Melody Wachsmuth moved to Osijek, Croatia in 2011 in the capacity of a mission researcher and writer. Since that time, she helped plant a church in a Roma community where she served as an elder until 2020.  She completed her PhD in 2020, the content of which is now a forthcoming book entitled Roma Pentecostals Narrating Identity, Trauma, and Renewal in Croatia and Serbia. She has been a part of Roma Networks since its beginning in 2014 and helped start a Roma Bible School in March 2022, serving on its Board. She is also a part of the newly formed ‘Friends of A Rocha in Croatia.’  She currently lives in Zagreb, Croatia where she continues to research, write, and teach topics related to mission and creation care, both at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek and the Roma Bible School.

Rafael Nastase grew up in an Orthodox Romani family in Romania, but experienced a personal conversion while studying philosophy after he read the Bible for the firs time. Subsequently, he joined a small Brethren church. He and his wife served as missionaries in the Republic of Moldova with Operation Mobilization (OM) for seven years, and from 2007-2019 served as the CEO of OM in Romania.  Currently, he works in public relations for OM in Romania, chairs the Board of Romani standard Bible translation (a Wycliffe initiative), and is the vice chairman of the Member Care Committee with the European Evangelical Mission Association (EEMA). He is also a PhD student, researching “The role of the Church in transforming Roma communities in Southeastern Romania after 1990”. His most important role is being a husband and father to two teenage boys.

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