While on a layover in Frankfurt Airport the end of January,
I picked up a newspaper to read. Immediately drawn to an article about the
Gypsies in Romania my heart burst into an urgent flaming fire and I said,
“I have to go!”
This April after hosting our annual pastors’ retreat in Bulgaria, I
set my sights across the border for Bucharest, Romania, home to one of Eastern
Europe’s largest garbage dumps. Traveling with two American friends,
Sandy Sandifer and Niki Crosby and two sets of Bulgarian pastors, Mitko and
Altunka (Gypsy), and Mitko and Albena (European), we began our treasure hunt
for precious Gypsies.
It is amazing to me that in such a short time, I have already been to Romania
to visit the Gypsies. God has already given me a deep satisfaction for this
desire and fire He had put in my heart only a few months ago.
With a map of the city in hand, we began to find our way
towards the dump and were thrilled when we started to see garbage trucks.
Jumping up and down we told Mitko our driver, “follow that truck, follow
that truck!” Soon we found ourselves sandwiched in between a little
line of garbage trucks. We traveled along in eager anticipation as we paraded
through this isolated, desolate area of the city.
Approaching the dump, we saw a sizeable chain link fence topped off with barbed
wire. The line of trucks would enter through a guard station and we realized
that we would not be permitted to enter. Looking inside we could not see any
children running around freely.
We decided to follow a dirt road running around the circumference of the dump,
hoping this would lead us to the destitute Gypsies. The weather was cold and
windy. There was so much dust and smoke blowing and the road was extremely
rough. We had to drive very slowly.
We came to a field made up of small little hills of dirt and trash where we
saw a Gypsy family. They were digging the muddy ground with picks and little
axes, raggedy old tools that looked like they were found in the trash. It
looked as if they were tilling the ground getting ready to plant, but all
that they were really doing was digging in search of scraps of metal or any
little coin that they could forage out of there. They told us that if the
weather was nicer, there would be a lot more people out there. Because they
wanted to use their time for working, we took two of their teen-aged daughters
with us down the road and visited a store where we bought them bananas, cheese
and sausage, foods that they could bring back to their family and eat on the
worksite. They were thrilled.
He took us to many places. Each stop that we made was really a visit to one of the many different family members and friends of this young cell phone salesman. In each place we ministered the love of Jesus and prayed for the sick. In each neighborhood they immediately welcomed us into their homes. We had some divine appointments, and invited many back to Kazanlak Bulgaria for our big festival in August. Many told us the same story, we want to go to church but no one will let us in their church! One Mayor even told us that if we come to start a church, he would give us the land for it.
We just kept going on from home to home and neighborhood
to neighborhood, praying for people and giving out fresh bread. We had loaves
of bread that we bought with the love offering that the poor Gypsies from
Bulgaria had given us for their brothers and sisters in Romania. They gave
hundreds and hundreds of little coins in their offering, amounting to 33 Bulgarian
Leva (equivalent to about $21.00 US Dollars).
It was sweet going into all of their homes and praying for the different people,
but I began to get very urgent as I could see that we only had so many hours
left in the day. I was on a mission, and time was ticking!
Inside the van I insisted, “Let’s go to the poor,
let’s go to the worst places!”
Of course I’m speaking in English to our Bulgarian pastor who is then speaking in Bulgarian to our Gypsy pastor who is then speaking Gypsy to our Romanian friend. I don’t know how much of my urgency is carrying through in the translation! I again tried to emphasize through my sea of translators, “Please take us to the poorest of the poor. So far, we have visited every family member and friend, and that is o.k., I understand.” I realized that we had ‘paid the toll to cross the bridge’ so to speak, and now explained to that “I am on a mission and we are not there yet!” Our translators came back to me with the message that “yes, we are on target, we are heading for the poorest of the poor.”
We drive back towards the city and are on more of a main boulevard, and then down another dirt road that was almost bombed-out. We had to drive very slowly, and the road was so rough we actually could have walked there faster. We get to the end of this dirt road and because there are a few nice houses along the way, I begin praying “Oh Lord, not another distant relative who is ‘poor’!”
As we get out of the van, there is a man standing there and
he motions to us as he points down to the corner as if to say “don’t
go down there.”
We smiled to ourselves thinking, “thanks for the directions!”
realizing that this is finally it, we’ve found the place and we are
on our way!
In any language, those directions were really clear and so we began walking.
After about a half of a block, we see through the trees a broken down fence
and a glimpse of little shacks with burlap doorways – we’ve finally
found what we were looking for.
As we arrived, we took a look around and it appeared as if we were standing
in the middle of a junk yard. It’s as if the people go out digging throughout
the dumps and take back their treasures and sort them out in piles. They had
tires in one pile, car parts in another pile, and metal objects in another.
