Last weekend our Farmbox community ventured up to our friends at Origin to plant vegetables. Origin is a community farm which provides a space to learn about sustainability and growing fresh food. The idea of partnering with Origin probably occurred about a year ago and it was great to see us finally getting our hands dirty!
Farmbox exists to share fresh fruit and vegetables with those who experience food poverty. Every 2 weeks a small, but growing, group of folks from Redeemer help to deliver fresh produce to individuals and families across Belfast. A question that has rarely left me in the past couple of years is: how do we move away from positions of arms length charity and power to a place of partnership and solidarity? There are many directions this conversation could head in, but I think it must start with an invitation of “welcome”. Certainly the welcome of the other, but a willingness to welcome honest curiosity where we as a society, a church, and as individuals fall short of embracing the stranger in our midst.
Planting Day June 2019 Gallery
What is contained in a welcome?
What is contained in a welcome? Is it just a simple hello, an acknowledgment of someone’s existence. Or is it an invitation for someone to share in your life, your experiences, your story. According to its definition, Welcome is synonymous with acceptance and hospitality. Yet, in a culture of media hype, unconscious-prejudice and xenophobia welcome can be met met with wariness, misinformation and mistrust. An internal dialogue of questions takes place: who are you? what do you really want? what are you insidiously trying to do?
If a welcome comes attached with an agenda other than love, acceptance and hospitality then this is not the kind of welcome Jesus had in mind. Meditate on these verses:
“ don’t abuse or take advantage of strangers…”
“ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ”
‘Refugee Week’ — the UK’s largest festival celebrating the contribution of refugees — recently took place in June. An opportunity to highlight the strangers, often unnoticed and dare I say neglected, in our midst. I had the privilege of attending an event organised by PPR and Housing4All launching their report “A Prison Without Walls: Asylum, Migration and Human Rights”. Amongst the various issues that were highlighted, the following statistic was shared from a recent survey - 79% of people stated they could not afford food for themselves or their family. Food poverty is not simply the inability to afford food: it is the inability to secure access to adequate and nutritious food. Food is also an important part of identity and preserving culture.
Therefore, how do we as a church begin to be the kind of welcome that not only invites and supports, but partners with those seeking to preserve their culture and identity? How do we move away from charity towards dignity and respect of the other? As I reflect on my own journey, I feel convicted, but stirred to learn and become the kind of welcome that came in the body, the face and the hands of Jesus. My hope for Redeemer is that we would journey together in becoming this welcome in the city of Belfast. Let’s not become teachers, but rather servants and pupils of the strangers in our midst.
Daniel Saunders
Farmbox is a compassionate community learning to grow fresh food to share and eat together. Farmbox exists to share fresh fruit and vegetables to those living in poverty. If you’d like to know more or get involved email daniel.saunders@redeemercentral.com. You can also learn more at redeemercentral.com/farmbox