“When visiting Roma churches you will witness them praying with a fervency that will humble you.”
(Top left) A church plant in Szatmarcseke, Hungary, was started by Tibi and Natasha, a young couple who first offered their home as a meeting place for the new congregation. (Top right) Ralph Stocks (center with glasses) works as faculty coordinator of the Gypsy Smith School.
presence among them to help them make life adjustments.” The training that Gypsy Smith School offers can help overcome another problem that Roma church leaders face — a lack of confidence among their own people. “The acceptance of Roma leaders by the congregation has long been a challenge,” Ralph said. “Rivalry runs rampant among Roma, and they do not like to cede authority to another Roma. We found that often they accepted authority more easily from a non-Roma than from a Roma. As time goes by, the laypeople are becoming more accepting of Roma pastors.” The Stocks’ experience in Hungary, where they had a hand in more than a dozen Roma church plants, is an encouraging sign for their work in Romania. They remember fondly a Roma couple in Szatmarcseke, Hungary, named Tibi and Natasha. “This young couple heard of our meetings in other nearby villages and wanted us to start a church in their village,” Ralph said.
Serve
“We gladly went and started a house church in their tiny home, where often 10-12 adults crowded together in a small room.” Tibi, 26, was illiterate. “He wanted so much to read the Bible that with Natasha’s help he taught himself to read — and the Bible became the first book he read,” Ralph said. Their newfound faith led the couple to decide, as an act of conscience, to make their common-law marriage legal. “This had financial consequences, as they could receive higher welfare checks as two single people than they could as a married couple. An already slim budget would get trimmed further. Yet they decided to do that — and in so doing became a model for several other young believers facing the same situation,” Ralph said. But ministry among the Roma will remain challenging. “The future for the Roma in Europe is a mixed forecast. While the European Union and individual governments are taking steps to improve the position of
Roma, we see at the same time increases of hate crimes,” including beatings, murders, property damage and forced evictions, Ralph said. But in the Stocks’ little corner of Europe, the prospects for the Roma people are much brighter than they would be if they — and Romanian Baptists — weren’t there to make it so. “The Roma have proven to be a resilient people, having endured slavery in Romania, extermination in Hitler’s death camps and centuries of discrimination in various forms,” Ralph said. “When visiting Roma churches you will witness them praying with a fervency that will humble you. These are lives that have been changed through the hope that they find in God. While they may never break through the cycle of poverty, it is this hope in the God who loves them that sustains them through their suffering.” By contributing writer Rob Marus
To learn about opportunities to serve alongside the Stocks in Romania, contact CBF staff member Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info. Learn more about the Stocks at www.thefellowship.info/stocks. fellowship!
February/March 2012
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