Community: Romanian Playgrounds of Hope

Mihaela Kovacs speaks in Baytown, TX

Mihaela Kovacs, Romania, Director of a faith based ministry Fundatia Beraca (Blessings Foundation) and a member of the ROM - Renewing Our Minds core leadership group in Europe, has been a source of joy, hope and healing in the lives of the young Roma population in Romania for many years. The latest project of her ministry focuses on building bridges between the Romanian Roma communities and other people in Romania. Recently she shared her experiences at a number of places in the US, including Houston TX. On there way to the Houston Intercontinental Airpot she agreed to share the highlights from her most recent story of how a simple playground project can bring different different people and church communities together in their desire to bring joy and hope into the lives of the Romanian Roma children. Mihaela too shares a Roma background. Time: 13:37 min.

Investing in a New Generation of Roma Leaders

Barabas-Savu Stelica and Cristina Si Stelica are an amazing couple from Sigishoara, Romania. They are also serving as church pastors and educators in several Roma villages near Sigishoara. Barabas is also an ethnic Roma. He was the first well educated young Roma person in his village with a degree in Political Sciences. Although Barabas and Cristina could have pursued some good and well paid carriers in Romania or abroad, both have committed their lives in service to the Roma people in Romania. Their work is spiritual and educational in character. Their vision is to help develop a new generation of Roma children and young people, well educated and in love with Jesus. Barajas and Cristina are planning to develop a special ROM - Renewing Our Minds project in order to develop young Roma leaders. This interview was recorded in Fuzine, Croatia, in August 2015, at the time of the 2015 Renewing Our Minds (ROM) Gathering. Time: 16:55 min.

WE NEED MORE OF ROM

Photo: Roma camp Konik 1 in Podgorica, Montenegro was lost in fire on Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Marko Stupar, a member of the ROM Trial of Friendship 2012 team, shares his experiences from the trip in July.

Bojan Ruvarac and I joined the ROM 2012 Trail of Friendship trip in a small place in Montenegro on 14^th of July 2012. I am glad I was able to join the second half of the trip and witness great things that many Romates are doing in the region. Among many great experiences I would like to single out  the two that impacted me the most.

First one happened in Kosovo.

Kosovo has been a place of conflict between Serbs and Albanians for the last 30 years, but the last 10 years have been the toughest. Still, as I write this, there are minor conflicts going on and people there don’t live in complete peace.

This was my first visit to this region ever.

As a Serb visiting this part of Balkans, it wasn’t easy for me. The first time I attended a Renewing our Minds Gathering (ROM) was in 2006. This was the time when I got rid of many prejudices towards Albanians. But to take a big step such as visiting Kosovo in person was a challenge nevertheless.

I thought that people would not be friendly towards me and that I will have to face some uncomfortable situations. But what I experience there was completely different! People were amazingly friendly to all of us in the traveling group, especially to Bojan and me. They wanted to talk to us, to treat us; they even refused to talk in English but talked in Serbian all the time. I experienced different Kosovo then the one I see in the news all the time.

Also, I felt huge power of the ROM community and importance of the program. Even thought I had a great time there, I know that there are still many people on both sides who hate each other and that is why I think that ROM is necessary in this region. We need more peacemakers, reconcilers and leaders who are willing to stand firm, not for nationalistic views but as peace builders.

Second powerful experience took place in Montenegro. 

We visited Sinisa Nadazdin and his work with a Roma community. At that very day when we were visiting Podgorica, on Tuesday 25^th July, one of the two big refugee camps - populated by Roma families for the past thirteen years - burned to the ground. Most of the families lost everything they had however little that was.

But still, a group of Roma believer in Jesus gathered in a small church this afternoon to pray and worship the Lord. This was a worship I’ve never experience in my life before. There was a great presence of joy, humility, mixed with grief in that room. They were praising the Lord even though some lost everything they had, or someone close to them lost everything.

It made me think about how self-focused I am often. I had to go all the way to Podgorica to see that there are people in a dire need who nevertheless have courage to trust in Jesus.

