Engage Magazine - Issue No. 115 of The Nazarene Mission International from The Global Church of the Nazarene in Lenexa, Kansas, United States which is a global mision magazine for Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Engage Magazine - Issue No. 115 of The Nazarene Mission International from The Global Church of the Nazarene in Lenexa, Kansas, United States which is a global mision magazine for Wednesday, 21 September 2016www.engagemagazine.com Wednesday, September 21, 2016 Issue #115

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Nazarenes in East Africa train and equip refugees for ministry by Michelle McLane
Refugees in East Africa produce Christian radio programs in 11 languages, and through handcrafts are learning how to articulate messages of Christian hope, love and peace to their communities.
As more than half a million refugees seek shelter throughout northeastern Africa, longtime Nazarene missionaries Gabor* and Tafui* Buhari are employing innovative ways to serve them: radio broadcast, training in handicrafts, and reuniting separated family members.
Refugee internet radio
One of the tools they have found most effective is radio ministry. Through radio, Gabor, Tafui, and their partners are reaching areas near and far, especially those they cannot easily or safely travel to. Nazarene in East Africa transmit radio programs through World Mission Broadcast in 11 native languages, reaching thousands of listeners every week. Counterintuitively, the radio programs that are broadcast to camps made up of refugees and local communities from other faith groups do not include explicit gospel messages. There is a lack of openness to Christianity among these groups. Instead, programs cover subjects like reconciliation, peace, hope, love, public hygiene, relationships, family and marriage. Through these neutral topics, the people find many needs met, and every message brings them God’s comfort.
“They’re scared,” Gabor explains. “They lack peace, so we talk about peace. They lack love; talk about love. They lack hope; we talk about hope.”

In fact, refugees have been so deeply touched by the love of Christ through Nazarene radio that they now run many of the radio programs produced, writing and recording programs to reach their communities. Sixty to 65 programs are created every three months. These are posted to the Africa East Field isoundcloud.com website and Facebook, and pastors are encouraged to download and broadcast the programs in their local areas.
Providing security
Ministry to refugees in east Africa reaches well beyond radio. The physical needs within the refugee camps are overwhelming. There are constant requests for food, material resources, and help finding separated loved ones.
When Tafui met refugee women and children from the camps, she was struck by the complex issues that brought suffering to their everyday lives.
“I found that women refugees and the children are more affected by their [lack of] security,” Tafui said.
Young women are targets for human trafficking and refugee children often go without basic education.
“They are suffering lack of enough resources, lack of security in their home area. They’re raped, they’re trafficked…. So, I spent time with some of them. They shared their struggle. They shared their challenge. They shared their suffering.”
Seeing their needs, Tafui began praying. She discussed the problems with church leaders, refugee leaders, and United Nations Refugee Agency local leaders. In the cultures of northeast Africa, women are viewed as responsible to provide for the well-being of the family unit. These women needed to feel the encouragement of being useful and productive. Through help from a professional beads worker in Central Church Refugee French congregation, they started the bead working group “Trainers Training.”
In doing bead work, the women find something to put their hands to and create. However, the group’s greater purpose is to train women leaders in the slum areas where the refugee community lives, to articulate messages of Christian hope, love, and peace to their communities. Then, they are encouraged to train other young people. Through this purposeful gathering, in addition to weekly prayer meetings and Bible studies, the Buharis and their partners are finding another way to creatively take the message of the gospel everywhere.
Reuniting families
Many refugee cases involve one or more members of a family fleeing across borders, becoming separated from spouses, parents, children, or other loved ones.
One man became a refugee by deserting the military. He encountered the message of the gospel through Nazarene bible study prayer fellowship and decided that he must return to his family. However, he faced the possibility of punishment from his government for desertion. For several months, Gabor and Tafui prayed with the man for safety for him and his family. Finally, when he went home, the government granted him amnesty. After some time, his wife became a Christian, and his family began to accept him as a Christian. He is now a leader in the underground church in his area.
