan woman at the well "in memory of her" - believing that God is trying to raise up the status of women in cultures that still marginalise them.  Yet, last night something did shift.  A tiny crack in the frozen ground appeared.  One lone man, who keeps on coming to LRC, came forward to give his life to Jesus.  There is sufficient power latent in this, to turn round the whole community, to have them all flocking to see who this Jesus is who redeemed the lost sheep of the town.  The harvest is ripe. The ground remains frozen...almost.  

Meanwhile lovely things are happening with the children!  Our little team has moved them from chaos into fun-filled order.  See below...

"God does not want to clean up your life!"

"God wants rather to give you a completely new life! Just like the old tooth is pushed out by the new tooth in a child, so new life in Christ pushes out the old life!"  This was pastor Stevo's message to us last Wednesday evening.  The following morning at the crack of dawn I was returning home on my bike after a  prayer meeting and I saw one of our Roma women on the street corner.  She was beaming.  "Martin I have to tell you!  I went home after the service and could not sleep. God was telling me to stop smoking.  Eventually I got up and threw all my cigarettes out the window.  Then I fell fast asleep."  She is now on the patches and inhalator to help when the craving comes.  But all the signs are that once again God has acted. A completely new life means a radical distancing from the old on every front.  The grace to hack it comes from a God who delights in helping when we are at our very weakest point.  The transformation in this woman has staggered all of us, Roma and Gadjo alike.  She was the toughest cooky in Luton two years ago and now we are in awe as she brings others into the fellowship with such charm.  Staying off fags when you've just moved home and have slept on the floor boards for two nights can't be easy.  But "his power is made perfect in weakness!"

Meanwhile, the Roma women come week by week to our weekly meetings keen to see each other and to receive from God.  The children are more wild than ever but the team have things under control. Just.  We lack Roma men chronically.  However, I've been doing some ethno-musicology.   In a room packed with Roma  with one new guy taught me a couple of Roma songs which we will sing this week. "As the spirit of the Lord is upon me, I'll sing/pray/dance like David..."

Dace duxo le devlesko e andre mande jilabau sar o David.  [x2]

Jilabau, jilabau, jilabau sar o David .  [x2]

Dace duxo le devlesko e andre mande rugi ma sar o David. .  [x2]

Rugi ma, rugi ma, rugi ma, sar O David .  [x2]

Dace duxo le develesko e andre mande me khelau sar o David. .  [x2]

Me khelau, me khelau, me khelau, me khelau sar o David. .  [x2]

***

Hotariselom te tzau ka Jesus  [3x]

Hai palpale, me chi mai tzau [x2]

Khantchi na miskil-a man pa drom[x3]

Hai palpale, me chi mai tzau [x2]

***

Interestingly, I had learnt the second song from the Faith & Life gyspy church in Slough a few months ago.  The first word "hotarieslom" was completely unknown to Pastor Stevo when I showed it to him!  He recommends we use the pan-Romany "alosardem":   "I have decided to follow Jesus! No turning back."   

***

Last night we joined with the black church that meets at Christchurch.  The spiritual fever had everyone dancing by the end, for in Christ there is neither black nor white, roma nor gadge, etc, etc [cf. Gal 3:28].  I think there is a deep affinity between those who have the experience of slavery in their DNA.  Freedom to dance and celebrate, when it comes, is then all the more exhuberant. It is like a foretaste of heaven. And in this life, a hint of what God has in store for multi-ethnic Luton.  

Another Roma lady told me her tragic story the other day.  Her second son had been born in New York.  He came to live in the UK with his mum.  She went to the American Embassy to renew his American passport.  They refused to believe that the boy was her son, forcibly took him off her, and passed him on to social services.  She had to presence of mind to demand a DNA test.  This revealed that she was in truth the true mother.  The boy was restored to his mother with scarcely an apology.  A human rights fiasco.  As the Roma have little access to legal aid, they remain the most vulnerable group in Europe to abuses of this kind.  The boy has yet to be granted a new passport and so I suppose he has become stateless.  

