GEM Update from James Wheeler-Mezei

Dear Friends
 
It’s great to be able to share our first update of the year with you. We hope you are well and looking forward to heading into spring soon. This winter has felt very long for us, and I’ve never driven through as much snow, ice and fog as I have had to this winter, fortunately without incident!

The girls are doing well and we can see how quickly they’re growing up. After successfully avoiding it for the past two years we finally had a bit of illness a few weeks ago. It wasn’t too severe for us but we haven’t fully recovered yet. 
 
I (James) have recently started a role with the Reformed Church in Tiszadob where I will be setting up a youth group and some sort of activity or group for parents of young kids. This is a great opportunity to draw people to Jesus and bring people into church community.

 
We are pleased to let you know Tibi (pictured above tiling the coffeeshop kitchen) and Anikó, who we mentioned in the last newsletter, are moving into a new house soon that they were able to buy with government support. Please do continue to pray for her health.
 
Coffeeshop
It’s good that the coffeeshop is also being used by various community groups for their meetings and events and for birthday parties, but over the winter months it’s been fairly quiet. The kids from the nearby children’s home - who rarely seem to be in school - often hang out inside and outside. This leads to some challenging decisions at times, items being damaged quicker than expected, and the need to enforce boundaries. 
 
On the plus side, since I see certain kids quite frequently I’m able to share the good news with them and try to encourage them in their troubled lives. Several of them have shared a bit of their stories and of course they’re not easy. By coincidence - Godincidence? - several of the regular customers also grew up in the children’s home here and by simply chatting, bridges are being built. 
 
Support
We are very thankful for everyone who supports our work in prayer and financial giving. We post updates on our facebook group more regularly.  We are very grateful for ongoing or occasional financial gifts that you would like to support our work with, which should now be sent direct to GEM UK, (or GEM US).
 
Account name: GEM UK
Sort Code: 77-33-07
Account: 27533068
Reference: 56714
 
Many thanks, 
 
James and Virág