It made me also more mindful about a Roma community not far away from me in Novi Sad that lives too in very poor conditions. I would like to help those people somehow. Maybe the first step will be to collect some clothes for them.

Many other great things happened on this trip, but one thing comes out clearly. ROM has a great influence in the region and many who have attended ROM gatherings in the past are now doing great things of service in their communities because they were touched by the spirit of Jesus at ROM.

So my conclusion is very simple. We need more of ROM, and we need to send as many young leaders as possible to ROM gatherings and events so that they can become equipped to change their communities.

Marko Stupar, Novi Sad, Serbia

Hundreds of Roma Refugees in Montenegro Homeless

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Dear Friends,

Let me share a brief account of a very dramatic event our Renewing Our Minds Team witnessed at the very end of our Southeast European Trial of Friendship 2012.

On Tuesday July 24, 2012 we were in Podgorica, Montenegro, and our plan was to visit two Roma camps (Konak 1 and Konak 2) crowded with refugees from Kosovo, who sought their refuge in Montenegro in 1999. The two refugee camps were supposed to be their temporary shelter till a permanent solution was to be found. However over the past 13 years the two camps has become their permanent home, neglected by the Montenegrin Government, abandoned by international humanitarian agencies, and treated as a nuisance by the local population. In short hundreds of Roma families living in the two camps under appalling conditions are stuck in poverty, with no prospect of a more dignified life conditions in the future.

Sinisa Nadazdin, who has committed the past ten years of his life to helping and serving Roma refugees in those two camps, took us on Tuesday to the camps, only to become unwilling witnesses of an outstanding tragedy. On the morning of our visit fire broke out, most likely caused by accident, in the biggest Roma camp of the two (Konak 1). Extreme heat that has visited the entire region for more than a month made the wooden Roma homes an easy pray to the fire that in no time consumed up to 80% of all homes in the camp Konak 1. Only a few homes were spared. One thousand Romas lost their homes and everything they possessed to the flames.

Our team witnessed children, young people and old, trying to rescue whatever they could - not much really. We saw children and Roma families wondering confused and lost, trying to make sense out of the tragedy.  I heard some of them saying that "it would have been better had they died in the fire than to have lost their modest homes and the few possessions they had. None of us in the team could keep our eyes dry as we pondered helplessly at the overwhelming consequences of the disaster that struck so many Roma families in Podgorica that Tuesday morning.

And yet, in the middle of the tragedy that plunged close to one thousand of Romas in Podgorica into a new stage of miserable existence, we witnessed something beautiful that none of us in the team would ever forget. Sinisa Nadazdin, who is also a leader of a small but growing Roma church community, invited us to their Roma church house for a special prayer service. In no time the small room was filled with Romas, more than twenty, some of who lost all their possessions, which for two hours worshiped the Lord through prayer, music and sharing times in the most beautiful way. The honesty of their prayers, sincerity of the spirit and the simplicity of their faith was a powerful witness to what it means to trust in the Lord even at the time of a great tragedy. A more meaningful worship I have not experienced for a very long time.

The Roma victims in Podgorica, Montenegro who have lost their homes and all belongings need our help. The Government of Montenegro is slow again to provide any meaningful assistance. And yet those people and their families need urgently portable homes, tents, mattresses, blankets, urgent humanitarian aid to sustain their lives at this time. Would you know a person, church community or an organization that could help? Maybe you too can do something too to help?

Information or further questions related to the nature of the most immediate help that could make a difference in the lives of the hundreds of homeless Romas in Podgorica at this time could be obtained from Sinisa Nadazdin, our friend and Romate, who is very well known and respected in the Roma communities in Podgorica. His contact details are: nadazdin@t-com.me , mobile number if +38269352052. Please, ask Sinisa about what you can do to elevate the suffering of the homeless Roma families in Podgorica, Montenegro.

Thank you for whatever you can do. Remember the words of Jesus: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matt. 25:40.

Tihomir Kukolja

Renewing Our Minds, Director

Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation, Executive Director