Recently, a Luton Roma guy was arrested by the police and put in prison. After a few days they released him, saying they had got the wrong person.  Just imagine what would happen if the vicar got wrongly arrested.  I'd be on the front page of the paper.  Again.  

"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!"

Luton Roma Church relaunch!

After a two month summer break we are up and running again!  Stevo preached a message of invitation: our sins are all washed clean by the blood of Christ shed for all on the cross. The gulf between us and God cannot be bridged any other way.  All the Roma women came forward to be prayed for.  They think and act as a group rather than individualistically.  I just pray that the blessing will extend to their absent partners, who all say they are coming and then stay away.

The summer holiday break has helped us to see the challenges before us more clearly.  Key to future success is getting a programme up and running for the children.  The Roma parents don't take responsibility for their own yet.  Oakdale Methodist are rightly anxious that the children are safe and that they respect the building. We've decided to stop hot food and just serve tea and cake.  It took time to realise that the Roma all eat before they come out.  It's perhaps a matter of pride to be able to always have food on your own table.  The idea of "table fellowship" at church seems strange to them.  However, the church meeting place is the only place they can meet as a community together.  They always ask me "who is coming" before deciding whether to come themselves.  We have formed a small leadership team including two Roma women.  We key challenge remains "how can we empower to the Roma so that one day they won't need us to run the church for them.

With all the terrible media reporting of English Travellers at the moment, Luton Roma Church is a positive story of local churches partnering with local gyspies to advance God's kingdom.  We are exploring when and how to get the story out there.  All the distortions have to be challenged by a wholesome message of who the Roma people really are.

"The leaves are for the healing of the nations."

I'm still reflecting on the experience I had at Luton Roma Church two weeks ago.  I saw myself ankle deep in water.  Then waist deep. Then up to my neck and then floating in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  I went away thinking how pleasant it had been but keen to have a closer look at Ezekiel 47 whence comes this prophetic vision.  The river of water leads out to sea and gives rise to all kinds of fruit trees that grow on the banks of the river.   "There fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing." [Ez 47:12].  The theme is carried over to its ultimate fulfilment in Revelation 22:1-5 where the river is running through the city itself and now the "the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations (ethnic groups)".  God is poised ready to heal all ethnic groups of earth.  The river carries us forward towards both fruitfulness and healing.  The end goal is not a nice charismatic experience for its own sake, but healing for those people groups on earth that so desparately need God's healing touch.  Participation in what God is doing has the effect of drawing God's future closer to the present.  "Here I am.  Send me."

"I have two new brothers!"

Yesterday at my regular Sunday gadjio church we had three gadjio baptisms.  Two were of guys who are taking an active role in our Wednesday Luton Roma Church.  I invited folk to share during the service.  One Roma woman who comes both Sunday and Wednesday came forward and said "Now I have two new brothers!  They are closer to me than my own brother."  This was an extraordinary thing to say.  Clearly she understands at a deep level that the fellowship of the baptised transcends mere blood relationships.  Furthermore, she was challenging us all to see that fellowship in Christ transcends racial differences too.  She has very close relations with her own kith and kin.  But she has already begun to experience a new kind of sister/brother love that goes beyond what she had known in life thus far.  This is in no way a repudiation of her Roma ethnicity of which she should be proud.  Neither is a rejection of her own people.  Rather she is glimpsing a new kind of humanity in which all are invited to discover their identity in Christ.  All other ties, whilst significant here on earth, fall away when viewed against the backdrop of eternity - foretaste of which we experience in the here and now.  Her simple statement is thus prophetic, pointing to the future God has prepared for us all.  "Chi amperetsia t'avel, chi voia te kerdiol per phuv sar ando rhaio!  Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven!"

Playing, preaching, sharing...

This week we brought in Jenga.   It kept the children going for ages.  We need two more games at least.  Plus more workers!

The women folk enjoy the chance to sit and catch up week by week.

"Who are these?"  "My mum and my dad?"
"What is the little person on mum?"
"It's Jesus living in her heart!"

 "From the mouths of babes you have declared your praise!"

