Photo by Kathryn Berry

 

In part 1 of this story, OMers Carrie* and Rojhat* shared about their life in the Middle East, and how that culture has shaped how they reach and disciple people from Muslim backgrounds through the power of Bible stories.  They now bring that rich experience to ministry in the UK with asylum seekers and refugees: in today’s blog, writer Nicky Andrews finds out how their drop-in ‘Sesame Seeds*’  and Farsi Bible study put it all in practice.

Carrie and Rojhat moved to the UK five years ago. “We’re still doing what God has given us to do,” says Carrie. “Nothing’s changed, just the location.” In all their activities with refugees, beyond the practical help they give them, the focus remains moving people forward in their understanding of who Jesus is, and developing their discipleship.

She and Rojhat feel very blessed to partner here with an older couple Gerry* and Liz* who work with another organisation and love Muslim people too: across the week, the four interact with local asylum seekers and refugees, sowing God’s truth broadly into as many hearts as possible before the asylum process moves them on, and going deeper through DBS with the most interested. Many of the people they’re meeting with live in a large hotel housing asylum seekers, 20 minutes walk from Carrie and Rojhat’s inner-city home.

Questioning life’s purpose

The two couples go periodically into the hotel to promote the weekly drop-in they run nearby called ‘Sesame Seeds.’ * “We find that people who’ve just arrived in this country tend to be quite open – everything’s new, they’re questioning everything about their lives’, says Carrie.

“The outlook of those we meet can vary a lot,” adds Rojhat. “Some are nominal Muslims, others are disillusioned with Islam but yet to embrace anything else. Some love God and are really searching for Truth, wanting to please and live for Him but have never been exposed to anything outside Islam.”

Visiting the drop-in

‘Sesame Seeds’ meets today, and it’s time to head off. We go on foot, first down narrow Victorian side streets, then across a 1960s concrete plaza where meats scorch and sizzle in Asian street-food shacks, pungent smoke wafting off into the chill February air. Past an art-house cinema or two, and we’re onto the busy High Road, where shopkeepers and stallholders from across the global South are vying for custom. Carrie dives into Lidl and comes out armed with snacks for the forthcoming session.

Across a major junction sits the community project, a three-storey Victorian corner-shop premises, metal shutters plastered with the graffiti ubiquitous in this district. A Sudanese security guard called Umar* admits us: ‘Sesame Seeds’ borrows the ground floor former shop-room. As he raises the electronic shutters, daylight floods in, revealing a bright contemporary interior with posters, information racks and tasteful artificial flowers.

The ‘Sesame Seeds’ welcome

Since “Sesame Seeds” was launched three years ago, dozens of hotel-dwellers have passed through its doors. Currently three Iranians attend: two are men, called Kaveh* and Soheil,* and  one woman called Bahar* . As they arrive, they greet Carrie and Rojhat warmly. They have been coming regularly for several weeks, and also attend Carrie and Rojhat’s church of their own volition.

Every session is in two parts. The first is something creative or fun to relax with, like handicrafts or board games. Today everyone settles down to decorating printed postcards with watercolour paints, chatting across the table and tucking into the snacks: little milk-flavoured sponge cakes (very popular in the Middle East), a box of grapes and a bowl of pistachio nuts.

A story starts

After 45 minutes, Rojhat brings glasses of tea to the table. Then it is time for storytelling: Liz and Gerry are away this week but between them the couples are currently working through a series of Old Testament narratives with the Iranians, illustrating our inability to make ourselves clean from the shame of sin, thus needing a Rescuer – unfolding God’s salvation plan in Jesus.

The Iranians understand spoken English well so Carrie starts recounting Genesis chapter 37, while Rojhat cloaks himself in stripey fabric and mimes various moments from the story. Joseph’s family dynamics give the listeners plenty to reflect on when Carrie turns to the Discovery Bible Study (DBS).

Questions speak to the heart

Soheil speaks good English, and offers to retell the story (“When anyone can do that, it shows they have internalised it, and can potentially share it with someone else,” Carrie comments afterwards.) Then Carrie poses standard DBS questions: what did we like about the story? In discussion, the honest descriptions of family relationships particularly stand out: how jealousy triggered the events, then the cover-up lies…how every single family relationship was affected…What did we learn about God, and people? Kaveh reflects how typical the story is of the mess human beings get themselves into; how sin impacts all our relationships.

Next Carrie asks: What do we want to change in our own lives, how can we apply what we’ve learnt? Who can we share this with this week? After some silent reflection, talk of ‘family’ triggers some painful thoughts of loved ones back in Iran: following the harsh crackdown after the January protests, these Iranians have no contact with relatives there. Bahar fights back her tears; Carrie hugs and prays for her and arranges  a coffee in the next day or so.

Talking over coffee

As well as the hotel’s current residents, Carrie and Rojhat have many ongoing friendships with refugees now settled in the area, or friends-of-friends curious to meet Arabic-speaking Jesus-followers. “There was a young Yemeni guy Anwar* we knew at the hotel who was agnostic”, recalls Rojhat. “But he had an Indonesian Muslim friend Farhan* who was searching for truth, so Anwar brought him to ‘Sesame Seeds’ to meet us. I started meeting Farhan for coffee – today he is a baptised believer.”

Whatever stage friendships are at (coffee/stories/DBS) everything is bathed in prayer beforehand. “If you haven’t done that,” comments Rojhat, “you might as well not meet because conversations never go well!”

Farsi Bible study

Walking home, Carrie mentions the online Farsi Bible Study they lead every week along with Gerry and Liz, and two men from their church. This started shortly after ‘Sesame Seeds’ because most Iranian asylum seekers attending the drop-in had many deep questions which it wasn’t appropriate to explore when strict Muslims were also present. Secondly, other Iranians had begun turning up at church, asking similar questions: many concern salvation being by grace rather than works. The meetings use the DBS story/questions format and use Farsi and English, with translation.

Attendees are both current hotel residents like Kaveh, Soheil and Bahar, and over 20 people who have since gained refugee status and been moved to other areas. “We try to connect them into local churches,” says Carrie, “ but it’s not always a great fit if they’re the only Iranian there, or don’t speak much English. So this online gathering can meet their ongoing need for fellowship.”

Final thoughts

Rojhat concludes our time together. “When I was young, I planned to become a businessman, just like my friends. And growing up as a Muslim I was also like everyone else,” he says. “I had no confidence about eternity, just being so afraid that my ‘good works’ could never be enough to please Allah. But God had a different plan for me: He changed my life when I read the Bible – I believed it, now I follow Jesus. Through Jesus I have His hope, I have His love!”

Postscript

In May, four months after my original visit, I speak with Carrie again. There has been the usual ebb and flow of hotel residents. Both Kaveh and Bahar received refugee status quite quickly, and have moved away but keep in touch. Two new Iranians have taken their place at ‘Sesame Seeds’ along with a Libyan family. Despite the conflict in the Persian Gulf, Iranians here have re-established some internet connections with family. But the war situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond  is very bleak, shattering lives in the areas where Carrie and Rojhat used to serve.

“Will you pray for the following situations?” asks Carrie:

1. “That through ‘Sesame Seeds’ we would continue to attract new people who we can witness to through storytelling from the Bible.
2. “Thank God for those Arabs we meet with, who are studying His Word and considering who Jesus is. Pray for salvation for them, and for them to share with others.
3. “Praise God for all He is doing among the Iranian community across the UK. Pray as we disciple them, that they will grow in love and knowledge of Jesus and be transformed into His likeness.”

  

*Names changed