By Marv Knox

Shane McNary used to make a morbid prediction that proved prophetic—and pragmatic—for his ministry partners in Central Europe. “When I had a conversation with somebody to start a new collaboration in ministry, my standard speech was, ‘I’m going to die tomorrow, so whatever we decide to do today, you have to commit to do it on your own,’” Shane recalled.

Across almost two decades, Shane and Dianne McNary have served as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel, working primarily with Roma people in Slovakia and Czechia.

While he didn’t die, he has passed on. After more than 19 years in Europe, the McNarys returned to the United States this year. Dianne became CBF’s Offering for Global Missions advocate. Shane became coordinator of ministry for Great Rivers Fellowship, which formed through the merger of CBF state organizations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Shane reflected on the point of all those conversations with potential partners before they relocated. “They were offended that I said I’m going to die,” he acknowledged. “But then they were reminded the commitment is not just, ‘Let’s see what we can get from this person.’ We were able to have a long-term presence to walk alongside people until such time as we were not needed to support them in ministry. We were needed to support them as friends, and that transformation is only possible through long-term presence.”

Leaning in to CBF’s commitment to long-term presence, the McNarys lived in Central Europe from 2004 to 2023. They drew upon their experiences—Dianne as a nurse and Shane as a pastor—as well as their shared commitment to the under-served and under-represented. In the focus of their ministry, they served among and alongside the Roma people, often derisively called “Gypsies.”

“The Roma people are most definitely discriminated against,” Dianne said. Roma are ethnically different from the dominant cultures in the region and, as is often the case with discriminated people globally, their skin is darker.

“There’s a huge prejudice, and it has gone on for years and years—hundreds of years in this particular area,” she explained. “The Roma people experience prejudice in every situation they come into.”

For example, Roma are the last to receive opportunities to get education. Even those who persevere and earn college degrees often are told no jobs are available, even when non-Roma who apply after them are hired. Roma always stand in the back of the line for healthcare. They receive the worst housing, sometimes without electricity or water. They literally sit in the back of the bus.

In Central Europe, Dianne invested about 60 percent of her time and Shane spent about 40 percent of his time in Roma ministry.

“Most of my Roma work was centered in Vazec, about 20 minutes from where we lived in Poprad, Slovakia,” Dianne said. “I worked with an organization called Jekh Drom, which is Roma language for ‘One Way.’ They have a community center where they work with people—not just Roma—living in poverty. My work was to come alongside and help them as they were doing their programs.”

She used her nursing background to educate mothers about prenatal and after-birth care and “how to take care of those newborns.” She also helped children with their homework, “because most of the kids who come in there don’t have a place to do homework at home.”

Shane’s Roma ministry included leading a Bible study in Jelsava, in southern Slovakia. He sat on the board of a nonprofit that is translating the Bible into the Roma language. He also invested considerable time alongside Roma pastors, sharing life and helping strengthen their churches.

Working with Roma literally came with the turf when the McNarys accepted CBF’s invitation to serve in Slovakia and Czechia.

“When we started exploring what we might do with mission work, we didn’t even know who the Roma were,” Dianne noted. “And when we learned about the Roma, it was like, ‘We know these people.’ Shane was a pastor for years and with my working in healthcare, we knew people who lived in poverty.”

Dianne spent about 40 percent of her time in non-Roma ministry. She coordinated conversational English classes where she could encourage Slovak participants to rethink their antipathy toward Roma neighbors. She also worked in a program called Community Health Evangelism, taught in other countries and served on a nonprofit board.

Shane invested the other 60 percent of his time in a variety of ministries. He worked on multiple fronts with Slovak Baptists. He also chaired the European Baptist Federation’s Freedom and Justice Commission and served as the Baptist World Alliance’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Together with Dianne, he coordinated dozens of mission teams and spent countless days mentoring Slovak and Czech pastors and assisting churches across the region. “I used to say, ‘My work is I go and have cake and coffee with people, and it’s the best job in the world,’” he said.

Shane also took the lead in coordinating CBF response when the war in Ukraine started and thousands of Ukrainian refugees—many of them Roma—flooded eastern Slovakia. His relationships with pastors undergirded one of CBF’s most intense relief endeavors. Beyond that, he provided ongoing coordination for CBF’s response to the war across the region.

Altogether, Dianne and Shane focused on ministries demanded by the needs their partners identified. As Shane’s “I’m going to die tomorrow” line indicated, they never knew how long they would remain. But they felt comfortable taking supportive roles—putting their partners in the drivers’ seats so that ministries would continue when they left.

“We were there almost 19 years. When you talk about ‘long-term presence,’ that’s pretty long-term,” Shane noted. “The ability to be there long-term helped us focus on equipping and empowering local ministry instead of building everything on our presence.