Stevo preaches...
...the curse in the garden of Eden is finally overcome by the One who was able to open the seal on the scroll, Jesus, the Lamb of God, willing to take the curse on himself that we all might be saved!  ...in Christ there is neither Rom nor Gadjo

Martin shares......the water level of the Spirit of God is rising week by week and now up to the neck (Ezekiel 47). Today we became a church.

Help needed with kids!

The loan of a minibus from another church made it possible this week to pick up lots of Roma and ferry them to church.  For them it was a whole lot of fun.  Somewhat scary for me driving a 15 seater for the first time.  This week no dads rolled up and the kids were wild to the point that my attempts to tell the story of Abraham were lost.  I don't think it would have been much easier even in English.  We urgently need a team of skilled people with a heart for bright, sparky Roma kids.  Anyone out there reading this... please let me have your ideas.   When the London team come [next week] the problem of discipline is overcome by the sheer power, volume and passion of the presentation. Something a single gadjio man of 59 can't really match.  Praying this morning, I laid it before God: "tell me if I should back off and recognise that humanly speaking this ministry is impossible for me to fulfill.  The answer came back instantly and unequivocally:  "Who will go, if you don't go?"  "Noone it seems".  "Who will go for me then?"  "Lord, send me!"  

It never ceases to strike me that what I perceive to be massive problems, the Roma seem to regard as minor issues, or even just life as normal.  I continue to import my alien values, and continue to be shocked into wiping my slate clean.  The Roma women spot it when I start falling apart; they gather round me and lift me up... sometimes in prayer.  The kids welcome me like the pied piper without me doing anything other than pitching up.  This is at once the easiest and the toughest ministry on the planet.  Success and failure constantly kiss, leaving me both wrung out and energised.  

Roma guys drawn in...

Week by week we ferry in Roma families from their homes to the service.  Although the Roma guys have cars in some cases, they never seem available.  This week as we were being led in worship by Stevo and his London team, a whole group of Roma guys suddenly came in and sat down.  It seemed they had come along to make fun of the whole thing.  After a few minutes they left.  One Roma guy who was there for the right reason followed them out. I joined him and together we managed to persuade the guys to come back in.  They listened very seriously now.  A powerful message was coming from the front.  We become acceptable to God not through what we do or what we abstain from, but alone by the blood of Jesus. Some time later the altar call brought forward several guys as well as all the women and children.  About 55 showed up this week - many drifting in and out.  This week we had Rennie and John from York with us. They have been praying fervently for LRC since we started.  Their presence was a huge encouragement as they got stuck in helping in ways practical and spiritual.

Meanwhile, we've decided to take the English teaching back into homes and to start the Wednesday evening later.  Many Roma families are glued to an Indian soup up till 6.30pm.  I was so slow to spot this!   Another thing we leant this week was that Indian food is simply too spicy for the Roma.  The local Pakistani man who did the cooking was briefed this time, but it was still too hot!  Only the English guests couldn't get it hot enough!

Last Saturday I was involved at the launch in Luton of "Healing on the Streets" - over 60 of us had been trained to carry out this ministry.  I met and prayed for two Roma guys who had been busking on violins in the street.  One came along to my Sunday church.  Sadly many Roma seem more suspicious of other Roma than they do of the gadgios.  It will take a move at the level of the Spirit to break down these walls of isolation and fear. But the first fruits are just visible of the Roma telling each other that they have their own church here in Luton now.

Noah's ark becomes church

We broke into the third story today at LRC - "The Flood".  I made an ark of chairs and told the story of Noah standing within the ark.   The ark then became "church" - the place of holiness, separate from a world of sin and rebellion.  I wondered what would then happen when I invited them to enter the ark if they wanted to.  All but two came in and we prayed for each person in turn anointing them with oil.  There could be no doubt of the spiritual hunger, especially the desire for spiritual healing for all the pain of the years - years of wandering across Europe in the hope of finding a life worth living.  A lad of 9 had helped me do the translation work for the story sitting in the garden of our local pub as his parents washed cars. He posed the fascinating question: "did the snake enter the ark?" The Roma have a fearful fascination with snakes.   He learnt his excellent English in Ireland and now we're seeking schools for him and his siblings.  The service was followed tonight by wonderful Roma food - "galushti" or "salmale" - we had spent 30 minutes searching for the right kind of cabbage finally to find it in Lydl.  All the food went fast and we are going to have to increase the quantities.

