My husband Keith Holmes
and I have known Otta Laubing and her
husband Kennedy for at least 20 years. Kennedy was one of the voice talents in
the first recording Keith ever did, Jesus film, Sinti Romanes 2001.
Otta has been working with Christian
education even longer. She began by helping with Sunday school in the church
she and her husband attended. (Photo: Keith delivering Bible story coloring books in
Sinti Romanes to Otta and Kennedy, 2008.)
“My children were still little. I
worked with the Sunday school,” she told me. “Then it became my calling.”
Indeed, Otta has since helped with
camps, taught Romanes (the word Sinti use for their own language) to Sinti
children in the German school system, helped create and record a bilingual
Children’s Bible story book (Kalderash Romani and Sinti Romanes), and
spearheaded the translation of Sunday school material into Kalderash and
Romanes.
Additionally, as part of her drive
for Christian education, she has been worked with the translation team which
successfully published first the New Testament (2010) and then the entire Bible
in Romanes.
Otta then organized online and in-person Bible reading groups of
adults as well as children. This stimulated reading in their own language as
well as Bible study. As part of this work, she recently completed a daily
devotional book in Romanes. (Photo:
dedication of entire Bible, 2021. Work done in cooperation with Romanes
Arbeit Marburg. https://romanes-arbeit-marburg.de/)
But all that came later. Her calling
started simply, in the local Sunday school. First she worked alongside
experienced Sunday school teachers. Soon she was put in charge of her own
Sunday school group. The Sunday school leaders would give her and the others
the theme or topic to teach.
“We had to work out what we
would actually do for ourselves,” she explained. “I had to develop my own
program.”
At the time, she and Kennedy
attended a German-speaking church with members from many different backgrounds,
including a large number of Sinti. Kennedy himself felt called to become a
pastor. At first his own pastor did not encourage him because of Kennedy’s low
educational level. However, the call persisted, so Kennedy finally talked
directly with the head of the Bible School. He successfully completed the
course, surviving a bout with cancer while doing it. He and Otta have since
started at least three churches on their own. Quelles des Lebens (Well of Life), the church which Kennedy now
pastors, is also truly international. Consequently, Otta has experience
teaching Roma, Sinti, German, and immigrant children.
“I do this with much pleasure,” Otta
said.
She also does it with much insight
and experience. I have seen her lead a group of Roma children in the Republic
of Moldova. She kept them occupied in one corner of the church while a worship
service was going on in the main part of the same room. Otta started with a
Bible storybook and continued inventing one activity after another to keep them
occupied.
They communicated with
the basic Romani words which can be understood in both their native Usari
Romani and her Sinti Romanes. But most of all, Otta communicated through her good
humor, patience, and obvious love for the children and the Word.
I asked Otta if she had any tips for
other teachers working with Roma and Sinti children. Yes. Her advice was, “Do
not pressure the children. Don’t be too strict. Then the parents also feel as
if you are correcting
them. Of course
the children must follow the rules you set out, but don’t be too severe.”
Otta added, “And don’t touch the
children.” Keep your hands off, especially when it comes to correcting a child.
She also highly
recommends the children’s coloring Bible by Margitta Paul.
“It is very good material! It is so
Biblical!”
Otta is so enthusiastic that she and
others in her church have translated the material into (Polish) Kalderash and
also Sinti Romanes.
The Kid’s Bible
Colouring Book had already been published in many different languages. Otta
had special permission from the author to translate the material into these
Romani languages. Marlute van Dam, a seasoned Wycliffe/SIL Bible translator,
assisted.
The lessons begin with Creation,
move through the Bible, and end with the Acts of the Apostles. Each lesson
includes a Bible story, two or three discussion questions, and a free coloring
sheet.
Each child in their Sunday school
gets their own loose-leafed notebook. With each Bible lesson, the children get
a print-out of the story (in their own language) to add to their notebook. They
also get a picture which they color themselves. In the end, each child will
have their own colorful Children’s Bible Storybook.
Otta also adds a Davar: Bridging to
Literacy game to each lesson.
“Davar games calm the children,” she
said.
She chooses a game that matches the
lesson. For instance, the story of David and Goliath was paired with one of the
games using stones.
Otta also used Davar activities in
the Romanes language lessons she taught in the German school system. She would
get a classroom full of children of all ages and abilities at the end of the
school day. A “sit-in-your-chair-and-listen-to-the-teacher” lesson would have
been pointless.
She used Davar activities
to actively engage the children.
(Photo courtesy of RAM website: Otta and Kennedy with the primer and other
resources she uses in school.)
This is what Otta does in Sunday
school as well.
“By Noah’s ark we might build a boat
with chairs,” she said.
Otta now trains others to lead
Sunday school, just as she herself was trained. She works alongside the new
teachers for a while and gives them suggestions. Soon the new teachers are
coming up with their own ideas.
“People who work with children are
usually creative,” Otta observed. “They can think of things like this for
themselves.”
Otta has offered to
write down which Davar game she uses with which Sunday school lesson. Just in
case teachers are not feeling creative on this or that day.
In the meantime, she continues to
work on Christian Education for all ages. The entire New Testament has already
been recorded in Romanes. Now she is working towards an audio recording of the
Old Testament as well.
Truly, spreading the Word of God first in
her own language and then to others continues to be her calling.