Live Mock Trial - The verdict

The UK Government was put on trial at our live, mock trial.  The charge: failure to comply with European Regulations with regard to the treatment of Roma economic migrants seeking to establish themselves in the country.   The audience of c.40 was the jury.  The verdict:  UK Government found guilty.  See the full court line up below... And a great new song capturing the plight of the Roma...

"Wherever I am I am home

wherever I stand I don't stand alone

when I look inside myself

I'm aware of who I be

I belong to the world

the land of the free

we try to fit in society

but we don't want to play 

with their fraternity

I'm on a different radio frequency

and far more deeper than A-Z

my story is a mystery

and the guys who don't know me

Me som Romano shavo (I'm a Romani lad)

hai chi som korkorro (and I'm not alone)

hai me birav sim khere (I have a right to be at home)

av putiera pe tele[?]  

Hai dikh murro traiio (just look at my life)

We have travelled the world 

on the darkest night

looking for a friend

in the candlelight

we do our best to understand

and learn the language of the land

we try not to judge

the lion's in the sand

pointed fingers in my face

so I'm moving on to a different stage

I'm rejected by society 

'cos I'm living my life and I am free

Sostar si Romani bax ka savi [?] (why is Roma luck as it is?)

murri historia si parni (my story is white)

Me som Romano shavo 

hai chi som korkorro

hai me birav sim khere

av putiera pe tele[?]

Hai dikh murro traiio

Somebody help my wife and my baby

it's cold we have no place to stay

the drummers are drumming 

the footsteps are coming closer

and we're running away..."

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/avsnitt/218015?programid=2122&play=4615200&playtype=sändning

This link takes you to a RadioRomano Broadcast. Scroll to last 4 minutes to hear this great new song capturing the plight of the Roma people.  Above are the English-Romani words... If you can help with words email me:

email me

"IT COULD BE YOU!"

Without literacy and English language it's hard to imagine the Roma getting work in the UK.  Schools tell us the Roma children are often keen to learn, but remain years behind their peers in literacy levels. Teachers beg us to help in any way we can.

Luton Roma Church is seeking Volunteers!  Following three training sessions given by the ESOL experts and Luton Adult Learning, our Volunteers will be allocated to individual Roma family homes by our Volunteer Coordinator who has just been appointed.  email Martin

Through trial and error one of our team found that the best way to do the teaching is to make friends with a Roma family and they turn up every week at the same time and teach whoever is there in a fun, creative and engaging way.   Of course, levels vary hugely, but we heard so often from the Roma that they wanted help with this, that we had to act.  It's been especially the Roma mothers who persistently ask to be taught to speak English.

We need to discover ways to excite the Roma about all things English so that they begin to want to integrate more widely.  I listen to RadioRomano, broadcast by Swedish Radio live from Stockholm every day.  An inspirational way to help an minority ethnic group to integrate in their host country.  We need this in the UK!  BBC come to our aid! RadioRomano

Europe on Trial Event coming up!

Don't miss this if you are anywhere near Luton on Saturday 29 June!

A real live, mock trial!   In the dock: Europe!  Why? For the way Europe has treated its Roma.   Professional Legal Team leading the trial.  Live Roma witnesses.   Professor Acton also giving evidence.    Come to Beechhill Methodist Church Luton LU4 8BY.  Starts 11am. Finishes 1pm.   Unique opportunity to hear the evidence presented in a compelling way.  

Blessings & Trials

 Thanks to a grant from our Diocese we now have great new sound kit incorporating the original Roma sounds from E.Europe in a Korg keyboard.

The Roma pastors, evangelists and musicians continue to stream our way for Wednesday worship.

"I have learnt the secret of contentment in all circumstances!"  The joy overflows in inverse proportion to the degree of poverty.

Eleven of our Roma guys and a family came with me to Turvey Abbey for two days of bible teaching from Pastor Alex.  Two utterly different worlds meeting and trying to understand each other:  RC monks and Roma Pentecostals.  Vive la difference!

Bobby and Ana marrying at Christchurch as a fifth refusal for a National Insurance Number drops on the mat and their Luton born triplets approach their first birthday.   

"All I am I give to you and all I have I share with you!" "So me som, me dau le tuke, hai so si ma, me ashau tusa!"

We gear up for a night of prayer... see below.

Pass the word on! 

Aven Romale Aven! 