“If I invested myself in a program, that would be my program, what I’m doing missionally, and that would end when I end. But long-term presence allowed me to take the time to invest myself in local people and in local initiatives that they start, that they continue. When that happens, then even when my long-term presence should end, the long-term impact remains.”

The McNarys feel blessed to have spent almost 19 years among the Roma and other people in Slovakia and Czechia, and their friends say the blessing is mutual.

Denisa Kovacheva met Dianne through a discussion club sponsored by the Košice Scientific Library, which Dianne coordinated. “We talk about all kinds of topics, and it’s a great place for people around here to practice their English,” Denisa said, noting she was thrilled the group continued to meet digitally during Covid. They particularly bonded when Dianne obtained an English-language hymnal for Denisa. “Each song tells a story, and it’s a life story. And (playing hymns) brings me closer to God,” she said.

“Dianne and Shane have been here a long time,” she added. “It’s important because if people just come and go, you don’t get to know them as well. You can fake things for a short time. But if someone stays in a community for a longer time, then they will show their real colors.”

Ingrid Bangova has known the McNarys for 14 years, since she was eight-years-old and they conducted a children’s camp in her village. As a Roma young woman, she knows discrimination firsthand, but has developed resilience as her faith has grown.

When her mother became ill and her father had to quit his job to care for her, Ingrid initially thought her dream of attending university was disintegrating. “I prayed about it and thought: ‘What should I do now? Go to study or stay at home and take care of my mother?’” she remembered. “Somehow, God sent it to my heart that I should just write to Shane. So, I explained what my situation was, and actually since then, I have been receiving a scholarship through them.”

Ingrid studies at the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia. The McNarys believe an investment in this young woman’s education is prudent. “We realize that you change a man’s life and you have changed his life,” Shane said. “But you change a woman’s life, and an entire family is impacted.”

Marek Gombár is co-pastor with his wife of an Assemblies of God church in Pavlovce and Uhom, near the Slovak border with Ukraine. They collaborated to help Marek’s congregation serve hundreds of Ukrainian refugees in the early weeks of the war. Previously, they built a bond of commitment to ministry and compassion for the Roma people.

“When I saw him for the first time, I knew this was a person who came to us, the Roma, who loves the Roma,” Marek said. “We went somewhere for pizza, and I saw into his heart and said, ‘God, this is a person I want to work with.’ This is a person who not only speaks, but I see that he has such a heart. He is a person whose heart flows from love, and there are not many such people.”

René Ferko is pastor of an Apostolic church in Decin, Czechia, where he also is a hospital chaplain and coordinator of Roma work in the region. He and Shane met more than 11 years ago, when “the seed for ministry among the Roma was growing.” He calls the rangy missionary an “angel.”

Shane is “the person who has helped me be where I am today,” René said. “In the hardest moments of my life, he was there, and he was willing to come from Slovakia, such a long distance, and sit and listen to what we were going through.

“I’m glad he’s been that helper—we call it angel—all along the way, to do what Jesus has called us to do. It’s been a rare and very valuable collaboration with Shane and his family.”

When the opportunity to help lead Great Rivers Fellowship came along, the McNarys weren’t looking to leave their posts in Europe. “We both loved what we did,” Shane said. “But things came together to say it’s time to change.”

After a period of depression and frustration unrelated to her work in Slovakia, Dianne had worked through what they call “a period of discernment, re-evaluation and healing” and felt set to keep on keeping on.

But when Shane received a request to apply for the Great Rivers Fellowship job, they felt they should consider an opportunity that would bring them back to the place—Arkansas—where they were born. And then, when the Offering for Global Missions advocate position opened up, Dianne saw a chance to remain connected to CBF while supporting her colleagues.

Even so, “it was hard to make the decision; it was hard to leave,” Dianne said, recalling how she cried through the final day of a CBF all-staff meeting about a month after they returned to the States. “I had left my home, and I knew I wasn’t going back soon,” she explained.

Shane expressed gratitude for technology that spans the miles. “Our work was so relational; distance makes staying connected difficult. But still we are maintaining those contacts,” he said. That includes continuing to accept requests for finances out of a small amount of personal funds that remain in their Slovak bank account, exchanging texts and talks with partners and friends, and even facilitating an online course through International Baptist Theological Seminary.

Ministries they supported in Europe continue to follow up-and-down cycles. They rejoice over progress, agonize over glitches and appreciate the blessing of ongoing work.

This fall, they relished a life-come-full-circle experience. On their second day in Slovakia in 2004, they met “a ridiculous-looking kid, a first-year seminary student, who ended up being my language helper,” Shane related. “Now, he is getting ready to start a church plant in Prague. He came to the U.S. to raise money for that church, and he stopped by to see us Nov. 1. “Imagine—a church plant in the capital of the Czech Republic,” Shane said as they both beamed, thinking of the prospect.

This article first appeared in the Winter 2023 issue of fellowship! magazine. Check out the issue and subscribe for free at www.cbf.net/fellowship.