Meanwhile, God helped one family find just enough work to pay the £700 monthly rent and avoid eviction.  "Seek first the Kingdom of God..." - they're just beginning to get the link between faith and provision - "ask and you will receive".  But I always feel I'm walking a theological tight-rope with these verses.  The dangers of preaching a prosperity Gospel are never far away:  "just believe and come to church and your material needs will all fall away!"  This is just a whiff away from heresy, and risks setting up people for later disappointment and subsequent loss of faith.  However, to fail to speak of a God who is poised ready to bless those who turn to him in their deepest need, would be equally irresponsible.  

The invitation to come to worship has to be unconditional.  This isn't easy to achieve, especially when you find a TV and a whole audio system for a guy who rolls up at church to pick it up, and then disappears happily in his car.  But Jesus never put any kind of pressure on folk to follow him.  The worst possible mistake would be to offer people material rewards for attending.  We have to leave God room to reveal himself.   This happened in a special way tonight.  The black sheep of the community came sheepishly along.  He was welcomed by all present.  It must have cost him everything to walk in the door.  May God give him the courage to enter the ark of faith.

Word spreading

We've just had our fourth meeting and the word seems to be spreading through the Roma community that there's a Roma church here in Luton for them. However, they seem often embarased to invite others, leaving it to me to do. Growth can come quickly if one new family comes along with several kids. Since they have nowhere else in town they can meet, LRC is helping them form community and potentially lifting them out of isolation.  We're not managing to get over the imperative of English skills and so very few arrive in time for the English lessons.   But by the time the worship began we had c.35 there. I repeated the first of the 33 stories: "Beginning" and then moved onto "Curse".   Pulling out folk to be Adam and Eve gets the message over.  But so far, the idea of reflecting on the deeper meaning of the stories seems a long way off.  I think it'll come along the road of daily life.   People often say to me: "Martin!  Tu san dosh!"  "Martin it's all your fault!"  I respond drawing on the meaning of Genesis 3:  "Na! O sap, wo si dosh!"  "No, it's the snake's fault!" The story highlights how a blame culture can develop.  The work of translation is very fruitful as we have to excavate meaning and try to communicate it.  It would be great to have a set up visuals to back up each story.  

Meanwhile, there are always unexpected blessings.  The church windows and doors have been vandalised.  The Roma guys offered to repair them free of charge as a way of thanking the owners of the church for allowing us to use it.  Our food this week had been prepared with great pride by a Muslim couple who live a few yards from the church and who have a deep relationship with the Roma family next door.  In this way bridges are being built with those of other faiths in the area.   One major issue I'm having to face daily is that the Roma believe that I can snap my fingers and a NINO will appear in their hands, followed closely by benefits.  We have only achieved this so far for one person, and that had been a long and hard journey.  It is hard to avoid folk concluding that coming to church is what you have to do to get these blessings.  

Desparate Measures

"Whatever you do, do it with all your heart,
as unto the Lord and not to people"

 "We'll do anything to pay the rent!  Even move the vicar's grand-piano! And sort his garden!"

"Sar sogodi tume keren,
keren les lachi ilesa,
sar le Jesusoske
na sar le manushenge!"
Col 3:23

Pressure is building to pay the rent.  The guys will turn their hands to anything.  We set up a car wash near the pub near my church you can see above.  The only people that came were from the church.  It's so hard to find work when half of Luton is doing the same.

"You came seeking prosperity and are finding God!"