KHANGERI ROMANI LUTON

INVITATIE

NOAPTE DE VEGHE 

Christchurch, Bushmead, Luton LU2 7SF

29 Martie 

Parashtune / Vineri Seara

20.00  (-  4.00)

Birth pangs of new creation...

Luton Roma Church is on the cusp.   Since Alex and his team began coming to lead our weekly service  back in November 2012, we began to grow as a church.  Every week new Roma pastors come along with Alex, each bringing testimonies, teaching, and new songs.  Last week we had both Romanian and Romani being spoken.  They have all given up their former lives to preach and sing the Gospel wherever the wind of the Spirit takes them.  All they ask from us is the fuel for the journeys from Coventry, Nottingham and London, and some better sound equipment.  Not much, considering they give up a whole day for us, to say nothing of their charismatic gifts of communication.

It's feels like a baby is about to be born.  Mother is wailing.  Baby is longing to breath for himself.   Our little team is doing all we can to bring this about with God's help.  Much depends on us being able to fund Alex's team to do their stuff on an ongoing basis.  The vision is grand.  Watch this space.

Meanwhile, we are about to receive our first instalment from the Church of England's "CHURCH AND COMMUNITY FUND."  For the next three years funds are coming our way to realise the vision we had just before Alex and his brother's appeared on the scene.  Now we can fund our two minibuses which ferry the families in, and much else.

There is much work to be done before the Roma will be ready to lead and run their own church, but it is now just possible to glimpse that future.  Essential to that vision, is that the next generation of Roma children acquire the literacy and language skills they will need to be employable in the UK.  From January 2014 the law will change to make this possible for them. But do they have a will to integrate and break the only pattern they know?  The argument that the Roma need to put back something into the system is a powerful one, indeed a biblical one.  The call to be a blessing to all nations passes from one ethnic group to the next.  None of us live in isolation.  What the Roma uniquely embody is a transnational, international, nomadic people who make no demands to have a homeland - just the hope that every land might be a potential homeland for all.  This is surely the future that the book of Revelation holds open before us.  Do we have the imagination to see what God is doing through the Roma people?  

DVD launch for Christmas

See top right and click "The Story of Jesus" on YouTube.   You can listen in either English or Romani language.   It's taken a year to put these stories together as week by week I prepared a talk for our Wednesday evening meeting.  I chose Gospel events which address issues that I see the Roma here facing.  Using Mudrow and Maximov translations and then consulting the Roma themselves, we put together scripts in a dialect of Romani that most of the Roma here speak [Hunedoara region].  All twenty families will receive a DVD this Christmas.  Since they all have DVDs playing 24/7 this seemed a good medium to use to get over the Good News of Jesus.  

Life, death & growth...

 This panaramic shot gives you a glimpse of the way we are managing growth at our Wednesday meetings.   The pre-school children on the right in the cafe area - the adults on the left in the sanctuary - and meanwhile the school aged children a short distance away in another church.  Since the Roma pastors from Coventry, Nottingham and London began coming a month ago, we've grown from 40-100.  See on the left all the Roma guys who are now coming.  Two minibuses has made it possible to ferry in most of the women and children, whilst nearly all the men arrive in their cars in their own time.  The service rolls for two hours and is touching the Roma deeply.  The word is spreading and our little gadjo team does it's best to meet the growing needs.

 I can count at least 12 births in 2012.  Here you see the growth of the church paralled by the growing triplets.  A three-seater buggy came all the way from Scotland for Maria, Zara and Luca.

We've set up a monthly legal advice clinic which is now helping three families hack through the ever more baffling benefits system of the UK.

A PHD student in Roma studies will be with us all 2013.  Luton provides a clearly defined microcosm of a migrant Roma community seeking to establish itself in an EU country.  We trust the research will help be fed back into the system and help us all understand how best to respond to the issues the Roma face.

With growth comes also tragedy. One mother lost two babies.  Both died on 19 September.  One in 2010.  One in 2012.  Both of the same congenital condition.  Aged 6 months and 7 months.  Mother lost all her benefits.  The only compassion visible was in the faces of the medical team who had fought and lost both battles.

"Lord, you have made us all in your image.  We all bear your divine imprint.  You are beyond time, space, ethnicity, culture and politics.  Yet in your Son, Jesus, you penetrate our darkness, break down all the silly walls that separate us, and weep over our tribalisms and lack of vision.  For in you there is neither Roma nor Gadjo, male nor female.  Pour out you grace on us, that we might glimpse the wonder of your Kingdom breaking into the very places that seem beyond hope. Come Lord Jesus, come!"

