December 5, 2008

Dear Friends and Family!

Our warmest greetings to you as we all enter the Advent season. Thank you to everyone who sent us Thanksgiving greetings. It was wonderful to be remembered by you. Please know that you were not forgotten at this end, we were simply immersed in a very busy but wonderful time.

As many of you know, Al has been working for over two years now with Piotr Romme, a Baptist from Kostroma, to reorganize and strengthen a network of churches working with the Roma (often known as Gypsies). The leadership team of the network includes both Russians and Roma (and Al). They have worked together to organize evangelizations in different cities and to help one another in what can often be very lonely work. The Roma are widely rejected, if not despised, by their Russian neighbors and tend to have a very low self-image. It is hard even to interest Russians in this ministry, let alone get them excited about it.

My extensive visa-related travels last summer took me to Budapest, Hungary, where I was able to meet with RCA (Reformed Church of America) colleagues, Dick and Carolyn Otterness, who are involved in Roma ministry in both Hungary and Ukraine. After a deep discussion over lunch about the common ministry, it seemed only natural to invite them to Russia for this year’s Roma Network meeting, scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving.

Since the beginning of our connection with Piotr Romme, it had been suggested that we connect him with a young Reformed pastor in Ukraine, Otto Jenei. It was thought that Otto could use Piotr’s encouragement and insight. It seemed only logical to include Otto in this visit as well. To our delight, enough funding was found to bring both Otto and a Roma leader, Béla Horvát. Additionally, Burkhard Paetzold (PC(USA)’s regional liaison for Eastern Europe and Roma ministries, helped with the coordination of all of this, but none of us thought that he would be able to join us. Miraculously, funding appeared for his travel too. Only the Lord could bring all of this about, and this was only the beginning!

From left: Piotr Romme, Ellen, and Al Smith at the Roma Network meeting in Kursk. Photo by Dick Otterness.

Our hopes and expectations for the time together and the time at the network meeting have been surpassed by the Lord’s bounty! Roma ministry is tough. Our efforts to raise interest among churches in the United States have met with only limited response. When I have mentioned the Roma ministry to some of the pastors I work with here, their response has too often been, “What for?” Piotr Romme has knocked and knocked on doors in Russia with similarly modest success. Piotr, though, has continued to make phone calls and visits to explore new contacts across Russia. Every time we saw him, he would share news of his growing connections, but I don’t think even Piotr expected the harvest of this work to be as great as it has been. Until now, the network has seen modest growth every year, but this year the numbers at the network gathering more than doubled, and included many more Roma.

Dick and Carolyn, Burkhard, Otto and Béla arrived during the week before Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal (of lasagna and all the trimmings). Piotr and Olga Romme arrived late in the evening, then early the next morning we all headed to Kursk (500 kilometers southwest of Moscow), where there is a small Christian college that was willing to host us.

We filled the conference room to the walls. Participants shared their witness and their ministry. After each person shared, we would pray for the speaker and then sing. The feeling of unity in this place was amazing. The Roma themselves were making propositions for their church, and the Russians present were supportive. They discussed the need for youth conferences, a drug rehabilitation center for Roma, and expanding network leadership in Siberia. There were some vital discussions, as Russians in the group tried to understand the issues that were important to the Roma. Encouragement flowed across the gathering. Al and I stayed largely on the fringes, trying to keep a low profile, but Burkhard and Dick spoke, and Otto and Béla participated fully.

We were surprised and a little disappointed by the gathering’s initial response to Béla. Carpath Ukraine borders Hungary, and the Roma there speak Hungarian rather than Romani. The Roma at the gathering did not understand how a Roma could be fully Roma without his own language. I think at first Béla was hurt by this, but it also seemed to awaken something in him. By the end of the conference in Kursk, there was no longer any doubt about Béla’s ethnicity or his place within the gathering. The shyness toward us that he had arrived with also began to wear off. He became more and more open and even began joking with us.

We visited a Roma family in Kostroma after the conference at Kursk. Ellen Smith (far left), Burkhard Paetzold and Carolyn Otterness (far right), Piotr Romme (front row left), Béla Horvát (front row center) and Dick Otterness (front row right). Photo by Otto Jenei.

After our time in Kursk, Al returned to Moscow to resume his teaching schedule, and the rest of us headed to Kostroma to spend more time with Piotr and see his ministry firsthand. Béla was a strong witness to the Roma families we met in Kostroma, and as he shared with them, we saw him transform—still humble and quiet, but confident in his faith. Because of his understanding of Roma culture, Béla was able to challenge these families in ways that none of the rest of us could. His witness was profound. He said to the Roma that it was not his Roma blood that had led him astray in his youth. Contrary to popular belief, he said, the Roma are not innately bad. Though almost universally rejected, they can (and must) live a life that is a witness to Christ.

As we sat around the table in Piotr’s house, he received a phone call from the Baptist Union. They had heard about the network gathering. They have now asked Piotr to make a tour of Russian churches and share about Roma ministry. As we sat around the table in Moscow after our return from Kostroma, news came of a grant for Roma ministry in Eastern Europe. The deep fellowship we all experienced had been enough for us, but the Lord’s bounty is greater than our expectations. The news of this growing interest has filled our cups to overflowing.

Otto and Béla have returned to Ukraine. Burkhard, Dick and Carolyn depart today. We are sorry to see everyone going. It has been such a blessed time.

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.

Peace and blessings,

Ellen and Al

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 158