Still Small Voices

Suffer the little children....

Here is the account of a dawn raid and detention as experienced by a 10 year old boy:-

We are scared to go back to XXXXXX because of what happened to us to be detained in various prisons. In XXXXXXX there are none who cared about us.

And now, about my age, size I'm scared they would force me to be a soldier. By help we managed to come to the UK in XXXX. I started to forget all persecution we met.

Unfortunately on [ date ] the police immigration came and kicked our door and they opened it themselves and there were more than eight policemen in the house. They came in and started shouting saying how many people are in the house. The first thing they done is handcuffed my dad and we were scared about that. Four went beside our dad and four went in our bedroom and we were scared. My sisters started crying and they came at 6 o'clock in the morning and then they put us in a van. We were separated from our parents and my sister started crying again. They took us to the reporting centre and took pictures of us. Then they took us in Manchester and we got some food to eat. We were scared because they locked us in a room and they they put us in the van.

[ THIS PART IS WRITTEN IN YARLS WOOD DETENTION CENTRE ]

And the food we get is horrible like the rice is not cooked well and lots of curry and desert is chemical and when we are sleeping the officers come and disturb us. We are worried because we don't go to school, we just play boring games. There are nothing we can like to do, it's just a boring place. If you lived in here you would be sick of this place. Our days are night. Help us Lord with comfort and bring us peace and freedom.

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This is just a bit of blog house keeping so you can see some of the categories that we hope to have posts on. If you think that there are some glaring omissions in this list then leave a comment - hey we may not follow through on it, but we will give it some consideration.

Ruth and the Peacable Kingdom

Some time ago I had to engage in a pretty in depth study of the OT book of Ruth. I loved it. It is a fantastic and beautiful story and in part a powerful critique of a policy of the rejection of those who are different, strangers, foreigners.

In Ruth chapter 2 Ruth's 'difference' is highlighted again and again as she is labelled, not least when she is doubly described in her difference as 'the Moabites from Moab' (v6). Implicit and explicit in this chapter is her poverty, isolation, desperation and vulnerability as a 'stranger' in anothers land. In the background stands a history of emnity between the Moabites and the Israelities and the popular folk opinion that Moab women had lose morals. The stigma of story is apowerful reinforcer of discrimination and could very well have been an invitation to the workers in the field.

Yet, what changes all of this within the biblical narrative is the giving and receiving of 'kindness' between the main characters. A kindness that goes beyond what is demanded and or expected by law or culture and even family obligation. A kindness that takes on concrete expression in actual help, protection, hospitality - and out of which grows relationship and love. A kindness rooted in God's kindness as the blessing and protecting God - this being the theological framework within which this all happens. (The word for kindness used in this passage is the OT word 'hesed' which is used to represent God's covenant kindness to Israel).

The outcome of this practice of kindness, well you know the story, is not only changed lives for the main characters Naomi, Ruth and Boaz, but at the end of the story in the period of Judges, an hard and harsh period in Israel's history, in Bethlehem we get the image of a peacable kingdom as one bible commentator calls it. But more thanthis as the theological implications are drawn out of this story we see that the kindness expressed has an impact not only for the main characters and Bethlehem but also Israel (see Ruth 4:18-22) and in turn the world as Jesus is born of this family line (see Matthew 1:1-17).

Why am I involved with this blog. Well if the story of Ruth as Scripture is to be our story, it seems clear to me that the responsibility of Christians is to offer that rich concept of biblical 'kindness' (and to receive such from) the strangers, the powerless, the foreigner, the asylum seeker in our midst. The first question for the Christian is not what should the government be doing or the country be doing, but what should we be doing. For me - we should be doing kindness as expressed in protection, friendship, provision and hospitality. That established we should then bear witness to this understanding as that which should be followed by wider society in their treatment of asylum seekers.

From the Scriptural record of Ruth centred in the story of Christ, 'faith' invites us to believe that the practice of kindness towards the stranger and marginalised is the way to a peacable kingdom, God's kingdom, and the way in which Christians should live and bear witness to in wider society.

Stuart

Welcome

Welcome to Still Small Voices. This blog was birthed out of discussions between Stuart, Brodie and Lynn. We all know different people who are seeking asylum, have been granted leave to stay or have become lost in the system some where. We've heard and been moved by their stories. we've felt their fear of a knock at the door at 5am to take them away in a dawn raid. We wanted to do something and Still Small Voices is just one thing that we can do.

This is a place for people who are seeking asylum, have been granted leave to stay or have become lost in the system some where to tell their stories in their own voice. We're not journalists and we're not editors. Stories are important and can be powerful, so we want these stories to be heard, to be put on record.

From time to time one of us may write a post by way of comment or analysis. We'll also invite others we know who are involved in this area to contribute their thoughts and stories.

This is not the kind of blog that will be updated every day. we'll be looking to have something for you to read say once every two weeks. If we manage to get more posts than that then great.