The Christmas holidays tend to be a great time for kids. The average family in the UK will spend an additional £2,000 over the Christmas period on gifts, food and trips.
It is not the same picture for everyone, though. 700,000 kids in London are living below the poverty line, after you’ve taken housing costs into account. For these homes the additional financial stress of Christmas can often be the cause of family arguments, stress, and domestic abuse. It is not surprising that, despite the cold weather, winter is a time when many kids run away for the first time.
In my job at the London City Mission I come across some tragic stories of runaways, but it is not all bad news. Jesus didn’t only come for nice, comfortable, middle-class people like me. He came for everyone and it is the church’s responsibility to take the good news out to the streets to ensure that even the homeless, perhaps especially the homeless, get to know the good news about the love of God.
George’s story
One lad who has come to know that good news for himself is George. George was 12 when he first ran away from home. As he grew up he had been considering a career in the construction industry but, instead, life on the street became his lot.
‘The worst is the rain,’ he says, ‘and my friends were not friends at all – they liked me when I had something to give them (money, drink or drugs), but attacked and robbed me if I didn’t. I felt vulnerable and ended up begging. When I got hungry I would visit drop-in centres across London where most give a free meal, but no one talks to you, but things were a bit different at Webber Street.
‘I used to get annoyed at first, sitting through the Bible talk whilst waiting for breakfast, but after a while I got used to it. It made sense, and it wasn’t so bad. The staff helped me get my National Insurance number sorted out. They also organised a number of meetings for me with a Christian-run rehab programme. I eventually went on the programme and during a time of Bible study the word of God started to challenge me – my attitudes, my thoughts, the things I had done and do. I started to realise God really loves me. I got a good feeling. This was something I had never known nor realised before.
‘I asked Jesus into my life. My life with Jesus is now heading upwards, not downwards. I’m now housed and based in a large London church where I work full-time as assistant manager in their coffee shop. Every day I learn something new from God’s word.’
In our community outreach it is sometimes too easy to divide the world between evangelism ministry and mercy ministry. Inviting someone to a marriage course is described as an evangelistic opportunity, but helping people on the street is a mercy ministry. Jesus teaches the full counsel of God. He brings forgiveness of sins, and he binds up the broken hearted. The people sleeping on our streets need to hear the good news of Jesus, and they need a warm bowl of soup and help to find a hostel. There are increasing numbers of churches offering Winter night shelters and support to people like George – very few of them are evangelical, and fewer still will bring the good news of Jesus.
My prayer is that more people like George will get to hear about Jesus this year and turn their lives around – this is the greatest mercy ministry available.
