Blend's Story

They've been in war, they've seen family members die"
their resilience is amazing
One particular guy that struck me, he came in, and he just whispered, "I want to be a Christian, "but I don't know how
So I work with asylum seekers and refugees, and I hear a lot of stories from British people about what they think an asylum seeker or refugee is, that they're uneducated, that they're lazy
But that is not the case at all
I meet lawyers, architects, and businessmen, obviously sometimes been through very difficult situations
They've been tortured, they've been imprisoned
That's why they're here, and it's just because they want to make a life
It's not because they've come to steal anyone's job
They didn't even know that we have benefits
I got involved in this project through Cardiff Vineyard Church
Cardiff's a dispersal city so we get a lot of people coming in and out
I'm also a linguist myself, so I have keen interest in sort of the languages side of it
I love playing with the kids, linking people up if I know people come from the same countries or speak the same languages so you can kind of create community
I think something that I find really hard is listening to people's stories sometimes, but it also kinda spurs you on to see that a very simple thing that we do, which is just offering people coffee and a cake and a bit of a chat actually means a lot to them
So Blend started in January 2017, and we just kept meeting new people coming in and asking could they take a Bible, could they take a 'Why Jesus
', asking where they could go to church
They wanted to learn more about being Christian
God really spoke to us and said we needed to do something about it, and so we created a small group
We start with a Bible study and that is translated into Farsi because now most of the people that come are Iranian
And we eat together
Food is so important
And we just pray together
Even if all you've got is a packet of biscuits, it's not about that
It's about sharing stories, and that's all you need to do
And it doesn't matter where you do that or what that looks like, even if I can just change one person's situation then it's worth it
The best thing is just being able to help people and to share Jesus with them
It's fun