In the space of one week so much has happened, it's hard to keep up with what God is doing.  Last night at our third meeting Stevo challenged the Roma: "you may have come all the way from Romania to seek economic prosperity, but I believe you have been brought here to find God."   Towards the end of the service, he asked us all, "how do you know when the Holy Spirit has come? When the children start to weep."   That is just what had happened.  The day before some of us were praying together for one Roma lad's knee that he injured six months ago and has caused him constant pain and taken him off school.  At the service I asked him how the knee was now.  All the pain and swelling had gone.  Earlier in the week we were praying at another home.  One Roma woman who had recently been through a traumatic personal experience was visibly filled with the Spirit before our eyes.  She had been unable to speak and had frozen over emotionally.  She began to smile, and to speak again.  I was amazed at how instantly the change had come over her.  On the same occasion another Roma woman I had not met before shared the dream she had had the night before.  "I saw fire coming down from heaven to earth, and then a white horse appear."  When I told her this image was in the Bible she was amazed.  Revelation 19:11-18 makes clear that the white horse represents the judgment that Jesus brings to earth.  Nothing could have spoken more clearly into the situation going on in the community at this time.  There is a sense of awe in some of the Roma at what they are seeing God do in their midst.  They are beginning to see the extreme financial problems they face against the backdrop of a God who wants to touch first and foremost their hearts with his love.  But there has been a breakthrough on the material front too.  We have been battling away for over a year to get benefits for one widow.  She has just received her first payment. Without that she and her four children would have been evicted.  God has been at work on another front too.  At our meeting last night the local health councellor came along.  The guys gathered around him as he took a lung pollution reading on the Roma lady who is on the stop smoking programme.  "Your lungs had been full of pollution.  Look now, they are completely clear!"  The councellor advised others: "you need God's help to do this, not just the patches!"  This was interesting.  He is a Hindu. There is common ground we can share.  To grow our Roma church further one thing we need is more cars to bring the families in.  Or a bus!

What is success?

English Lessons - to get work in England! 

What is the measure of success in Christian mission?  The temptation is to do what the world does.  Count numbers.  Count smiley faces. Have an impressive story to pass on to others.   What impresses me most about Jesus' mission isn't about outward signs of success.  What is most attractive and compelling is the fact that he hung in with people however dysfunctional they were. "He loved them to the end." As I reflect on our fledgling Roma Church here in Luton, I realise that the greatest triumph is always to stay on course, even when the whole world seems to be falling apart around you.  Yesterday's second gathering was like this.  But amidst the chaos some beautiful things were germinating.  It would be easy to miss them. 

English Lessons - for fun! 

See here our first English lessons in our Roma church.  Richard has them eating out of his hand.  See also Ramona above teaching the adults English.  "Do you have any work for me to do?"  They need to know how to say things like this if they are going to hack it in England.  Using "gadjikanes" (Romanian, the second language of the Romanian Roma)  she is able to quickly get them speaking grammatical English. 
Meanwhile, during our worship we introduced the first of what will be 33 bible stories.  These cover the whole story of salvation from Genesis to Revelation, are only 3- 4 minutes long.  Developed for use with unreached people groups, the idea is to communicate the biblical message in the simplest and most memorable form possible. A few days earlier I had worked on the first story with a Roma mother and her two sons.  It took about and hour to make a rough translation into the actual dialect of Romani they speak.  This is an important point, as both vocab and grammar vary quite a lot from both Kalderash translations I am using.  But God seems to delight in entering into human limitations and forging something new.  My Romani and their English are both rudimentary and we are stretched to the limits.   But having read the story at our second gathering yesterday (see below), I invited them first to have a go at telling the story themselves in their words.  There's a lot of work to be done here, but what they pick out is always illuminating.  The joy at the dawn of creation - beauty emerging out of nothing-  the sadness that some of the angels chose to fall from glory -the first signs of disfunction in an otherwise perfect creation order.   I try to glimpse where we might be when a body of Roma here can tell the story of salvation in their own words using these simple stories.  The vision is important.  But infinitely more important is the question "what is success?"  Jesus alone embodies the answer.  "Whilst we were still sinners he died for us".   

This story is true. It was in the beginning. 

kade istoria si cheches. Sas ando gor.

There was noone on earth, 

but we know the truth through God's prophet.

Nas les khonik pe puv, numa ame jenas o chachimos lesko profeto.

In the beginning when there was nothing

there was only God.

