How an encounter becomes a movement that invades a people group

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One tract, one desperate situation, one prayer , one healing. Such was the start of one gypsy lady ’s faith that sparked an entire move of God within the gypsy community in Spain that has seen 10% of their ethnic community come to Christ, compared with Spain’s general population that has seen very little results.

All this because in a small French town in 1950, someone reached out to Duvil-Reinhart and prayed for her dying son. Because pastors like Clement LeCossec gave his life to ministering among gypsy outcasts. Because ordinary people like the illiterate, impoverished Jaime Diaz and his six companions decided God had called them to reach their people.

Steve Addison’s blog post on the gypsy churches in Spain makes very interesting reading. I am personally friends with several of the gypsy (Gitano - pronounced Hee-taa-no) believers, (and a few from my church here in Gibraltar used to fellowship in their churches) and am amazed at how God has moved and is moving among this people group in Spain. Within this ethnic group, this move of God has several clear distinctives:

1. Passionate emotive expression- Their praise and music is clearly gypsy in style. Extremely loud worship and fervent passion is felt during their services. Gypsies are very emotional and passionate. They are more heart-oriented than task oriented in all of their dealings.

2. Siervos (Servants) - Their pastors are known as “Siervos” (Spanish for servants) and they typically do not stay as pastor of a church for more than a couple of years before being rotated to another Filadelfia church. Although many outsiders do not understand why they do this, it is important to see the nature of their ethnic group, more specifically the fact that they are gypsies and are not historically very “grounded” in one locality but have roots that embrace a more nomadic lifestyle - although modern Spanish gypsies do not roam around in caravans like their European cousins.

3. Very ethnic expression - The movement in Spain (Known as Iglesia Evangelica Filadelfia) has for the most part remained an almost exclusively gypsy movement, with practically all of their leaders being gypsy, and relatively few Spanish white caucasians (Known as “Payos” by the gypsies). it is only now that we see more cross-over between Gitanos and Payos, although very few payo leaders.

4. Tremendous success among the marginalised - The gypsies of Spain have a rampant drug problem. It is within this context that this move of God has to be framed. Filadelfia is blessed with an incredible effectiveness in tackling the drugs problem within their ethnic group (and beyond) and operates numerous drug rehabilitation centres and programmes to jaw-dropping results. Being a very marginalised people group, it is of little wonder that they wouold reach out to the marginalised within Spain and be effective at doing so.

5. Numerous Daily meetings - The “Culto” or meeting becomes the hallmark of their lives. A typical gypsy church will have meetings every day of the week, in the evenings, except on Sundays. In another example of being relevant to their culture, many gypsies work in the “mercadillos” (open-air markets) as vendors, which means that they typically work on Sundays (When most mercadillos in Spain open). Having a very high unemployment rate (As they still are a very marginalised group within Spain) also means that the “Culto” (service) is a very important part of their daily routine, which among the unsaved gypsies includes a lot of boredom, mischief, crime and drugs, especially among the youth.

If a picture paints a thousand words, check out the following video where you can see a gypsy prayer meeting “Culto” in full swing (Email or RSS readers will have to log-on to the website http://www.wildoxgib.com to view it):

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