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Pentecostals 'Spreading Christmas Cheer' at London's tube stations

by William Dove
Posted: Sunday, December 23, 2007, 8:40 (GMT)
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Christmas is a time when many of us will be looking forward to relaxing a little, cosying up indoors with friends and family, and eating a good deal of mince pies.

By contrast, members of one of London's largest Pentecostal churches, Jesus House, have been waking up at 4:00am since Monday, standing in the cold for hours on end to give out mince pies to the busy commuters and locals in the community.

Teams from Jesus House have been standing outside tube stations in north London giving out mince pies, cups of tea, coffee and hot chocolate in their annual "Spreading Christmas Cheer" initiative.

The teams, made up entirely of volunteers, have to get up early in the morning in time to serve the many morning commuters and passers by.

Yemi Akinyele led the team of around 10 people who were "Spreading Christmas Cheer" at Kilburn station on the Jubilee Line.

He said, "We did not start serving until around seven because though we had boiled the water beforehand in order to hit the ground running, when we got here we had to boil it again because we felt it was best to have hot tea rather than lukewarm tea."

Just outside the station the church members set up a long table behind which members prepared bags of mince pies for passers by. At another end of the table, hot drinks were prepared using a large water boiler.

At any one time, one or two people would stand among commuters handing out small bags of food or letting people take their favourites sweets from tins of chocolates. All the while a loudspeaker played gospel and Christmas music, to which the church members occasionally danced in order to keep warm in the cold.

The winter temperatures meant that the task of standing outside for hours, whilst giving out mince pies, chocolates and hot drinks to passers by, was not an easy or comfortable one.

"You can't keep warm. At the moment now I can't really feel my toes, and I can't feel the fingers on my left hand. But you know you can touch the water boiler," said Graham Sokari, Head of Reprographics and a volunteer from Jesus House.

Despite the cold, all those involved kept up high spirits and had a smile on their faces. According to Sokari, "The volunteers, they just come out and they smile and they're the best because you just tell them something and they go on with it."

Those involved spoke of how people had responded positively to the initiative.



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