Intense start!

Abimaro, Lisa and Hannah

January has started the year off with lots to do. Sammy (husband of Abimaro who runs the till in her spare time) has started an 8 months internship with City of Peace and for his first day he had a meeting - one which we also all had for the first time, with a large number of Tower Hamlets evangelical ministers. Sammy will be with us 3 days per week and has already managed to develop a couple of relationships within the café, I have no doubt about his capabilities.

We try to have a bible reading every morning and have just completed the letter 1 John. On one morning a lady who has been around church on the fringes a bit has joined us for this reading and she really enjoyed it. She suffers from depression, is on medication, anti-depressants, and spoke about how difficult it is just to get out of her house. She is afraid of the world outside. It must be a terrible mental place to be. Depression is the theme of January, this is one of 3 people that I have learned about who is taking this kind of medication. Another very depressed chap has come into the café and it is almost difficult even to understand what he is talking about, he lost his work a year ago and speaks of demon possession. All of the staff team are trying really hard to accommodate him and include him in things - we need a saviour!

One wonderful thing for January is a chap called Joe who is a firefighter from US has volunteered to help us and a group of ladies from Christchurch have also offered to assist us with our work - they want to help with the youth group! We've also had two good donations!

Sadly one family will be leaving the Isle of Dogs - some friends - to go back to the states, Keith, Mandy and their daughter Lilly. Keith worked at Stepney City Farm and I think did quite a lot to regenerate the place. He was always ready to talk about spiritual things and I hope they have a safe journey and that God continues to bless them. Keith was very conspicuous riding around on his dutch 'Bakfiets' with his little blonde girl in the front.

War!

Then there was the snow! And I managed to have a number of wonderful snow fights with locals, some of who came into the café afterwards to warm up. On Sunday it really dumped down so we went to mudchute farm to the little bowl and took our snowboards and joined about 30 others throwing their kids down the slopes.

Church has been really busy too, we had a packed few services so far - at least 2 new people coming to visit  at each opening. A recurring theme in church prayers is for healing of the crowd or their relatives - and not just minor ailments, cancers, parkinsons disease and strokes to name a few. Tom has started a series on Ruth and was intending to do only one sermon but then a lady who had come in said she will be back following sunday to hear what happens next - so Ruth 2 is the topic I will be preaching on!