Mission Partner News

DECEMBER 2024

We are very grateful to your church community for your ongoing support and commitment to our mission. In this year-end update, we’re excited to celebrate the impact your generosity has made throughout the year, and share stories of lives transformed by your compassion.

Referrals

Mohammed and Mehdi are two of the many who found home again at a church in the UK. Together, we are welcoming and supporting many more. In 2024, over 17,200 refugees and people seeking asylum were welcomed by churches in our Welcome Network. Some of them have been relocated multiple times, and our Network Churches across the UK have been there to offer support every step of the way.

Welcome Network

We are thrilled to celebrate the growth of the Welcome Network, now embracing 1,412 network churches! All churches in the Welcome Network are ready to respond to new arrivals who are referred to them to be welcomed. A total of 86 Welcome Plus Churches are also going above and beyond to intentionally and proactively welcome refugees in their local area.

We met in person:

In the spring, we held the national Welcome Conference in Bedford, bringing church representatives and delegates from a refugee background together to be encouraged and build community.

This autumn we have run four regional Connect events in Newcastle, Exeter, London, and Belfast. We are looking forward to continuing these across the UK in Spring 2025.

We met online:

Our monthly Churches Connect meetings to tackle pressing issues, share experiences, and unite in prayer. This includes topics such as responding to the riots, Christian conversion and seeking asylum, supporting people at risk of removal to Rwanda and much more.

We joined together online in prayer through six regular Refugee Prayer Hour meetings and a week of prayers in May in response to the Rwanda Plan detentions. In August, we united in prayer in response to far-right anti-immigrant protests across the UK, seeking God’s peace and justice in challenging times.

We responded:

On 14 August, we launched the Finding the Peace initiative in partnership with Redeeming Our Communities (ROC) to promote peace, conversation and reconciliation in communities most affected by recent unrest.

We equipped:

This year, we released six new ‘Love the Stranger’ podcast episodes inviting listeners into rich and inspirational conversations with prominent Christian leaders on key topics such as fostering cultural reconciliation within the UK Church.

In September, we published Finding My Way: Living in the UK, a multilingual guide in English, Farsi, and Pashto to help Afghan and Iranian teens adapt to life in the UK.

We provided Christmas resources and videos, to help churches celebrate this season of hope and joy with people from refugee backgrounds. Earlier this year, we also launched Refugee Sunday resources and General Election Resources to help churches and Christians to celebrate refugees in our communities, as well as to bring the needs of our refugee and asylum-seeking neighbours to that of the political leaders of our land.

Looking forward

We are excited to see the adventure of welcoming refugees and people seeking asylum continue into 2025! Because of your support, we are ready to continue to help the UK Church to welcome the stranger and to practice hospitality.

We are deeply grateful to each of our Mission Partner churches for your generous support and partnership, and for sharing God’s love in practical and powerful ways.