A letter from Nadia Ayoub serving in Ukraine
September 2014 - A New School Year
May the God of hope fill you all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).
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Learning to pray before eating
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Playing together
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As Sabina played she said she will tell the other children so they come too
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Last day VBS every child got a hat
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Danial from the younger group.
Dear Friends and Families,
Peace and grace in abundance for you all. Thank God, for he is our hope, shield, and strength all our days. Thank you so much for your prayers and kindness and encouragements and support. I miss you all, but I cherish the memory of the joyful time I had with many of you.
Praise God, we in the west part of Ukraine continue to have a peaceful atmosphere . But they call the young men to join the army and every once in a while we receive word of a casualty, and that makes people sad and worry. The Roma people have some fear; they used to live in open homes and open yards, but last month they all built a fence around their homes and a closed gate. Once I asked a Roma woman, "Why do you have the fence?" and quickly she said, "We are afraid." I asked, "Of what?" She thought for a while and then said, "The dogs." But Roma people love dogs. They always have many dogs, and they are not vicious because they live in the open—and when they are puppies the children play with them all the time. So they are not really afraid of the dogs; they are scared of new discrimination if there is a war. Inflation is going higher and higher every day and people worry about the winter—if there will be gas and electricity for heat.
We had Vacation Bible School the last week of August, and we had 50-60 children for five days from 9:00 to 12:30. They had songs, Bible lessons, Bible verses, handcrafts, games and food. The children were so happy and proud of the new, clean house, and we had a prayer time to thank God for everything in the house and also to thank the people who did the renovation and all the people who gave gifts to make this Roma Mission Center exist.
The new school year has started, but we have few preschool children because for the Roma people it is the time of collecting walnuts. It is a family season—children and adults celebrate and clean the walnuts together. For the first two weeks we had only one child from our former children at Teceboken and Peterfolvo.
So we started to visit new Roma settlements in the area—not very far, about 5 km—and the people were very happy that finally I came to visit them. We invited their children to come to the Roma Mission Center for the preschool program and now Pastor Seres sends a bus to pick the children up and brings about seven children daily. It is their first time to hear Bible stories, songs, prayers before and after meals, learning about the seasons, drawing, coloring, doing things with play dough and having a variety of toys and games. I pray and hope soon all the parents will allow their little children to come to the preschool program, and also the after-school program when older children come and receive help to study and do their homework.
Some time ago I prayed asking God to send other workers to help me with this ministry. Thank God, he has heard the prayer and has been preparing an organization from the Netherlands to support and run kindergartens. With the help of the RCK (the Reformed Church in Karpatalja), they have been thinking about the Roma in the Peterfolvo area since we had purchased the house. They waited until the house became ready, and then they came and said they would run the preschool program. I will continue to help where they need it and also concentrate on learning the Hungarian language and visiting other projects—things I did not have a chance to do before.
Please pray for the church as they have an election for the Bishop position and other leaders' positions.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. If it is your first time to read news about the Roma ministry, I welcome you and encourage you to become an active partner with your prayers and encouragements and support. I pray the God of hope will fill you with all hope and continue to be with you and bless you all.
Serving Christ with you all,
Nadia Ayoub
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 322
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