Network update
Mahabba Network
Ramadan - A time for opportunities

The Islamic month of Ramadan runs from 10 March to 8 April this year (2024). Ramadan is a great time to start conversations with Muslim friends and colleagues and to focus on praying for Muslims in our local community and across the UK. These next few weeks are full of opportunities!

Ramadan - A time for opportunities
Action & impact
Mahabba Network
Something to Celebrate

In the kingdom of God there is always lots to celebrate, but this month we are particularly thankful for the successful face-to-face meeting of Mahabba Coordinators, for answered prayer and for new volunteers.

Something to Celebrate
Network update
Mahabba Network
New Ways to Connect

Did you know that we have a Mahabba prayer group just for millennials? It was launched in January. It is for anyone aged between 18-40. This month we’ll learn a little more about the group and the volunteer who leads it as well as looking at the Support Circle and inviting you to be part of our face to face – virtually.

New Ways to Connect
Action & impact
Mahabba Network
More to Mahabba

We’re excited to tell you about a Mahabba event that happened in Croydon last weekend called the Hope Event. This regular gathering is designed for people to bring a friend from another faith background. This time they had an African theme, celebrating God’s diversity and creativity. We also want to highlight some of the other things that Mahabba is involved in such as Millennial and Juma prayers.

More to Mahabba
Network update
Mahabba Network
Faithfulness and Perseverance

We hope that you were one of the many who joined our bi-annual prayer meeting last Friday. It was an encouraging time with music, testimony and prayer. Have you ever wondered what the Mahabba circles are all about? They’re part of our vision of being a grassroots organisation.

Faithfulness and Perseverance

syrian refugee

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God is moving among Muslims

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God is moving among Muslims

This is a real-life story of recent events from one of the local Mahabba groups in the Network. Names and details have been deliberately removed to protect the identity of those involved, but praise God - he is working in the lives of Muslims to reveal Jesus!

He is moving

I was delighted to be invited to the birthday party.

Oz was a Syrian asylum seeker. I met him just at the time his application was accepted and he promptly moved away with his family into a big city

In our small town he had found Christian friends and even attended some church events. I visited him in his new home.

On the one hand it was gloriously multicultural and on the other hand it was not a nice neighbourhood. I knew it, he knew it.

I put him in touch with a nearby Christian bookshop which I understood to be run by a Pakistani believer and was pleased to hear later that he had visited it.

Then came the invitation for his two year old’s birthday party. It was quite an event. And the bookshop manager had been invited too.

He was not a Pakistani at all but fellow Syrian, young in the faith and keen as mustard. That was more than I had asked or thought.

Then came the news that Oz had found a better place to live and was moving out to a suburb. I was glad that his family had a nicer home, but could I put him in touch with local Christian friends?

I spoke to the bookshop man:

“Oz is moving. This is his new address.”

The bookshop man said:

“Really? I live just round the corner from him!”

Wow. God is on his case. Hallelujah!

 

Your turn

Have you been touched by this story? If so, you can play your part.

  • Share the amazing news of God moving among Muslim with your friends via e-mail or social media, using the links below
     
  • Support Mahabba in its work to equip everyday Christians to build relationships and share Jesus with Muslims
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Because my friend invited me

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This blog was initially published on 31 March 2017, and subsequently edited with an update on 7 September 2017.

Because my friend invited me

I was visiting with a family of Syrian refugees who had come to the UK on the government’s Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme from refugee camps in the Middle East.

They were one of the first refugee families in our area, helping those who came after them to settle. In the process, they’ve become central figures in the resettled community.

Many local Mahabba members have helped them along the way with driving lessons, English lessons and furniture.

I’m trying to learn Arabic from them.

Last week, the husband and son were on their way out when the mum, my Arabic teacher, said I should practise my new vocabulary and ask them where they’re going.

The response was,

“ila l-kanisa,”

which means, 'to the church'.

“To the church?”

I asked surprised,

“Why are you going to church?”
“Because my friend invited me,”

was the simple response.

Dad picked up the keys and off they went, just like any other parent ferrying children to activities.

I was struck by the familiarity and simplicity of the scene – this Muslim boy is going to church because he had been invited.

So often we are hamstrung by questions about the proper way to introduce our Muslim friends to Christ:

“What if I say the wrong thing? What if we serve the wrong food? What if…”

Whoever this boy’s friend is, he gave me a valuable lesson that night.

Just do it!

And as it happens, a few month's later at the first Mahabba group meeting of the new academic year I heard an amazing development.

This boy had asked one of our other Christian friends, who knows the family, whether he can be a Muslim who follows Jesus.

So be encouraged - just do it and see what God does!

SINCE YOU'RE HERE...

... we have recently planted another local Mahabba group in the UK - awesome news!

With your help, though, we would like to continue to sow, plant and support Mahabba groups.

Our work involves a small team of regional reps and central hub personnel investing in local coordinators and groups, as well as spreading the word.

To continue this vital mission to Muslims, we need to increase our regular monthly income.

Our initial target is to raise up 100 individual regular donors, giving an average of £10 to £15 per month.

Could you be one of the 100?

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