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Pilu and Hadasa - Manna Church in Romania

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Pilu and Hadasa are partners of AMEN who work in Romania. They live in Sighisoara, a town in the heart of Transylvania in central Romania. 

     

Pilu is pastor of Manna Church, a very outward looking and community friendly church in the centre of the town. Hadasa helps him, but is also very involved in working with orphan and unwanted children.

   

Manna church has a unique ministry of social care, outreach, and church planting in local gypsy (Roma) villages. The Roma people come from India and they migrated west at some point between the 9th to 14th century. The first mention of these people is in Romanian documents of Medieval history where gypsies are mentioned as  slaves working the lands of the nobility and around Monasteries.

     

The gypsies are very much a minority and remain at the bottom of the social ladder of Romanian society, often persecuted and marginalized by other Romanians. Things are much worse for these communities since the overthrow of Communism. Whereas before the state system protected them and forced a certain amount of equality, under the new system these controls do not exist.

   

Pilu and Hadasa and their church is unusual in Romania since it has members from many different ethnic backgrounds worshipping and working and serving together. Together they aim to show the love of God to the poor.

   

Education

    

A common thread through the work of all AMEN partners is education. Without education, disadvantaged groups across the world are unable to escape from their poverty. So it is with the gypsy communities.

 

Manna church encourage the children to persevere with school – state schooling is free in Romania, but gypsy children are very often bullied and insulted – putting them off from continuing education.

 

AMEN has recently sent the equipment for Manna church to put together a network of 10 computers which will be used to train people of all ages in computer technology. This is just one very practical way in which people can become equipped to work

      

Casa Vietii counselling centre

Medical Programmes

    

Medical facilities in gypsy communities is either very poor or non-existent.

 

One big problem in Romania is the high number of abortions. Romania has the second highest abortion rate in the world; in 2000 it is estimated that there were 800,000 abortions – and this number continues to rise.  Members of Manna church run the Casa Vietii prolife centre and help women in trouble – they go out into the villages and give advice and medical care and counselling to those in desperate need.

  

AMEN is currently channelling some funding to help with medical programmes.

     

Church Planting

  

Manna church have planted churches in three gypsy villages, and are praying for that number to increase. A key part of this is to develop gypsy Christians to act as leaders of these churches – they best understand the culture and problems of their own communities.

     

Banner outside church Inside gypsy church Pilu and church members

AMEN representatives recently visited one of these churches where the leader has set up a shop for the locals and also a hot shower, powered by solar power, to enable local children to wash regularly.

   

As part of supporting the work of these churches, AMEN organised a Family Shoebox scheme in 2009.

 

Some 10 churches assisted this year and nearly 400 shoeboxes were taken out by AMEN folk for distribution early December. These were enthusiastically welcomed by the gypsy families and likely to be the only Christmas present that these families have.

  

We aim to extend this scheme  in 2010 and are looking to involve many other churches – unlike many nation wide schemes you know exactly where the shoeboxes are going – to families, through a church, and to a church where AMEN have a close relationship. If you would like to be involved please email chrischatfield@hotmail.com

   

AMEN trustees are delighted to welcome Pilu and Hadasa and their team at Manna church into partnership with us. This is a ministry which reflects the love of Christ for those who are poor and broken hearted.

How you can help ...

   

We would very much appreciate all help you can give to the work of AMEN and our partners - your prayers, a visit, and donations..

 

If you are able to make a regular monthly donation that would be wonderful and would help us to plan ahead. Click on the picture on the left to set up a standing order with your bank using a paper form or online using Worldpay.
If you would prefer to make a one-off donation then that would also be much appreciated - please click on the picture on the left and either arrange to send us a cheque or you can give online using Worldpay

  

Thank you for your generosity.

   

In both cases, if you are a UK tax payer we would ask you to make a Gift Aid declaration. This will help us to increase the gift which you give to us - courtesy of the UK government - at no cost to yourself. You only need to do this once and it covers all future donations. A declaration is included in each of the forms above - if you are making your donation on line then please select the correct option below.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Even if you are a UK tax payer you can only claim gift aid if you pay an amount of income tax and/or capital gains tax at least equal to the tax that we reclaim on your donations in the tax year (28% of your gift).

  

If you have any questions about making a gift to AMEN or want to enquire about ways in which you can help please E Mail us via janet@amentrust.co.uk . 

 

Please note that AMEN can be contacted by 

E mail:  janet@amentrust.co.uk   Telephone: +44(0)1322 226148   

Post: 79 North Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 3ND, United Kingdom