A Missionary's Departure-Part 4: Arrival and Adjustment!

In hindsight, my previous 3 posts were pretty depressing! Departure from the USA was quite difficult and the adjustment to being in Europe has been somewhat difficult. However, it has been with a strong sense of God's leading and calling and the adjustment has taken place quite quickly. So, now I would like to write about the best part of departure from the USA....arrival in the Czech Republic! Every good bye is a hello somewhere else and it has been a joy to re-connect with old friends and ministry partners and make new ones. On this first term as a full time missionary to the Roma I am able to use my time quite differently than before and it has been wonderful.

Where should I start? Club Rachel is the Roma ministry closest to my heart so I will start there. The best way to describe what is happening there is to say that structural conditions have changed in such a way that the Holy Spirit is free to work. Ivan and Jana have accepted the role of leadership in a church that has grown from a club for children to a place where the parents sit and hang around to an informal prayer/praise time to a church with three meetings per week and a lot of pastoral visits. The Becker family is definitely helping out but keeping the focus on the lay leaders of the church. (This is not hard to do because everyone loves the Beraneks and naturally follows them). Our role includes continued building up of the leadership within the church, seeking holistic ministry strategies (one of the prime concerns in unemployment among the Roma), and pastoral visits. There are a lot of joys and a lot of challenges in any church plant so please keep this little church in your prayers.

And God is working in other Roma churches in the Czech Republic. I have re-connected or connected anew with Roma Christian workers in Decin, Plzen, Brno, and here at home in Prague. In the next few months I will be visiting quite a few different Roma churches and talking with other ministry leaders. There are a lot of Roma Christians who are strong in their faith and want to expand God's kingdom among their own people. These people are the key to my job here as a missionary. As I work to develop, empower, and release these workers, their influence will be farther reaching than mine alone could be. For a Roma church movement to take root in Europe, it will take networking and partnering with other groups who are following the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Two questions are occupying me greatly these days in regards to Roma ministry:

1) What is the best way to raise up Roma Christian ministry leaders?

and

2) What is the best way to do holistic ministry among a poor, marginalized people group that lives in the middle of an industrialized nation?

In the next months and years, I will be enjoying the challenge of finding answers to these questions.

It is good to be back!