A New Identity: Roma Find Hope and Sustenance in the Riches of Heart Language Scripture

By Kim Driggers, Managing Editor, Seed Company

For many across Europe, the cold, mountainous terrain of eastern Slovakia is less-than-ideal real estate. But it’s not the dreary, snowy winters that keep them away.

“It’s because of the Roma,” says Marek Olah sadly.

As a pastor, former Bible translator, and the current national director for The Word For The World–Slovakia, Marek has not forgotten his roots and the heavy hand of discrimination that rests on his community. Like a thick cloak, the label “gypsy” wraps them in generational despair and extreme poverty.

Without equal opportunities for education and employment, many Roma take to the streets, much like Marek and his brother Rino once did. Marek vividly remembers their frequent 15-hour drives from Sabinov, Slovakia, to Switzerland to find work “where the rich people live” so they could support their mom and four younger sisters. The two teens lived out of their car for two to three weeks at a time, spending their days as street performers. They sang and played the accordion, hoping for tips.

“But mostly, we just begged,” Marek remembers.

Street performing didn’t pan out as the most effective way to pay the bills, but for Marek and Rino, it brought wealth of a far greater kind. Rino met someone who introduced him to Jesus, and eventually, his mother, Marek, and entire family embraced faith—and a new life that changed everything.

From Rags to Riches

Today, Marek and Rino are pastors of two thriving Roma churches in eastern Slovakia. Rino leads the large main campus in Sabinov, and Marek leads the satellite church in Jarovnice. Marek’s church—once a pizza parlor on the edge of the largest Slovakian Roma settlement of approximately 7,000 people—has more than doubled in size since God’s Word in East Slovak Romani was dedicated on December 10, 2023. And on one Sunday alone, Marek baptized 51 believers! That was on June 1 of this year, but since the dedication, more than 120 have been baptized to proclaim their faith in Jesus.

Sadly, Marek had to relinquish his translation work on two of three related Serbian Roma languages this past June, but he maintains some oversight through his leadership position with The Word For The World. All three translation teams eagerly anticipate dedicating their completed New Testaments this November! And Marek rejoices with them, but for now, he’s right where God wants him to be, spending the bulk of his time shepherding Roma believers in his growing Jarovnice church.

“I am very thankful that my people, the Roma people, can read the Bible in their own language,” he says. “I would never have imagined that it would have such an impact on their everyday lives and how God would change people's thinking, their hearts, their values. I am grateful to God for the power of His Word.”

One Truth, Multiple Platforms

Soon after the dedication in Sabinov, Rino made space in his church for a recording studio where the Old Testament audio was completed. Marek and Rino were readers for it, as well as Tibor, who played the piano at the 2023 dedication. This year, they are working on a second audio recording of the New Testament that has been revised since its first publication in 2014. And the printed Bibles continue to fly off the shelves as soon as they arrive. The first print run of 10,000 was exhausted after the dedication. Now, 6,000 more copies have been ordered. A beautifully illustrated youth Bible with contextual highlights on various passages (all written by Marek’s daughter!) has also been published. And as always, these Bibles are all published by the Eastern European Mission with the stipulation that they will always be free to those receiving them.

“The younger generation is really very enthusiastic about [the Romani Bible], and using it all the time,” says Pierre van Vuuren, director of The Word For The World—Europe, adding that many who came to Christ in the last decade grew up with only a Slovak Bible available to them, so the Romani translation is all the more precious. But some who are older—those who have had many years to develop a deep connection with the Slovak Bible—find it a bit harder to adjust. “They’ve created that bond with the Slovak version,” Pierre says, even though Slovak is not what they speak in the home.

Because all Roma in this region of Slovakia are multilingual or at least bilingual, speaking both Romani and Slovak, it’s not surprising that it might take decades for some to adopt a new translation. So why make a Romani Bible for those fluent in Slovak?

“For some to accept the gospel, to even start accepting the gospel, they have to read it in their mother tongue,” Pierre asserts. “It's indigenizing God's Word. It’s knowing God speaks our language.”

Pierre speaks Slovak outside the home and English to his American wife, but Afrikaans is his mother tongue. And it’s the Afrikaans Bible he will pick up when he wants to read God’s Word in a deeper way, “to feel it in Afrikaans,” he says.

When God’s Word connects the head with the heart, everything changes.

Transformation Beyond the Dedication

Since Romani Scripture has made its way to Slovakia, spiritual transformation stories abound, but here are just a few that Pierre had ready to share:

• In one Roma settlement, drunken brawls among adult men wielding axes and spades are now a thing of the past. And children from that same settlement who previously acted out on school buses are now behaving differently. “You can see that someone or something else is working in their lives. We believe it’s the gospel,” says Pierre.

• Maria’s son worked at a local church that kept Slovak Bibles locked up. She begged her son to borrow one from the priest, but it wasn’t until she received and read from her own copy of the Bible—translated into her heart language of Romani—that she was ready to commit her life to Christ.

• Albina never wanted to go to church with her parents. She preferred to smoke and party with her friends. But when she observed her parents living according to biblical principles, she decided to go, and at that same service, give her life to Jesus! Since then, she has exchanged unhealthy vices for godly living.

• Václav and Jana were in a dysfunctional marriage. Both were prone to excessive drinking, but Václav’s intoxication usually led him to wander the village in search of a fight … until he heard the gospel preached from the East Slovak Romani Bible. He gave his life to Christ that day, and his wife followed suit the next. Now, as Václav walks through the village on his way to church with his family, he is a testimony to his neighbors of God’s saving grace.

• Years ago, Rino’s Roma church in Sabinov successfully petitioned the mayor to close the local casinos because of their devastating impact on the poorest of the poor in their community. Casinos are now trying to make a comeback, but the church continues to resist their efforts.

For Marek, a perfect example of transformation through heart language Scripture is on display in the story of one particular family. When they came to faith, their eyes were opened to what new life could look like now, not just for eternity. This couple returned to school so they could get better jobs and provide their children with a better future. They went from living in a shack to buying a piece of land for their new home and garden. And they are but one example of many whose lives have changed “from the foundations,” Marek says.

“People who lived at the bottom, without hope, without God in [their] world, now … have a relationship with the Lord Jesus. Their hearts, their inner person, are changed and they start to have new values,” Marek continues. “The way that God’s Word changes people’s lives—it has great power. I am grateful to God, and I pray that there would be many more such families who allow Him to change their lives from the bottom up.”