‘By birth I’m Pakistani, by nationality I’m British. By the grace of God I’m Welsh’
Rev Irfan Martin John never forgot the kindness Cardiff showed him in 2005, now he helps make sure others in a similar position have the kind of welcome he had. Ben Summers reports
ENJOYING a milky cup of tea in Rev Irfan Martin John’s cosy suburban Cardiff house, it’s hard to imagine ‘home’ used to be an unsafe place for him. But nearly 20 years ago, gunmen arrived outside his house in Pakistan’s third-largest city.
Then a church minister in Faisalabad, he tried to help Christians who were persecuted for their faith. This made Rev Irfan, his wife and his children targets for persecution in turn, with their house watched round-theclock by guards for their safety.
When guns were fired outside in an act of intimidation, Rev Irfan decided enough was enough and fled. More than 18 years later, he’s made a home in Wales and has a clear, unshakeable desire to give back to the country that welcomed him with open arms.
“A few days before I left Pakistan, people were shooting in the air outside our house to threaten us,” Rev Irfan said. “I was afraid inside the house with my wife and I shouted to my guard to ask what was wrong. He said ‘Don’t come outside, stay inside and we will hold the situation.’
“I called the police but they did not come. I called other church leaders in other cities and after four or five hours they came to me and moved me from there. They said: ‘Maybe if they do not kill you, they will kill your son, your daughters, your wife.’ They said it was better for me to leave the country and arranged everything for me. I left on December 10, 2005.”
Knowing “nothing” about what to do when he ended up in the UK, Rev Irfan was moved into a hotel in Margate with his wife Raheela and their four children.
There, the family were allocated three rooms - but were too scared of their new surroundings and slept, afraid, in just one.
Soon after, they were moved to Wales. “When the coach stopped at the front of the hotel in Cardiff we were worried,” he said. “What were they going to do to us? Some people said they would put us in prison. Luckily the person who welcomed us from the hotel was a very good person, and another lady said ‘don’t worry, we are not going to do anything, here are your rooms,’ very peacefully.”
Over the next few years, Rev Irfan took courses in just about everything from mental health to digital photography and acting, as he tried to accustom to life in the UK.
When the time came, he was determined to find a way of helping other asylum seekers cross this bridge.
He became one of the founders of Trinity Centre, a hub bringing together essential services for people arriving in Wales seeking asylum some of them with only the clothes on their backs. With the community at then-Trinity Methodist Church dwindling, the project gave a new lease of life to the building, a home to the smaller communities that still called it home and a chance for Rev Irfan to give back. He works closely with Trinity in his job as a church Synod enabler (he’s also a part-time YouTuber with son Daud Irfan).
“I went through all this - the Home Office, living in a hotel, small accommodation - but at least I’m here,” he said. “I understand the problems and issues and the Methodist church and Cardiff community opened their arms for me and my family, and this is a small return. The people who loved me - I’m sharing that love.”
He added: “For example, if I’m alone and came to Cardiff, I can do what I want. But if I know people they know me, they love me - it saves me from a lot of bad habits, [helps me] be a good person. It’s so important when people are seeking asylum. I’m finding relatives for them - not [real] relatives, but through good relationships they are relatives who support each other. I always use my car as a lorry to help people with small things, it’s full of stuff to deliver to people and I take them to hospitals and school admissions.”
But that’s only one side of his job. He spends a lot of time helping culturally diverse Christian groups to worship in their own language and their own way. “When people come here the first barrier is language,” he said. “But the second is as a Christian - they want to go to church but there is a language issue.”
Rev Irfan encourages people to start church groups in their own languages, as well as attend their local churches and mix with the community there. Travelling between Cardiff and Swansea on alternate weeks, he also works with communities in Wrexham, Bargoed, Caldicot and elsewhere. In 2013 he broke a Guinness World Record for the most nationalities (55) featured in a nativity play.
“The reason behind it was not to make a Guinness World Record,” he said. “I brought a lot of communities together and now those people are very close friends with each other. That’s what I’m doing in Cardiff building a bridge of care for culturally diverse people.”
He also takes the show on the road, touring Wales, introducing these diverse congregations to local communities around the nation: “Sometimes it can be very hard for the local community when other people are coming from other countries, [asking] what type of people, who they are. I try to introduce them and [show] there’s nothing wrong with them.
“When I visit different churches for preaching I encourage people: the culturally diverse people coming to your church, they don’t need your money. They don’t need your possessions. They don’t even need your cup of tea; they have a cup of tea at home. They need your smile, give them your smile. We all know one language - God’s language, the language of love.”
Rev Irfan is Welsh, as far as he’s concerned: “My full name is Irfan Martin John - it sounds like a Welsh name. By birth, I’m Pakistani. By nationality, I’m British. But by the grace of God, I’m Welsh.
“I always call Wales and Trinity Centre our birthplace [as a family]. Due to persecution, when we left Pakistan we didn’t know where we were going or what to do, and totally zero about Britain. On my side I don’t have blood relatives in Europe other than my four children and my wife, but my saying is that I have relatives in every city, every village, every part of Wales.
“Their hearts and doors are open for me - they love me and I am loving them. I have four children so we are [a family of] six people - friends say it’s ‘buy one, get the other five free.”
This family approach led to Rev Irfan walking from Cardiff to London with his son Daud in an attempt to promote diversity in the Methodist Church. While his father’s mission is to welcome asylum seekers as he was once welcomed himself, Daud has picked up that baton for the next generation.
Daud was the first person from anywhere in Asia to be the Methodist Church’s youth president, and said: “It took 21 years for that to happen. I’m not saying we need to have those people because it’s on merit if you’re capable enough or people think you’re good enough, but why has it taken 21 years? That’s why I did the walk, trying to get that attention so we don’t have to wait 20 years to have another person of colour in that position - hopefully in a year, two or three instead.
“People always ask me how it was growing up here and I say we had a great experience, never really anything wrong or bad. The city welcomed us with open arms so we never had an issue in Cardiff. But a lot of people are surprised, especially when I speak to other children who came here at a young age who were bullied or had to go through racist comments.”
Reflecting on his journey since that day nearly 20 years ago, Irfan said: can’t say ‘I’ve been in this country for 18 years, now my job is done.’ My heart is still on December 10, 2005. The newcomers need help, they need a smile on their faces.”