Hungarian pastor steps up to help large Roma refugee family

By JUSTIN SPIKE and BELA SZANDELSZKY
Associated Press
USZKA, Hungary (AP) — It took two days and sheer determination for the family of 27 women and children from Ukraine’s Roma minority to escape the violence of Russia’s invasion and reach neighboring Hungary. Then they faced the next challenge: not being split up by aid groups trying to help. That all changed when the pastor of a village church took them in. The pastor of the church, Edgar Kovacs, said he felt a responsibility both as a Christian and as a Roma himself to help the Hungarian-speaking family. The group of 20 children and seven women was determined to stay together, and refused offers of accommodation that would have separated them. The pastor says “Ordinary people are the losers when leaders can’t agree.”