December 2004

Dear Friends

I wish you all a blessed Christmas season.

In this letter—which is really part II of a letter I sent in November—I will tell some more stories about Roma in western Ukraine. In October and November I traveled to Transcarpathia Ukraine twice.

In October I was accompanied by Clara Nunez of the Self-Development of People office of the PC(USA) and Carolyn and Dick Otterness of Reformed Church of America, who have just decided to work with the Roma in this part of the world. We went to places where there are many Roma, such as Munkacs, Gat, Papi, and Komoroz, and met with Roma leaders. I hope we were able to encourage them to work out community development projects for farming, sewing, or building community rooms.

A Roma camp near Beregszasz has a very bad reputation. People say since that since there is no other source of income the men work abroad (mostly in Russia). The rumor is that some are begging and stealing.

When I arrived there with another group from Winnetka Presbyterian church in November—it was election day in Ukraine—we became aware that a wall had been built around the camp to make it even more like a ghetto. Some Roma women told us, “They treat us like a leper camp.”

The only Roma building outside the camp is a church built by the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia. There are not many church members. The pastor, his wife, and a group of non-Roma supporters struggle with community projects and activities that could be helpful. The day we arrived was bitterly cold. I felt that the Roma needed their rhythmic songs to warm their hearts as well as their bodies, and we could hear the mothers coughing beside their kids. It was obvious that having a community room with heat is most important not only for social needs, but also as a community health project.

The PC(USA) has provided money for the leadership training and for the reconstruction of the building. I could see the difference made by the gifts and the efforts of the local people. The reconstruction is still unfinished, yet we hope to support this initiative until it is self-sustainable.

One important bridge to the Roma is the “Roma-Gadje Initiative through Service,” which is designed to bring local and international volunteers to serve together in social projects with Roma.

I visited many of the young adults from Western Europe, Hungary, and the United States (sent by the PC(USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) who are working in kindergartens, schools, and community centers among Roma. The number has increased this year significantly: 17 volunteers are working with Roma this year in Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. For the first time there are among them three young man with Roma backgrounds.

These young people are pioneers who daily demonstrate God’s love for all God’s children. Through the volunteers, the Roma know they are not forgotten. The volunteers will return home, share the story of the Roma’s difficult life and their hopes for the future.

I wish you a pleasant Advent, which in my home country Germany is a season of hope even in the dark days of the coming winter, and a merry Christmas.

Let us show that we don’t believe in the right of the powerful, or in mighty weapons, or in the power of oppression. Let us celebrate Christ who has come as a little child to heal us and set us free from all our dependencies.

Yours truly,

Burkhard

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 160