A letter from Nadia Ayoub in Ukraine
November 2011
Dear Friends and family,
My car arriving at the Roma camp
Peace and grace to you all. I give thanks to our loving God for all of your care and love for me. Thank you so much for all your words of encouragements, prayers and support in many different ways. I pray you are all well, rewarded from our Lord and Savior.
I thank God because two young ladies have started working with me; they both finished teaching training from the Hungarian University and they speak some English. Naomi works three days—she is studying to get preschool teaching certification—and Csilla works four days. They are Hungarian, but they love the Lord and the Roma people.
The school year has started, and it is kind of busy here between continuing to work with the preschool group and in meanwhile finding a suitable place for the kids. We had a conflict with one of the two preschool groups in one Roma camp and we thought it was God’s plan, so we decided to combine the two groups together. Winter is here and the open garage where we work is cold, so we put in a door and a window. Now we need to work with the floor so it will be warm; I bought a heater, which will be good. It sounds like simple work, but it takes a lot of time to finish one thing. However, it is worth it to struggle some and suffer some for the sake of these Roma children and help them to learn to read and know the love of God for them. When the school year started I needed to visit the school and the kindergarten in the area to let them know what we are doing with the Roma children, and they were grateful because they noticed some changes in the children, even with their parents. We encourage them to let the children go to school often.
Enjoying the sunlight outside.
I visited with the mayor, who was a witness for the contract between the Reformed Church and me and the owner of the garage where we teach the children. Even though we did all the repair and built a garage for her we still have to pay a monthly rent. But the mayor promised to find a suitable place for the Roma children's center. Our day starts with some physical exercise, then prayers, and we have a Bible story and learn some Christian songs. Then we have some handwork (cut and paste, or coloring, using play dough) and they learn some teachable games in which we learn colors, numbers, verbs and other things. And then it is time to have something to eat. After we review what we learned that day we usually pray and send them home. We found out that the big children, although they are in 4th up to 9th grade, cannot read or write, So at the beginning of October we started working with the big children who for some reasons did not go to school and started teaching them how to read and write. It was amazing the joy they have in learning to write their own names. It is hard and very slow, but we pray and trust God will do his good will among the Roma people.
I continue to live in Beregszasz. But now I have a car, and it is great because I can go when I want and not lose hours waiting for the one bus. I thank God very much for all the people who gave toward providing me with the car. In two weeks two tires were damaged because the condition of the roads is not good. But now I am learning where the holes are in the roads, and thank God I have winter tires, which are better. My health is reasonably good except for my sinuses, which affects my teeth and gives me some trouble, but as I take antibiotics it gets better.
I thank you so much for your faithfulness and continuing prayers for us.
Please pray for
1- A good relationship with the owner of the garage, so we can do our work without disturbance.
2- God will encourage the pastors in the area to organize a weekly service for the Roma people.
3- God will continue to protect and encourage my two helpers in their work with the Roma children.
4- God will help us to find a suitable place to make a Roma church and children's center.
5- God will help me as I continue to work with my Hungarian language.
6- Thanks to all God’s people who support the mission for Roma people and gave generously for my car.
7- Finally, thanks to God because in one week I will finish my first year.
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
Serving Christ with you,
Nadia Ayoub
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 212
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 284
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