As ministry continues, the Buharis recognize several challenges. The local and state governments are frequently unstable; communities and families lack security, and sometimes are in critical danger. Also, travel is difficult due to continually changing regulations; the appropriate paperwork for travel is in short supply. Safe and legal travel methods are essential as families attempt to reconnect or refugees take the risk to return and share the message of Christ with their families.
Additionally, ministry resources are scarce, especially training and teaching materials. This can make equipping and training new leaders difficult.
Still, God works miracles. Even people who do not have any access to the gospel message find themselves hearing directly from the Spirit. Several people have testified first encountering Jesus through dreams and visions. Five years ago, one man became a follower through a vision of Jesus. Although the man did not have access to a Bible, through these visions and reading another faith’s holy book, his eyes were opened and he recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Now, he is a radio presenter, teacher, and pastor of a Nazarene bible study fellowship.
The Buharis are grateful for the prayers of people around the world. There is so much to do, and the partnership of the Nazarene community is needed.
“We encourage all Nazarenes,” Gabor says, “to open their home, their church, their heart for the refugee – to connect them to Jesus.”
*Names changed and exact location omitted for security reasons

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Pursued by God: Lena's story  by Kaitlyn Williams and Gina Grate Pottenger
No one was more shocked than Lena herself when she accepted an invitation to a church service, and then encountered the living Christ. Her decision has rippled outward through her whole family.
It was 5 p.m. on May 25 in the year 2000. Lena was 21 years old, and at this precise moment, she accepted Jesus into her life for the very first time.
Up until this point in her life, Lena had stayed away from Christianity, and even religion in general. Living in Kazakhstan, most people belong to one of two major faith groups. Lena had once visited a Russian Orthodox church when she was a child, but felt physically sick there due to strong odors in the sanctuary. This experience left a negative impression on her.
“I wasn’t planning on going to church at all, especially to the Protestant church. I don’t know how or why I decided to go,” Lena said. “My friend invited me, and it was really surprising to me even that I went because I had an important event later that day.”

Her friend had invited her to a youth event at the Nazarene church in Astana, Kazakhstan, which included a screening of the JESUS film. It changed her life.
The first thing she noticed was how welcoming the people were; they instantly felt like family. After seeing the story of Jesus portrayed in the film, she accepted the living Christ personally.
“It’s still strange to me how it happened because I had a very negative view of church. I understand it was the Holy Spirit that moved my heart, but at the time, I didn’t understand,” Lena said.
God continued to work in the hearts of those near Lena in the years after she began to follow Jesus. Slowly, Lena’s whole family was transformed.
Lena had told her mother about her new life in Christ, but at first her mother wasn’t convinced. She thought Lena would eventually move past this as just a phase in her life when something else piqued her interest.
Lena attended church often and continued spending more time there. She began bringing her younger sister, and not long after, Lena’s mother began attending as well. Once her mother became a believer, her father began attending. When Lena’s brother saw the whole family going to church, he decided to go, too, and eventually became a Christian.
Lena’s whole family is now experiencing vibrant life in God. Faith has drawn them even closer.
“We shared our testimonies with each other of what God did in our lives. With Christ, we started growing in faith, and in some ways our relationships changed for the better.”
Lena has learned to trust God to provide, even when situations were difficult. Lena often suffered from colds and asthma-like symptoms. There were many moments when she struggled to breathe. Some of these moments occurred during important events, such as praying in the worship band, or riding public transportation. Once, Lena was riding a bus to a nearby town during winter, a season which made her breathing more difficult.

“I couldn’t breathe. I started praying that God would take the symptoms away because if not, all of the people on the bus would be scared of what was going on with me and they would have had to stop the bus,” said Lena.
Although she felt someone sitting near her, she continued to desperately pray.
“I started feeling warmth in my legs as if someone put a blanket on them,” said Lena. “Suddenly I felt very warm in my throat and all the symptoms went away, and I realized that this person next to me was Jesus.”
At that moment, Lena remembered the song “Breathe” by Michael W. Smith, and she prayed that God would be her breath. Once she felt His presence and prayed that prayer, Lena felt better. Since then, Lena’s breathing has not been a problem. She testifies to the healing power of God.
