Roma Diary ( Extracts from my Journal)

2010-09-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Exodus 18 v 18

Moses father in Law Jethro says to Moses........“ Both you and these people will wear yourselves out. This is too much for you, you are not able to do this work alone.”

There were cobwebs in the top corners of the walls in the room. They stretched down the walls in the corners and gave way to bare wood floor boards. The presence of flies inhabiting all the air space between the small table and the miniature stove gave the impression something was wrong at the deepest level. Four wooden chairs were pushed in tight under the table. On the wall were some old pictures of relatives, a felt picture of Jesus with a halo, a large hole in the plaster that looked as if someone had hit it with hammer for no reason other than frustration and a small shelf with a plastic Virgin Mary looking out the window. The window had a large crack from top to bottom.

The heat was almost unbearable and any question proposed about getting air conditioning would have evoked peals of laughter. The young teenage girl who served the coffee was very pregnant. This was her second out of wedlock child. As a minor without any prospect of marriage she had that sense of age that was not registered by flesh tones but that unconscious something that we can not explain empirically. Very soon the whole of her life would revolve around one central principle, survival.

The father of the home walked in. He looked like a human Buddha statue with an enormous extended stomach. He held an open bottle of beer loosely in his hand. He wore no shirt just a pair of track suit bottoms. His jet black hair was almost all shaved off because of the heat. He looked at the stove and the stew of vegetables that was brewing before him. His life of insecurity and inferiority had found an outlet in bullying women and children. Bruised faces, cut lips and broken hearts lay as a trail of testimony to his weakness. No one loved him and he loved no one.

His wife and surrogate mother who mended all the broken pieces his life produced, busied herself around the stove. Her long black hair was the only indication that she was twenty years younger than she looked. Her eyes were dead but she was breathing.

Another man walked in who was so thin that he had that last stages of starvation look to him. The tragedy of a life of chronic alcoholism seemed to cry out from his passive broken form. He smelt like he had been in a cell for a long time. There was no beauty at all that could be seen or felt in his presence.

Sitting at the table was a young man about 13 years old. In front of him was an open book. It was the Gospel of Mark in his own language. He looked at the pictures and then carefully read the sacred words of Jesus as He cast out a demon from a man in the Synagogue.

The boys father stopped just as he was going to drink from his bottle and looked at his son. The mother turned from her stove and stared at the boy as he read. For a moment the very pregnant sister found herself looking over her brothers shoulder trying to make out the sounds from the alphabet he was reading. The father spoke first, “What does that mean?”

The young boy looked up from the page at his father, then his mother and then his sister.

“ I do not know but we need someone to teach us because this is the Word of God.”

Also, unseen in the room was an angel. He smiled as he watched then drew a trumpet from a brown leather bag tied to his waist. He raised the trumpet to his lips and then blew a blast that caused heaven to burst into laughter and singing.

….........a young married woman in Virginia suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night and finds herself praying for the Bayash.

…......A man goes onto Paypal and sends a huge gift for the Bayash Bible translation.

........ a Church Elder board without fully knowing why agree to sell their new state of the art Church building and finance 100 new Gypsy Church buildings, three Bible schools and five years salaries for 20 Gypsy Evangelists.... They agree to start meeting in a tent and having a weekly prayer meeting......

…....Five young students decide to change their majors from money credits to Blood credits and start meeting to pray about establishing a youth community in a Gypsy village.

….........In a small North East African village a theological student finally breaks down and weeps and says to God, “ I give in Lord, I will go and be a missionary in Europe among the Gypsies.”

Hell-Gram date line September 2010

Immediate Release STOP Reinforcements Needed in Central Europe STOP The crazy one and dear you know who, have cracked the Jethro Moses key STOP Maybe Too Late STOP People praying STOP Bayash Harvest Imminent STOP Do we bring in the Istanbul Boys Or do we cut our losses and leave STOP Advise STOP

Roma Diary ( Extracts from my Journal)

2010-08-29T10:17:00.001-07:00

In just five more days our seven year term here in Central Europe will come to a close. I was out walking and praying this afternoon and I sensed that the Lord was constraining me not to focus on all the failures but rather accept what is reality and then enter into intercession for the lost and broken fragments to become the foundation for the future.

There have been so many failures. Some were even spectacular failures and yet the truth is the Gospel has advanced among the Bayash and the Word of God is bearing fruit.

If you were to ask me why has there not been more fruit for all the labour my answer would be very simple. My life has not reflected the life of Christ in ways that people could truly look at me and say that Jesus was visible in their midst.

What does that really mean. It means this. The Bayash need to see Jesus in demonstrations of power expressed in the fruit of the Spirit being evident in the lives of those who minister to them. So what do we do about it? We keep coming back to the Cross of Christ over and over again confessing Pride, Anger, Fear and human self sufficiency and cry out more and more for a deeper walk of Brokenness, Humility, Gentleness, Kindness, Love and Grace.

I am though convinced that we are on the brink of a breakthrough with the Bayash. My sense is that we will enter into our second term and that will also be a term of sowing seed in all three countries but that some time not far down the road we will see a harvest of Bayash souls. Some of us now are praying for 10,000 Bayash converts in Churches led by Bayash pastors worshipping and reading the Scriptures in the mother tongue.

There is something about the Cross of Christ that can only be resisted for so long. Not by the Bayash but those of us who seek their salvation. It starts with us. But in reality it starts with the many upholding the few in prayer, finances, love and compassion. If this Cross is preached by people whose hearts are clean this people will come to Christ in large numbers. I have no doubt in this area.

I am going back to America broken in many ways. The betrayals, the demonic oppression, my sinful heart and the physical exhaustion all conspire to break that which was once confident and strong and perhaps even talented. I told dear Nancy on Skype the other day I just want to curl up and put my head in her lap and go to sleep.

She herself has been more than just a help meet in these seven years. She broke and broke and broke and still the sweetness came forth. I can not live without her but I know in God's economy maybe I will have to one day.

So off to America for a few months and then back into the cannons. Maybe after 10 weeks in America these Bayash cannons will be a relief, who knows.

Roma Diary Digest

Roma Diary ( Extracts from my Journal)

Roma Diary ( Extracts from my Journal)