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Refuge and strength
Inside this issue
04 Refuge and strength
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10
Summer saved
14 Into the unknown
20
Called to the North
26 Impact investment
28 Ask Steve
30
Why I give: Biff Sharrock
Refuge and strength
Gill Nichol speaks to Krish Kandiah on opening doors and hearts
Acouple of weeks ago I was chatting to a colleague about my plans to attend an evening event at the organisation for which we both work. She later emailed me; her email went something like this: “If you stay all evening and don’t want to drive home, you’d be very welcome to stay here – unless there is an asylum seeker in the spare room again.” I knew she’d hosted an asylum seeker for several months last year, and that she volunteered at a refugee charity, but this – said so casually, so normally! I was humbled and challenged. How truly hospitable am I?
Being hospitable – the desire to share God’s love with other people via practical action – is what Krish Kandiah calls “the golden thread through the Bible.” And it’s been the golden thread through his own life too through his work with Home for Good, Hong Kong new arrivals, Afghan refugees and now, most recently, with the crisis in Ukraine.
Uzhhorod, Ukraine: 27 February 2022 – A little girl holding a woman’s hand clutches a doll at the Uzhhorod-Vysne Nemecke checkpoint on the UkraineSlovakia border, Zakarpattia Region, Western Ukraine. – Photo by Ukrinform.
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“Hospitality was important all the way through my life, starting with my mother. Although she had a living mother, because she was mixed race she was deemed to be socially unacceptable and put into an orphanage. When she was a teenager, Krish’s mother and sisters were brought to the UK by their great aunt, and at 16, his mother decided to train to be a nurse.
But, says Krish, “She was treated with such hostility. Some patients wouldn’t let my mother touch them – they wanted a white nurse. So, she launched a one-woman resistance campaign against this xenophobia and opened up her house every Friday night to anyone who didn’t really fit in. She’d cook up a huge meal and welcome everybody. That was my childhood experience. The idea of using your home for the benefit of others became lodged in my mind.”
Fast forward a decade or two. Krish, who became a Christian in his teens, was working for the Evangelical Alliance and married with three
(birth) children when he and his wife decided they had capacity to look after more children. “I hadn’t picked up on the importance of God’s concern for vulnerable children until we started the process to become foster parents – now it’s really clear to me that caring for vulnerable people, especially children, is so central to God’s heart, and I thought it should be a top priority for the Church.”
Out of this desire, the adoption and fostering charity Home for Good was born and since then Krish has channelled his passion for hospitality into work with the UK government, last year taking a particular focus on refugees.
Lviv, Ukraine: 12 March 2022 – Girl in the coordination centre in Lviv – Photo by Fotoreserg.
“The UK opening its borders to Hong Kong citizens from January 2021 was the largest planned migration from outside of Europe since Windrush, when the UK did a terrible job at welcoming people from the Caribbean. Fifty years later we’re still reaping the consequences of that inhumanity and intolerance. So I thought, wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could flip that and help churches lay down a red carpet for the Hongkongers.”
Amid the challenging backdrop of the UK lockdown and a spike in hate crime towards people from Southeast Asian appearance, UKHK, a group of like-minded charities, set out to wrap their arms around the migrating Hongkongers.
Thousands of Hongkongers have been warmly welcomed into UK churches and helped to settle into new lives. There’s a Chinese church in Reading which, before lockdown, had a congregation of 50 people attending, but is now four times the size as 150 Hongkongers have joined the congregation. Or King’s Church in Southampton, whose welcome team even had t-shirts printed with ‘welcome’ in Cantonese. One woman told Krish, “I gave up on Jesus 30 years ago in Hong Kong, but because of the welcome this church has shown me, I’ve come to faith and I’m praying that my husband will too.”
UKHK’s work attracted great media coverage, and this, together with Krish’s profile in government circles, led the government to ask for help as the first refugees from Afghanistan arrived – a result of the US withdrawal. Using the same collaborative approach, Afghan Welcome was launched in August 2021.
