Factories closing, rising unemployment, growing social discontent, pummelled stock markets, falling oil prices. Sound familiar? Whichever country we're in, we might resonate with this. But this is Russia, until recently so self confident and assertive on the world stage, but now reeling from the effects of the world recession. This has been a very steep fall in a very short time. And behind the headlines, as always, are the troubles of millions of ordinary people.

But also behind the headlines is the work of local churches - beacons of hope in a dark world. Not least of these is the Cafe Church in the Urals. In the midst of recession, in a very poor area even by Russian standards, where a major local factory has closed with the loss of all jobs, the church is growing. Construction work continues on the cafe area itself, and people are coming in. Over Christmas they had an outreach which was attended by 36 children and 10 parents, out of which has arisen a Sunday group for unchurched children from the district: a major breakthrough after years of prayer. The pictures tell their own story. Here we have another reminder that in troubled times, our role as church is not to retreat to our comfort zones, but to reach upwards and outwards,