(Photo by Patrick Cariou)

Slovakia (MNN) — Gypsies are the largest and fastest growing minority group in Europe.

The population of Gypsies in Slovakia is growing three times faster than the general population of the country. Gypsies live on the outskirts of society and are often times distrusted, despised, and isolated.

There are approximately 300,000-400,000 Gypsies living in Slovakia under terrible conditions. Suffering from high rates of poverty, crime, illness, and unemployment are only a few of the struggles Gypsies deal with on a daily basis. They are not welcome in villages and are forced to set up camps miles outside the city limits. Gypsies make their homes in a few houses without electricity or running water. Some even live in wooden shacks, tents, or cardboard boxes.

International Needs Cinobana Gypsy ministry has grown primarily through personal evangelism, with the gospel spreading largely among teens and young adults. Missionaries with International Needs, Jozef and Julia, share the gospel with the isolated Gypsies.

Growing up in the village of Cinobana, Slovakia, Jozef was on a path to destruction. With his heart full of hate, Jozef relied on alcohol, sex, and drugs to numb his pain. In 2001, Jozef heard the gospel through one of his friends and was amazed that Jesus could actually love him, a sinner and a Gypsy. After giving his life to Jesus Christ, Jozef was transformed and began to share God’s love with friends and family.

Today, Jozef is joined by many other Christians in his village, and they are working as a group to change the message the world gives to Gypsies. Gypsy children hear about a God who loves them and values them as His beloved children. Gypsy teenagers learn that they have an important voice in society because they matter to God. Older Gypsy adults are catching the fire of these young adults and are being baptized into the family of God.

Please pray for Jozef and Julia as they continue to change the message the world gives to Gypsies. Pray for the continual growth of the Christian community in Slovakia.

Support for the Cinobana Gypsy ministry allows them to reach out to isolated and hopeless Gypsies. Will you help International Needs reach out to the Gypsies?

"We worked during the day and tried to reach out to the rest of the community in the evenings," stated Grover. He noted a hunger for the hope of Christ among Gypsy communities–the nation's most downtrodden and outcast society. VBB teams ministered to the Gypsies through music and evangelism, building a home for Jesus in the hearts of the Gypsy people.

Grover described a spiritual longing among Gypsy communities created by the teachings of Romania's two dominant religions: the Russian Orthodox faith and Catholicism.

"They see their previous teachings to be dead or of no hope," explained Grover. "So they seem to be very receptive once they get an understanding of the Gospel."

The VBB team leader also saw a passion for God's Word among the Gypsies. Grover visited Romania several times with VBB to deliver Bibles to Gypsy communities. He noted the importance of not only bringing Gypsies to Christ, but teaching them how to be disciples.

"They just love having their own Bibles," Grover said, "and that is such an important thing."

Grover also spoke of the physical house his team built during their September visit. They constructed a home for the director of the Haven of Hope orphanage, which shares a compound with a small church VBB teams worked on in July. Haven of Hope houses orphans–and currently the orphanage director–in what used to be a Communist work camp.

"It's been converted and brought up to livable standards these past few years," noted Grover. The new home teams constructed on this trip will not only house the orphanage director, but guests and a few orphans.

Pray for new believers to start learning more about who God is and how they should live as Christians. Ask the Lord to support and encourage His workers at the Haven of Hope orphanage.

Click here to see a schedule of VBB missions trips. You can join the next trip by applying here.

“As we have seen from media stories, for many years south Lebanon has been an unsettled, volatile region,” says Matt Parker with Kids Alive International. “The tensions between different people groups are constantly simmering. There’s always the risk that these will become violent.”

Parker goes on to say, “Obviously, on the news recently, we see all about the issues in Syria. Pray that that will not spill over into Lebanon.”

Despite these risky times, Kids Alive is going forward with the love of Christ, specifically reaching out to the gypsy communities in south Lebanon.

There are around 8,000 gypsies in Lebanon, many living in terrible conditions with no running water or electricity and little access to health care or education.

According to a study last year by Insan and Swiss NGO Terre des Hommes, around 68% of gypsy children in Lebanon have never even been to school.

Parker says, “In south Lebanon, children as young as three years of age are being forced into work. That’s shocking.”

Kids Alive recently opened a care center in South Lebanon for the gypsy people. Their biggest program is a literacy program that teaches up to 30 students.

Many of the kids in the literacy program have never had any type of structure, so being in an educational setting is an adjustment. Additonally, they’ve had to learn basics about hygiene and social skills as these haven’t been part of their background.

“These kids come from backgrounds where fighting, hating, revenge are just a part of everyday life. Learning to love and forgive have really been new concepts for them,” comments Parker.

“Most importantly of all, these kids and their families are learning about God’s love for them…it’s often these communities with such poverty and such need where people are open to the Gospel message,” says Parker. “Through the care that we provide, and through our Bible teaching with the kids, and conversations with the parents and their families, people can see that they have a God [who] loves them.”

Please be praying for peace in Lebanon. Pray also for Kids Alive’s ministry in Christ as they have two children’s homes and a school in addition to their care center in south Lebanon.

To support the work of Kids Alive in south Lebanon, click here.

The Associated Press reports that some 1,000 Roma, known more commonly as "Gypsies," were placed on a bus and relocated to a new settlement. Despite the protests of many Roma–not to mention outcries from rights groups such as Amnesty International, the Serbian government has not relented on their eviction process. They have declared the Roma's Belgrade settlement to be illegal and preventative of construction projects.

It's not an uncommon story for the Roma, thousands of whom are spread across Europe. Compared to France's 2010 campaign against the Roma which expelled 13,000 of them from the country, Serbia's response is almost friendly.