Once again, charities and groups with a similar passion were gathered to welcome displaced people to the UK. This has taken place against the backdrop of a difficult national conversation about immigration, yet both UKHK and
Clockwise from left: Warsaw, Poland: 9 March 2022 – Volunteers help refugees from Ukraine at the railway station in Warsaw, Poland – Photo by OlyaSolodenko. Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine: 27 February 2022 – people getting humanitarian aid from the Red Cross – Photo by Fotoreserg. Uzhgorod, Ukraine: 8 March 2022 – Volunteers distribute humanitarian supplies at one of the bases in Transcarpathian region – Photo by Fotoreserg.
Afghan Welcome are geo-politically neutral. “As people arrive in our country they become our neighbours, and there is so much biblical imperative for us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves: to imagine what life would be like in their shoes, and to find a way to care for them. As we demonstrate God’s love, people often want to know more about the source of our love.” Krish and his team didn’t want to start a new charity – that would take too much time – so they gathered together existing Christian charities with a shared passion and asked Stewardship if they were able to help. “The way Stewardship were willing to think creatively and sacrificially about generosity has allowed me and my team to operate a thousand times faster than we would otherwise have been able to do.”
Rhian Canning, Head of Client Operations for Philanthropy, explained: “The charities who Krish was working with already received funding from Stewardship, so we were able to quickly put in place a solution to meet the scale and urgency of the funding. The initiative and Stewardship were in missional unity: it was an exceptional approach to an exceptional set of circumstances.”
Krish’s initial focus for 2022 was The Hospitality Pledge – a simple way to regain hospitality after months of lockdowns and start displaying God’s love to those around us. But little did any of us
to be thinking what we can do to play our part alongside our European neighbours,” said Krish.
Sending out a quick plea by tweet asking for help, Krish was encouraged as people came forward to offer their skills so that within days they managed to set up a website, as well as a donation page with Stewardship for The Sanctuary Foundation. Churches, businesses, families and individuals can all get involved to pledge to be a sponsor for a Ukrainian family escaping the conflict.
“A recent survey showed 75% of the population do want to do more to help refugees. We can show the government through these pledges that people are really willing to help.” Krish explained that it doesn’t have to be putting up a refugee in your house, it’s just about pledging to do what you can to help – whether that might be picking people up from the airport, helping them to settle in or to find what they need. “Imagine the difference we could make if every church in the country was up for being a sponsor.”
So, how truly hospitable are we?know that soon there would be another nation in crisis; another country’s people forced to flee for safety or to face the unknown horrors of war.
With 1.7 million people displaced in only the first 12 days of the conflict in Ukraine, there was a clear need for another wave of hospitality. “We need
Gill Nichol
Contributing Writer for Stewardship
stewardship.org.uk/partners /sanctuaryfoundation
For peace in Ukraine, welcome and safety for those fleeing the country and a team of people to help provide the skills and resources needed to love and support the refugees arriving in the UK.
Pledge your support for Ukrainian refugee families at sanctuaryfoundation.org.uk
For Afghan families visit afghanwelcome.org
To support those arriving from Hong Kong visit ukhk.org
Summer saved
Sports and Recreation Jeremy Smith, founder of Camp XL, describes the feelings he experienced in 2020 when it became clear that, due to the pandemic, Christian residential camps for young people would not be able to go ahead. The uncertainty continued as multiple lockdowns ensued and no one had any idea how long it would continue.
He is clear that they were not unique in feeling that way: “I have friends in the restaurant business who were hit far worse. A lot of my worries were self-protective, but there was also huge sadness and frustration that we wouldn’t be able to help young people to meet Jesus for the first time or encourage them in their walk. That’s what energises us; that’s the reason we started.”
Since establishing in 2007, Camp XL has organised dozens of Christian activity camps. From water sports to movie making, football skills to photography, or, for those simply looking to chill with friends, Camp XL has the perfect residential holiday. With such a variety to choose from, their programme captures the attention of young people. “Often we have children and youth with little or no Christian background attending our camps. It gives us a unique opportunity to share the gospel.”
