One UK church is reaching out to refugees in their city by providing food, health or other services — and seeing the hand of God move in a surprising and unusual way.

Stoke-on-Trent, a city in the country of England, is a “dispersal city,” where refugees go after claiming asylum because of the low cost of housing. St. Mark’s Church in the Hanley section of the city developed a ministry called Sanctus, which provides food and other services, like language instruction and housing.

The ministry’s website explains: “We aim to walk alongside people who find their way to us, from all around the world, in a non judgemental and safe environment.” They serve “women, men and children, without prejudice, of all faiths and none.”

In addition to Sanctus’s own services during the twice weekly “drop ins,” the ministry works with government agencies to provide support to the refugees. Sanctus is also working with the Chamber of Trade to obtain job placements for refugees at the level of work they performed in their home country.

A Fresh Expression of Church

Sally Smith, the church’s main pastor, said that she is seeing refugees coming to Christ through the Sanctus program. After working with the volunteers in the Sanctus program, refugees began attending church services at St. Mark’s. “We’re having a lot more baptisms, a lot more confirmations and our recent confirmation services are looking very, very diverse, which is wonderful,” said Smith.

The ministry has allowed the Church to reach people who have never been reached before. “We’ve been able to develop a fresh expression of church,” called “Sanctus on Saturday,” said Smith. There, “many of the people who come on a Saturday afternoon to share our worship, to share our food, are now hearing about Jesus for the first time.”

When a congregation sees a refugee who is hungry, and feeds her, needs a jumper and clothes him, needs comfort and prays for them … remarkable things happen — Sanctus at St. Mark’s Church

It’s a mistake to think that spreading the Gospel is simply about academic understanding, said Smith, and she is open about the work of the Holy Spirit in the transformations. “So we’ve started to offer people the opportunity to receive the laying on of hands and prayer,” said Smith. “We’ve discovered that people from all sorts of religious backgrounds are really happy for us to lay hands on them and to pray for them in the name of Jesus. And then we’ll talk about experiencing Jesus’ peace and knowing that Jesus was there with them.”

For Smith, it’s not about a test of Christian beliefs. “It’s about ‘Come and meet Jesus, come and feel the difference that Jesus can make in your life, come and let Jesus touch you, come and kneel at our altar and let His spirit come and wash over you and take away that fear and that anxiety, and let Jesus give you His hope, not about what I can tell you is true or what I expect you to believe, but come and experience the reality of the living Jesus, the living Lord,’ and that’s what’s making the difference.”