Dancing for Haiti

Our Smarties children's club are having a dance-athon in a week or so to raise money for The Salvation Army's relief work in Haiti. Here's what the children say:

'On 9 February we will be doing a dance-athon - one hour of non-stop dancing to show that we care. We are very concerned about the people of Haiti and particularly the children like us. We can't go to Haiti to help out but we know some people who are already there helping and we want to raise money so that they will be able to do as much as they can. Please give generously to this cause!'

If you would like to make a donation you can do so on our 'Just Giving Page' here. Also, to read exactly where the money is going please look here.

Thursday evenings

Each Thursday a few us meet in a home on the Ocean Estate, Stepney. We gather to pray together, encourage each other, discuss how we can live Jesus' way and occasionally eat together. This week, we're welcoming a guest from Southall in West London from an organisation called Servants UK, who will share with us something of the work that he's involved with - and the work of his wider organisation Servants Asia. Starts at 7.30pm at 26 Ernest Street, Stepney. Please join us.

You can see here what we got up to one Thursday when the cameras came to visit!

A short video about hope:asha...

Here's a short video made about hope:asha by The Salvation Army Video Production Unit. The full length version can be viewed in 9 parts on YouTube here.

Diary for the next quarter

Please see the diary for hope:asha activities from January to April 2010 - downloadable as a PDF document by clicking here.

And the award goes to...

Two hope:asha members received an early Christmas present with well-earned awards last week.

Nick received the TELCO Community Leader of the Year 2009 award from London Citizens for his work in engaging the hope:asha community in grassroots social justice activities and encouraging involvement from the wider Salvation Army. Many of these ventures have been reported on this website throughout the year including Strangers into Citizens, City Safe and the recent citizens response to the financial crisis.

Chijioke was awarded his Masters with distinction from Queen Mary's, University of London. It was great to see him receive his award and we pray for him as he looks to the next phase of his life.

Christmas event 2009

On Sunday 20th December 2009 we will be holding our annual Christmas event. This year we will be holding a carol service at St Benets Chapel, Queen Mary University, 327a Mile End Road at 4pm. Please come along and join in the fun as we celebrate Christmas Stepney style.

Children from our Smarties children's club will be retelling the Christmas story and there will be a chance to sing some carols. Afterwards there'll be plenty of time to wish one another a Happy Christmas over some festive refreshments.

From Stepney to the City: a story of justice

Wednesday evening was a great success! A number of us made our way from Stepney to join 2000 other citizens of London at the Barbican Centre for an evening of justice-seeking. There is nothing quite like a London Citizens' assembly - amazing diversity of faith, culture and ethnicity speaking with one democratic voice and holding powerful public figures to account.

There were a number of very poignant moments during the evening but few as powerful as high-profile Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders reading from scripture together. We were proud to see our London area leader Lt Col. Mike Parker taking centre stage.

And so we push forward the economic campaign - in particular the amazing Living Wage campaign which has been so successful in lifting hundreds of individuals out of poverty and also the demand to the banks and credit companies to lend responsibly and to push for a 20% cap on interest rates.

Download our brief report highlighting the key issues at stake and why we should be involved: Salvation Army Justiceseeking and the Financial Crisis (PDF).

Photo by Chris Jepson