Church of the poor - Jesus Army

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CHURCH OF
NEW LIFE
Jesus Fellowship leader,
Andrzej Kurpiel, tells
Jesus Life of the creation
of “Kostol Noveho
Zivota” (Church of New
Life) in a settlement of
marginalised people in
Slovakia.
www.multiply.org.uk
God has been moving among Slovakian Romanies
“Her bones had been cracked
as her hand was trapped
in a car door. She was
instantaneously healed”
SURROUNDED by members of
his family, the visitors prayed
for the man with a weak arm. He
was glad to receive prayer – but
the visitors weren’t local priests,
just a local couple.
What was remarkable was that
the praying couple themselves
were brand new converts. Martin,
20, a burly chap who spoke
with a soft but authoritative
voice, and his 18 year-old wife,
Libusa, had come to true faith in
Jesus just two nights previously.
They had only been baptised
in the nearby river the previous
day!
This was the beginning of a
new church among a rootless
people. The young couple shared
their testimonies and gave away
clothes to the extended family
that lived in the tidy but sparsely
furnished, living-room-sized
shack. Accommodation was
quite typical of the leaking,
uncarpeted, wooden huts that
surrounded them on a muddy
hillside.
The man, as it happened, was
not healed – but the next day
Libusa was. Her bones had been
cracked as her hand was trapped
in a car door. She was instantaneously
healed as Martin prayed.
His faith was growing quickly.
It certainly needed to, as, in little
over a year, this young man
would be leading the church
and baptising dozens of new
converts in the same river he was
baptised in.
This remarkable story started
two years previously, in the UK
in November 2004 when my wife
Sharron and I, members of the
Jesus Fellowship in Sheffield,
were introduced to a Slovakian
family. My knowledge of Polish
helped form a friendship and
many similar families started to
gather.
Some weeks later, the families
“confessed” to being Romany,
a people who have experienced
deep rejection. 120,000 members
of the Romany community in
Slovakia live in slums, lacking
basics such as water and electricity.
In 2007 Slovakia was heavily
criticised by the Geneva-based
Centre on Housing Rights and
Evictions for the persistent discrimination
faced by Romanies.
In Sheffield, the awesome tearfilled
reconciliation that followed
this family’s “confession” was
the start of a deep bonding with
many newly arrived Romany-
Slovakian migrants in Sheffield.
Here were a people finding
themselves loved and chosen
by God. Where once they had
no land to call their own they
now counted themselves worthy
members of the kingdom of God.
The church in Sheffield quickly
swelled.
Among the scores that were
baptised over the following
18 months, was relatively
well-educated Cyril (read his
testimony here: http://www.
jesus.org.uk/cyrildunka.html)
and working class Janu (the first
to be baptised). They were from
neighbouring Slovakian Romany
Continued overleaf
Jesus Life One/2008 Page 19