Reflecting on the First Year

Now that we are about a year into our UK experience, I'd thought I'd write to update people on what I am now doing. It has been an amazing year and it is incredible to look back and see how far we have come compared to the relatively desperate circumstances we found ourselves in during the first few difficult months after arrival.

As far as paid work goes, I'm still debt advising at the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and am enjoying that very much. They implemented a "flexible work week" which has allowed me to rearrange my full time schedule into a 4 day week, so I now work Tuesday through Friday from 8am - 6pm daily. This change allowed me to start volunteering at the Refugee Council on Mondays, which I have been enjoying very much.

Last week I interviewed for and got offered a position at the Refugee Council as a volunteer project worker. The job involves working at a drop-in centre for refugee clients who are experiencing integration, housing, destitution, legal and other problems. I am very excited because it is basically the job I came to England to do. It involves the same work as a full time project worker, but at a lower level. I am hoping it will allow me to build up my skills and experience so I can step into full time refugee work when an opportunity arises.

Also, I have started a project to get computer equipment from companies and organisations that they would otherwise throw away, rebuild the equipment into working systems, and then give it out to refugees and refugee related organisations for free. I gave away my first computer yesterday to a Sudanese community association, and have three more to distribute, but have a waiting list of around 20 people! I am trying to set it up as an official project through a charity to give me more authority when writing to companies to ask for donations of equipment.

With my other volunteer work for the Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network, I recently began to work with another refugee from Iraq since my work with the first Iraqi refugee is drawing to a close. It is very exciting to be involved in resolving problems on a one-to-one bases with refugee clients and it has been an absolutely incredible experience so far in the huge range of work I have become involved in with them. It has been a boost to my faith as well because we came to England in a leap of faith believing that it was where God was leading us, but then ended up doing debt counselling work rather than the refugee work I thought I would be involved in, but then ended up using my the debt knowledge I gained through my paid work to assist with numerous debt issues with the refugees I work with - issues I would never have been able to assist them with if I had not been trained in debt counselling.

It is amazing because if it had been up to me and I had simply taken the path I wanted then I would not have succeeded, but now I am succeeding because God lead me on the path I would not have chosen, but which turned out to be the necessary one to follow to get where I wanted to be. It's a great lesson in trust.

Finally, I have felt lead to use my debt counselling skills more in ministering to the Church, so I have been thinking (or God has been putting the idea into my head - it's hard to tell which sometimes) of visiting Churches to run debt and budgeting seminars as a means of assisting people within the Church who are in debt, and reaching out to people connected to them who are also having problems as an outpouring of God's love for them. Debt in the UK is an absolutely massive problem - every household actually owes an average of 7,000 pounds (US$14,000) now and I have spoken to people with debts of up to quarter of a million pounds. For people in debt it is all-consuming, destroying every aspect of their lives, so it is amazing to actually be able to help them escape. I have been in touch with a group called Christians Against Poverty to arrange a time to discuss the idea, which they seem interested in doing, so it's just a matter of finding some time to do it now. It's an exciting idea and I hope we can have a good go at it.

So, that's pretty much what I am up to. I must say that I can't stand living in Leeds because we have had so many problems with neighbours, racism, metropolitan isolation, rampant materialism, disturbing sexuality, and even a murder (I am appearing as a witness at the trial later this year). Certainly nothing like laid-back friendly warm Okinawa. However, the existence of all of these problems is what creates the need for the work I love to do. You can't help a drowning man unless you too step into the sea. But four principal things keep me going: the amazing work I have been given to do, my faithful God who blesses me abundantly, my wonderful supportive wife who fills me with joy like I have never known, and the knowledge of a better world that awaits.

God bless,

Ian