When Travellers catch the Gospel

When nomadic people get the gospel, they take it with them and spread it in an amazing way. The Romani ( sometimes called Gypsies) are Commercial nomads who live in communities all accross Europe, working in as many different industries as are imaginable. They are distinct by country, language and occupation but are alike in their nomadism. Their nomadic worldview more than any other factor has kept the Romani from assimilation. They are often misunderstood and disrespected. The Romani have many ties to Catholicism and tend towards pagan uses of Christian symbols. But, something new is happening among the Romani people. Faith in Jesus is spreading like wildfire. In many parts of Europe the Romani are more Christian than the post-Christian European settled mainstream population. The roots of the movement can be traced to Pastor Le Cossec in Rennes, France in the 1950s. A group of travelling Romani came to his town, a young man was healed, a small group was baptised and then the group moved on. A year later they returned and 100 gypsies were now believers. Five years later the number was 3000 and Le Cossec felt God call him to be a full time apostle to the gypsies. To do this Le Cossec did a radical thing. He didn’t invite any of them to settle near his church, or even to find churches along their routes. Instead he took his family and he travelled with them. Le Cossec and his family traveled with the Gypsies through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and India. By his death at age 80, the “Apostle to the Gypsies” had traveled in more than 40 countries sharing the message that Gypsies, who had been “a rejected community,” have instead become “an elect community” in the Lord. And this isn’t even the end of the story! In the early 1980s Romani missionaries went across the channel to travellers in the UK. One night around a campfire a young Romani man named Jackie Boyd was born again in Jesus Christ. He became a pastor. The Life and Light church he started grew into a movement. They have buildings to meet in but the focus of their ministry happens at conventions and fairs. The fairs are beautifully gypsy in nature and offer in the name of Jesus prophetic words; dream interpretation, head, shoulder and hand massage, as well as stalls selling jewellery, arts & crafts and other similar merchandise. And the Romani are responding. The numbers of travellers coming to faith in Jesus are astonishing. Again, the numbers can be hard to trace but it is estimated that upwards of 40% of British Romani are now part of the movement. Boyd feels the best elements of gypsy culture are at the heart of the church’s boisterous services: “There’s part of the culture that is good and that we encourage: joyfulness, loudness, happiness, and dancing.” And its still spreading. The movement has spread throughout France, into Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, South America, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe. Around one third of all French Gypsies are now thought to be Pentecostal Christians – with about the same proportion in Spain and Portugal. Further east, in the former communist bloc, many Roma are Pentecostals.

There are criticisms of the movement that are real and indisputable. But, as far as a nomadic missionary successes there are few others that compare. The Romani are being reached for Christ because they finally have a church expression of their own. Their progress proves that the gospel fits well with the nomadic lifestyle. Hopefully their nomadic disposition will quickly enable them to take the gospel further to other nomadic people groups. May this be one of many stories to come of nomads finding their identity in Jesus Christ.

The numbers of travellers coming to faith in Jesus are astonishing!