Ando gor kana nas kanch, sas numa o del.

At that time only God existed.

Ando kado timpo  existilas numa o del

He was with together with his angels

Wo sas peske injerensa

The angels gave glory to God

Le injeri del gloria le develes

and helped him in his work

Hai ajutil le ande leski buchi

the angels sang joyfully

Le injeri gilabenas bokorime

God made the world as he wished

O del kerke la lumia sar wo kamle

(let me know if you would like the whole story!)

Luton Roma Church is Born!

Pastor Stevo & I pray for the Luton Roma

This evening 25 Luton Roma were joined by 20 Roma from London Gypsy Church and 10 non-Roma from Luton in Oakdale Methodist Church.  Having shared a meal, Pastor Stevo's amazing team led us in worship.  It was wonderful to have them with us at the launch of Luton Roma Church.  "Seek first the Kingdom of God" and life in abundance will flow from that.  The powerful sounds of our worship flowed out the broken window of the church as the call from the local Minaret was declining.  A new church has sprung to live in the heart of Islamic Luton.  It's members?  The poorest of the poor of bottom of the heap Luton.  On the brink of eviction, a Roma widow received her pin number for a post office account.  Will the benefits come in time?  If they come at all it will be a miracle.  "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven".  Indeed, as  pastor Stevo reminded us, wealth does not promise peace of heart or absence of cares.  This week we were all blessed by bi-lingual preaching.  Next week I'll have to keep the show on the road!  Stevo's London team will lead us every fortnight.  Every Wednesday there will be Food/English lessons/Worship.  Holistic mission proceeds from a desire to bless every area of life.  Heaven and earth kiss when we see the Kingdom advance....

Easter Sunday Baptism

"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47)
 "There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent!"  (Luke 15:7)

For one Roma mother  of six children, widowed five years ago, there was great rejoicing as a her dream of being baptised was finally realised on Easter Sunday.          

Days later our weekly fellowship grew as more began to turn their back on smoking and seek the power of God in their weakness.   18 of us gathered in a tiny room to pray, to laugh, to celebrate, to weep.  We went out into the back garden and tried to find some treasure hidden in the ground, "the Kingdom of Heaven" which when found is worth selling everything for.  We came back inside to pray in the Kingdom into each of our lives and recognise that even in poverty, love is more important than money, freedom more important than homes, and a community of love more important than nuclear families.  Even in the most desparate circumstances the risen Jesus makes himself present.

Next week we begin in Luton Roma Church on the corner...

More quit smoking!

The Roma mother's steely determination to quit smoking and be baptised has had just the effect I have prayed for.  Two others have now quit and another is lined up to follow.  This will mean three families will have become smoke free within a week or so.  This means 10 children will now be in a smoke free environment.  I got my calculator out.  The total saving for one year will be £4,810.  This blew them all away. But all that is nothing compared to the spiritual power that is being released as a result.   Smoking is understood as sin and a real blockage to knowing God.  Remove the blockage and faith is born.  With the birth of faith comes a growth in confidence and vitality.  Against all the odds, hope is being kindled that maybe things might just get better for a people who have known nothing but misery and marginalization.  At our weekly prayer meeting I told the story of Jesus' resurrection appearance at the lake side on the morning after the disciples had fished in vain all night.  The message: Jesus actively chooses to show up when the chips are down and all hope has been shattered.  The people can be so broken that they are blinded to recognising him when he appears.   Rather that dazzle them, he slips into their lives at first without them noticing.  He weaves his presence into the fabric of lives that have been torn apart.  A new garment of praise replaces a garment of mourning.  Luton Roma Church is coming to birth in the same way that a living organism takes shape - seemingly random events conspire to bring something out of nothing.  There's nothing to shout from the rooftops.  But there's a story emerging in the gutter.  My role?  To try to make connections and point to what might be missed.  "O Del si amensa. Tu dikes?"  "God is with us.  Do you see?"

"Daughters of Jerusalem! Do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children!"