Today, Lena teaches music theory at the musical school in her town. She now witnesses to and plants seeds of the Gospel in the lives of students and coworkers at her academy. She also married a young man from the church and together they’re serving God there.
Lena would like to see Nazarenes throughout the global Church continue to remind one another about the faithfulness of our God.
“I don’t know what my life would have been if I had not accepted Jesus as my Savior,” Lena said.Read More
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My leap of faith story: The cost of obedience by Chantal Julie
Franscois and Chantal obeyed God's call to uproot their lives and leave their families to study theology in Johannesburg. There were obstacles and difficulties all along the way, but God was -- and is -- faithful.
When God is calling you to give up everything – your fulltime job, your lifestyle, your family, your city – He will also make a way for you to be obedient.
Three weeks before we obeyed that kind of call on our lives, my husband, Franscois, and I were married. As newlyweds, we moved with only two boxes of crockery and bedding and a bag of clothes from Port Elizabeth to the Nazarene Theological College in Johannesburg, South Africa.
We did not know what awaited us, or where I would get a job to support us as my husband studied. But we took a leap of faith, trusting and obeying, for there’s no other way.
Settling in went well as God blessed us with a fully equipped chalet on campus. Yet, I still needed a job for us to survive. As a couple we prayed to God with great faith. I landed a head chef’s job at a wedding venue close by. Who says “No,” to a job that comes with a winter and summer break? Definitely not me. Thank you, Lord.
We had a month or two of smooth sailing before we received shocking news: We were going to be parents. It left us speechless for quite some time before the excitement took over.
Nathan was born healthy and a blessing from God’s hand.
Every morning my husband and I used to walk a very dark and dangerous road to reach the taxi to take me to work. It was creepy and I hated walking, but God protected our comings and goings. I started going to God in prayer about the need for a car to help ensure our personal safety. I didn’t know my husband was praying, too. Although we had to walk this path in faith every day for a year, early in our second year God blessed us with a car. What an awesome God we serve.

Then, late one afternoon there was a knock on our door, delivering a letter from the college office stating that if we don’t pay in full the tuition that my husband owed, he wouldn’t be accepted for the next semester. We started praying and crying before the Lord. God made a way for us to pay some of the amount.
In our third year our storms got even worse, as my husband couldn’t register for classes because the college now wanted the full amount of R28,000. We felt sick. Because I had just a freelance chef’s job, and we were providing for a baby, we were battling to make ends meet. For weeks we prayed to God – not to clear the bill, but to provide this amount of money.
It was as if God turned a deaf ear on us. Our prayers were met with silence.
It was in the sixth and last week of registration that God came through for us. We were jumping for joy and praising God, who made a way for us to pay the college fully what we owed. What a mighty God we serve!
The last semester was not an easy one for my husband. He had to catch up with this work, he took Nathan with him to class on the days I worked, and yet he got very good marks and an Excellence Award for showing unusual diligence in his studies.

Over the years that we obeyed God by moving to a new city and my husband studied for a Diploma in Theology, not one night did we go to bed without having food on our table. Not one day did Nathan go without nappies nor infant formula. We had a roof above us and we had a fine place to sleep.
During Bible school, there were still other difficulties from dangeorus field fires surrounding the campus to heavy thunderstorms, to snakes, ugly “park town prawn” crickets and other creature invaders into our home. We conquered it all, as God was there all the time. Because in obedience we took the leap of faith, today we have a wonderful testimony to share.
Amazing Love, Amazing Love, All I know is I once was lost but now I’m found, I was blind but now I see, and I know He can do for you, what He has done for me.[Chantal Julie is copastor with her husband, Franscois, at George Church of the Nazarene, in Western Cape, South Africa.]
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Missionary profile: Carol Rittenhouse
Carol Rittenhouse is a Nazarene missionary to Costa Rica, where she serves at Seminario Nazareno de las Americas (SENDAS). "Serving here in Costa Rica has reminded me over and over how much God knows us, loves us, and walks with us."
