Our soup kitchen is closed
The meal kitchen of Casa Sami , where we serve free meals, for some time now. it is not really necesarry anymore.
My eyes were opened when I visited it recently and only saw 2 children in the dinig room and 5 workers who were eating in the kitchen. That's a big difference from what it has been in the past!
The meal kitchen has been open for 15 years. Many years the dining room was full with children and often children had to wait to eat in the living room until it was their turn to eat.
In the morning the street children got a breakfast and a hot meal at 12.00 a clock, and at noon the little children from poor families did get a meal.
The meals were delicious and there was plenty to eat and often they also got a dessert.
But after a while, fewer and fewer came and now I can say it is not really necesarry anymore
There are enough jobs and many young people work in other countries and send money back to support their families.
Casa Sami is closed now and will not open anymore. it is not needed anymore.
For a moment we thought to make a Mission from it, but the local churches were not happy with that idea.
There are enough churches already, like Baptist churches who evangelize on the streets. also the government makes life not easy for us sometimes. Our mission pastor Lucas has died from a heart attack, we will miss him a lot. His work in Bucharest will continue however! We wish Lisa and the other people from Casa Cana a lot of strength.
Our family home in Corbu will keep open, that is still needed a lot to help the children until they can live on their own. So we stay active in the region of Constanta but in a different way.
We have to help as long as we can do it and where it is needed the most, then we will have good results.
A good example are the children who we could help together with Ellen to go to school. Some of them are in high school now. Others left for another country to work there for their future. Unfortunately also a few of them have died and we will remember them for a long time. We could help many children to give them a good future and we also told them the Gospel for many years.
We could give them a lot of care with love and there was always someone where they could go to for help or advice.
We will hopefully continue and be able to help children for many years to come, there where it is really necessary!
That is also a task for us as Christians . Mathew 5 :41
When someone asks to go one mile with him, then walk two miles with him.
Greetings and blessings for 2018
Theo van Hoof
p.s. Unfortunaly Ellen also had to stop her project " children going to school" because of her health.
But the government now helps to get children from poor families to go to school, and that helps. We wish Ellen a lot of strength and a good recovery.