Quantum Leap

At last my blog is letting me make a post after a month frozen over!   Last night our little Roma Church made a quantum leap forward.   A group of Roma pastor's who I had met in Luton the day before came and led our service.  They seem keen to move to Luton and settle amongst us.  If this happens it will be one huge leap forward for Luton Roma Church. As usual these days, the school aged children are taken to another local church, as the adults worship with the little children and babies.  Last night, overall we had about 100 on board.  It took 3 round trips in the minibus to ferry people in.  So we have an urgent need to find a way of funding a second minibus.

In the service many were brought to tears as testimony after testimony was given to the accompaniment of real Roma worship led by two accordions, and keyboard with a dulcimer-sounding stop, and voice.  Most of the service was in Romanian with the pastor leaning over to me to translate into Romani!   It looks like I may have now to get to grips with Romanian as well.  They hold the Romanian Bible in very high regard and I have yet to meet a Roma pastor who seems interested in creating a Romani Bible.  It seems odd to me to worship in Romanian when the only language spoken amongst all our Roma is Romani.  They say this is in part because of the great variety of Romani dialects, Romanian thus becoming a kind of lingua franca.  My point however is that in 10 years time all their children living here in England will only know Romani and English. We'll see!

Today, one Roma guy told me he had a dream last night.  He had seen himself in a small room with me and some other people.  Today that meeting actually took place in the Luton Red Cross.  We were amazed.  Another Roma lady told me she had got up in the morning today and found herself singing for the first time in her life.  Her children confirmed this to me!  

No English? No Bank Account!

Trying to open a bank account for a Romanian citizen in the UK is like trying to land a man on Mars.   You'd think that establishing identity and address would be straightforward enough.  But bank staff are clearly trained to grab any possible reason for not accepting an A2 national.  Once they discover your from Romania, the face glazes over and the phoned is reached for.  "These are regulations we are subject to, I'm sorry.  I am being told we do need further evidence from you..."  Sometimes getting that further evidence is almost impossible.

We went along to my own bank too.  "I've been banking with you for over 20 years and have had excellent service!  My friend here would like to open an account with you too!"  I got a nice smile.  And effectively another shut door.  Another bank said bluntly: "If he doesn't speak English we won't accept him." I asked: "What, even if a translator is present?"  "No! We need proof he has understood!"

As a last ditch attempt we entered one the really big banks.  Almost just to see what excuse they would come up with to bar my friend.  We were warmly welcomed. All the papers were shown.  "That's all just fine! What kind of account would you like."  Speechless, jaws on the floor, we muttered "Oh.  Just a normal account will do fine, thanks."  As the interview progressed it became clear that the young bank lady had warmed to us for some reason.  She asked a few personal questions and soon we were showing each other photos of babies and wives.  She said she'd just come home from her honeymoon with her handsome partner from overseas.  That was it!  She'd understood at a heart level what it means to try to settle in a strange land.  The Roma sense instantly if a person is on their side.

Early the same day I had a big God moment.  The word "JUSTICE" came up on the screen as I was singing hymns in my gadjo church.   This is what the whole church thing is for: to fire us up to work for JUSTICE in the world.  It took me a few minutes to recover.  I needed that moment to make sense of all the brick walls those of us face, who try to help the Roma find a life in the UK.

"FESTA ROMANI LUTON"

We are just catching our breath after our three day Festival for the Luton Roma community.  c.40 Roma children ran or were carried through the banner each day as their names were called out and they were told that the Good Shepherd, Jesus, already knows all their names.  This was the one thing that thrilled everyone and brought us all together.

Each day the pre-school children were introduced to the letters of the Alphabet in their mother tongue, with the long term aim that by the time they start school they will know the letters and be up to pace with the other children when they encounter written English.  

We are hugely encouraged by the way the school aged Roma children are entering into Luton Roma Church.  It remains a mystery why their parents don't seem to engage with what is happening, only too glad to slip out down town for a few hours.  

However, extraordinary things did happen with some of the Roma adults.   One Roma guy living in Germany heard from God just two days before the Festival:  "get on the next coach to England and go to Luton to tell them that God wants to bless the Roma church there!"  As he shared this message with us we were caught up in his testimony of healing, being born again in faith, and longing to bless the Roma in England.  His benefits in Germany have just been stopped.   His family of 6 is on the brink.  All we can promise him here in the UK is a very warm welcome, and the invitation to be part of what we are seeing God do in our midst.  

