In Leskovac, Serbia, we had the opportunity to meet with another local Roma pastor and gift him with 100 copies of Luke and Bible stories in the Arli language. This is the largest Roma church in Serbia, begun about 35 years ago after the revival began among the Roma in Serbia in the mid-1980s.
Afterwards, we were able to meet with several of our Roma Bible translators to explain the plans for moving forward with more translation of the New Testament, and how we will structure the new translation teams underneath the leadership of The Word for the World Bible Translators. This was a very important meeting to finally sit down with some of the translators and explain changes we are needing to make in order to speed up the translation process as well as give them a chance to ask questions and get clarification. | | coffee and conversation with our dear translators | In the evening, we drove an hour to a Roma church in another city. In that church some of the Roma speak the Arli dialect and some the Gurbet dialect so we handed out the Gospel of Luke and the 50 Bible stories, and played audio clips from Luke 15 in both languages. We handed out copies to the 25 in attendance and left 100 copies for future needs, for the church to distribute or share with other churches.
In the process we also explained how everything we have translated is online and gave them business cards with the web site and YouTube addresses. When one of the believers heard that it was available in audio, he said, “Great! Now I can play it through my speakers and evangelize the whole neighborhood!”
Saša preached from Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son (or perhaps better entitled “the story of the merciful father”). He preached in Serbian so everyone could understand, but also had the pastor read the passage from our translation of Luke 15. To my knowledge, it is the first time a passage of Scripture from our new translations has been used in a sermon, which is a dream come true for me. | | Arli and Gurbet distribution in a Roma church | | Saša preaching about the prodigal son from Luke 15 | Because we would be crossing the border from Serbia into Croatia soon, we had another COVID test the next morning, so we could present the negative test results, which had to be no older than 48 hours by the time we crossed the border. That went smoothly, and we were all negative.
From there we drove over an hour to another city to meet up with the leaders of another Roma church. We went to their Friday service where Pierre preached. This church also has speakers of both Arli and Gurbet, so we handed out Luke and the 50 Bible stories, and played parts of Luke 15 in both languages so they could hear it. We also gave them business cards with information of how they could listen online free on our web site and YouTube.
A special moment was when the pastor invited forward for a prayer a young lady, who like the prodigal son in Luka 15, had wandered away from God, but was now returning. Pierre prayed over her and when she went back to her seat it was with a smile and tears in her eyes. | | Pierre preaching. The sign on the wall is from John 14:6 in Serbian, “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.” | | | Copies of Luke and 50 Bible stories in Arli and Gurbet handed out at church | After that, we met the Serbian pastor who has a printing ministry, and we picked up the copies of the 50 Bible stories in color with pictures, where we had had him print 50 copies in Arli, 50 in Gurbet and 50 in Chergash. He has a real heart for, and ministry among, the Roma so it was exciting that he could take a sample copy of each language, and I could pass on to him business cards to distribute that give the website and YouTube address for people to listen online. | | | The car loaded up with Bible story books in the Chergash language | From there we drove on to another Roma church service. It was outdoors with lively worship music! There, Sergej preached, and we distributed Luke and the 50 Bible stories in the Arli and Gurbet languages. To the adults we gave out the books that include all of Luke, the Bible stories without pictures, and a glossary, and to the children, we gave out the Bible stories with pictures. We handed out about 60 copies and left another 30 for them to share with others later. You can see the pictures below, including one picture (at the very bottom) which I love, of a woman who picked up Luke and the Bible stories, started reading and sat there engrossed in reading for quite some time. | | | | | | | | Gospel of Luke & 50 Bible stories in the Gurbet language | | | | | From there we drove on, enjoyed a late evening supper and birthday celebration for Saša and then stayed overnight at a camp that the Roma church has there, up in the hills. We left about 70 copies in Arli and Gurbet for that church to share with three other Roma churches. | | | To donate by mail, phone or to set up monthly automatic transfers: PIONEERS (account #110250) |
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