June 2018 – Match Factory

Salvationist Thoughts: Acknowledging Privilege, History and Moving Forward | SA Justice

Salvationist Thoughts: Acknowledging Privilege, History and Moving Forward | SA Justice
— Read on sajustice.us/salvationthoughtsjessicasneed/

“This morning at 8:05 am, I dropped my son Daniel off for his first day of YMCA Day Camp. I’ve spent the past week prepping him for this day: signing forms, explaining the schedule to him, packing an earthquake kit into a gallon sized ziplock bag. Over the last 24 hours, I explained to him three times that his snack was in the baggie, and his lunch was in the lunchbox. Even so, as I dropped him off this morning in this new place with virtual strangers, my heart wasn’t quite at ease.”

Salvationist Thoughts: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis on the Border | SA Justice

Salvationist Thoughts: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis on the Border | SA Justice
— Read on sajustice.us/salvationthoughts1-2/

“When the United States first started separating children from their parents at the border, I was devastated. Not just because I find it absolutely abhorrent that we would treat any human in this way but because as the daughter of an immigrant I can’t help but to think about my dad every time I see a family detained at the border.”

Refugee Week 6: Breaking barriers

By Alexandra Foden

sofa

It’s interesting to think that 12 months ago I was asked to take the role of a Refugee Resettlement Caseworker. From being young, attending school, college and University I always felt I was destined to help people live a better quality of life and make a difference, yet I never thought I would get an opportunity like this. It has been a privileged experience supporting refugee families with their resettlement in the UK after living in hardship, persecution and fear in their home country. The day the refugees arrived I greeted them at the airport and was overwhelmed with empathy and the need to help them. From that day on the families faced many challenges and I began to see them with a new perspective.

Continue reading “Refugee Week 6: Breaking barriers”

Refugee Week 5: My story – from Sierra Leone to London – building a new life through resilience and strength

By Francis Haffner

As a child, I was forced to leave my homeland due to conflict and build a new life in the UK. I have come through many struggles. Today I thank God for his blessings. Here’s a little of my story.

I grew up in Sierra Leone in West Africa with my mum and dad and the rest of my family. We lived a normal life, but when the civil war started in 1991 life became impossible. Rebel soldiers went door to door asking occupants whether they supported them. Thousands of people were being killed, and I saw things no child should ever witness. Friends of mine were victims, and some children were forced to become soldiers. By God’s grace, my family were spared death when we fled for our lives to the Gambia. At the age of 8, I became a refugee.

Continue reading “Refugee Week 5: My story – from Sierra Leone to London – building a new life through resilience and strength”

Refugee Week 4: 3616 miles – making the journey from Tehran to Ellesmere Port

By Laurence Sandman (adapted and updated from a blog originally published on The Whole World Mobilizing, with permission)

ellesmere port 3616 miles. 5820 kilometres.

It’s a simple matter to type a departure point and a destination into Google and it tells me that it is 3616 miles or 5820 km and will take 61 hours by car. Easy.

Departure point: Tehran, Iran
Destination: The Salvation Army, Ellesmere Port, UK
Distance: 3616 miles / 5820 km
Duration of journey (by car): 61 hours.

Easy.

Easy?

As great and, I’m sure, as accurate as Google maps is, the figures don’t reflect the real world for real people. They certainly don’t even scratch the surface of the circumstances, the conditions and, above all, the emotional struggles of those who, as Christians and other faiths, find themselves in such desperate straits that a long, dangerous and uncertain journey seems the only way out.

Easy? Certainly not.

Continue reading “Refugee Week 4: 3616 miles – making the journey from Tehran to Ellesmere Port”

Refugee Week 3: Turning Hope into Action – glimpses of the Kingdom of God in Bicester

By Captain Will Pearson

M2 (5) It was the photo of Alan Kurdi that was the tipping point. How can one photo make such a difference?

We knew in our heads that thousands were dying, but little Alan forced us to pay attention to our hearts and to do something. It wasn’t just numbers anymore, it was people, people like us, children like ours, desperate, afraid and dying every day. We claimed to be a people of hope who believed in a better world. We had to act.

Continue reading “Refugee Week 3: Turning Hope into Action – glimpses of the Kingdom of God in Bicester”

Refugee Week 2: ‘And they started to come…’ – welcoming refugees at Bootle Salvation Army

By Captain Annette Booth

hall A year ago, I attended a meeting about asylum seeking in the UK and learnt that many people were being housed near me in the North-West of England by the Home Office. Individuals and families were placed in shared accommodation, most with little English language, whilst they awaited their asylum decisions.

I asked what the best way was to make contact, and was told to knock on doors and ask people directly. I went home dismayed and began to pray that God would help these hidden people find their way to us, at The Salvation Army Corps in Bootle.

And they started to come….

Continue reading “Refugee Week 2: ‘And they started to come…’ – welcoming refugees at Bootle Salvation Army”

Refugee Week 1: Why Should Christians Welcome Refugees?

by Lieutenant Sam Tomlin

When I was advertising the information evening for the community sponsorship of refugees in our local community, I put a post on our local community Facebook page. One of the first responses I had was from a lady who said something along the lines of: ‘Why are you letting these people in when our people don’t have anywhere to live?’ Someone else piped up calling her a racist bigot who didn’t care about the horrors Syrian refugees had been through, and this continued back and forth for a few hours until the moderator took the discussion down.

To whom do we owe our love? Two competing answers to this question were rehearsed in this short Facebook exchange which seemed to encapsulate the divisions that had been building for decades in Western nations, brought to light so evidently with Brexit and Trump. Continue reading “Refugee Week 1: Why Should Christians Welcome Refugees?”