Gypsy agape

The Romanian Christian culture

is a hard one for the Christian youth of the country. As we have seen in so many places and churches around the world, including our own churches, religion often gets in the way of faith. The Communistic and Orthodox background here in Romania influences the religion and gives the country an extra challenge when it comes to faith. During Easter weekend we were witnesses to the challenges that religion and persecution have on one young girl.  

Alex is a thirteen year old Gypsy girl growing up in Viile Tecii, Romania. She has believed in God for a few years now but has been scared to make the step of faith that comes with baptism. It is hard enough to be a young Gypsy girl in a country that does not welcome your race, but even harder to have a faith outside the religious box of Orthodox Christianity.   When Alex found her faith in the salvation that comes only through Jesus, she and her family no longer attended the Orthodox Church and the teasing and harassment at school began.   Alex wanted to be baptized but the church told her she was too young and she was scared this act of faith would make life even harder for her at school. Both religion and persecution were keeping her from acting on her new-found faith. 

When Alex heard that two of the American girls wanted to be baptized on Easter Sunday, she finally worked up her courage to be baptized as well. Tears streamed down her face for the majority of the service because she was both excited and scared. She was excited to finally share her faith with her community and friends, but scared about the consequences it might bring to her social life. With her mother close by and her father baptizing her, Alex finally made her step of faith!

Of course, God always blesses those who step out in faith and Ferdinand’s story is not a coincidence. Ferdinand is a young man who lives two houses down from Alex and her family. He has struggled with alcohol for years and his addiction has quickly been destroying his life. He is known in the community has a troubled young man, and his wife and child left him when the abuse got to be too much. Not that long ago, Ferdinand hit rock bottom when he got into a bar fight that left him in the hospital. He had made a deal with God that if he lived he would turn his life around, but after being released from the hospital he quickly went back to his same old ways.   

Little did Ferdinand know that God would hold him to his promise. While Ferdinand stood across the street listening to the testimonies and watching young Alex be baptized, tears started streaming down his face. He had remembered the promise he made to God and was finally ready to give his life over to his Creator.   He said that he could not explain what happened in his heart but he knew God had moved and in a moment he was changed! In that moment, Ferdinand knew that he wanted to be baptized and there was no stopping him.

I’ve already seen the difference that Ferdinand’s faith has made in his life. One of the first days we were in the village this man came up to Katie and I with inappropriate intentions. I didn’t understand what he was saying but his actions made his motives clear. As always, we blew him off and then avoided him every time we saw him outside his house. The day after Ferdinand was baptized, a few men were walking down the street at night and stopped to make a few comments in our direction. Ferdinand was outside his house and quickly came to our defense. The man who was once quick to join in the taunting was now standing up against his peers in our defense. This is just a small example of what God has done in Ferdinand’s life already, but we see the evidence of his new faith in so many ways!  God has completely restored him into a whole new person!