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In their music I feel the burdens of a downtrodden people. I hear the echoes of a history of repression and sadness, a yearning for a common home for their common culture. The Gypsies as a people group have never had a country of their own, and something in my spirit feels that, though I don’t understand their language.

Historically, the Roma or Sigani (Gypsy) people came from India. Known as travelers, as vagabonds, as mysterious and outcast, Gypsies have settled in many countries, but are still able to communicate using the Gypsy language (of which there are several dialects) and feel kinship with one another. They have settled in Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, other parts of Europe and other more far-flung places like America.

 

 

 

 

 

Seemingly wherever they go or however long they have been settled there, the Gypsy people are not considered local. Their identity is marked on their ID cards as a separate minority, not belonging. They have been prejudiced against, stereotyped and disliked.

I believe that any Christian should be able to identify in some small way with the Gypsy people. Why? Because we dont belong here on this earth. This is not our home. Rather, we were created to be at home with God.

And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. …Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. ~Heb. 11: 13, 16

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, … For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.
~2 Cor. 5: 1-7

Like the Gypsies, able to feel kinship with one another no matter which country they’ve settled in, Ive felt kinship with the church everywhere we’ve been on the Race this year. Whether Nicaragua, Vietnam, Burma, Swaziland, Malawi or here in Romania, we have one Spirit–the Spirit of God–that dwells within our hearts and unites us as the body of Christ on earth, the church. We as members of one family all know our home is not this earth.