As the cross was carried through Luton on Good Friday to a slow drum beat, two young Roma women spotted me.  They were in town begging.  They joined the procession.  Here you see them facing the cross. We weep for Jesus, remembering his passion, what he did for us all.  But when he processed through Jerusalem carrying that cross what did he say to the women weeping?  "Daughters of Jerusalem! Do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and your children!"   The general view is that things will get worse for the Gyspy people.  Jesus is weeping for them.  These two mothers will be evicted from their home on Tuesday.  They could not pay the rent and it's all turned very nasty.  Two families will be searching in desperation for somewhere to lay their head.  We went in the church after the procession. They wanted to hear the passion narrative in their language.  I read from my Kalderash bible.  Then they went off begging.  And I in search of an empathic private landlord.  Amidst their desparate circumstances they are always able to laugh.  The mother on the right is the best cleaner in town.  Why do people stare in derision?

From the Kent Romanies to the Luton Roma...

Here's a video clip which will be shown at gatherings around the world of The Order of Mission [TOM] this summer.  Beginning with the Kent Romanies it flows on to the Luton Roma...

What does it take to quit?

One Roma mother is preparing for baptism on Easter Sunday.  This is a life and death matter for her, something she's been longing to do for years.  Inseparable from her decision to be baptised by full immersion is her determination to quit smoking.  I have never known anyone so desperate for deliverance from an addiction.  As her faith and confidence in God grows, so her hope that his "power will be made perfect in weakness".  Her first smoke-free day came when we went to the "stop smoking clinic" and got professional advice.  Now every day she is £2 richer.  Every year she will be over £700 richer.  That amounts to one month a year living rent free!  But the most powerful motivation comes from feeling the power of the Spirit redirecting her life in the narrow way that leads to life.  There is no room for any of my finely nuanced theological niceities.  It's black and white.

Other Roma have been deeply skeptical and resistant.  But this mother's steely determination to go against the flow has had just the effect I believed it would.  One Roma guy, penniless, hungry for God and desperate to eak out an existence in Luton with his family, has told me he's going to follow his cousins' decision and quit too.  On Monday we'll be at the clinic.

I'm praying that the story of these two Roma quitting smoking will open the eyes of others to the reality of a God who is poised ready to deliver.  "kon si amaro del?"  "Jesus - amaro skepitori!"  "Who is our God?" "Jesus - our rescuer!"  This we sang triumphantly as it blared our over my car speakers the other day.  God brings people out of slavery, EX - ODUS (out of - the place).  The Roma know all about longing for liberation from bad places.  My friends ancestors were slaves for centuries in Romania. And just last Saturday we attended International Roma Holocaust Day in London and remembered the 500,000 Roma who the Nazis exterminated.  But if God can do the impossible and rescue just one person from deep nicotine addiction - often the only solace in seemingly hopeless circumstances - then maybe he can rescue a whole people and bring them into a place flowing with milk and honey.  

English Romani Creed translated into Kalderash Romani

When I was living back in Kent the English Romanies composed their own creed and Pashey put it into song.  You can listen to her singing a little of it on the video link on the right.  Over here in Luton we have had huge fun translating this into Kalerash Romani.  With my elementary Romani and their remedial English this was hugely demanding.  But along the way we each got deeper into the meaning of the Gospel.  The 14 year Roma boy discovered a gift for language he did not know he has.   After two hours hard work, he and his mother were still wanting to crack on.  You can find the whole creed in my book.  Here's a sample of the translation we are working on.  Later that evening we tried it out in our weekly prayer meeting using two voices: English/Romani.  Rather than a set of theological statements, it's a free floating meditation on what it means to be a believer in everyday life.  Gyspy thought patterns are post-modern in feel;  metaphors are woven into a rich tapestry; there is no closure, only invitation to further exploration; punctuation would ruin the flow.   Our streams converge...

