Salvation Army Soup Kitchen

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Today we had a new experience, going to and helping in a Salvation Army Soup Kitchen. Our friend, Dejan, has helped there a number of times this year and has encouraged others to go with him.

The Salvation Army is located in a part of the city which is hard for me to characterize. I could do so by saying what it did not appear to be. It didn’t seem to be a residential area and it was definitely not a heavy industrial area. I find it hard to describe. It did not appear to be a warehouse area, nor a commercial area. Perhaps it is a light industrial area. Anyway, it is in an area where services are provided to many homeless people.
In addition to the soup kitchen the Salvation Army runs a hostel for homeless, providing rooms for approximately 200 people. I do not know what the ground rules are for a person to be able to stay there, nor if there is a small charge. The building is quite large and several stories high. There are some people of very limited means who live there all the time in exchange for helping with the work that needs to be done for the homeless. One really gentle lady who lives there helped me, Nancy, with getting the bread ready for distribution. She was in charge of washing all the soup bowls and having a steady supply of them clean and ready for me to give to Dejan who filled the bowls with good, hot soup. She had a constant pleasant smile on her face and a ready spirit to do the work quickly and very well.

We left the seminary a few minutes after 2:00 in the afternoon and arrived at the soup kitchen about 3:00 . A group of homeless men stood outside the entrance. My thought was, “There are not many here to eat.” What I did not know was that other men and women were already inside sitting, talking and patiently waiting for mealtime, 3:30.

Nancy, Dejan and I waited in a small room until they needed us on the serving line. We left our coats in this room, which was locked behind us as we left. The meal is soup and bread. The soup varies from day-to-day. Today it looked like a full-grain soup. I am not sure, but I believe the grain was wheat.

When the feeding began Dejan ladled the soup into bowls, Bill gave each person four pieces of whole wheat bread and Nancy saw that we both were well supplied with bowls and bread. In this assembly line fashion something over two hundred people, varying in age from their late teens to several quite elderly men, were fed in forty-five minutes. My guess is that 90% were men. Only a few seemed to be couples coming and eating together.

Nancy and I were both impressed by those receiving soup. At least half gave us a friendly smile, many said a thank you in Czech and absolutely no one complained in any way. There were a number of men that I judged to be my age who appeared to be quite intelligent, fully functioning men, but men who had reached a stage in life where they, for whatever reason, could no long find work and were simply “down on their luck,” as we say. I saw only a few that gave an appearance of being the provable town bum. I did wonder what the story was of a number of the young men, late teens and early twenties, and why they were having to eat here. Being a stranger here I have no idea what the drug situation is here in Prague, or how easy or hard it is to find a job.

We were completely finished by 4:30. The others who were there quickly swept the kitchen floor of bread crumbs, scrubbed the floor and all was put in order for the next day with little fuss but an abundance of work that seemed to be done with great good cheer. We were really impressed with this organization that the Salvation Army shows in its dedication to serve ‘the least of these’. Doubtless, we will return to help as we can. Our only barrier is our total lack of any Czech beyond Please and Thank You. I know these are magic words but it would be much nicer if we could communicate beyond here politeness.

After we finished with the meal, we did a little walking around downtown and shopping for two different purposes. First, we found the gift we had been hunting for for a little girl we love. Second, we found small gifts for a special week next week. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on campus with ‘Secret Friends’. Each day a small gift or service is offered by each person on campus to someone whose name they have drawn by chance. At the end of the week at a party the Secrets will be revealed and we will all learn who ‘loved’ us this week of love.

It was showing all the time we were downtown. That was fun. Then we started home. The center of town remained almost snow free because of heavy pedestrian traffic. However, the hills toward the campus were covered with perhaps 3 inches of snow. Since the final hill coming to Jeneralka is STEEP and CURVING, the bus driver put the bus in LOW gear. She actually stopped at the top of the hill and geared down before she started the descent. She didn’t go over 5 mph all the way down and with good reason. In the dark going slowly it was easy to see the lights of houses DOWN the hill off the side of the road. If she had gone too fast and had slipped off the road, we would have been in a dreadful wreck. There were cars coming up the hill and she obviously didn’t want to hit them on the left or go off the road on the right. So, we had a slow and safe trip back to the campus. I’m not sure I will stay downtown late when there is a lot of snow coming down. I hadn’t realized how treacherous that hill could be in a snow. After we got off the bus about 10 cars were behind and passed us quickly. Then came the snow plow spreading sand/salt. I know the next group of cars and busses were glad to have salt on the road.
It snowed again many times during the day on Saturday as well. We worked in the library from 8:30 until 5 p.m. The sun would come out and then a few moments later the snow would start again. That went on all day long. We seem to be in our snow period now since it is Sunday afternoon and we have had snow much of the day today as well. We love the snow.

Today, Sunday, we realized that Sophie, the smiling red haired child in previous blogs, will leave tomorrow. She and her parents have been here for a month. We don’t feel too happy about their leaving. I guess we thought they would be here until May when graduation takes place. They are such delightful folk. They will do a bit of traveling next week and then fly to Nova Scotia to visit friends before returning to New Zealand. Like 25% of all Kiwi’s they live in Auckland. We hope they will keep in touch by e-mail so we can know how their lives go and see pictures of their darling little girl as she grows. This is one of the bad/good things about being here on campus. You learn to love someone and then they go away. But you can keep in touch now that the world is made small electronically.

The Olympics are on and the tv is full of skiing and skating. It all looks like something I wish I could do but know I am either too old or too cowardly to try.

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Photos

Rooster in the Snow
This is the rooster on top of the cupola of the building that houses the headquarters of the European Baptist Federation here at IBTS. A rooster indicates the facility is protestant.

EBF Headquarters Building
The building that houses the headquarters of the European Baptist Federation here at IBTS. I took this from the front door of the library.

Comments

[Joyce Miller]

Snow in Annapolis and Columbia
About 8" in Annapolis; 21" in Columbia...glad we stayed in Annapolis this weekend...Roads are clear. So we have sympathy pains with your falling snow! Happy Valentine's Day Nancy and Bill! Love ya!

[Michele Johnston]

how the soup kitchen helped me
the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen of Lockport Ny has helped me in alot of ways and i am greatful for major and Mrs. John Wheeler doing an Excelent job at being the majors there.