The Serbia Update: A Revival Story
JOY: Welcome to God’s Church on the Move, the podcast that takes you to the spiritual hotspots where God is doing the most amazing things. With me in the studio today are Ron and Charis Pearce. Welcome, guys.
RON/CHARIS: Hi.
JOY: Hi. So, Ron, you’ve been busy traveling, and I hear you have an update for us on Serbia.
RON: That would be the Roma people in Serbia, who call themselves the Gypsies. But to be politically correct, over here we’ll call them the Roma people. What is so exciting to be with this group of people is the fact that it is pure excitement when they get together to have church or to study God’s Word or to do anything. And it may not seem that way, but these are the people that go out and they work in the fields, bringing in the cherries and the strawberries during the summer time. They take with them their children. They take all the family members to go and make money.
This is over in Serbia, in the Balkans, in Europe, etc., etc. And they go to all these various countries to make enough money so they can come home for five months and live through the winter. So, they get their cash and they come home. And therefore, their lifestyle is one of being transient, yes, hard working, extremely low paid. They are overall discriminated against and looked down upon massively, just because of their heritage and various other factors.
But these are the people also that are, when they come to the gospel and they know Jesus, and they get together all the time. What for? Not a party. They get together to love people, to help people, to study God’s Word, for worship, fellowship, all the parts. And that’s their excitement. And that’s why when you look into their eyes, it’s incredible.
CHARIS: You mentioned their heritage. You found out some interesting things on this trip. Just a little background on it might be interesting, because I think a lot of us just think of gypsies as people that are begging on street corners.
RON: Exactly. That is stereotypical stuff. And there are two groups of people like that. I was told, without giving locations, which could be awkward, there’s some groups that are into theft and thievery, and mobbing people, like I was mobbed in Russia one time by a group of about 20 kids, and the mom stood back and all these kids came running up, holding my arms down while they went through my pockets to take all money and everything like that. They didn’t get much. Yeah. He actually… He says, come and I’ll show you my siblings.
CHARIS: Four or five, I think it was, in a 20-foot metal container in the middle of winter, cold as anything, and they didn’t have food. And therefore, this older boy, was he 10, 12? 12 or 13, something like that. He was the one, Stephen. And so we picked him up. We’re taking care of them.
RON: They’ve got food, they’ve got family, they’ve got everything now.
JOY: Does he have shoes?
RON: Yes. He’s got everything. We will take good care of him in that little situation. But…That’s just an example of many. Example of so many that they take care of. And that’s why I’m impressed with this operation. We’ve taken them in Scripture, which they didn’t have before. They’ve got lots of Bibles and New Testaments, all in their languages, everything that they need. So, we can help in that way. And as the Bible school situation figures itself out and gets better, there will be more churches. But we could start literally, right now, 50 churches.
CHARIS: Remember, one conversation you were having with them, and he said you could go out from the city, was it 20 kilometers, any direction?
RON: 20 kilometers, 20 churches. 20 villages that are begging to have, because they can’t always come in for church to let’s go back. So, they stay there and somebody goes out, two of our pastors there, out of the church, go about every week. They’re in a new area, having church, teaching, discipling, winning the lost, baptizing. Oh, baptizing. Baptizing.
JOY: They love to baptize.
RON: Oh, they love to baptize, because they want to tell everybody that they’re believers. They built a new one into the church. You should see them come in to this baptismal tank. It’s under the floor. They take the boards up in the sanctuary. They go in. When they go out to the countryside, they go out to the countryside, they can’t take a baptismal. So, they take a barrel to dunk people in. They take a big front…
Cooking dish. Cooking roaster, which has got walls on it, I would even say eight inches high, metal. They fill that with a little bit of water and pour water over people. “They go and find any opportunity to declare their faith in Jesus. I’ve seen churches that are nothing more than houses. Okay, this is for the older folks that won’t…The younger people won’t remember this. Do you remember the show, The Beverly Hillbillies, all right?
JOY: I do, and I don’t think I’m that old.
RON: Okay, but the younger folks. This was sort of a house like The Beverly Hillbillies that was very rustic, all right?
CHARIS: Before they went to Beverly Hills.
JOY: Before they went to the mansion. This was back in Arkansas. So, this was the house, and it had a porch around it. There were a good 80 people in and around that church, and they were on the porch and they were watching a baptism outside. And that’s the situation we’re talking about. That’s why we are impressed with this, and we will help the Roma people the best that we can. Many people walk away from them, won’t help them. And it’s because of discrimination. I would put the racism card on the table with this, but it’s not really racism as such. It’s just ignoring them. Ignoring their needs and ignoring the opportunity. And therefore, Empower will not ignore this opportunity.
JOY: Alright, thank you. Did you know that on our website, ronpearce.org, we have podcasts, teachings, devotionals, situation reports, and so much more. For more information, please visit ronpearce.org
