Portrait of a Roma Bible Club Leader: Ivetka Olahova, Slovakia

Education, Christian education, is very important to Ivetka Olahova. “My childhood was not good. I grew up without education,” Ivetka told me. “When I received Christ (at the age of 16 years), I was still single. I said to myself if I have children one day, I want my children’s lives to be better.”

Ivetka succeeded. One of her three children, Jesika, is now involved in education herself. Jesika works as a teaching assistant at the pre-school in Jarovnice, Slovakia. Jesika also translated for us during our telephone interview. Ivetka spoke in her native language (Romani). I spoke in my native language (English). Jesika can understand and speak both.

Ivetka now has 21 years’ experience in children’s ministry. She and her sister started in Sabinov, in a small church with just a few people.

 “We started teaching children about having a relationship with God,” Ivetka said. “If they have a relationship with God, their life will be different. They will have other options, and God will lead them.”

She and her sister taught in their own language right from the beginning. They continue to do so. Her sister is currently a children’s minister in Sabinov.

“Now, after twenty years, we can see many of the children in church. They are grown up. They have education.”

For the last eight years Ivetka and her husband Marek Olah have been ministering in a different village. They are starting a church in Jarovnice, a village less then 10 km southwest of Sabinov. About 5,000-6,000 Roma live there, making Jarovnice the largest Roma village in Slovakia. Ivetka continues working with children there. 

 “The same thing we did in Sabinov we started doing now in Jarovnice,” Ivetka said. She noted that “here the Roma people are a little bit different. Here we need to teach the children about education, about hygiene, about simple things.” Once a week they also provide a good meal for the children.

“We want to let them feel that they are loved and that God loves them,” Ivetka added.

 Note that Ivetka said “we.” She does not do this alone. Sixteen women work together in teams of four. All of the women have been carefully trained. They attended workshops to learn how to use the material and how to work with children.

A children’s worker “needs to help the children, be kind to them, show patience.”

Part of the training is learning how to play. Ivetka noted that adults often don’t know how to act with or teach children. “You can’t be like an adult. You have to be childish.”

The children’s workers put this training into practice. They watched and helped with the children for three months or so. When they felt comfortable in leading the lessons themselves, they were given the responsibility of taking their turn leading the children’s Bible club.

Ivetka has always taught Roma children in their own Romani language. She and her team continue to do so. They now use material called True Way Kids. More and more of this curriculum has been translated into Eastern Slovak Romani. They are available online at https://truewaykids.com/.  Ivetka likes the material very much, and not just because it is in Romani.

 “You have everything there, the lesson, activities, everything.”

Teaching in Romani is a definite advantage for the teachers as well as the children.

 “Because it is in the Roma language, the teachers can understand the lessons very well. We use the Roma Bible.” (Ivetka’s husband Marek working with the author’s husband Keith Holmes to record the New Testament in Eastern Slovak Romani, Sabinov, 2014)

They meet with the children twice a week, on Sunday and on Wednesday. Right now all 40-50 children meet in the same room. This new church does not yet have different spaces for different age groups. A typical lesson starts with prayer, then children’s worship. The children are given a chance to share. Some children read verses from the Bible. Some give testimonies. Then it’s time for the Bible story.

 “First we read it in the Roma language. Then we show them the story with pictures or we call some children in front and make a skit with them,” Ivetka explained. Then they ask if God spoke to them with the story. What did the children understand and how do they put that into practice.

 “Many times new children come. And they will say that they want to receive Jesus in their heart, so we pray with them.”

Then the lesson is reinforced with games, activities, a craft, and sometimes a memory verse from the Bible. Sometimes they end by giving the children something to eat—physical food as well as spiritual food.

When Ivetka accepted Jesus into her heart at the age of 16, He changed her life for the better. This prompted her to make sure her own children had a better life, physically, educationally, and spiritually. God used this desire to help her change the lives of many, many other children for the better as well. She has spent the last twenty-one years helping children have a better life.

 “We need to invest in them,” she said earnestly. “Serving the kids is difficult, but we need to do it with God and not to give up.”

Ivetka concluded our interview with these words of encouragement for other Roma teachers:

 “Never to give up. Be faithful. And you will see the fruit of this ministry. Because sometimes they will not see the results. But if they will continue, God will bless their ministry.”