Rev Irfan John and Family © Dawie Verwey

Photographed by: Dawie Verwey

Name
Rev Irfan John

Place of residence

Cardiff

Country of origin

Pakistan

 

Irfan John was granted asylum in the UK, with his wife Raheela and their children Karam, Iram, Iraj and Daud Irfan, in May 2006 after fleeing persecution in Pakistan. They live in Cardiff, where Irfan is employed by the Methodist Church in Wales to work with ethnic minority congregations, act as a conduit between these churches and Synod, and support asylum seekers and refugees.

"My family and I thought that we were going to a Christian country, but when we arrived we realised that it was a secular country. When we were in Pakistan, the Government labelled us as European or American due to our religion, but when we arrived here the UK Government labelled us as Pakistani.

The big question then - and I have it still - is: 'Where is my country?'

We have been welcomed very warmly by the Church. I am the first one from my family to go from Pakistan to Europe so I didn't have any blood relations or friends in the UK. But I first arrived in Margate and my contact with Christians meant that I didn't feel like a stranger or alone. I have a lot of relatives here in Christ.

Back in Pakistan, I worked with British, Korean, Australian and American missionaries and when at theological college, I had many professors from places like Scotland, England, Germany, USA and Korea. I think there is no problem to be friends of these people. I believe that due to problems with language (I have only been learning English since 2006) it is sometimes difficult, but as Christians we all know one language - the language of love.

My eldest daughter, Karam, is my English teacher and helps me a lot with my theological English to help me translate my Urdu sermons. On the 14th of September 2008, we started Urdu worship for the first time in the history of Cardiff. We only started recently and with 19 people, but we are hoping for an increase in numbers.

I believe that people from different countries deal with so much, they feel more comfortable worshipping God in their own language. I prefer to worship in an Urdu worship service rather than in English because I understand my own language 100 percent and English is my fourth language. In Cardiff, we have Arabic, Persian and German, Korean, Ethiopian, Malealam, Tamil, Chinese, and local African languages and we decided to work together with other churches. So, for example, if other churches find Urdu-speaking people in their church, they can recommend us, and we can do the same for people with other languages. That enables people to feel comfortable."