Giving what you’ve got…
We recently met up with Rachael Bee who lives in Easton and who, together with her family, has been involved in hosting and supporting refugees and asylum seekers within her community.
Catching a vision
Several years ago, while I was training to be a social worker, I went to a protest about support for asylum seekers and refugees. I felt out of my depth, as I was handed the megaphone and told to say something motivational to the crowd – I had no idea what to say! But I remember leaving that event feeling inspired to become more involved in how asylum seekers and refugees can be better supported close to home, in Bristol.
At that time, I had been volunteering to support international students at my church, so it felt like a short leap into this. My reflection, at this point, would be that God often gently nudges us with short steps, rather than asking us to huge leaps out of our comfort zone.
Around the same time, I sensed God calling me to consider how I could be more intentional about using my home to reach out to the community around me and to move to a different part of the city to do that… I just didn’t know where! I began thinking about the different areas of Bristol and on a time of retreat, I prayed over a map of the city and asked God, ‘where should I move?’. I sat in the garden, I went for long walks, and thought it through carefully. In the end, I felt God saying it would be Easton. I didn’t know Easton and hadn’t really been there much, but as I talked it through with friends, soon discovered others who shared the vision and wanted to join me.
I also started volunteering at a welcome centre with Bristol Refugee Rights once a week and it was great!
Helping by hosting
Not long after moving to Easton, I went to a meeting about the destitution faced by asylum seekers in our city - people with no recourse to public funds and no right to work. So close to home, I quickly realised that a really practical way I could offer support was by offering the spare room in our house to host individuals facing this.
The first person we hosted had a tiny baby – just 6 weeks. She would be 12 years old now!
We had lots of different people come to stay with us. We didn’t really know what we were doing, but we were open to whatever would happen!
Then, almost as quickly as it started, in 2010, it just disintegrated. After a rollercoaster time of people staying and hearty meals together, our situation changed and my housemates began to move out of the house.
I said to God – ‘you got me into this and now it feels like it is being taken… so, what’s next?’
Not long after this, a house came up for sale which was next door to, and backing onto, people who were a core part of the prayer group. Things conspired together amazingly to make it possible to buy the house!
After moving in, there were lots of opportunities to begin hosting again. It was mad, having lots of people around. People with all sorts of different life experiences. Some people have been brilliant at hospitality and taught me loads about it – particularly Middle Eastern hospitality culture, which is a contrast from our reserved British culture. Most of the people who have lived here have been from Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, and more. It’s been a really interesting journey!
When I started out, I just felt called to live in a house with a spare room. As I journeyed, more things grew. Now, being married and having a baby has altered my journey too. We continue to open our home, our hearts and our lives to other people, showing God’s love through practical actions of solidarity and generous hospitality.
It’s incredible seeing people hosted 10 years ago who are now established with their ‘leave to remain’ and reunited with their families.
Giving what you’ve got
We’ve learnt that sometimes you don’t have to step out of your front door to step into the purposes that God has for you. We recognised that in our home we have a spare room, and felt God asking us to put it on the table for him to use. Other people might have something else… and it doesn’t matter what it is that you’ve got, because God can turn that into something that he can use, when you offer it for his purposes.
When we joined our church in Easton, it was small and felt restricted by a lack of capacity. However, it did have a community centre-style building. The refugee support charity I was working with needed some office space and the church agreed to share some space in their building – office space as well as space to hold a drop in. The vicar walked me round sharing about the activities that used to run there that had since stopped – a children’s group and youth group – and he showed me cupboards full of resources that they were no longer using. Inside was everything we needed for running the drop in and so, we didn’t need to buy anything. We hardly had to spend anything on opening it up!
The body of Christ has resources beyond our imagination that can be put towards the service of our community. Let’s just be generous with them! What are those things? What is it that is hiding in our sheds, stuck away in cupboards in our buildings that we’re not using, and are there people that really need them?
We can often be inclined to say no because of fear, but we need to be more open and less fearless about connecting into our community. Offering with open hands and no expectation of return, and just seeing what God can do with that, because it will be more than we could have asked or imagined!
What is showing God’s love in practical ways for you on a daily basis?
It always feels like just faithfully putting one foot in front of the other and I think that God always opens new and strange ways as we do that. Not necessarily what we would have planned, but that’s OK.
WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM OUR CONVERSATIONS WITH Rachael and her family?
As Rachael shared her story of being directed by God to move into a new neighbourhood, we were reminded of a verse in the Bible that speaks of how God came in-person to live among us: “The Word [Jesus] became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” John 1v14 (The Message) and how we are called to follow Jesus’ example of living a life of love within our neighbourhoods, too.
We were inspired by way Rachael’s heart for, and involvement in, supporting a certain group of people grew in unexpected and awesome ways, as she faithfully gave what she already had and took the small steps that God placed in front of her.
Is there a certain group of people that God has placed on your heart?
What do you already have, that is God inviting you to share?
What are the small, gentle steps God calling you to take next?