Carol Rittenhouse is a Nazarene missionary in Costa Rica, where she assists Dr. Ruben Fernandez, the Mesoamerica Regional Education Coordinator, at Seminario Nazareno de las Americas (SENDAS). She also assists Shelley Webb with the CALL program (Christian Academy for Language and Learning), and is preparing to teach theology courses online for the seminary as her Spanish fluency improves.
Previously, she was a volunteer in Bulgaria (4 weeks) and Russia (8 months). This is her first full-time assignment.
Here's more of her story.
Engage: How did you first recognize God’s call to be involved in missions?
Carol: For me, God’s call to missions was gradual. I always felt called to teach and though I never felt a specific call to missions, I always promised God I would never close the door to serving in a missionary assignment. God used my experiences of teaching in the public schools, mission volunteer assignments, and seminary experience to clarify that God wanted me to teach in the context of His church. Through my experience working at the Nazarene Global Ministry Center (Lenexa, Kansas, U.S.), God opened the door for me to come to SENDAS.
Engage: What is your favorite aspect of what you do in your present assignment?
Carol: I love the low-stress way of life. In Costa Rica they call it “Pura Vida” (pure life) I really enjoy helping host visitors, showing them the ropes of living in this community. Another common word here is “tranquila” where I am reminded often to “relax.” I enjoy working with the variety of people who cross my path here. Every day I walk across campus to my office and I see the natural beauty of the mountains all around me. And on my way home, I see some of the most gorgeous sunsets in God’s repertoire. They are constant reminders of enjoying the small things in life and taking time to breathe!

Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work?
Carol: The pace of life is much slower here and much less direct. For example in an office setting, those of us from the U.S. are used to just “getting down to business.” We dive right into what we need to discuss. In Costa Rica, the people are accustomed to sharing warm greetings before addressing any business, problem or discussion. So I have had to learn to slow down and incorporate greetings into my communications.
Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.
Carol: Moments with people have been the most significant. When I first arrived to Costa Rica, I began language study with three wonderful teachers as part of our CALL program. I remember significant conversations with each of them about sanctification, holiness, community, and the Holy Spirit. One afternoon I met one of the teachers at a coffee shop and I shared with her that the Holy Spirit gives us power to live in a way that pleases God – we are not left on our own to try to be “good enough.” Just seeing that look of awe and understanding in her eyes and on her face was so significant to me. She found a certain peace that day – the realization that she can rest in God’s strength.
Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God in the midst of the demands of missionary service?
Carol: I attend a local church each week and am involved in a small group there. At times, though, I just want to hear preaching in English. So I have certain pastors I listen to online. Of course the Scripture is always nearby as nothing is a substitute for reading God’s word. No matter the time we spend there, we can all agree it is never enough. I do have family and friends in the USA and keep in regular touch with them via texting, WhatsApp, Facebook, and FaceTime. I am grateful for technology!
Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?
Carol: The greatest reward I have in what I do is the assurance that I am right where God wants me to be. Of course, Costa Rica is a beautiful country! However, the beauty is like an added benefit. It would not mean anything if I were not where God wanted me. It is very fulfilling being able to draw on all of my past experiences (positive and negative) in this place. Serving here in Costa Rica has reminded me over and over how much God knows us, loves us, and walks with us. God cares about the big things, and the little things that will bring us enjoyment as we journey through this life.
Engage: What are some aspects of the culture where you live that you have come to love or embrace?
Carol: I love greeting each other with kisses and embraces. I also love the relaxed way of living in general. I never grew up riding buses or taking taxis, but I have come to rely on them here and have enjoyed some great conversations with taxi drivers.
Engage: What do you like to do for fun?
Carol: I like to travel when I can. I like to read and browse bookstores. I enjoy time just hanging out with friends when we can coordinate schedules, of course. I enjoy keeping up on my favorite sports teams.
Engage: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
Carol: I think most would be surprised to know I am an introvert and need time away from people. Most tend to see me as an extrovert. I love people! But I do need to reenergize alone.
Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?
Carol: I would advise them to hold the future lightly in your hands. Be careful of deciding in advance what God is or is not calling you to do. Keep an open heart, always seeking God’s guidance. Take advantage of every opportunity. Step across the boundaries of fear and take a leap of faith.

