Andrzej and I have recently been in the mountains of Slovakia for a few days. Andrzej Mirga (Roma Christian leader in southern Poland).and I went "fishing for Roma" and we found around 2500 Roma in an area in north central Slovakia.
It was the first time they ever heard the real gospel message. They knew only some catholic teachings about Mary and the church is the way to go to heaven.
The street side meetings began with them having great suspicion of who and why we we want to talk with them. Then it got ugly with drunk men and women screaming about "Mary is the mother of God and we only pray to her".
By God's grace as we shared the scriptures, hearts began to change and open up. We shared the whole gospel message and there are now a few homes that are open for us to return to. After 2 1/2 hours of many people coming and going, the crowd would become huge with over 300 people pressing all around us, then it would dwindle down to a couple hundred people, then increase again. A core group of 100 or more people stayed the whole time and listened intently.
As we reentered Poland we were by a Roma village were 5 years ago, they said they would kill me if I ever returned. I saw a Roma women from another village I work in sitting out by the road, so I pulled over quickly and Andrzej said " Are you sure you want to stop here?" "This is a real bad place"
I said, "I have a good feeling about this". So we got out of the van, walked over and began talking to the women I knew and a couple other women. Then I asked the women if we can walk through the village. They looked at Andrzej and told him "he (me) can go if he dares to"
As we were walking through the village, Roma men would cuss at us out the windows, but we just kept walking and praying.
When we arrived near the end of the village a man yelled to us and told us to come to him. We did. He was the "king" of the village.
We spent 3 hours talking with him and his many family members. He is 72 years old and very rich. God truly blessed our time there. We shared the gospel message clearly to them all and we also talked about how and what God had done for us through Jesus.
We are welcome back to his home again! He is active in the Roma communities and he is one of the representatives for the Roma at the annual Roma day at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz Roma day is August 2, so I will be there to see him again.
We are praising God for what He did there and for His protection!!!!!!!!!
God's word is alive and active, sharper than a two edged sword....... Hebrews 4:12
