Roma-RAE Ministry Montenegro

This summer has certainly given us a lot of fond memories, since we were able to repeat some of the old activities and start with some new. Unlike the previous years, this summer we did not have to interrupt with any of our activities. On the contrary, we were able to do all of our activists as planned and even increase their volume. One of the old things that we’ve been doing for the last few summers was to organize a swimming school for the children from the church. As always, that was SO MUCH FUN! It was so gratifying to see how many have progressed, including some of those who learned to swim last year. Only a year later they were performing maneuvers while jumping into the pool, doing somersaults, swimming tirelessly… Even with the new ones, who were too young last year, are improving. There are only a handful of those who may still need some help the next year. I say gratifying because I do take pride in the fact that the kids have reached such an important milestone in growing u...

​ Everyone,  Just a quick update on something that happened at the end of last month. On April 27-29, our church took part in the 2nd ”Job Creation” conference that was held in the historical Belgrade Christian Association. The event was organized by Roma Networks - a network of Roma churches and ministries from all over Europe (and it becomes global!) that we’ve been a part of since 2014.  This event was a follow up of the last year’s event on the similar topic, as job creation, poverty alleviation, partial/full sustainability has become an important conversation among the Roma churches and ministries all over Eastern Europe. The awareness of necessity for Roma churches/ministries to become less dependent on the support from e.g. the USA and/or Western Europe is becoming greater and so there are many independent initiatives popping up from different corners of “Roma ministries universe”. Some of you may remember that we are being active in this field for a couple of years now...

Friends, Two nights ago, our church had a rare opportunity to attend a live ballet performance. In Montenegro, ballet is popular among the young girls, but aside from that, there is very little going on that is ballet related. So, it came as a real surprise when we heard that an American, Christian, ballet troop - Ballet Magnificat! - was coming to Niksic, Montenegro, to perform.  To us locals, there is little that connect Niksic, a city of “steel and beer” (its two major industries) and ballet, which made it even more exciting and somewhat surreal 🙂 The ballet troop was touring Eastern Europe, and, thanks to our friends from Montenegrin IFES branch - they made their way to Montenegro.  There  are a couple of reasons why I thought it would be a good idea to take our church to see the performance, even if we had o sacrifice one of our mid-week church meetings for it. Since the early days of our ministry, one of the greatest challenges we were facing were both the exclusio...

Originally published on our ministry's Facebook group's wall on May 3, 2022:  Dear friends,  It’s been too long since you’ve last heard from me and it is somewhat hard to pick up where I left it, as it feels like too many things happened too quickly and it is impossible to report on every single one of them. This time, I would like to turn your attention to my trip to Italy that took place in the beginning of April and the mission journey that followed.  Firstly, I ended up in Italy following the invitation of friends from Missione Rem with whom we’ve been partnering with for a few years now. Unfortunately, due to Covid travel restrictions, it was only now that I was able to visit them in Milano, Italy.  The words are not enough to express my gratitude for everything these guys did for me in the 10 days that followed. I was given an opportunity preach in 8 different churches/home groups and have had chance to learn about the heart and soul of the evangelical churc...

Originally posted on our ministry Facebook group's wall on March 7th, 2023​ Here’s another little something I’d like to share with you. It is about an initiative made by Frederick and Abigail, a missionary couple from Barbados, whom felt really strongly that God wanted them to start off with “open house” worship sessions every last Sunday in the month. Practically, it means that sessions are open to all Christians regardless of their church background, as well as whoever friends they want to bring with them. Ideally, but not necessarily, each one of these “worship nights” should be hosted by a different local church.  Every start is a difficult one (at least around here) and one has to walk in (blind) faith if they want to reach success. We also started slow, praying and hoping that the initiative will win the hearts of local believers as we do it. I say we, because the two of them invited me to join the worship band, with another two - an American and Chilean - being a part of i...

Friends, In November last year, I shared with you that I’ve been going through a real ordeal because of the herniated disc that had caused me a lot of pain, half a year of sleepless nights, constant exhaustion, countless inconveniences and a lot of painkillers. I also wrote to you about the limitations it has brought on my ministry and have called that my “involuntary sabbatical”. I am glad to say that my “involuntary sabbatical” is over. I am healed. But, while the problem was still there, in order to help myself, I walked for hundreds of kilometers, underwent many PT sessions (including spine decompression), did my best (and succeeded!) to lose weight (around 30 lbs less, plus-minus) and exercise. And although there’s been some improvement to my condition, the main thing- being able to sleep through the night - seemed unattainable. My night’s sleep continued to be interrupted by pain, with me being able to sleep 3-4 hours max in a single piece. Some of you may remember that in the b...

Originally posted on our ministry Facebook group's wall on June 16, 2022 Today we have had another small victory. After months of waiting, this morning we picked up an ID card for 18-yo Armend Quni. This way we reached another milestone in helping him, his mother and sister to regulate their stay in Montenegro (FYI - an ID card is the most important personal identification document in most European countries. While ex. driver’s license and passport are optional, all 18+ yo citizens are required to have one). I have shared information about this many times already, but for those of you who joined us later, we have been providing legal aid to many Roma-Ashkali/Egyptian families in the period 2011-2016. It was then that the need for this segment of our ministry decreased. However, some complicated, challenging cases remained and with some of them we are still dealing with. Such is Armend’s case. Becoming fatherless at the early stage of his life, Armend, together with his mother and s...