On the second day of the Festival we marked the "Porrajmos" by watching a film of the gypsy holocaust of 1944, and hearing from an Jewish lady who had been brought to England in that year and thus saved.  Many of our Roma seem hardly aware that c.500,000 of their people died in this way; none were aware that this was International Roma Holocaust Day.  

Passionate prayer is being released for one of our Roma women whose baby is fighting for her life in a London Hospital.   We stood together around the bed, crying out for a miracle.

The three day Festival was made possible by a team of over 20 non-Roma people from many different churches in Luton and beyond who all pulled together to bless the Roma.   A truly ecumenical effort.   I am hopeful that some of these will stay on board and become "Befrienders" to the a Roma family.   A last minute grant from a generous Christian businessman provided funding for the Festival.  If ever we had been walking by faith and not by sight, it was now.   I think God likes to keep it that way!  

Thanks to all readers!

Hi all of you guys out there who read this blog!   It was my daughter who suggested I set up a blog when we started Luton Roma Church in May 2011.  She's in TV, so understands the media.  Then my son showed me how to do it.  In obedience I followed their advice, wondering if I would be writing for myself.  In fact I've had nearly 2,000 hits since then which is a bit scary.  Not a few people from across Europe have got in touch, some have visited us here in Luton, and some are becoming friends.  Here in Luton people often chat to me about about a post.  All this feedback is so helpful as together we grapple with the myriad issues facing the Romanian Roma economic migrants streaming into Luton.

The given wisdom of church planting is that you take a group of deeply committed Christians, plant them in a fresh location, and pray that others will gradually be attracted.  Looking back, we were not in a position to do it that way.  We began with no critical mass of believers.  For a long time things were completely chaotic.  We stayed with it in faith that God is in the business of bringing order out of chaos.  The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters of chaos at the dawn of creation, and the rest is his-story.  He seemed to delight in taking motley group of Israelite slaves and forming them into his treasured possession, poised ready to bless the whole world.  This way He gets the glory.  The process of transformation happens at an unseen, kinetic level.  The Spirit works his way into the cracks and crevices of the community, as new life springs up from the grass roots.

Today, one year after launch, perhaps the most precious thing is what God has done with the Roma children.  They seem to love coming, delight in the Romani songs, especially when they get a chance to play percussion, and respond well to the Bible teaching the team give them in English.  I dream what this group of 20+ might look like in ten years time?  Bi-lingual, integrated, educated, employable, and earthed in the good soil of the Gospel.  And 20 years time?  Running the church!

Poet or Fraud?

"You have only helped the others!"  The cry comes from every direction and the anger and frustration increases.  The resentment comes from Roma and Gadjo alike.  To disappear behind a screen or into a meeting is no solution, and is an even lonelier place than remaining face to face with those seeking justice.

"I can't help everyone equally!  Even Jesus didn't attempt that!"  The appeal to reason runs into the sand as the voices become more impassioned.  We fall into silence, into a vortex of sorrow.

Soup is served. To me before all the others.  "Kade summi si o mai lasho summi me xalem ando se murro traiio."  "This is the best soup I've tasted in all my life."  A smile breaks through the silence.

"Show me that!" It had been hidden in my pocket but had buzzed.  "You've got a new one!"  My iphone 4s, symbol of wealth and power, betrays me.  The deepening gulf has little to do with ethnicity or culture.  The gaping gulf is about money.  As my inheritance finds it's electronic route into my bank account, I think of St Francis.  Is the only route to authentic solidarity with the poor, obedience to Jesus' invitation to renounce all wealth?

"Look at his cigarette! In a minute it will be no more.  Ask for the comfort of the Holy Spirit and you will never be thirsty again!"  I shift the ground to escape the uncomfortable question in my heart.  "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness .... and then think about rent, eviction, food, sick relative." Another good quote straight from my armoury of verses painstakingly learnt by rote.  It rings hollow.  Has the gulf deepened or is a seed sown?

Back home to a vicarage now fitted with two power showers to wash away the loneliness and unanswered questions.  I stare into my Macbook and type... "You're a poet...or a fraud."

"Search me, God, and know my heart;  test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."  [Ps 139:23-24]

New Luton Roma preacher!

