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ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com Wednesday, December 12, 2012 London Calling How the action of an Australian Prime Minister so angered us that my wife and I started
a work to Asylum Seekers
By Adrian Hawkes Special to ASSIST News Service
LONDON, UK (ANS) -- I had been pastoring a church
in North London, when my wife
Pauline and myself were shocked as we began to
discover the plight of Asylum Seekers
who were flooding into London from war
zones like Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Iraqi, Congo, Afghanistan,
Iran and Iraq, to name just a few.
These were men, women and
children who had escaped the violence of their homelands to make the long and
dangerous journey to the British capital.
Pauline and I moved to North London
in 1974, after ministering in a church in
Middlesbrough, a large town
situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east
England. While
there, we had also had taken up the responsibility of leading two local
church communities in the area.
Now settled in London, and
through a long series of events, we had taken the local
authorities training
course and began to foster children on the council's behalf.
After many years
of doing this, and getting somewhat older, we decided bringing up
teenagers
should be for others.
Then one night in August 2001,
while watching the news on
BBC TV, we were horrified to see a story that
a Norwegian freighter had picked up a group of would be refugees to Australia
and they were caught in sweltering temperatures at Christmas Island and some
were injured and I believe others
died in the incident.
The John Howard Government of
Australia had refused permission for the Norwegian
freighter MV Tampa,
carrying 438 rescued refugees, predominantly Hazaras of Afghanistan
from a
distressed fishing vessel in international waters, to enter Australian
waters.
This triggered an Australian political controversy in the lead up to
a federal election, and a diplomatic dispute between Australia and Norway
.
When the Tampa entered
Australian water, the Prime Minister ordered the ship be boarded by
Australian special forces.
This brought censure from the government of Norway
who said the Australian Government
failed to meet obligations to distressed
mariners under international law at the United
Nations.
Within a few days the
government introduced the Border Protection Bill into the House of
Representatives saying that it would confirm Australian sovereignty to
"determine who will
enter and reside in Australia". The government
introduced the so-called "Pacific Solution", whereby the asylum
seekers were taken to Nauru where their refugee status was
considered, rather
than in Australia.
When the report ended, I
had to protect the TV from being attacked by Pauline, who was
by now boiling
with anger, and I explained that the TV was "not guilty" and the
reporter was
just explaining the facts of the story. She then said, "I
will go to Australia then and punch
that man."
After she calmed down, I told
her that there were "loads of refugees coming to the UK
because of wars
in their countries; so why should we not try and help them?"
Pauline agreed to ring the
local authority and talk to them about this, especially as we
were quite well
known to Social Services having fostered for them and led their foster
team
for many years.
I was surprised, though, when
listening in to Pauline's phone conversation, as I heard a man
at the other
end say, "Yes, I am the manager of the authorities' asylum service, is
that
Pauline I am talking to?" It turned out that Pauline had worked on
training other foster
parents for the department with this man who had now
been promoted to manager of this
service.
I heard him also say, "If
you want to help in this area, tell us how you will do it and we will
fund
you. We will have you on board tomorrow." Wow, what a response, and that
started
us our incredible journey.
Following the telephone
conversation, we put together a program to help Asylum Seekers.
It involved
housing, support and care, and just being there for especially the young
people.
So we set up a company called Phoenix Community Care.
The name came about after a man
I did not know came to me at a conference and said,
"I am calling you Phoenix,
because you are about to lose everything, but God will restore
it many
fold." Hence the name Phoenix. He was right. I did lose
everything but God restored
it back to us, but that's another story. My
youngest daughter donated her house to the work
and moved out. We
started off with our first client, a young Muslim girl from Congo, who had
been raped and frightened and was looking for help.
Pauline collected her
from Social Services and placed her in the house, which we had given
a
"wow factor" by furnishing and decorating it as we wanted it to be
really special for our
shell-shocked clients. This young girl went into the
first room and climbed into bed without
even taking off even her outdoor coat
and dropped off to sleep and did not wake up for a
couple of days.
Pauline, having finished the
"I'm a professional placement manager" part, drove around the
corner and phoned me. She wept as she said, "Get more houses. There
is a great need
here."
The work has continued to this
day, and you can find out more by going to our website which is: http://www.phoenixcommunity.org.
I will be telling more stories
in the week's ahead and I ask you to pray for us as we bring the
love of God
to these many needy people who have seen so much hate and violence in
their
lives.
Adrian Hawkes is married -- Dan
Wooding was best man at his wedding -- with three
children, 10
Grandchildren and two Great Grandchildren. He is still part of the Rainbow
Church North London which he used to lead and he also works with Sri Lankan
churches
in France, Switzerland, Norway, Canada and Sri Lanka. as well as a
church in Norway.
He helped to form Phoenix Community Care Ltd, which looks
after some 30+
unaccompanied minors, and vulnerable adults in housing in
North London; alongside his
wife Pauline, he established PCC Foster Care
agency and recently launched London
Training Consortium Ltd., which trains
refugees and asylum seekers with ESOL, IT,
and Literacy. He has also written
various books including: "Leadership and.,"
"Attracting
Training: Releasing Youth," "The Jacob Generation,"
"HELLO is that you God?", "Culture Clash," and his
latest, but first, fiction book, "ICEJACKED."He can be contacted
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