Longshaw and reflection on the 'hordes'

Lovely walk with Penny, enjoying the always beautiful views of Longshaw, White Edge and Padley.

It was great to bump into my good friend Pastor Akoi Bazzie doing his 'day job' with the Refugee Council. He was hosting a visit of some 45 men women and children from Sheffield who were enjoying a day out in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside - picnic, paddling , cricket, walking etc.

Akoi told us that the people had come from a number of countries including Iraq, Eritrea and DR Congo. What a counterpoint to the rhetoric coming from number 10 about the 'swarm' of asylum seekers coming across the channel. It's  one thing to deal with dangerous and potentially criminal behaviour in an international port but what are we doing to address the underlying inequality that makes people risk life and limb to find a better life? As Penny says  We live in strange times! I'm reminded me of a privilege of ministry which has been getting to know Akoi and so many others like him who have enriched our society. 

This is an extract from an article doing the rounds on social media which Penny has shared:

It boils my bowels to hear people talking about troops and fences and walls when what we need is to find our soul.


I am not proud of this. I am not proud to see my government treat the needy like a leech to be brushed aside.

I do not want my taxes spent on barbed wire when they could more usefully be spent on an immigration centre, diplomacy, or nation building.


And I do not want to hear one more person talk about floodgates.


There is no flood.
There is a drought.


That’s the crisis, there’s your disaster – the paucity of compassion, the poverty of thought, the total lack of humanity from a nation which, for all our faults, has always had a heart.

Until now.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/not-migrant-hordes--people-6165167