I have a dream

I have a dream.

Today is Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day when we remember with sadness that hundreds of thousands of Roma (Gypsies) were killed by Hitler in World War II. They were kept in concentration camps; they were put in the gas chambers; they were used for human experiments. They were deemed unfit to live.

But I have a dream.

I once heard a Messianic Jew with Jews for Jesus telling how he and others were taking the gospel to Germany and other places of Europe. He said how wonderful it is for Jewish followers of Jesus to tell Europe and the world that they forgive those who persecuted them. The very ones who others sought to exterminate, are now taking the Good News of forgiveness to their former oppressors.

I have a dream.

One day, one day very soon, may the Roma of Europe, who have been enslaved, persecuted, despised and killed, who were the victims of this horrific genocide, return to the descendants of their persecutors, look them in the eye, smile, and tell them that, by the power of Jesus Christ, they forgive and love those who have and do despise and persecute them.

I have a dream.

May an army of Roma followers of Jesus transform Europe. May Europe, which over the last century has rejected Jesus Christ, be reached by those they despise. May the Roma, who are often stereotyped as liars, thieves, vagabonds, drunkards, and abusers, be so transformed by God’s Word, they they become known far and wide in Europe as those who love, who are kind, who give to others, who work hard, who answer hard words with gentle ones, who honor marriage and fidelity, who live lives of honesty, gentleness and kindness, and who give hospitality to strangers. May their transformation be so visible, so humanly unexplainable, that Europe rises up and acknowledges that this has only come through the power of Jesus Christ. And may Europe bow the knee to Jesus and put their arms around their Roma neighbors, through the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

I have a dream.