Vasili has just arrived in Luton with his family to live with Bobby, the father of the triplets. See earlier post.  The two brothers have been part of the revival that has touched many of the Roma communities in Romania.  They bring to us great spiritual passion and commitment.  Here is Vasili yesterday breaking open for our little church the parable of the sower.  Only the seed that falls on the good soil bears fruit.  Many are so weighed down with the troubles of this life, that they are unable to receive the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

I had been praying for the arrival in Luton of Roma men of faith, able to lead and speak, since we began LRC a year ago.  The prayer has been answered!  Everything depends on the emergence of Roma leadership over the months and years to come.  Some of the tiny seeds have fallen into good soil.  We await the harvest.

Meanwhile the issues facing the Roma here become ever harder.  The Job Centre has moved the goal posts, and are no longer recognising the self-employed status of the Roma we take to interview for National Insurance Numbers.  There is a deep injustice here.  Whilst Romanian citizens are legally allowed to settle here, and are only allowed to work as self-employed, the powers that be now refuse to recognise their very best efforts to work.  They are thus trapped in poverty with all the negative consequences of that on the whole nation.

We walk by faith, not by sight, keeping our eyes fixed on a God who intentionally sides with the poor and is poised to bring justice to the oppressed.  

Seeking wisdom...

I've been back and asked why the Roma woman is not allowed to share in the administration of Communion with me in the old people's home.   "She was seen begging in town." "She has not been CRBd".   "You can take communion on your own and don't need a helper." "She strokes people's hands."  

My responses:

"She had to sell flowers in town to feed her 5 children.  This is an offence.  So would allowing her children to starve be an offence."

"She can easily be CRBd."

"In our church we try to do all our ministry in two's and whenever possible and man with a woman."

"We can easily ask her not to stroke hands."

I pray for wisdom and insight...

"Don't bring that woman with you again!"

For three years I have been taking communion to old people's homes in the parish.  But now I've had phone call telling me "not to bring that woman again."   So who is she and why might there be a problem?   I've been taking communion to people in homes for 20 years and have often taken somebody with me from church to help.  The most compassionate of all, the one who shows the greatest desire to get alongside the elderly, is this roma woman who is now being excluded.   I've taken her along with me in this ministry a few times having first noticed how beautifully she related to my late mother when she was still living in a care home.  So why on earth is she being banned now?   Readers will form their own conclusions.  Watch this space!

Triplets born!

On 26 March babies Zara, Luca and Maria were born to us!  Their parents, Bobby and Ana have only just moved to Luton and joined up with both my gadjo church and Luton Roma Church. The plan is to bring their other two children still in Romania over asap so that the whole family can be reunited.  

Bobby and Ana have been a real God-send!  At just the right moment he was there to help me record 18 Bible stories in Luton-Romani [and English].  He was there as language consultant, advising on vocab and pronunciation.  The final DVD will have both visuals and a background music track to bring alive the narrative of the stories.   Keith Holmes, who has been in the field for years, facilitated the project.  

"Wash each other's feet and you will be blessed!"

Last night we celebrated the 60th birthday of one guy who has worked steadfastly to improve the lot of the Luton Roma for two years now.  As he drove across Luton to pick up the local Roma, we kept the secret celebration from him. But he must have guessed by the number coming out of the houses that something was up.  When no seats were left something unprecedented happened.  The Roma guys got in their cars to drive their families into church.  On arrival the lights were turned out and the cake bearing 60 burning candles was brought in to the singing of "mulsantreyaske, la mult san" which I'd just learnt the night before at the birthday of a 3 year old.  Later we had 7 Roma guys role up at worship and they stayed as we heard to story of Jesus' footwashing and the last supper.   The minibus driver had done plenty of "footwashing" for the Roma.  Wash each other's feet, said Jesus, and you will be blessed.  We are being.  Massively.  Just a few days earlier triplets were born to a couple who we had just rescued.

How is the wheel to be mended?

The crushed wheel -

E rota phagi

When I saw this image on the Internet it made an immediate impact.  Something precious has been crushed by overwhelming force.  I was intrigued to see how the Roma would react if shown it at our weekly service. 

The very first thing they saw in it was an angry fist pointing upwards.   I pointed out that the blue represents the sky, and the green represents the green grass of the earth.  They still didn't recognise what I had seen.  I went on to explain that this was a broken wheel, thinking that they would then get it.  But they only saw the damage done to the broken wheel....

