"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.