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Club de drama ayuda a niños gitanos y a adultos búlgaros a edificar confianza by Gina Grate Pottenger
Los residentes de una aldea búlgara estaban separados por sospechas, prejuicios, mal comportamiento y acusaciones. Luego de que una maestra local y una trabajadora nazarena fundaran un club de drama, otro tipo de drama comenzó a darse lugar.
Los primeros ensayos del club dramático comunitario en Bulgaria se vieron tan llenos de hostilidad y discusiones que llevavan a pensar que el verdadero drama ocurría fuera de escena.
Conflictos y una desconfianza mutua eran comunes entre los niños gitanos y sus vecinos búlgaros hasta hace dos años atrás.

Los niños a menudo robaban o molestaban a sus vecinos ancianos y retirados. En respuesta, los ancianos culpaban a los gitanos por cualquier cosa que estuviera mal en la comunidad, fuera o no su responsabilidad.
Pero un club dramático con una ética cristiana se convirtió en la solución inesperada para reconstruir la confianza, así como para crear comportamientos sociales positivos.
“¡Presentemos una obra!”
En el verano de 2014, una maestra local le preguntó a Zhana, una trabajadora Nazarena en el área, si quería juntarse para tomar un café. La maestra le explicó los problemas de la aldea y propuso que la solución sería crear un club de drama. Ella pensó que si las dos generaciones pudieran trabajar juntas, ellos crearían relaciones más saludables. Los costos iniciales serían de 1000 euros. A Zhana le gustó tanto la idea que ella inmediatamente desarrolló una propuesta de presupuesto y el Ministerio Nazareno de Compasión proveyó los fondos.
Zhana también ayudó a organizar y a liderar el club de drama.
Ellas invitaron a los niños gitanos y a los ancianos búlgaros. Era una oportunidad tan inusual que todos quisieron involucrarse. Al día de hoy, 40 niños se han unido al programa, así como 20 adultos.
Sin embargo, las primeras reuniones y ensayos fueron, según dijo Zhana (mientras que reía) “una zona de guerra.”
“Todos se acusaban unos a otros, lanzándose cosas de un lado para el otro. Yo no estaba trabajando en la obra, sólo me aseguraba que todos siguieran vivos al final de los ensayos,” dijo ella.
Los búlgaros, quienes a menudo se encontraban en la mira de los niños, desconfiaban. Una mujer incluso dejó su monedero a la vista como prueba, para ver si alguno de los niños intentaba robarlo.
Las familias gitanas que viven en esta aldea de Bulgaria son de clase media, a diferencia de la mayoría de los gitanos que viven en pobreza a través de Europa. Zhana dijo que el mal comportamiento de los niños de la aldea no era motivado por hambre ni pobreza, sino que como simple acto de rebelión contra una sociedad que los persigue y estereotipa, y a causa de padres que no los corrigen.
Para poder trabajar juntos, los grupos tenían grandes obstáculos que sortear.
Estableciendo principios cristianos
Al principio los líderes del club establecieron reglas: los participantes podían ayudar o recibir papeles dentro de la obra sólo si se adherían a principios éticos y morales cristianos.
“Queríamos que ellos vieran esto como algo divertido, pero que supieran que para venir a este lugar ellos debían cumplir con ciertos requerimientos,” dijo Zhana. “Uno de estos requerimientos es que no robamos, ya que Dios nos pide que no causemos daño a los demás.”
Ellos sostuvieron estos principios con compasión, celo y creatividad.
Los líderes le pidieron a uno de los alborotadores más infames de la aldea que estuviera a cargo de disciplinar, lo cual resultó en que la mayoría de los niños se comportaran y el niño respondió a las expectativas positivas de los maestros.
“Él es un niño inteligente; simplemente no sabe qué hacer con su energía,” dijo Zhana. “Teníamos a un niño que le gustaba mucho robar – era cleptómano. Le dijimos que si reducía sus casos de robo, entonces podría tener un rol pequeño. Nunca decimos, ‘Tú no puedes participar porque robas,’ sino que decimos, ‘Sabemos que tienes este problema y de veras te queremos en nuestro club.’”
