Domino Day, but with people…
Last week we had a domino moment… read, and shiver…. How does it work. Just one example:
- Your mother is 80+ years old, you (56 years old) work in another country and your brother (who takes care of your mother) dies.
- You therefore quit your job, go back to Poland to take care of your mother (the elderly care here is “something” different from “in the west”, and no one else is going to do it for you)
- Your mother has a pension that is too small to pay the rent + fixed costs. There is no money for food.
You go to the food bus to arrange food (one meal only, so you take it for your mother, you still have nothing) and when you get home, your mother is on the floor. - There is also no money to even pay all fixed costs, so this month you had to take your mobile phone to the pawnshop to pay a bill. You get 20 euros for your phone and if you come back within 1 month and put down 25 euros, you get it back. Too late? Phone = gone.
- Oh yes, the gas is turned off (because no money) and cooking yourself (even if you had food) is no longer possible.
Problem: if you go looking for a job (how you should do that in addition to the caregiving for your mother is a mystery to us, by the way) you must be available to potential employers. But you had to hand in your phone to the pawn shop.
No phone = no job = no money = no home = no food. Domino, but with people….

So, this week, we gave this person 45 euros. Then he can pick up his phone again and still have some money left for a meal.
Phone = today a conversation with an employer = tomorrow he can start his new job = some money for the rent and gas = they can continue to live where they live, and they have (still with the help of the food bus, yes) now also something warm to eat.
45 euros, doesn’t sound like much, but if you don’t have it, the dominoes quickly fall in the wrong direction…. Thank God (literally), we had that money, but if we don’t have it we can’t help him either… do you help us to play dominoes?
What happens next? We don’t know and let go. We give them a unique chance, and then they have to take the next step themselves. And that can go right, but also wrong. How do we look at it?
Yesterday’s client was happy and in tears, his mother was also very happy. That’s one day with two people in a more happy mood in a tough world. Today he is going to talk to an employer, so today is also a good day. And tomorrow? We live day by day, we take it day by day, and every day that someone smiles is a profit. Tomorrow there will be another day with new choices.
They may make a wrong choice tomorrow… but today we gave them a choice to change their lives. The next step… is up to them and God.
