A few more days have passed and a few more experiences to report. Friday, we went to a village called Negresti where this is a small Baptist church. We conducted the first of a series of workshops on planting churches. I taught a session on casting the vision. It went well and there were four groups from at least two different denominations. Among the group present, all were Gypsy, otherwise known as the Rom. I'll tell you more about them from a cultural standpoint later.
These men are ready to plant 13 churches in as many villages. They just wanted some supporting structure and help to get it all down on paper so that they could be prepared to share with others when they had opportunity. This was an exciting three hours of teaching and being around men who saw no obstacle too great that it could not be overcome.
On the way home I saw a sight that I had previously seen in Romania before but had never documented. While most of us view physical handicaps, such as having no legs, a limitation that can only be overcome with prosthetic devices or a chair that is not the case this area of Romania. While watching the pedestrian traffic I noticed a man using his arms to swing himself along the street in perfect rhythm. I couldn't remove my focus from his hands which seemed so large and met the ground at perfect perpendicular angles. Others were not staring, but the temperature was about 34 F and that made me reflect upon it even more.
A friend had asked in an email this week about the Rom, or Gypsy people. Let me share with you a few facts, some of which are very disturbing. The Gypsy people were exterminated in large numbers during the Holocaust by Hitler, Stalin, and their own countryman wherever they may have lived. They are a people whose roots extend to the Asian subcontinent (India) and are often known in the west as travelers. There are groups that are nomadic, but many have their own villages in which they reside that lie on the margins of the normal towns. Their culture is quite different than that of most of their neighbors. They might best be described as somewhat tribal in custom. Among the many displayed and tolerated behaviors are polygamy, physical abuse, and thievery. The other side of the coin reveals a people that are intensely passionate about life and who approach it in the same manner.
Most of the people that we are training are Rom. To let you know what these people currently face from some of the Romanian general population used to be second hand information. Today, for the first time, I had a Romanian, (President of the local Baptist Association) tell us that they were worthless people who would just fall away. He went on to tell us that the only good Rom was a dead Rom and the only way to be sure they were saved was to hold them under forever when they were baptized. I now understand what Jesus meant when he talked about righteous anger. He was told in the most polite way that Jesus saved all kinds of people. We needed him to sign a paper to renew the missionary's visa for the next five years. Pray for this man. It is no wonder that people are fighting and killing each other all over this world when Christians demonstrate this kind of brotherly love. Can we talk too much about love? Jesus always distilled it down in those terms when he gave us an even greater commandment.
The remainder of the day was lackluster: we had a blow out on the highway, the jack was broken, and we made it home safely.
