Bread of Life exists 20 years!

November 2001… 20 years ago a severe winter announced itself in Poland, which according to final reports claimed the lives of more than 300 homeless people. Simply frozen to death.

November 2001… At Poznań Central Station, the large waiting area was filled night after night by about 80 to 100 homeless people, who sought shelter there as long as they could. At the same time, a young couple, Richard and Brooke Nungesser, who had just arrived from the US, regularly took the train to teach English as native speakers in Gniezno, about half an hour away.

Touched by the sight of the homeless, and not held back by the dubious air…, Richard began handing out hot tea, as a kind of free interpretation of Matthew 10:42, the encouragement to give a glass of cold water. There was no miraculous multiplication of that tea then. No, not then. But over time?

Last Sunday, with a celebratory service in Poznań International Church (PIC) and then a dinner for about thirty direct coworkers, we had the joy to celebrate that Bread of Life has grown in those 20 years into an organization with activities in many cities, expansion into five countries, and in Poland alone thousands of people who regularly receive help, in the most diverse forms, but all with the aim of showing God’s love for those people!

Every birthday comes with presents… And this one was no exception. Via Esther Boogaard several weeks earlier contact was made with a group of Dutch people who, under the banner of the Salvation Army, are involved with homeless Poles in the Netherlands. They would come to Poznań for a Study Tour. Okay, nice, but then they texted me asking whether a Sunday morning visit to PIC would be a good idea. Absolutely!

Nobody could have planned that this group from Utrecht and Rotterdam would witness the most beautiful presentation about Bread of Life from the last 20 years. Although, nobody?

Who knows where these contacts will lead. Although, who knows?