There were about five or six Gypsy men there unloading a small truck and I
immediately went up to them and shook their hands. Their hands were filthy,
absolutely dirty. They had been digging in all of the trash and you could
tell that they didn’t want me to touch them because they were caked
with mud and dirt and filth. But you just can’t care, I touched them
and greeted each one looking them in the eye, and they were shocked. I was
talking on and on as if they could understand what we were saying, and using
sign language. The Gypsies with us were also explaining why we were there,
introducing us and explaining that we are evangelists.
Immediately the women start coming out of their little huts, and we begin
speaking with them. Their homes are makeshift little shanties, and the roofs
are covered with almost anything that they can find. There are a few little
brick or mud walls, but they have taken anything that they can scavenge to
build onto their home – corrugated tin metal, plastic tarps, a window
set in here and there, vinyl, plastic, anything that works. They’ve
also got horses, and the horses are living in nearly the same shelters, built
onto one of the adjoining walls to their homes.
We end up giving stickers and hair barrettes to the children and bread to
the women for their families. We peak inside some of the homes and their floors
are just dirt. To the side there is a little play area for the children. Someone
took a coke bottle and tied a string around it, and attached it to a pole.
They were using it a little like a tether ball by hitting it with a stick.
Then before you know it, Sandy is in one of the houses. She comes out and
invites us all to come inside. As we enter everything is incredibly neat and
in it’s place. The beds are made and their pillows are propped up, they
even have a small table and little pictures hanging on the walls (obviously
scavenged). Pastor Mitko from Dobrich said it was as if they were expecting
company, everything was fixed and ready.
The ladies gathered around us and cried out, “You have a message for
us!” And so I started preaching and sharing with them. I told them that
we had driven around the city all day long looking for them. I told them that
we came from America. We read about them three months ago and said we’ve
got to go find these Gypsies. We came from America, drove from Bulgaria, and
have been driving all around the city all day long until we found you!
Their faces looked like they were in shock and weren’t quite sure if
they understood exactly what we were saying. Again, we are speaking in English
to a Bulgarian pastor who is speaking to a Bulgarian Gypsy pastor who then
translates to them in Gypsy. Could they be hearing correctly?
And then all of a sudden, they bring out a Romanian bible – we don’t know if they found it in the garbage or if someone gave it to them. They began to explain that every day they would gather around in this little grassy area where they did their laundry and try to read from the bible and talk about it, and they’d pray to God.
It was just a whirlwind, so we gathered all of the women and
children outside and I just started preaching the simple Gospel. I told them
that God gave His Son for you, to wash you inside and cleanse you from your
sin so that now His Spirit can live inside you. I encouraged them, “You
can know Him and His presence. You can have a baptism of fire!”
We started laying hands on them and praying, and hugging them too. Some of
them were hiding their faces and seemed so ashamed. It was as if they couldn’t
believe that we were just loving on them and embracing them. It was almost
as if they were expecting to get hit or beat or told that they had done something
wrong, and that we were here to reprimand them. But that wasn’t the
message we brought! We continued to embrace them, we were laughing and singing
songs with them. They were really feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit
and His Love. As we hugged them, some of the women would just break down and
tears would run down their face.
There were two matriarchs in this little community. Somehow, everyone was
related to these two older women who kept giving us their daughters, nieces
and granddaughters to pray for. Sandy prayed for one of these daughters while
holding her face and speaking in tongues. She nodded her head to Sandy the
entire time seeming to understand and then fell into Sandy’s chest crying.
Another woman saw this and wanted the same thing and fell into Sandy’s
chest as well, while the two matriarchs kissed and held Sandy and the girls.
Niki prayed for one of the little babies and instantly the little infant was
overcome with joy – everyone was astounded.
How extravagant is God’s love to send three women half
way around the world to lavish love on these Gypsy women!
As it became time for us to go, they start to walk us out to the front area.
Some men are now coming in from work with their horse carts filled with all
of their trash treasures, and they start looking at us. They were wondering
what these foreigners have done to make their women cry!
All of their countenances had completely changed.
The
women were so visibly moved, and almost staggered back when they tried
to say good-bye to us. My last image is of this one woman with her baby
waving and smiling at us. We invited them to our big festival this August
in Kazanlak, and told them if they show up we will pay for their transportation.
Mitko of Kazanlak told them that he’d even pick them up at the Romanian/Bulgarian
border.
There was such a satisfaction in me at this point. I began to understand
what the Lord meant when He said that He was satisfied:
Is 53:10-11
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
The Father was fully satisfied when He saw the offering of Christ because
now the ungodly could be justified. That word of satisfaction kept rising
up in me. I was thoroughly satisfied and I’ve never felt anything
like this before, this specific sense. It was a thrilling satisfaction.
We are already planning our next trip back...
Cheers
and Ciao!
* 2006 UPDATE:
Read about our summer return visit with over fifty of our closest friends! Click here.
* 2007 UPDATE:
Read about our return in March Click here
and for videos Click here
In August we returned again
