Meet the boazpeople

The Boaz team is made up of a range of stakeholders: a full-time Project Director and Housing Manager; an active Board of Trustees; volunteers who work on frontline projects, as boazhosts, advocates, campaigners, befrienders or prayer supporters; and of course, destitute asylum seekers themselves.

select a profile >> dave smith/project manager : nigel biggs/housing manager :

Q: Dave, We first met through your involvement with the Mustard Tree, but I know you've had a real heart for the homeless for many years now. Tell me a bit about how that got started.

A: It all started back in 1992 when a friend of my wife Shona phoned and said "we do this soup run on a Sunday night and wondered if you might like to come along". We had nothing else to do, and decided to go along to see what it was all about. All I can say is, we were instantly 'hooked'. For me, it was as if I had found what I should have been doing a long time before. Helping people who were the most marginalised in society is always on God's heart. We went along with the same church group for about a year, and during that time came to feel that much more had to be done. Serving out soup and sandwiches once a week didn't really start to solve their problems, though the caring and befriending was valuable in itself.

At the time we were moving churches, and when we decided on the new church, we discovered there were some young people there who also had a heart for the homeless - so we started the Mustard Tree. Our first soup run was on Sunday 31st October, 2003. I can't forget it, because it was the day after our daughter Jessie was born!

The Mustard Tree remained a Sunday night soup run staffed by volunteers for several years, though we did get charity status and improve the service by starting a small clothing and furniture store too. I had felt for a while that nothing would change unless someone stepped out in faith and went full-time into the work, so when I was offered the possibility of redundancy from teaching in 1998 I jumped at the chance to move on. The redundancy money lasted 4 months, which just gave us enough time to get some funding in place, and then we moved into an old mill building in Rusholme. It wasn't long before we had lots of clients coming through the door with all sorts of needs, from furnishing an empty flat to clothing their 6 children or feeding themselves while they waited for their benefits to come.

Our first asylum seeker came through the doors in 1999. I had no idea what an asylum seeker was, much less where they came from or why they were here. It was a very steep learning curve! Within a short space of time other asylum seekers, refugees and refugee organisations had discovered that the Mustard Tree was providing free clothing, bedding, furniture and household goods, and a small trickle of refugees turned into quite a fast flowing river! By 2003 60% of our client base were refugees.

At the same time we became aware of the growing number of those who had been refused asylum and were now homeless and destitute. Our food store was being rapidly emptied, and when the Red Cross talked of setting up a Destitution Project, we jumped at the chance to enter into a partnership that still exists today. Between March and August 2003 the number attending the Destitution Project on a Thursday afternoon went from 15 to 85. Even the setting up of another project in Salford failed to decrease the numbers,and by 2004 it was getting obvious that the project was getting too big for the organisation to handle, particularly as the trustees were unsure about the Mustard Tree moving into the accommodation sector. There were already people who were hosting destitute asylum seekers.

As my contract at the Mustard Tree came to an end, and the new contract offered was only part-time, I felt God giving me an almighty (in both senses) hint that it was time to take another leap of faith - and so the Boaz Trust was born in April 2004. Thanks to the encouragement and help of the leaders of my church, South Manchester Family Church (especially Colin Baron and John Owen), we were able to hit the ground running. The church suppoted me financially whilst the Trust was set up.

Q: What have been some of Boaz's early successes during this start-up phase?

A: I think the main reason why Boaz has come so far in such a short space of time is down to the support from my church and others whom I had come to know and love at the Mustard Tree. The trustees are a great bunch of people who are amazingly caring, supportive and hard-working. Their faith in me as a person means that I am free to pursue the vision and aims of the project without having to justify every action taken. At the same time, their own commitment means that I can't do anything daft without their knowledge!

People always ask me, "How is it going?", and I always answer with a guarded "Yeah, it's going well, I think". On the positive side, there are 28 people in accommodation who otherwise would be destitute. That's 28 people who have begun to rebuild shattered lives. And there are another 50 or so who have moved on after a while being hosted or residents of our houses. So that's good. But there are also another 75 on our waiting list, and it's growing daily.