We believe

Ame pachas

Jesus love is like a running stream

O drago le jesusosko si sar mergertori paiesko

Flowing to all corners of the world

Kai jal ne se koltsuri

It flows high and it flows low

Jal opre hai jal tele

It reaches everywhere

Wo jal pe sakon than

Even to the desert

[chi kai] ande pusta

Roma witness to Luton Muslims

God is always poised to bring something good out of adversity.  Earlier this week I went with one Roma widow to her landlord to explain why there was a delay with the rent being paid.  The landlord was in considerable pain in his leg.  I did wonder about offering prayer, but it was his tenant that offered first.  He seemed please with the offer.  Moments later I opened my eyes and saw her on her knees praying fervently with arms raised over him.  It was very moving to see a Christian Roma widow praying for a muslim in his own home.  There is much fear here in Luton that we will be overwealmed by the growing Islamic presence.  But the risen Jesus can slip in anywhere he chooses.

What's in it for me?

We are trying to move our Roma friends on from "what's in it for me?" thinking, to "how can I bless others" thinking.  It's taken me a life time to begin to understand the difference.  For those who have received very little blessing in their lives, and a whole lot of rejection, I guess its an even longer journey to make than it was for me.

On Saturday we cleaned 40 cars outside our church free of charge.  People were amazed as they came back from their shopping to find their cars sparkling.

Our church team had 3 Roma women and 4 Roma lads helping.  This is the first time we've invited the Roma to do something expecting nothing in return.  At lunch the 3 Roma women were handed a card on which was written "the Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" Psalm 34:18    I read it to them: "O Baro Del si pasha kudala kai si lengo ilo shindo, ai skipil kudalen kai si lengo duxo pelo tele."  I felt my heart being healed as I cleaned the cars.  I don't know how it affected the Roma.  Did they feel exploited? For hundreds of years their ancestors had been slaves in Romania.

Prayer times

Last night 10 of us squeezed into the front room of the home in which we meet to pray every Wednesday.  A new family has moved in so our numbers tripled.  I read the parable of the wise man who builds his house on rock from the Maximov translation.  Some words seemed alien to them but we found a way through that.  One of our team drew the story on a white board as it unfolded.  There wasn't quite space to try and act it out.  This lead to a couple of testimonies, some tears and prayers. The new Roma mother sang "Tu san amaro dad, Hallelujah!"  (you are our Father, Hallelujah) and others joined in.  It's interesting that when they prayer the Lord's Prayer they recite it in Romanian; as yet they don't know it in their own Kalderash Romani.  It's a massive privilege to then read it to them in their mother tongue.  That same night a couple of other Roma families new to Luton moved into rented property which we had found and secured within a day.

Give a man a fishing rod...

"Give a man a fishing rod..."

Give a man a fish and you disempower him.  Give him a fishing rod, teach him to fish, and you've given him a job for life.  One of our team provided some of the Roma women with sewing machines which our church folk were pleased to pass on.  Dresses have been made and sold.  But the latest marketing opportunity is a Zimmer Frame Bag.  We are not aware of anyone else having created such a bag. Over the last few days 3 have been sold at £10 each. We're praying this may be an idea from Heaven.

Meanwhile, the two bikes which we had in our shed were passed on to two Roma lads who are now cycling to school. This could save potentially £300 a year in bus fares. The lads were in their element setting the bikes up... who knows, maybe this'll lead to something.

The same day, the school called a crisis meeting. The Roma kids attendance is around 80%.  This is nothing short of a miracle.  But it's below the legal requirement.  The riot act was read, and we hope attendance will pick up.

Chaplain to Gypsies, Travellers and Roma

Today, the Bishop of St Alban's appointed me as Chaplain to the Gypsies, Travellers and Roma for our Diocese.  This is a kind of official approval of the work I've been doing with these people over the last two years.  Perhaps a good note on which to launch this blog.

The Luton Roma Church is a tiny mustard seed right now - just me and a few others meeting to pray in one Roma home. Tiny beginnings.  But there's something stirring.  Mum's decided to go for full immersion baptism on Easter Sunday.  "Me kamav te bokuima!" "I want to be born again!"  This is her way of thanking God for healing her son who a year ago had been seriously ill. At the time she saw a vision of the risen Jesus.  The prayer meetings are important to her: she's turned down work that clashed with the time we meet, not least because it meant cleaning in a very dubious place in town.  She's sacrificed income rather than compromise her faith. God will honour this!