Monday's Child is full of woe...

First job for the day was to call in at the local printers to see if they could give me a good price on 5000 colour fliers. They couldn't - £350 was their final offer. I had already been quoted online for about £120 so I left the printers knowing that I would now do my deal on the internet.

Spent the rest of the morning traipsing around estate agents in East Ham trying to find out which areas would be the best targets for the leaflets I had in mind. My budget is very limited and I don't want to waste the 5,000 leaflets we would have. No joy - they all seemed so young: they didn't know the area at all well.

I actually want to cater for rich and poor children, but at the moment it will be the "better off" who put food on my table. Is it really "of the Lord" to be looking for "targets" in this way? I console myself in the knowledge that I live in Newham a borough of 250,000 people with just one established Independent School (of about 100 children) and several other private schools run by and for Muslims. So "It will be tough" I tell myself.

Lesson at 6 o'clock teaching 3 local pakistani children. As I arrive at the house a row is going on outside, but I get to go in anyway. I begin with audible prayer (asking for peace) and get down to our English lesson. We are halfway through a series on Jesus. Some weeks ago we looked at his coming and his having no "home" to call his own. Today we looked at animal homes and the way in which God has given instincts to animals to build their homes. We looked particularly at the weaverbird and its wonderful nest. We also used the mini theme of "homes" to do our grammar work.

After the lesson I speak with one of the dads about his son's work. Just before I leave, in his broken English he asks me for my address and says he will bring some Pakistani food for our dinner. This will not be the first time we have been cooked for by clients.

Off to another home to speak about another boy's work. This time a Bangladeshi. He and his older daughters are distressed about a neighbour's ways and want to see what I can do to help. I have been in this position a good number of times with all sorts of families. For the moment things are sensitive so I just say be patient and give it time. I get home having spent an hour longer than I intended to speaking with parents.

Later that night I am up until after 1 o'clock finishing off the pdf leaflets and negotiating with Pauline (my wife and business manager) about how much we could afford. Sent off the files by e-mail and expect to have them back next Tuesday.