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.
