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....

"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...