A letter from Nadia Ayoub in Ukraine
April 2011
Dear Friends and Families,
Peace to you all. I give thanks to God for all of his love, which is fresh and new all the time. Thank you so much for your messages, which bring joy to my heart about your faithfulness to follow and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Your prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated; they are the source of power that I draw from all the time. It is so encouraging to hear from a number of you what is happening to support my ministry for Roma people in Carpathian-Ukraine. I thank God that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) now is more aware of the need to share the love of God with other groups of people and all the church’s members are rejoicing in what God is doing through them for the extension of his Kingdom among the nations near and far.
Time passes very quickly. After my ordination as a minister of the Word and Sacrament on October 24, 2010, I left America on November 4, 2010. I spent three months in Budapest, Hungary, to get a little oriented in regard to the Hungarian language, which is very different from all other languages. And on February 2, 2011, I moved to Carpathian-Ukraine. All praise to God — it took about one week to find a house in Beregszasz, a city of 35,000 people, 70 percent Hungarian background and 30 percent Ukrainian and other. The house looks good but it was vacant through the winter and the owner did not leave any kind of heat. The first week we found water leaks in one room and then in the kitchen, and it took a couple of days to fix this. Little by little I try to make it normal to live in. Our snow is melting, but it is still very cold and windy.
It is a challenge to make more progress in my Hungarian language. I have not found the right teacher, and it is not easy to work on it on my own. I read and spend time every day learning. I pray I will be able to get at a level where it will be easy to communicate without translation. Although many people know Russian, including some older children, and I am kind of fluent in Russian, people do not like to speak in Russian. So I have to be good in Hungarian, especially because the children speak only Hungarian.
I am slowly learning my way around on foot because public transportation is spotty and not on schedule. So I wait for people to take me places, and that does not happen very often. For that I need to have a car to be effective in my mission. But getting a car is not a simple thing to do here. I first need to have a sort of official visa in Ukraine, not the tourist visa I have now, to be able to have and drive a car. The Reformed church in Carpathia did not get a visa for a permanent missionary before; it is new for them and it is taking them a long time to know the right way to do it.
I have started visiting Roma people churches and groups to try to know the real situation. I was able to visit one state Roma school with Ibolya Pocsai, a Hungarian Reformed Church pastor’s wife. And I visited one church in Beregszasz, outside the resident camp, which was surrounded with a high wall. I asked why there is this wall, and I have been told it is because this is the only way to control the movement of the Roma people and because of the tuberculosis that is widespread among the Roma people. There are so many needs: clean water, school supplies, not to forget medicine, food and clothes. But I pray through teaching the little preschoolers about the love of God for them that they may grow to love themselves and others (non-Roma) so the day will come that the high walls will be removed and Roma people will enjoy living and worship the Father freely in the community.
On Friday, April 8, the day for Presbyterian Women prayers for Roma in Ukraine, I invited Julian, a Roma leader and a preschool program director in Gat, to come to my house, and we prayed for the Roma work and the leaders. Gat has a Tabor (camp) of 500 Romani persons. They also have a Roma church outside and the preschool in the church premises. She specially asked prayers because a government official had come to her and said she needed to register the program. Since the church itself is not registered, soon they need to have this registration.
For a while I have had pain in my teeth. And I had a culture experience when the dentist wanted right away to work on a tooth that she thought is a bad tooth — she wanted to do a root canal on it without an x-ray. I convinced her that I needed the x-ray first, but when I went to the x-ray room the nurse said there was no film — it was Friday and she said on Monday they should have some. I left and asked a few friends to pray for me and took antibiotic, and by Monday the pain has subsided. On Monday I had an x-ray but did not visit the local dentist because I have been told there is an American-Hungarian dentist who treats foreigners and missionaries sometimes. So I will wait to see when he will be in the Carpathian area and go see him. The weather is very warm one or two days a week and then goes to freezing cold again, and many people get sick of that.
Please pray for:
- My teeth problem to be solved in a healthy way.
- Visa and car are needed for ministry.
- God will direct me where to get a good Hungarian teacher.
- Clear vision and God’s hand on me to serve Roma children and people.
- Registration for the church in Gat.
Lent is very special and encouraging. I trust God’s blessings for us all, as we recall and ponder on what we have believed and received: that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and on the third day he rose to bring salvation to people who love and trust in him. I thank you and your family for your continuing interest and prayer support for me and the ministry among Roma people. Peace and grace for all.
In Christ,
Nadia
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 212
