Café

The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have To Preach
Reviewed by Hans Kristensen
Little Black Books: Science and God
Reviewed by Andrew Laird
Making the Most of the Cross
Reviewed by Lesley Hicks
Higher Ground
Reviewed by Andrew Laird

Welcoming refugees with a BBQ

11:17am Thursday, 6th October 2011

Joshua Maule

Asylum seekers who are eventually granted protection visas often know little more about Australia than the controversies they've gleaned from the media. And let's face it, there is very little there to encourage them.

But a group of Christians and concerned advocates have been hosting "Welcome Parties" and donating musical instruments as a way of extending kindness to refugees and asylum seekers who arrive on our shores.

Brad Chilcott, who pastors Activate church in Adelaide, gathered a group of concerned friends to launch "Welcome To Australia": a movement of kindness toward new arrivals. Following the "ugly and negative" picture he witnessed during the opening of the "Inverbrackie Alternative Place of Detention" where Australian children held signs saying "sink the boats", Chilcott decided to create a platform to care for refugees. "I follow a God who loves people and calls me to love people selflessly," he says.

"We wanted to create a space for people who are not interested in politics - who are not so knowledgeable about immigration policy - but do know that they care about people." Part of the platform is a website where Australians can post a self-portrait holding a different kind of sign: "You are welcome here". The group are aiming for a million photos.

More practically, seventy "Welcome Parties" have been held around the country and extras continue to be registered. "They were really different and diverse in how they were expressed," Chilcott says.

He held one at his church. Some 25 Congolese refugees and 10 from the Khmer Krom association showed up. The next party is in Melbourne on November 19.

A sister program supported by Katie Noonan, formally of the Australian band George, is "Sounds Like Welcome" where donations of musical instruments help "brighten up life" for refugees.

While it stretches beyond the borders of churches, part of Chilcott's aim is to get Christians to consider what living out their faith each day looks like.

"The theological driver for me is simple really. It's that asylum seekers are real people. They're no more or less a person that you or I are."

"We can throw around all the facts figures and refugee conventions and all of that, but when it comes down to it they're people. God loves people. Jesus gave his life for people. And he calls us into a lifestyle of selflessly loving people."

welcometoaustralia.org.au