Jesus Was a Gypsy
“When a Gypsy becomes a Christian, the change is extraordinary,” says Rudi Walter. He should know. Once in the grip of a drug and gambling addiction, he is a living example of a Sinte who has been powerfully transformed by an encounter with Christ. Now, as Scripture-use specialist on the Sinte Romani Bible translation project, he is eager to see God’s Word change the lives of many more Gypsies. “Jesus speaks Romani, and this touches our hearts,” Rudi explains. “It is our language, and He speaks in Romani—into our problems.”
Rudi was born near Frankfurt, Germany. His family did well selling cars, carpets and diamonds house-to-house. They traveled throughout Europe in their live-in trailer. But, the transient life presented challenges—for Rudi it meant only five years of schooling. Rudi said that many Sinte 25 years and older are barely literate.
An addiction to gambling and drugs clutched Rudi after his father died of cancer. Then, Rudi met up with one of his Sinte friends, Richardo, who had been delivered from 17 years of drug addiction after becoming a Christian. Richardo encouraged Rudi to go to his church. When Rudi finally did, he became a Christian. “I noticed that the thought that I needed to gamble was gone, and also the alcoholic addiction disappeared. Jesus has given me a whole new life,” he says.
Jesus speaks Romani
Several years ago, Wycliffe’s Armin Peter, his wife Ursula, and vernacular media specialist Keith Holmes, of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, visited Rudi’s church. They were looking for Sinte Christians to narrate the various Romani voices that would be dubbed into the JESUS film. Rudi’s pastor persuaded him to participate. “He begged me,” Rudi recalls. “ ‘Rudi, help them. They need you. You have a call from your people, don’t you? The Gypsies in Europe will hear your voice on this movie!’”
Keith Holmes did an initial rough dubbing of a short bit of the film with Romani narration to encourage the group. Rudi was deeply moved. “I saw and heard that Jesus was speaking Romani. And this went into my heart: Jesus speaks Romani. Jesus was a Gypsy!” Rudi did voices for several characters on the film. “During that time when I was involved in the taping process, I understood that this was the first movie that was being made for my people, in their language. …And the same thing happened later in the process of the Bible translation. I realized there is going to be a whole New Testament for the Sinte!”
Cultural Transformation
Rudi says it is vital that the Romani language is being written and that the translated Bible is also being distributed in non-print form, such as the JESUS film. He distributes and uses the Romani Bible materials wherever he can. He has traveled in Germany, Chechnya, Slovenia, Croatia and in France, where each summer a large evangelistic campaign draws tens of thousands of Sinte. Rudi recently graduated from Missionhaus Bible School north of Bonn, better trained to encourage Scripture use among the Sinte. He also directs the Christian Sinte and Roma Training Centre–a new Bible school in Moselkern that aims to ground Sinte students in God’s Word for ministry.
“Our culture needs to become a Christian culture. We don’t want to live like Germans, and the Germans don’t need to live like the Gypsies. We as Sinte need to learn to live how Jesus lived.” According to Rudi, many Sinte don’t understand the basic, but powerful concept that Jesus cares for them. “For hundreds of years, we were victims of discrimination, of persecution. Now we can understand that God—Jesus—is the One person who really loves us!”