The following account—summarized from the notes of a missionary—took place recently.
“Gypsies can’t be saved!”
“Why not?”
“Because one must change their ways if they are to be saved, and gypsies can never change.”
Such was the rather prejudiced and wrong conclusion drawn during a conversation between a Romanian Christian and an American missionary. Many gypsies live in this former satellite of the old Soviet Union. Since the collapse of Communism, the gospel has largely had free access into Romania.
But like this Romanian Christian, many believe that a person must make an effort to change in order to be saved. The gypsy reputation of cunning, thievery, violence, begging and fortune-telling are seen as traits impossible for him to change—thus making his salvation impossible!
But in a gypsy village named Barbulesti—a place previously so violent that even the police feared to enter it—the light of the gospel has shone, and many gypsies have been saved. Most of the gypsy believers are very, very poor, with few clothes and little to eat. This is because, after they are saved, they have no jobs. Before they became Christians, they stole to take care of their needs. But when they accepted Christ as Saviour, the stealing stopped.
Now, very few of them can find honest employment, because most Romanians still insist that gypsies cannot change even if they profess to be Christians. Because of the mistaken perception of their countrymen, believers in Barbulesti live in great affliction, poverty and persecution.
On a recent Lord’s Day, the missionary went to visit the Christians there. He had to drive in a downpour which turned the road into mud and he was soon stuck. Some gypsies, walking from the train station to their homes, passed. Though they saw his trouble, none would stop to help. Passing by the missionary’s window, one laughingly shouted at him, “Don’t worry! Your brothers will help you!”
Sure enough, a few minutes later he saw a crowd of over 40 men running toward him through the downpour. Though all were dressed in the best clothing they owned—clothing only worn on the Lord’s Day—without hesitation they waded into the mud and pushed the van free.
Let us who live in these affluent Western lands allow our hearts to be deeply exercised about redeeming the time. Oh! that we might both live and preach the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!
“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-1615That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. (Philippians 2:15‑16)).
Ed.