December 8, 2008

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings from Moscow. I don’t come to Russia often. The last time was in winter 2006 with Gary Payton to learn about the Roma in Russia. That intense experience let us see the great benefit that would come from connecting leaders from the Roma mission in Carpath-Ukraine with Roma Christians in Russia. An all-Russian Christian Roma leaders meeting in Kursk seemed to be the right event for such an encounter, and ecumenical networking seemed like the right approach to prepare it.

Ellen and Al Smith in Moscow made the arrangements with Pjotr Romme, a Baptist coordinating Roma work in Russia. The Smiths were working closely with Dick and Carolyn Ottereness of the Reformed Church in America, who work out of Budapest with Roma Mission partners in Hungary and Carpath-Ukraine. The Otternesses were able to get Pastor Otto Jenei of the Transcarpathian Reformed Church interested. He is pastor in the Roma church in Gat/UA and coordinates the Roma mission in his district. In addition to Otto, the Roma lay leader Béla Horvát. from the Nagdobrony Roma Church was invited. Funding for their trip came from Winnetka Presbyterian Church and from Roma Extra Commitment Opportunity of PC(USA)’s World Mission. For instructions on how to give to the Roma ECO, see the postscript to this letter below.

I was happy to be part of this trip. We started our adventure on Thanksgiving day, when everyone arrived in Moscow, including Bela and Otto, whose train ride had lasted 29 hours. Ellen and Al invited us to a multi-national Thanksgiving dinner, with tasty lasagna and a bounty of salads. From here we drove down to Kursk (350 miles south of Moscow).

Christian Roma meeting in Kursk, Russia.

I had expected to find a small group of mostly non-Roma gathering maybe in a kitchen to talk about "Roma problems" (that's the usual expression, as if the Roma—and not their exclusion—are the problem). But I was pleasantly surprised to find more than 40 people, mostly Roma, from all over Russia talking about their own visions and best practices. Some came from remote places in Siberia (more than 3,000 miles away). They had traveled 48 hours to be with us.

The discussion was very lively: youth involvement, drug rehabilitation centers, evangelism, training, cross-cultural encounters, coordination issues. At first, Bela, whose first language is Hungarian, seemed to shunned because he didn’t speak Romani like the other Roma. But eventually he was well accepted, and the Russian Roma had many questions for him, as he had for them.

During the breaks there were often spontaneous musical performances. Rustam, a Roma from Shakhti, Russia, had written a new tune to a hymn from the Baptist hymn book, and the whole group learned the song and sang along with his guitar playing with great joy. Bela and Otto contributed many Roma songs in Hungarian. I made a tape of the song, and it's available as an MP3 file if you'd care to give it a listen.

Béla Horvát, a Roma from Carpath Ukraine, meets Roma in Kostroma, Russia.

Our second destination was Kostroma, about 220 miles north of Moscow. Pjotr Romme (the Baptist Roma outreach coordinator), his wife Olga, and their extended family hosted six of us—Ellen, Dick, Carolyn, Bela, Otto and me) with generous hospitality. We visited several Roma families that Pjotr had befriended over the last few years.

Among the 60,000 Roma in Kostroma, most are unemployed and, as in other socially excluded groups of post-communist Russia, drug use is a big problem. The Soviet regime forced them to settle and assimilate, so only a few of them were able to maintain their traditional businesses, like horse trading or specialized crafts. But any assimilation that may have started completely fell apart after the collapse of the Soviet regime and was replaced by segregation and an outburst of racism.

In such a depressing situation it was a joy for us to see how well Bela, the Roma from Carpath-Ukraine, was able to related to his Roma brothers and sisters and how quickly they were comfortable talking about their common feelings of fear (racism, discrimination in both environments) and joy (the strength of family ties, community) as well as about the relationship of Roma tradition to faith. The only problem was there was never enough time.

We have a lot to follow up, such as inviting Russian Roma to visit Ukraine, and an exchange of Roma training facilitators or resources, for example.

The most important outcomes are that we all have learned to see the Roma as a nation and that it is greatly enriching to hear them raising their own voice to praise God and using their own hearts and hands to work for Christ's kingdom.

Peace be with you in this coming Christmas season.

Burkhard

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 156.

If you'd like to contribute to Roma ministries, checks from individuals may be sent to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Individual Remittance Processing, PO Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Contributions from churches should be sent to the normal receiving site or: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Church Remittance Processing, PO Box 643678, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3678. Write the title (Roma Ministries in Europe) and the ECO number on the subject line (E040061) of the check. To give online, click the "give" button below.