the gypsy

christians

I like the stories that tell how the Lord gathers different situations and melds them together to create something new- all things work together for His glory. My name is Michael Seth and I would like to tell you a story about my first encounters with the Gypsies in Houston.

This story begins around 2008 when I was working with the Children’s Activity Center in the Bellaire area. I had developed several contacts with different food sources such as Le Madeleine French bakery and Oak Farms dairy products. I was distributing this donated food to needy families in the Bellaire area and then all around town So, because of the increased driving, I thought about the possibility of having a slightly better car. There are many used car lots in the Bellaire area- I could have stopped into anyone any one of them- but it was this particular one that the Lord drew me into. And I met Ricardo and Leo “Ringo” Christo. It wasn’t long before I became friends with Leo- or Pastor Ringo as he is better known as now.

I made it a point to spend as much time with Leo “Ringo” as I could. I began having bible studies with him and in turn I was learning simple phrases in the Gypsy language. I seemed to fit right in with them and I felt very much at home with my new found family. I dug in deep and started learning everything I possibly could about their unique culture. I soon discovered how special this particular group of Gypsies was. Many of them had already come to know the Lord but there was no pastor. And Leo “Ringo” also already had a very deep relationship with the Lord. So I thought who better to reach his people and lead them into that same strong covenant with the Lord. I encouraged Leo “Ringo” to become a pastor to his people.

Leo “Ringo” began having home church meetings at different members houses, but it did not take long before the home groups outgrew all the homes and larger accommodations were necessary. They found a Hispanic Christian church in Bellaire who let the Gypsy Christians share their building on the off days when they were not meeting. But this Gypsy fellowship quickly grew again. For example- from one Sunday to the next they had grown from 100 to 150 attendees. Now they were outgrowing the Hispanic Church meeting hall. This was when the Gypsy Christians decided that they would establish their own church building. They found an old unused bowling alley then owned by a Korean businessman. They moved in and started renovating. It was amazing how they all worked together to get the building in shape for fellowship. It was very impressive! However, it wasn’t long before tragedy occurred. Their building was struck with an electrical fire. The smoke damage was so severe that the building became unusable. They were forced to move somewhere else in the same strip center which turned out to be a very small and very odious restaurant without air condition and next to a massage parlor. This didn’t work well at all.

It was at this juncture that the Lord spoke to me about a church that I had previously built for a very close Palestinian Christian friend of mine. It was situated in Stafford not far from the Gypsy community. I told Pastor Leo “Ringo” and some of their leadership about the possibility of moving their fellowship to that location. I then went to present this idea to my Palestinian friend. I gave the assurance that I would take full responsibility for the proposed merger allowing the Gypsy Church to meet only in the small fellowship hall. With a little reluctance it was agreed that the Lord may very well bless this move. We started with the preparations to make the small fellowship hall ready for meetings immediately. With the help of my good friend Jimmy Duncan, owner of Southpaw Guitars, a new PA system was provided with all the necessities and many others pitched in to provide chairs and platforms and whatever was needed. It once again was amazing the number of Gypsies all working together in urgency to get everything in order. Very soon the Gypsies had a new church home. Praise God! He is always faithful. He was certainly showing himself strong on their behalf. It wasn’t long before their numbers multiplied and conditions were again becoming crowded. I encouraged them that the Lord had definitely spoken to me in prayer and assured me that they were to “possess the land” soon.

Meanwhile, in the bigger main sanctury, I finished preparations of the beautiful baptismal in readiness for a large group of Gypsy baptisms. After all both meeting groups needed a baptismal, right? They had been invited to attend the totally filled up standing room only Gypsy Christian meetings but they never seemed to be interested in attending. Suddenly the original church members who were now much smaller in number but using the much larger sanitary just up and left. They were gone. Without going further into the details, I will say that the prophecy of the Gypsies possessing the land was fulfilled. Now the whole building was for their use! We immediately began with more renovations. The first thing we did was to tear down the middle wall of partition between the fellowship hall and the main sanctuary- because literally the numbers in the Gypsy church were growing so fast that even the main sanctuary was not going to be large enough for their meetings. After opening up the fellowship hall into the main sanctuary, we had almost 500 seats which were soon filled.

Pastor Leo “Ringo” and his congregation have been so faithful to our Lord that over the past few years many missionaries have been sent out around the world and another three churches have been planted by them in other areas.