St Rollox Asylum Seeker Support Project, Glasgow

Aiming to be faithful in the mundane but looking to see the miraculous!

Christine Murray, Project Manager, outlines how the service has grown and how they maintain their Christian ethos.

The background

In 2000 Glasgow’s first asylum seekers (mostly from the Balkans) were deposited in the deprived area of Sighthill. They arrived in the middle of the night and were given no follow-up or support.

St Rollox, the local Church of Scotland church, which had a history of welcoming foreign students, began providing practical help such as clothing and bedding. The Minister’s wife had been a teacher, so basic English lessons were also offered. 

Two years on, as the numbers grew and the issues intensified, the need to formalise the project as a separate charity was realised, so the church advertised for a co-ordinator and I have been there ever since!   

The project is now open two days a week and offers a drop-in café, a shop, basic computing skills, internet access and English lessons. A parent and toddler group has now grown into a craft group. We also have a men’s group, which eats and plays football together. We also host – but do not run - a food co-operative offering fruit and vegetables and an independently funded welfare rights officer. All this happens in the church and a crèche is operated throughout to enable parents to access all services. We aim to help those who are destitute with food and help through the asylum process where we can and signpost to other services when we can’t.

We try to make the connection between our faith and all others aspects of our life as natural as possible and communicate to everyone that God isn’t just one component of our lives - he’s the foundation. 

Behind all these practical services is a commitment to befriend and support each person in the context of God’s love and concern for them and a desire to see them settled and integrated in the community. We try to make the connection between our faith and all others aspects of our life as natural as possible and communicate to everyone that God isn’t just one component of our lives - he’s the foundation. 

The work has been recognised and commended locally and nationally, with the previous minister (who has since retired) and his wife being awarded an OBE, in regognition of his services to race and community relations.

Maintaining the Christian distinctive

Alongside the constant struggle for funding (the ongoing support from Tearfund, though small, has been instrumental in our keeping going) we find maintaining the right balance between the Christian and non-Christian volunteers a major challenge.

Many of the volunteers are asylum seekers themselves and began as users of the project. Of course we’re happy to help them integrate and give them an opportunity to help others but the volunteers are a key part of communicating the Christian ethos of the project.

In 2008 we felt the balance was shifting and it became a matter for prayer – before we knew it God arranged for several new people to arrive who not only shared our faith and our heart for the project but who had other perfectly-matched skills such as being Arabic-speaking, and with both ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) and CAB training.

God arranged for several new people to arrive who not only shared our faith and our heart for the project , but who had other perfectly-matched skills such as being Arabic-speaking and having both ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) and CAB training.

We try to ensure that God is involved with every aspect of the project through prayer and that helps us to remember that it’s his project! Volunteers and supporters meet weekly to pray for the project and although I attend another church, I attend the weekly St Rollox prayer meeting as often as possible to participate and ensure ongoing prayer for the project there.

The church connection is strong - I am employed by the church which oversees the running of the project through a Management Committee and the church pastoral assistant works at the project for part of her time, interacting with project volunteers and clients.

We believe the success of the project and the answers to prayer we regularly see are the result of our commitment to always hand the project over to God. We’re pleased that many of those who use the services have begun to attend the church (which has coped with seeing its congregation dramatically changed!) and we’ve also had some become Christians, including some local residents. 

Keeping on keeping on!

What keeps me going is to keep going! The encouragements we see do sustain us through the more negative times when it just seems like hard work. I believe you have got to keeping doing the mundane things to see the miraculous. We have got to stand faithfully by those whose cases are difficult and complicated as well as rejoice with those who are quickly given leave to remain.

Top tips for others

• For anyone considering starting up a similar project – do take the time to know that it’s the right thing at the right time. Don’t just impose something on people, find out what the needs are and what God is saying as well as what you have to offer.
• Remember that God has invited us to join him in what he’s doing. Instead of us having to do things for him, he’s working though us. Make your prayer; ‘Show us how to be part of what you’re doing’.
• Be a bridge to the community and into the church. Be open-handed.

Read the BBC news report about the former minister and his wife being awared an OBE for the St Rollox work with asylum seekers in 2003. 

To contact the church email church@st rollox.co.uk or visit www.strollox.co.uk.