Los líderes le dijeron al niño que si él necesitaba algo, sólo tenía que acercarse a ellos con confianza y pedirlo, en vez de robar. “Él ha aprendido a decirles cuando está hambriento, y ya casi no roba, ” dijo Zhana.
En cuanto a la mujer que dejó su monedero a la vista, los niños pasaron esa prueba.
Éxito rotundo
La primer obra que el club produjo fue una comedia irónica escrita por un búlgaro, la cual trata de estereotipos y de cómo las personas se tratan unas a otras.
Algunos de los miembros del club recibieron roles narrativos y de actuación. Otros construyeron y pintaron escenarios, recolectaron artículos decorativos y realizaron otras tareas. Muchos de los niños han demostrado talento natural para actuar. El niño más pequeño, quien no podía memorizar líneas, abrío las obras con una canción.
La primer obra fue “un gran éxito,” dijo Zhana. Desde entonces, el club ha presentado cinco obras, atrayendo hasta 500 personas incluyendo a miembros de aldeas vecinas.
También han sido invitados a actuar en pueblos más grandes. Durante una de estas presentaciones, “el comportamiento de los niños fue excelente,” dijo ella. “Ellos dijeron que nunca habían visto a niños gitanos que se portaran tan bien.”
Los organizadores de una competencia dramática nacional vieron una de las presentaciones.
“Ellos dijeron, ‘Estos no pueden ser niños gitanos,’ y nosotros les dijimos, ‘Sí, todos son gitanos,’” dijo Zhana.
Así fue que en mayo el grupo fue invitado a competir en Sofia, la capital. Ellos prepararon otra comedia irónica para su presentación.
El poder hacer estos viajes es muy emocionante para los niños, y los ayuda a aprender más acerca del país y la sociedad.
‘Comenzaron a preocuparse unos por otros’
Las dos generaciones han comenzado un proceso de sanidad que ha llevado al apoyo mutuo y a un amor que se extiende incluso fuera del club de drama.
“Hay niños que ahora están ayudando alos abuelos," dijo Zhana. “Ellos les compran el pan y les llevan sus compras a casa. Algunos de los abuelos ahora les confían su dinero, así que los niños van y hacen las compras por ellos, y los ayudan en sus casas.
“Esto mejora mucho el ambiente de la aldea. La comunicación entre ellos es mucho mejor y debido a eso creo que los niños y los ancianos, incluso los padres, están teniendo una mejor comunicación,” dijo ella. “Ellos comenzaron a preocuparse unos por otros."
“Existe una familia pobre que vive en un remolque, tienen cuatro gemelos y son muy pobres. Ni siquiera tienen agua corriente. Las mujeres búlgaras están recolectando ropa y alimentos para ellos,” agregó Zhana. “Eso es algo que jamás ocurría antes de este club de drama.”
El club hace presentaciones de pascua y de navidad, lo cual hace posible el compartir la historia de Jesús como salvador.
“Los niños son muy concientes de la presencia de Dios,” dijo ella. “Ellos lo reconocen. De hecho, una de las familias se convirtieron en cristianos.”[Traducido por Ed Brussa]
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Drama club helps Roma children and Bulgarian adults build trust by Gina Grate Pottenger
The residents of a Bulgarian village were divided by suspicion, prejudice, bad behavior and accusations. When a local teacher and Nazarene missionary founded a village drama club, a different kind of drama unfolded.
The community drama club’s first rehearsals in a rural village of Bulgaria were so full of hostility and arguing that one might think the real drama was off stage.
Widespread conflict and mutual suspicion between Roma children and their elderly Bulgarian neighbors had been the norm until about two years ago. The Roma children often stole from or vandalized their retired neighbors’ property. In turn, the elders tended to blame the Roma families for anything that went wrong, whether or not they were responsible.
But a community drama club with a Christian ethos became the unlikely solution for building trust and positive social behaviors.

“Let’s put on a play!”
In the summer of 2014, a local teacher asked Zhana, a Nazarene Compassionate Ministries worker in the area, to meet for coffee. The teacher laid out the village problems and proposed a drama club as the solution. She thought that if the two generations could work together, they might build healthier relationships. The start-up costs totalled about 1,000 euros. Zhana liked the idea so much that she immediately developed a grant proposal, and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries provided the funding.
