"From the mouth of babes..."

"I've just started school here in Luton.  Don't speak a word of English.  Born thousands of miles away.  Grew up speaking Romani with my own people, and Portuguese with everyone else.  It was really tough in my first days at school.  One girl pulled my earings really hard so it hurt.  I thought she was going to nick them, so I fought back.  Actually she'd probably never seen a child like me wear earings before.  Best keep them off when I go to school, or else.  Even though lots of the kids in my class have parents from other countries, I still felt I stood out.  It was the first time I'd ever been to school in my life. Everything is weird.  I realise to fit in I'm going have to become a bit like the others.  My mum has let me colour my hair so it's more like the others.  The pastor came along later and asked me why I'd done it.  He said he liked black hair, that God had made it that way.  He doesn't understand.  He's bald.  Later in the day when we were coming home in the bus, I told the pastor I didn't like the gadjo people.  I prefer my own people.  He asked me why.  I said I just don't.  "You don't like me then?"  he asked.  He looked sad.  "No, you're alright."  "Why?" he asked.  "You're Roma!" I answered.  He looked surprised.   "Really?" He said.  "You speak our gypsy language. You're Roma."  "Ok" he said.  "Funny man," I thought.

Nothing lower than the cross

In England people say there is nothing lower than Luton.

In Luton people say there is nothing lower than the Roma.

Amongst the Roma, people say there is nothing lower than the Romanian Roma.

Is there any hope for the Luton Roma?

Yes, Jesus went to the bottom of the pit for them too. 

"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!

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.