I am from a Gypsy origin and am not ashamed of it. The Lord has desired that I be born a Gypsy, and not an American. Neither do I regret the fact that I am living in Bulgaria. The Lord is perfect and He has not made a mistake, choosing for me to be born exactly in this country and to be exactly of this background. 


I believe the Lord is doing something in my people, as well as in the nation of Israel. Years in a row I have wondered why the devil has destroyed so many Gypsies and Jews through Hitler. Why exactly these two people? The Lord often chooses the small things, the simple, rejected, to shame the great and high ones. Years ago I was with my whole family in a Church in Germany. When they found out that we are Gypsies, the pastor asked us to come forward and all asked forgiveness from us, because their fathers had killed many Gypsies in the concentration camps, during World War II. The whole Church had knelt and all were crying. I didn’t even imagine that later I would meet Jews, and even be in Israel.  


 


Iliya Panov

Ivo Koychev

Roma & Jews

Together for Israel