Impacted by the generosity of strangers…
This month’s story is from Sue who lives in Redcliffe and is part of St Mary Redcliffe Church. She shared about how her church have been seeking to provide a warm and loving welcome to new neighbours.
Earlier this year, Sue attended a workshop with the organisation ‘Welcome Churches’ to learn about how her church could provide a warm welcome to refugees from Afghanistan. The workshop covered various practical topics, including awareness of different cultural expectations; the immediate and longer term needs and rights of refugees; and advice how to reach out and warmly welcome them into the community.
In addition to her role as ‘Access Lead’ at St Mary Redcliffe Church, Sue has been volunteering at Aid Box Community (ABC), a charity providing support for those seeking refuge in Bristol. The organisation runs a ‘free shop’, which supplies clothes, shoes and practical household items at no cost, as well as signposting to further help. They also run social group activities to help people get connected, with a very active weekly women’s group and recently started men’s football. Sue’s involvement as a volunteer made her aware of refugees living close to the church and, in conversation with others, the idea for hosting a tea party to welcome refugees to their community was sparked.
Several years ago, when her children were young, Sue and her family spent some time living in Melbourne, Australia. She spoke about the warm welcome and generosity of those she met who ‘didn’t know her from Adam’, but who were quick to rally round and source a pram for her baby and allow her to take part in the activities of a local kindergarten. Sue was impacted by the generosity of strangers and this became the inspiration for her to volunteer her time to show the same love and kindness to others.
Having preached to the congregation in her church, Aggy, the curate, found two volunteers who were keen to help. They booked space to host the party in the Faithspace community centre, which they felt would be more accessible than the large gothic church building for this occasion. Members of the church congregation donated cakes, as well as toys including hand-knitted teddy bears for the children. A small group of volunteers from the church’s refreshments team offered their time to help serve on the day, and a welcome banner was created by the volunteers and refugees together to be proudly put on display in the church to reinforce the feeling of welcome.
St Mary Redcliffe Church next door to its diverse community.
Sue and other volunteers preparing for the tea party.
Invitations were sent by another local charity, Bridges for Communities, who the church has connected with previously, and on the day the team went to collect the guests from their homes - all part of the welcome.
Sue noted that the attendees were all women and small children, however this was not a surprise to her, following the information that had been shared about cultural expectations in the ‘Welcome Churches’ workshop. The team followed other recommendations from the workshop, particularly around safeguarding and cultural sensitivity, including not taking photos of guests at the event and not probing them about their experience of travelling to the UK.
One of the challenges they faced at the tea party was the language barrier between volunteers and those attending. However, there was a lot of smiling, and they were glad to be joined by another volunteer from ABC who speaks Farsi and was able to provide great assistance with translation.
They were pleased to be joined by one of the local ward councillors from Bristol City Council, who made a speech of welcome and was able to make connections with those who came and offer some specific local signposting. Sue had previously provided a ‘Welcome to Redcliffe’ leaflet with information about the local area and its amenities when the refugees arrived.
The tea party was a great success, with about 20 families coming along, providing activities for the children and the opportunity for the women to socialise with each other and the volunteers and a local Somali family. Another party is planned before Christmas.
For St Mary Redcliffe Church, the tea party started a conversation and raised the congregation’s awareness of having refugees living next door. They have been providing practical support, including using the church building as a buggy donation point so that newly arrived families can access buggies locally instead of travelling to ABC in Stokes Croft. In addition, they’ve sourced five second-hand sewing machines, that had been tucked away unused in people’s homes, to be serviced and given to local refugee women.
WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM OUR TIME WITH SUE?
Sue’s reflection about how she came to be inspired to show love to others, because of her own experience of receiving a warm welcome from strangers, reminded us of how the Bible describes how our experiences of God’s love inspires and shows us how to love others: ‘We love because he [God] first loved us.’ (1 John 4v19)
Sue took time to be equipped before taking action, both with the training workshop she attended and through volunteering. This meant the team could prepare sensitively and avoid unnecessary blunders particularly, in this instance, around cultural differences.
We heard how Sue harnessed the skills, gifts and resources already present within her church congregation to bring the ideas to life, including donations of cakes, teddies and time to serve refreshments, plus connections with other volunteers and organisations. This team approach gave the opportunity for lots of different people to be involved and catch the vision for showing love to their neighbours, which in turn triggered further discussion and action after the initial event.
The church worked together with other professionals and organisations, instead of solely relying on their own resources. This generous approach enabled wider connections for those they were welcoming into the neighbourhood e.g. support from the local ward councillor.
What strikes you about Sue’s story?
What experiences of God’s love in your life inspire you to show love to others?
Who is living next door to you or your church that God is calling you to love? How?