Gypsies: Not quite the romantic figures in my childhood storybooks

As soon as I found out that Esther, the pastor of a small Reformed church in Budapest, has a special calling to what she calls "gypsy ministry", I was completely intrigued. Gypsies seem to be the scourge of Hungary. Although they are less than 10 percent of the population, their populations are rapidly growing while the "white" Hungarians are shrinking(although gypsies are considered to be Hungarian citizens, there is always a distinction made between "Hungarians" and "Gypsies"). You might see the gypsies as musicians and beggars, and often stereotyped as thieves and sluggards, for most are illiterate and rarely do any keep a job.

"Well, the stereotypes are kind of true, " one Hungarian Christian told me. "In fact, I had an experience where two gypsy men and a gypsy woman tried to rob me".


Esther used to pastor a small congregation in the Ukraine, where there is a large Hungarian minority population who were unfortunately on the wrong side of the territorial pie that was sliced up post-World War II. She told me the story of a Hungarian woman who in 1992 felt called by God to participate in ministry. She went to her pastor who told her that she needed to first receive some training. One day she had an encounter with a gypsy, and began to entertain the idea of praying for the gypsies. Although this idea was at first repugnant, as she started praying for them and visiting their villages, she began to develop relationships with them. Ten years later, a gypsy woman saw the Jesus film and realized the message was for her. She wasn't sure what to do so she went to visit the very Hungarian woman who had been faithfully praying and visiting for 10 years. And thus began the blossoming of the gospel in that particular gypsy area of the Ukraine. The Hungarian woman invited the gypsy woman to a Bible study in the Reformed Church, and she brought two friends. Eventually, because the gypsies began to overpower the Hungarians, who were also reluctant to participate in Communion with them, the Bible Study moved onto gypsy territory. My new friend Esther enters the story at this point: she was called on to administer the sacraments to the gypsies as well as developing training programs for some of the new Christians.

These age-old Hungarian-Gypsy tensions are an interesting and unexpected find for my research. I think probably most countries have their "gypsies": a marginalized, stereotyped group of people who don't fit in with the larger culture, and have many problems and issues that may threaten or are perceived to threaten the stability of the general society.