Zhana also helped organize and lead the drama club.
They invited the Roma children as well as the elderly Bulgarians. It was such an unusual opportunity that everyone wanted to get involved. So far, 40 children have joined, along with 20 adults.
However, the first meetings and practices were, as Zhana phrased it (with some laughter) “a war zone.”
“People were accusing each other, throwing stuff at each other. You’re not working on the play, you’re just making sure everyone’s alive after the practice,” she said.
The Bulgarians, who often had been targets of the children’s bad behavior, did not trust them. One woman even left her wallet out in the open at a rehearsal as a test, to see if any of the children would try to steal it.
The Roma families living in this Bulgarian village are middle class, unlike most impoverished Roma people throughout Europe. Zhana said the village children’s bad behavior was not motivated by hunger and poverty, but simple rebellion against a society that persecutes and stereotypes them, and by parents who didn’t discourage the behavior.
To work together, the groups had a lot to overcome.
Establishing Christian standards
At the beginning, the club leaders explained the rules: participants could help with the production or receive speaking parts in the plays only if they adhered to Christian ethics and moral standards.
“We wanted them to see this is a fun place, but to come you need to meet certain requirements,” she said. “One of them is you don’t steal, because God asks us not to harm other people.”
They enforced these standards with compassion, zeal and creativity.
The leaders asked one of the village’s infamous troublemakers to enforce discipline, resulting in most of the children behaving themselves, and the boy rising to the leaders’ positive expectations.
“He’s a very smart boy; he just doesn’t know what to do with his energy,” Zhana said.
“We had a guy that liked to steal a lot – a kleptomaniac,” she went on. “We told him that if he reduces the cases of stealing, he can take a small part. We don’t say, ‘You cannot be there because you steal,’ we say, ‘We know you have this problem and we really want you in our club.’”
The leaders told the boy that if he needed something, he should approach them with confidence and ask for it, rather than stealing. He has learned to tell them when he’s hungry, and he rarely steals now, Zhana said.
As for the woman who displayed her wallet: the children passed the test.
Smashing success
The first play the club produced was comedic irony, written by a Bulgarian who addressed stereotypes and how people treat each other.
Some of the club members got speaking and acting parts. Others built and painted sets, gathered props and performed other jobs. Several of the kids have shown natural acting talent. The smallest children, who couldn’t memorize lines, opened performances with a song.
The first play was “a big success,” Zhana said. Since then, the club has performed five plays, drawing up to 500 people, including some from surrounding villages.
They also have been invited to perform in larger towns. At one such performance, “the children’s behavior was great,” she said. “They said they had never seen Roma children behave so well.”
Organizers of a national drama competition saw the play at one venue.
“They said, ‘These cannot be Roma kids,’ and we said, ‘Yeah, they’re all Roma,’” Zhana said.
So, in May, the group was invited to compete in the capital of Sofia. They prepared another comedic irony as their entry.
Getting to go on these field trips is a thrill for the children, and helps them to learn more about their country and society.
‘They started to care for each other’
The two generations have started a healing process that has led to mutual support and love spreading outward, beyond the drama club.
“There’ve been children right now who are actually helping the grandparents," Zhana said. “They buy their bread and they carry their groceries or their bread back home. Some of the grandparents are trusting them with the money, so they go and shop for them and help them around the house with the wood and groceries.
“This improves quite a lot the climate in the village. The communication between them is much better, and because of that, I think the children and the adults, and even the parents, are getting in better communication,” she said. “They started to care for each other.
“There is one poor family that lives in a trailer or wagon, and they have two sets of twins and they’re really poor. They even don’t have running water. The Bulgarian ladies are gathering clothes and food items for them,” Zhana added. “That’s something that wasn’t happening before this drama club.”
The club does Easter and Christmas pageants, which makes it possible to share the story of Jesus as savior.
“The children are really aware of God’s presence,” she said. “They acknowledged this. One of the families actually became Christians.”
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