The Baptist Standard, October 9, 2000
Hunger offering supports
Texans working with Gypsies
___By Orville Scott
___Texas Baptist Communications
___James and Robbi Francovich were half a world apart, but both felt God calling them to work with the poor with whom Jesus spent much time in his earthly ministry.
___Mrs. Francovich, who was doing missions in Hong Kong, took a trip to India to serve in an orphanage. Meanwhile, her future husband was serving as a bilingual teacher in a South San Antonio school.
___Both decided to earn master's degrees in the same program in San Antonio. They met, dated, married and joined San Antonio's Woodland Baptist Church, one of the congregations supporting the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Romany/Gypsy team in India.
___Today they are missionaries among the Romany people, and gifts to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger are helping them share both physical hope and spiritual healing.
___India is home to about half the world's 40 million Gypsies. The Banjara Gypsies of India, ancestors of the European Romany Gypsies, are one of the world's most overlooked and neglected people groups.
___Looking for work, they migrated to Indian cities such as Hyderabad, where they live in slums without electricity, sewage or adequate housing.
___The Francoviches are introducing the 100,000 Banjara Gypsies in Hyderabad to the Christian gospel through cassette/film ministry, economic development, mobile medical clinics, drilling water wells and developing cottage industries.
___"Most Banjara girls either drop out of school early to work at home or become maids," explained Francovich.
___With economic development funds provided by the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger, the Francoviches have started Banjara Girls Tailoring Schools in Hyderabad.
___Evangelists visit the schools and tell Bible stories and teach the girls Christian songs in their own language. As a result, many of the girls attend Sunday worship. When they graduate from the six-month tailoring school, girls have the option to buy a sewing machine at a subsidized rate. Thus, they learn a marketable skill and also have the
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RESOURCES for promoting the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger, including this poster, are available from the BGCT Christian Life Commission.
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equipment to help support their families.
___"Banjara women have a natural talent for embroidering," explained Mrs. Francovich. "Through the cottage industry, they are paid to embroider bags, vests and wall hangings and to make beaded jewelry."
___Funds raised through these projects also support literacy programs and the purchase of sewing machines for the women to use.
___"Conditions in the colonies are also improved through medical clinics and drilling water wells," Mrs. Francovich said. "Baptist women who buy Banjara products are touching the lives of Banjara women and their families."
___The Francoviches believe partnerships are the most effective way to reach the Banjara Gypsies. They encourage churches to form long-range relationships that over time result in more people coming to Christ.
___San Antonio-area Baptist congregations that have worked with the Francoviches to adopt Banjara partnerships include Trinity, Woodland, Baptist Temple, Covenant, Primera Iglesia, First Baptist Church of Hondo and First Baptist Church of San Marcos.
___A partnership with India Campus Crusade led to the first Banjara "Jesus" film team, which showed the film to more than 70,000 Banjaras. The missionaries also have distributed hundreds of cassette players and thousands of Christian music tapes. Evangelists report that families are coming to faith in Christ through the cassette ministry.
___The Francoviches have developed an audio Bible titled "Listen Banjara."
___When the Bible Society of India developed "The Lambadi Bible in Telegu Script," the first 5,000 copies were sponsored by CBF. Two additional translation committees were formed last March to complete the translation of the Old Testament and to work on other script translations of the New Testament.
___Trinity Baptist Church of San Antonio and Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., built a new training center and hostel for Banjara evangelists to receive vocational training.
___"The key to reaching the Banjara people for Christ is partnerships, and everyone who gives through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger will become partners in this fast-developing ministry," Mrs. Francovich said.
___Texas Baptist churches will receive the world hunger offering throughout the fall season. The statewide goal is $1 million.
___Of that amount, $175,000 is allocated for community development, job training programs and food distribution ministries in Texas. An equal amount is allocated for similar Southern Baptist North American Mission Board-related ministries throughout the United States.
___The offering also allocates $450,000 for international hunger relief and development through Texas Partnerships, the Baptist World Alliance and CBF. This includes $30,000 for Latin America, $109,763 for Africa, $85,000 for the Middle East, $69,000 for Europe, $88,280 for the Far East and $67,957 for Asia. Another $100,000 is earmarked for Southern Baptist International Mission Board special needs.
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©2000 The Baptist Standard
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