Reflections over Christmas

by Nathan Gardner

Dear everyone at FORM,

I send you all my greetings from snow-covered Germany. It has now been two months since my last moving day, but I remember the day very well as it was also my final day with Man With A Van. Working with you all (as well as MWAV’s master-and-commander, Tim Bishop) and partaking in your enthusiasm and friendship (and KFC) made for an extraordinary ‘last shift’. Thank you all for this wonderful last day, but also for a year filled with powerful meaning and memories.

Christmas has just passed and I hope it was filled with much love and merriment. For me it is celebrating the importance of family, friends and love. Spending this time separated from my immediate friends and family in Australia, though reunited with relatives in Germany, made for a beautifully bittersweet occasion. One thing I would like to share with you all was an experience I had reading Luke 2:1-14 with my Aunt and Uncle in Germany.

Though some of you may already know, I feel I should state that I am non-theistic and that one thing I found great about FORM was that I felt welcomed into your group regardless of this. Your sincerity to help others reaches through the differences of faith--not just to me but the people FORM helps--and I admire this.

Spending Christmas with my Aunt and Uncle in Germany, I learned that reading these passages before dinner on Christmas Eve was a family tradition. As a long lost nephew, I was invited to read it aloud (in German of course!). When I finished reading, I looked up and saw that my Aunt, Uncle and cousin had a twinkling of tears in their eyes. At this sight, I too was quite struck by emotion. As a part of their family that had long been separated by time and space, I understood the significance of participating in this family tradition had for them and it was quite overwhelming. I could read their love and acceptance of me in their faces. But my feelings were also entwined with what I had just read. I, like those two travellers in the story, was seeking shelter in the land of my ancestors and the significance reverberated through the sentiment felt in the room. I kept thinking of how grateful Mary and Joseph must have been, even for a manger and before long my thoughts turned to others who for one reason or another were seeking shelter in strange lands.

With these thoughts still fresh in my mind, Han’s reflection on FORM’s recent Christmas hamper delivery arrived in my inbox the next morning. Through her words I remembered my own similar feelings and experiences. I am so happy that she enjoyed her time as much as she did. I only wish that I was there alongside her and everyone else on that day. It sounded so wonderful. But it also looked so wonderful! In the photos I saw the enthusiasm of my friends at FORM and the faces of the families that I had helped before on previous moving days. I saw some of the parents I spoke to and the kids I played with. I even saw one particular couch that I still remember being quite difficult to get in! Who double bolts feet into couches?! And at odd angles?! (removalists’ anguish)

But to return to the themes of that passage and Christmas; of shelter, family and love for all (even those born humbly deserve to be received by kings) are themes that I think everyone at FORM is quite familiar with. Moreover they are expressed through the helpful and important work done for these new and vulnerable members of our community. Indeed anyone can express these themes simply by recognising refugees as new and vulnerable members of our community, rather than some abstract, political issue.

It therefore pains me to learn that in Germany, refugees are also politicised into an abstract issue. This year Germany has received some 200,000 refugees mostly from the conflict in Syria. This number of refugees is higher than any other Western nation has accepted or processed. In response refugees in Germany have become entwined with fears of loss of national identity and danger (similar to some sections of Australia). Many people have taken to the streets to protest the loss of “their land”, though ironically most often in parts of Germany with a low number of immigrants. It is tragic that in these parts there seems little acknowledgment of the real loss the asylum seekers bear.

However, like in Australia, many groups in Germany of varying size and scope are lending a hand. It reminds me that the need to help people in need is global in scale and common the world over--but we each can play our part. FORM should be congratulated for creating a grassroots community that has enriched the lives of everyone involved and should take great solace in knowing that throughout the world there are others bringing help and comfort to those who ask for it. It is in these binding qualities of humanity that I place my faith for a safer and more prosperous future. 

Next year I hope you continue to meet great people; people who beneath their tragedies remain interesting, funny and inspiring and others who are strong enough to help, compassionate enough to care and thoughtful enough to listen. Next year I hope you keep doing what you’ve all been doing; seeing not an anonymous, abstract issue, but people. Real people.

All of you guys should be proud about what you do! You are (sometimes too humbly) doing some incredible work! Jack, Nicole, Jess and everyone, take a bow!

I miss your fun and enthusiasm but am so glad to have known it. As I travel through these strange lands, receiving shelter in the humanity of others, please know that the memories that I’ve formed with you are also keeping me warm against all this snow on the other side of the world.

Nathan

Man With(out) A Van