The Roma are blamed for poverty, crime, and other social ills. They maintain their own cultural practices and beliefs. Across Eastern Europe, including Russia and several former Soviet countries, the Roma are often seen as outcasts of society, notes Slavic Gospel Association.

SGA knows something many Roma do not know: there is a God who loves every one of them.

SGA-sponsored missionary pastor Piotr Tokar labors in Russia's Belgorod region, where he reaches out to the sizable Roma population. According to Tokar, the labor is indeed hard. The change in lifestyle from fortune-telling, stealing, drinking, and drug abuse to a life dedicated to Christ is enormous. Add the Roma view of outsiders to the mix, and evangelism can be extremely difficult.

But Tokar is dedicated: "Whenever I meet a Roma man or woman, I always try to tell them about Jesus Christ. It is not customary for Roma to talk to people of other nations (like Jewish people did not talk to Samaritans in John 4:9). They believe other people are inferior. In fact, one Roma Christian told me, ‘If it were not for Jesus, I would not even start to talk to you as you're not a Roma, to say nothing about a joint meal with you at the table!'"

Yet, the Lord is stirring in Roma hearts, adds Tokar. "The Lord is doing miracles among them as I tell them about salvation and what God has done for us. And they forget that they are talking to a stranger. I thank the Lord for knocking on the door of their hearts, as most of them listen to His Word about salvation. I pray that it will remain in their hearts and that they will remember the Word of God."

There is a now a Roma church in Kursk with 30 members. The pastor, Andrew, is also Roma, and came from Ukraine. From the very beginning of his ministry, there were Roma coming together around him, and a Bible study group was formed.

Pray for Tokar, as well as for Pastor Andrew, as they reach out in Christ's love to this forgotten people.

The Banjara are avoided with caution by most of India. They are a gypsy tribe, and while most gypsy groups moved west to Eastern Europe centuries ago, the Banjara remained in India. The tribe is associated with crime and dishonesty, invoking fear and distrust in many throughout the country.

Nevertheless, in 1999 a translation of the Bible was finally completed in the Banjara language. But with literacy rates peaking at 12 percent for males and 3.2 percent for females, few are able even to read it.

Audio Scripture Ministries has been working to bring the Word of God to the Banjara in a more accessible way: audio. It has taken a great deal of time, but after a long, trial-ridden road to get God's Word to these seeking people, work on an audio New Testament has finally begun.

"I think for the American audience, that just seems like something they're used to hearing: ‘Oh, it's a Bible recording. We have those.' But in countries like India where there are about 1,600 or so languages spoken, most people don't have that luxury of hearing anything spoken to them in an audio device–there has never been a recording done," explains JP Sundararajan with Audio Scripture Ministries.

"So in essence, when we record Scripture for people, we are the first people in their entire history to do a recording. That's pretty historic, and they value that. By doing what we do, not only are we helping preserve the legacy of these languages for future generations, but we are helping people hear God speak to them for the very first time in their own heart language."

The impact of providing the Gospel in a people group's heart language can be enormous. An audio recording of the Gospels were completed in the Lambadi dialect, a group of language-speakers associated with the Banjara. Immense change was seen in the Lambadi as a result, and a people who used to run when the police came to their villages were now proudly selling their goods in the market. A similar change is hoped for with the rest of the Banjara when they encounter the power of the Word of God.

Audio Scripture Ministries has been working tirelessly to find a way to bring the Banjara people a recorded version of the New Testament. But because of the low literacy rate, complications have occurred in finding a reader for the project. Despite the several hiccups along the way, however, Sundararajan says ASM has finally found a reader and they have begun recording. They hope to have the New Testament completed within the next month and a half.

Pray that no more obstacles would get in the way of the completion of this project. Pray that the Banjara would be receptive to the Gospel when they are finally able to begin hearing it.

Throughout the polytheistic world of India, a common reaction Sundararajan has heard when the Gospel is recorded in a people group's heart language is this: "We have many gods, but this God speaks my language." Pray that the Banjara would indeed be overwhelmed by God's desire to know them and the language they speak. Pray that this recording would be a doorway for the salvation of many.

You can support the Banjara project financially here.

Founded in 1996 by Banjara pastor Lazarus Lalsingh, the Banjara Ministry mainly focuses on bringing the Gospel to the people through children's education. This seems to be an effective and welcomed tool, considering how the Banjara have had to fight for educational rights in the past. Several children have come to follow the Lord through Lalsingh's schools and spread the good news to their families. In response to the increase of believers within the population, the Ministry has also taken on pastoral and church plant training.

Because Hinduism is a cultural expectation amongst Banjaras, it has been difficult for some to make the transition to Christianity. It is understood, for instance, that all Banjaras are to make monetary contributions during Hindu festivals. The refusal of Christians to do so has caused some tension within communities, but it has also drawn the curiosity of many.

Over the summer of 2008, a three-day outreach was planned by the Banjara Ministry for church leaders, believing Christians and mere seekers. Tents were set up to house families and the hundreds of volunteers who helped to cook for the event. Because it is not unusual for venomous snakes to inhabit the area, others made sure that every cobra on the premises was killed.

The preparation involved was well worth the response of the gathered 12,000. During the three day period of preaching, prayer and encouragement, over 3000 people accepted the Lord and were baptized. More than 300 Christians felt led to plant churches after attending the gathering, inspired to spread the Gospel to even more of their people. As if this all this were not enough cause for celebration, an additional $1,600 was raised through collections during the outreach for the Banjara Ministry schools.

Due to God's provision for the Banjara Ministry, there are now around 54,000 Banjara believers alongside 370 churches. Prayer is needed for continued interest in the Banjara Ministry and in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Banjara people. Pray also for opportunities for the Christian leaders and church planters to take their house churches into unreached regions as the Lord continues to move within the Banjara community.