I think another very successful thing, though it's only early days, is the 'Meaningful Activities' programme we are developing. It's one thing having a roof over your head - and without it everything else is fairly impossible - but what can you do with your time if you are not allowed to work and have no access to education and no money? Things like our gardening project, and producing quality ethnic Christmas cards, are vital for people's dignity and self-worth.

And then there is the quality of our volunteers. It's a real privilege to work with such fantastic people. I can't imagine any other job that I could say that of!

Q: How do you keep from getting swamped by the scale of the problem?

A: Sometimes it does all get a bit much, and I think about being somewhere there are no asylum seekers, and where the weather is nice all the time. (I think it's called 'Heaven'!). On Thursdays I know I will be face to face with several desperate people who have nowhere to sleep that night. It's much easier, when they are on the end of a phone, to say "Sorry, but we have nothing". But I'm learning to cope. First of all I have to realise that I'm not in it on my own. There's a lot of other people, not just within the project, who have the same heart. And then there's God. I feel enormous sympathy for those who do this sort of work and don't have God in their lives. I guess that's why 80% of this sort of work is done by Christians. And then, what's the point of worrying? Like Jesus said, it's not going to alter a thing, except the colour of my hair (what's left of it).

The job can be frustrating. It's frustrating that so few people know anything about the human tragedies happening in our own land. Even the Church is still largely unaware of the problem, especially if Christians read certain tabloid dailies! There is, however, real encouragement in seeing wonderful asylum projects popping up all over the country. So we have to keep on educating the Church first, then the rest of society, until enough people stand up and say "That's enough!". I guess Martin Luther King, William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftsbury all faced the same dilemna, so, though the scale may be different, we can take encouragement from the ultimate successes they achieved, with God's help. And yes, this enfoced destitution is probably the greatest social ill since slavery was abolished 200 years ago, so it is in the same league!

Q: What are your hopes and dreams for Boaz?

A: That the UK becomes a welcoming society for those who are fleeing persecution. That refugees are believed unless it is 'beyond reasonable doubt' that they are lying. (That's how the rest of the the legal system works). That all destitution and homelessness is eradicated in our country (that includes those who aren't seeking asylum!) That, when that happens, Boaz can start to do what it should be doing - helping those who have full refugee status to become fully integrated into a society that loves and cherishes ALL its members.

My wife Vivienne and I have had a heart to be involved with the marginalized for a long time and over the years we have been involved with single mothers, gypsies, the mentally disabled etc.

We believe that the marginalized are very much on the heart of God - as Jesus declared in His Kingdom Manifesto:

"God's Spirit is on Me; He's chosen Me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent Me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, 'This is God's year to act!'" (Luke 4:18-19, The Message)

And that all human beings - regardless of ethnicity, gender, creed and sexual orientation - are of value:

" … God created human beings … reflecting God's nature. He created them male & female … " (Genesis 1:27, The Message)

God created and loves the world in all its variety - all mankind, because it reflects His image, is ultimately of value:

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son." (John 3:16, The Message)

If God loves like that and gave can we do less!

"Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims - Laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children. What will you have to say on Judgment Day, when Doomsday arrives out of the blue? Who will you get to help you?" (Isaiah 10:1-3, The Message)

Dave Smith and I first met at a friend's stag party in Rusholme - when Dave was the best man - since then our friendship and my role in boaz have grown, with funding coming available in early in 2006 to allow me to commit fulltime to the work.

My main role within boaz is as Housing Manager and includes:

:: overseeing the boazhouses: maintenance, insurance, utilities, furnishings etc.

:: the holistic care of our guests

Inevitably oversight of the houses must include care for our guests and this includes:

:: praying for them

:: ensuring their physical and mental welfare in terms of medical care and a safe place to live (organizing visits to doctors, dentists & hospitals when necessary)

:: seeking their 'well being' - this involves developing the 'Meaningful Lives' Project (Craft Activities, Sports, Social Events, Days Out, Community Involvement etc)

:: taking an interest in their Asylum Applications and seeking where possible to progress their cases

:: just being there as a friend and having time to be a 'listening ear'

The work can be very emotional and demanding at times - but ultimately it is very rewarding as there is a real sense that God has His hand upon the work.

" . . . I was hungry and you fed Me, I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink, I was homeless and you gave Me a room, I was shivering and you gave Me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to Me." (Matthew 25:35b-36, The Message)

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