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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
For Mahabba, it’s all about the relationship – not strategies, not techniques just a real love for our Muslim friends and neighbours. And that’s why we love hearing stories from our groups. Stories are a genuine reflection of the work that our members are doing, and they spur us on and encourage us.
Your contributions helped us facilitate the prayer meetings that we hosted during Ramadan – thank you!
Many of you will have participated in our Network Survey which was an attempt to get a picture of how the pandemic affected our regional groups. The results have given us insights and encouragements.
The Mahabba Trustees will be meeting in Birmingham on 22nd June. Please pray for them.
Have you spotted the network survey in your inbox?
The pandemic has changed the way we relate to each other. In every sphere of life we’ve adapted to online meetings, smaller gatherings, and less face to face contact.
We’d love to check in with Mahabba prayer groups across the country, find out how you’re doing, and how we can support you moving forward.
Our English classes began more than ten years ago. The reason for starting the classes was to create an opportunity to build relationships with the local immigrant communities and to be a demonstration of God’s love by meeting a felt need.
The Love of God is shown by the fact that our classes are practically free, some students expressed surprise at that, because in their home country education is so expensive. Others have commented on the manner in which our teachers treat the students. One person said:
I feel like my teacher cares about me.
Another said:
Your class is not all work-sheets, you take time to teach us to speak.
In addition to English, the teachers offer help with form filling or other practical needs.
The position of teacher is respected by most cultures, so when relationships are built up, students often share their struggles and problems with us, this sometimes leads to opportunities to pray with the student.
The classes have helped to remove fear of mixing with Christians and the fear of entering a building associated with the Christian community. Being under the umbrella of the church gives the teachers freedom to talk about the Christian festivals and other religious events.
The English classes serve as a common platform where volunteers from four different churches work together, some teach others prepare the tea and coffee and look after the student’s children. The unity that comes from being in Christ is demonstrated by the diverse backgrounds of our teachers.
We use ESOL materials that we got from the British Council many years ago, so we are now looking for new resources.
We spoke to Lucy Rycroft, founder of The Hope-Filled Family blog, who gave us some great Christian family resources to add to the stockings this year. They’re all about prayer and mission and will open up conversations about the world, and the nations we find on our doorstep here in the UK.
Check it out, and help the little ones in your life grow closer to Jesus this Christmas.
With the conflict in Afghanistan and the plight of refugees being reported on our televisions, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. How should we pray?
This month we hear from a Mahabba Network member who is working in Colchester to help settle families recently arrived in the UK. As well as practical support, they share three key areas we can be praying for.
One of the many activities we may be looking forward to resuming as we gradually emerge from the COVID restrictions is the opportunity to travel abroad. For some of us, a visit to the library or to a local bookstore to obtain a travel guide for that region of the world is as essential a part of the preparation process as the packing of clothes, camera or suntan lotion. Not only do we want to visit an area and enjoy what it has to offer but we want to be guided by those who know the region well and can provide historical, cultural insight into what we are seeing and experiencing. We might also be emboldened to go “off piste” , away from the ubiquitous pizza and kebab bars to try the gem of an eating place, loved by the locals, where authentic food is served.
As part of the Mahabba resources offer you will begin to see book recommendations from those giving voice to their own experience of being Muslim in Britain. There will be some books which address this directly such as the excellent and up to the minute book “They” by Sarfraz Mansoor. There will be novels which invite us into family life and the arena of close knit communities where the constant and present challenge of living with a dual identity is faced by some with creativity and by others with real struggle. Some books may speak boldly and bravely about the experience and consequences of being shame bearers in the community - “Stained” by Abda Khan. Whilst others will give insight into the layers of barriers, both structural and personally created which prevent access for people to really flourish. “Parwana: recipes and stories from an Afghan Kitchen” by Durkhanai Ayubi may be of particular interest just now along with other such books which include poems and recipes which give a window into expressions of hearts’ desire and the appetite for sharing love through food.
Hearing the authentic voice, rather than the voice of the visitor or observer, whether we are on our travels or engaging with the world on our doorstep, offers us a deepening of our connection and understanding with Muslim people which, we pray, in turn, will bring a growing sense of mutual love and respect in our relationship-building.
Miriam Williams - a member of the Mahabba Network
See book recommendations here
Bulbs are dormant for some time until the conditions are just right. They are planted in the Autumn, but Spring is coming. Then the gardener is rewarded with a riot of colour in all different shapes and sizes.
In the same way, we can plant seeds of encouragement and prayer with our Muslim friends and colleagues, and watch God make them grow.
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