Previously, Camp XL took the bold step of securing their own premises. Jeremy explains: “Camp organisers spend a large proportion of their time trying to book boarding schools or activity centres, and the process can be tedious, complicated and expensive. Recently third parties have become more involved in determining what can be taught on their premises, and as a result some venues have prevented Christian organisations from using their space.” He is convicted that religious freedom in the UK is something we should all be praying about. “Having our own premises gives us the freedom to teach the Bible.”
A beautiful Georgian manor house located on the Worcester/Hereford border, Gaines Manor has acres of open space and a good number of recreational facilities, making it the perfect home for Camp XL. “God has been magnificent in providing us with this amazing facility. It’s meant we can use our time to plan our camps rather than secure venues, and most importantly to teach the Bible.”
But when the pandemic hit, greater challenges for Camp XL began. “Lockdown dramatically impacted us. Churches and schools that were booked to use our venue cancelled and our commercial income fell by 80%. We genuinely feared Camp XL wouldn’t survive.” The team immediately sought advice from Stewardship. “Three years ago, we decided to take on employees, and registered with the Stewardship Payroll Bureau which offers charities like ours a payroll scheme. When lockdown came about, I spoke with Mark from the Payroll Bureau, and he took care of all the practicalities of administering the furlough scheme. They advised me instantly and dealt with all the paperwork, so I never had to contact the HMRC which was a real relief. Stewardship was a godsend.”
Camp XL contacted supporters for prayer and, where appropriate, financial assistance, and these supporters protected their future. “Had it not been forthcoming, we would have had to lay off staff and close for good. Those supporters who increased or started giving didn’t just buy us time but literally kept us in business.” The prayer and support kept their spirits up. “It made us feel we weren’t alone and that the work did matter to more than just us. We were despondent, but every email, note and direct message kept us fighting.”
The team are grateful to Stewardship too. “We subscribe to the Consultancy Helpline which provides us with access to charity professionals who can provide guidance and support whenever required. It gives us genuine peace of mind.”
Owning Gaines Manor turned out to be a huge blessing. “With all the uncertainty surrounding the rules, many camp organisers struggled, but when restrictions were relaxed we were able to react quickly, and at the end of June we opened bookings. Amazingly, every camp was oversubscribed, and we even ran an additional new camp. God provided everything we needed.”
“It was amazing to see kids running around, having fun and being able to hug each other after the pandemic, but that’s not why we do it.” Jeremy shares an example of one 14-year-old who attended the surfing camp he ran in Croyde. “He described himself as a strong atheist but came along with friends. To see him actually engaging and questioning with the Bible open was great, and at the end of the week he asked if he could come again. It’s knowing that what we’re doing makes a difference in lives for eternity that keeps us going.”
It’s also encouraging for the leaders to see young people who profess faith but might be one of a very small number in their own church finding new Christian friends. “Seeing them in huddles praying together, or when they understand a familiar Sunday school story in different way – those moments are fantastic.”
A former pastor of Jeremy’s got him involved in running camps when during a Sunday service he asked for show of hands for anyone who’d come to faith or been encouraged through a Christian camp. Jeremy was stunned when over two thirds of the room had their hands up. He recently received a message from a former camp attendee, now in his mid-twenties and getting baptised after previously wobbling in his faith. “We’d not spoken in 10 years, but he wanted to let me know how foundational the camps were for his faith.”
What’s next for Camp XL? “God willing, we are looking forward to welcoming young people back this summer. We want kids to feel safe to be themselves, to have fun and to think and question with no pressure. We’d love for them to fall in love with the Lord Jesus. That makes surviving the pandemic worthwhile.”
Shobi Selvadurai
Church and Charity Customer Support Executive
stewardship.org.uk/ partners/20101944 Around the issue of religious freedom: that Christian camps would be allowed to continue teaching young people about the Lord Jesus, without restriction.
Camp XL would love to hear from anyone able to join their volunteer teams for a week during the summer. A servantheart and a love for the Lord Jesus are the only requirements. Apply at campxl.org
