As we look to extend a loving welcome to new arrivals in our communities, it’s good to know there are groups and resources that can help us do that.
Here are five practical resources you and your church could use to help you welcome Hong Kongers:
- Share the UKHK website
The UKHK website is a fantastic resource providing a list of welcome events, information, stories and resources to help people from Hong Kong settle in to life in the UK. The site includes guides to education, healthcare, employment and housing in the UK. There’s also a list of churches around the UK that they can connect with.
Visit their website for more details.
- Get help and support for your church through Welcome Churches
As our friends at Welcome Churches explain in their article ‘Who is my neighbour?’ on pages 12 and 13 joining their Welcome Network of over 1,000 churches around the UK provides access to training, resources and connection with a regional coordinator. Plus your church will be added to their Network map, helping Hong Kongers and others looking for a welcoming church community to find your congregation.
Find out more on the Welcome Churches website.
- Host a Welcome Course
Produced by the UKHK initiative, this course helps churches build a welcoming space for new arrivals in their community and begin to form lasting connections and friendships. Coming to a new country brings not only the practical challenges of needing to find a place to stay, a job and school places, but also cultural challenges. Your new neighbours may have questions such as:
- Is it appropriate to talk about how much I earn in the UK?
- How do I get an invite to my neighbour’s house?
- What is Guy Fawkes night about?
The Welcome Course provides a safe space to ask these questions, for Hong Kongers to share their own stories and to connect with the local community.
The course is based around six professionally-produced videos that provide conversation starters on topics including understanding British culture, making friends, and problem solving.
Explore a preview of the course and sign up to host one at the UKHK website.
- Run the Alpha Course or Christianity Explored in Cantonese
Both these popular evangelistic courses are available with bilingual Cantonese and English resources. Find out more on the Alpha website and the Christianity Explored website.
- Take the BridgeTheGap course
This series of five online courses running in autumn 2022 aims to help churches in the UK better understand Hong Kong people, their lifestyle and culture. In particular, these sessions explore how understanding culture and worldview help us share the good news of Jesus effectively.
The sessions are run by Links2Culture, a community of Christians with extensive cross-cultural experience who are passionate about training others to cross cultures as followers of Christ.
Find out more and sign up on the BridgetheGap website.