Subject: Days 8-9: Recap & highlights of distribution of Gospel of Luke & 50 Bible stories in 4 Roma languages

On day 8 we met up with our Chergash translators, Djena and Biljana, who drove over from Croatia, at a Roma church in northern Serbia, where we introduced Pierre to the pastor there. The pastor has an amazing ministry in 10 villages and a huge heart for the poor and needy. With this pastor, we enjoyed coffee and lunch and time together in fellowship before unloading and leaving with him 50 Bible story books with pictures that are diglots (i.e., with Chergash in one column and Serbian in the other column), 50 Bible story books with pictures in the Chergash (without Serbian), and 200 copies of the book that has Luke, the 50 Bible stories without pictures and the glossary.


While were were there, he arranged that the local TV news channel will do an interview with the translators next month to learn more about our Bible translations and about how Roma live in Croatia. He also arranged to present all our translations of Luke and the 50 stories in all four Roma languages at an upcoming book expo in Serbia, so we gave him copies in those languages as well.


From there we went to a church service outside in another village, and were very warmly received. We presented Luke and the Bible stories, played the audio for them to listen to, and Goran also preached a message. I love the pictures we got, and you can see them below.

 
 
 

Of course, with all our many kilometers of traveling, it was not without problems. Right when we pulled into the village to do the distribution, Pierre ran over a large nail and got a flat tire. It was Saturday evening in a small village, but thankfully, there was a tire service very close by. Even though the old man who ran it had recently had hip surgery and wasn’t normally working, because of our situation, he got it repaired so that by the time church was over, we were able to go on our way.

After spending the night in a small town in Serbia, we crossed into Croatia the next morning. Here we spent more time with the translators, discussing changes and improvements we will be making to speed up the Bible translation project and to get more translators and more churches involved.


From there, we went to Djena and Biljana’s church. Though Djena and Biljana are Chergash speakers, most of the Roma in their church are speakers of two other, very different Roma languages, Bayash and Ludari. We don’t have Ludari done yet, but it was a great joy to share with them printed and audio versions in Bayash.

 

Todd playing the audio version of the story of the prodigal son from Luke 15 in the Bayash language

 

Printed copies in the Bayash language of the Gospel of Luke, 50 stories from the Bible and a glossary

Todd with Biljana and Djena

At the church, I played the audio version of the story of the prodigal son in the Bayash language. Everyone was very attentive and listened well.


At the end of the service, Biljana told me this exciting response to the audio Bible story: there is a man in their church who cannot read and who has been attending their church for probably 10 years. They rarely get much of a response from him when they ask if he has understood what they have been preaching or teaching. But when he heard the story in Bayash played over the speaker, he got so excited. He told Biljana that he understood every word, and he started summarizing the story back to her in Croatian. This is the most he has ever responded to them in church. Praise God!


We handed out Bayash copies to those in attendance and left a few with the church for future needs. I also left with them about 150 business cards with the website and YouTube address that they can share with other Roma so they can access the translations online and listen to them.


We enjoyed a late night supper together and said our goodbyes. Another day well spent.

 
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    This is an online snapshot of a newsletter created by the owner of tlprice (Todd Price, PIONEERS (account #110250), PO Box 621329, 32862 Orlando) and sent via GetResponse on 2021-09-22. Report abuse