The Roma Flag - Wheel
Blue Sky - Green Ear

... only then did I show them this second image. The Roma Flag.  The waggon wheel travelling across the land with the blue sky above. A symbol of freedom.  Immediately they recognised their flag.  I went on to say how the life of the Roma people had been damaged by the gadgios [non-Roma people] over many centuries.  Who was going to repair what had been done?   

It strikes me the fist in the first image might be understood as a militant response of Roma activists.  "We are going to fight back!"  I suggested another interpretation:   

"God wants to repair the broken wheel.  Only he can do this.  He is doing this through those that believe he is a liberator-God, poised to set the captives free.  As this happens in our little Romani church, the lives of those who come will be changed. Luton will be changed.  The world will notice.  What the world has broken, God can restore.  This will be a sign to the world that God reigns."  

It's hard to know how this was received.  The pain may be so deep, so buried in the dust of the centuries, that the Roma cannot see what has happened in any kind of objective way.  But the room filled with silence for a few moments.  The sound of silence is very rare amongst the Roma. Someone is usually talking or laughing.  After the wind, the earthquake and the fire comes... the sound of sheer silence... God speaks....

International Women's Day

As people around the world are thinking about women's rights, many of us are conscious of the subjugation of Roma women.  It's got me thinking about our weekly gathering where we have almost only women and children coming. We have been looking at how Jesus deals with women for some months now.  I'm only just beginning to realise just how revolutionary Jesus approach must have been within his patriarchal community.  The men thought they were top dogs.  Having women brought to centre stage must have been deeply alarming for the the men folk of the day.

Last night we looked at the way Jesus draws the attention of the men in the temple to a lone widow.  The men are rich and give out of their riches to the temple treasury.  This poor widow gives all she has - out of her poverty.  Jesus must have shocked the men at two levels.  Firstly, it was a woman who is setting the example - giving beyond her means as a response to her knowledge of the generosity of God.  Secondly, because it is a woman who is now centre stage.  "The mighty shall be cast down. The humble lifted up."  As Mary sang.  Jesus arrives and the process begins to roll.  2,000 years later it is still underway.

The widow was enacting what it looks like to fulfil Jesus' summary of the Law, to love God with all the resources he has given - however meagre.   I then invited Richard to come and give out £1 coins to each of the women there, explaining that I could afford as I am rich. He followed this by then giving out 10p coins to each woman.  We put a plate out on the side.  "Here's an experiment.  You can either keep your £1.50, take all the money on the plate, put  your £1.50  on the plate, or give 10% [10p] as the Bible invites us to do.  Let me know what happens over the week to come.  God is ready to bless your generosity by opening the floodgates of heaven on you."   Actually, I have got the language yet to put it as nicely as that.  But I think they got the point.  God's greatest gift to us, is FREEDOM.   

Home-grown worship songs and stories

Our last meeting was the best we've had since beginning LRC last May.  Thank you Lord for prevailing over us and bringing peace and order into our gathering!  The Roma seem to have come to terms with the fact that the London Roma have pulled out from coming every fortnight to lead us.  This was a blow at the time.  The reason given was that our Roma men are not coming.  My sense was that the time had come to rise to the challenge to lead ourselves and make the whole thing home grown.

We now have a small number of songs of our own in Romani.  I have to put on my ethnomusicologists' hat and record, write up, and then sing the new songs.  We had Jeannot with us on guitar the first week, and then last week Trevor.  On retreat last week my director suggested I wrote a song.  See below.

To hold the attention during Bible Story time we did a powerpoint showing 12 slides of the story of Jairus's daughter.   This seemed to make a huge difference.

We've also begun singing the UNA club song which will head up the UNA FESTIVAL which we are planning for 2-4 August.   Gradually the kids are getting it.

But best of all is "The Wise Man built his house upon the rock."  I took my first attempt at the story line to one Roma home.  Once we'd got it into Luton-Romani, the girls (who had been educated in Belgium) sang the whole song in French. Word perfect.  Somewhat out of tune.  I suggested they had a go at writing a version in Romani and was amazed when 2 days later that had it all ready.  See below.  A 9 year old girl from another home now sings it from memory every time she sees me.  Intonation coming slowly.  This is so promising and a real breakthrough.  Communities are formed around communal singing.  But none of our Roma here seem to have ever really sung before.   We have far to go, but have turned a corner.

See our new songs in column opposite....