Mission story
Father Simion (far right), his wife Eugenia (far left) and, behind her, Steve Matthews from St Luke's Church, Crosby, which supported the Kimbers.
(Photo: © The Matthews)
Geoff and Gill Kimber witnessed first hand the fruits of a project that caters to the needs of the poor in Sibiu, Romania. Gill describes what they found.
"Six weeks ago they wouldn’t even sit at the same table together,” observed Father Simion Sasaujan. “They fought all the time, snatched the food from each other’s plates and were very disruptive.”
“Seeing them sitting at the same table is real progress!” Simion’s wife Eugenia confirmed.
I looked at the Roma children having their home-cooked lunch in the basement of his Orthodox church. Each one had a member of staff sitting next to them. Each staff member had an arm around a child, while he or she talked to, explained to and encouraged the child alongside.
Children receiving tuition and individual attention(Photo: © The Matthews)This holistic project is not just about food. The children receive tuition, are loved and get individual concern, sadly absent in much of Romanian culture, and are also taught to pray — some for the first time.
The Sasaujans are a remarkable couple. In their sixties, they devote themselves fully to the needs of the very poor: children and the elderly.
Children with social problems are referred to their St Nicholas’ Association by social and educational services. After school, they come for lunch each day to the basement, where Eugenia and her team feed them. Then they are given remedial teaching so they don’t fall behind in their education.
The St Nicholas’ Association means that the children are able to stay within their extended family rather than being dumped in a so-called ‘orphanage’. With the love and encouragement of Simion and his staff, counselling on offer, and support from social workers, most of the children do very well.
A beneficiary of St Nicholas' meals-on-wheels project(Photo: © The Matthews)About two years ago, Simion began attending to the needs of the poverty-stricken elderly.
Their plight does not make headlines, but pensioners in Romania often live in difficult circumstances. They do not have enough money to pay rent, to buy proper food or keep their heating on in the severe Romanian winters, when many die from hypothermia.
Eugenia and her team quadrupled their cooking each day, so that each pensioner in their meals-on-wheels project now receives a proper meal. The elderly are also invited to special occasions and their birthdays are celebrated.
This work has outgrown the dark, cramped conditions of the basement and, in faith, Simion has begun to construct a purpose-built centre next to his church.
The work goes on in fits and starts – despite “paper support” from the Orthodox Church and his professional relationships with Social Services, he has no regular funding and is entirely dependent on donations.
Recently, the owner of a cement works donated sufficient concrete to lay the foundations. The Sasaujans rejoiced, but continue to pray for funding and raise money in any way they can.
Simion and Eugenia are part of the only Orthodox church in Sibiu that runs a social project.
Time spent with them is always rewarding, busy as they are – Simion may need to jump up to take a wedding in the church upstairs, or run away to order more supplies, or settle down to the endless paperwork. They pray as they work – constantly, always talking about the love of Christ for the poor, which is their inspiration.
“If you came with me and saw how some of them live,” he said to us one day, “your heart would go out to them too.”
“I was hungry, and you fed me” is a strapline used on the St Nicholas' Association website.
To learn more about the Kimbers' mission service in Romania, click hereand here.
The Kimbers were CMS mission partners until recently. Gill Kimber worked with the St Nicholas’ Association for a while, and the Kimbers continue to support it as much as possible, encouraging links between the Sasaujans and supporting churches in the UK.