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By Grace Fox
 | | Christian fellowship in Slovakia. Left to right: Gypsies (Roma) Anna and Laco; Grace and Gene Fox. |
GREY concrete apartments stand clustered on the
outskirts of Kosice, Slovakia, forming a community. Unlike similar
apartment blocks within the city, however, this complex has no grass
underfoot and no swings or slides for the children.
Instead, an abandoned Fiat draws them like a magnet.
The car’s doors are ripped off, its windows smashed. A boy hammers on
the dashboard while his buddies cheer. Garbage lies in heaps; many of the
buildings’ windows are shattered.
Welcome to Lunik IX – the worst Gypsy ghetto in
Eastern and Central Europe. Roughly 6,500 people live here. Sometimes two
or three families share a two bedroom apartment.
Considered society’s outcasts, the Gypsies
– officially known as the Roma people – are shunned by the
mainstream population. The government built a school on the property, so
children could attend classes with their own kind. Then it built a swimming
pool, so they wouldn’t use the city pools.
The unemployment rate is 98 percent. Residents enjoy
neither heat nor hot water, but there’s no shortage of alcoholism,
gambling, abuse and incest.
Poverty and hopelessness pervade. But in the midst of
the darkness, the light shines.
A church sits on the property, established through
International Messengers missionaries Karla and Brad Thiessen, from
Saskatoon.
When they moved to Slovakia 16 years ago, the Roma were
still classified as an unreached people group. But that spiritual landscape
looks different now.
Laco, a Gypsy who converted to Christianity
nearly a decade ago through the Thiessens’ ministry, shepherds a
small congregation whose members live in the ghetto. Once hooked on
alcohol, gambling and smoking, he’s now addiction-free and committed
to sharing the gospel. He does that through preaching the word, and writing
worship songs.
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While on a recent ministry trip to Slovakia, my husband
Gene and I met Laco.
A half block past the beat-up car, his church stood in
stark contrast to our churches, with their padded pews, carpeted floors and
massive parking lots. Entering the concrete facility required walking
around a chicken-wire fence, which protected its windows from vandals.
The sanctuary held 40 people. As chattering kids dashed
in and out of the room, the congregation launched into worship songs led by
a guitarist and a blind accordion player.
Laco smiled. “I love music,” he said
through our translator. “My right hand was crippled many years ago,
but God has shown me how to play a guitar in spite of it.”
Then he noted one of the challenges he faces: because
Roma is not a written language, he and other Gypsy Christians have no Bible
in their own tongue.
“There are approximately 500,000 Gypsies in
Slovakia,” he says. “Perhaps 500 are believers. There are two
official Gypsy churches in the Kosice area. There’s much work to do
among the Roma people; we’re praying for the Lord to send more
labourers into the harvest.”
His deepest desire is “to see my people come to
know Jesus as Saviour – so they, too, can be set free and experience
healing.” God is answering his prayers. Two women’s groups, a
children’s outreach, a teen program, a men’s group and two
church services meet in Lunik IX every week.
We prayed for each other’s ministry. Our faith in
God united our hearts despite the language barrier, and the fellowship was
sweet. As we turned to leave, Laco’s wife Anna kissed me on both
cheeks; I felt blessed beyond belief.
Back in cozy Canada, I think of Laco and his family
– reflecting the light in the shadow of Lunik IX’s congested
apartments. I thank God for a memory I will always treasure.
Based in Abbotsford, Grace and Gene Fox are national
directors for International Messengers. Contact:
internationalmessengers.org.
November 2007
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