Displaying items by tag: Manchester

MANCHESTER: THE “MAHABBA” LOVE CHALLENGE. (MAHABBA=LOVE IN ARABIC)

I woke up on Tuesday with my heart churning about Manchester. As a Mahabba team across the UK, we were respectfully remaining silent to give Manchester time to grieve and find a way to respond. However, it became so obvious that we could not remain silent: people were looking for a way to respond, and for someone to help them come to terms with this tragedy, as so many people are feeling numb. I so well remember that same numbness when I was an Officer in the British Army and four of my soldiers were blown up senselessly in a radio-controlled explosion in our first week of action. The shock was so immense that I never really processed that pain, and just locked it up inside. I do identify with those who are grieving and have suffered loss, so it is with some trepidation, and a feeling of humility and brokenness, that I am now writing.

“CHOOSE LOVE, MANCHESTER!” said the Manchester poet laureate. Right now, we are all facing the Love Challenge: will we choose to love sacrificially when nothing makes sense and our emotions are either totally numb or screaming inside? It's at times like this that we need to remember that people are never our enemy, whether Muslim or Christian, LGBT or straight, black or white...whatever the differences, everyone is loved and has been purchased by our precious Jesus, who gave His life for each one with no exceptions. My Bible says that Love never fails, but oh how it hurts sometimes! This is the Love Challenge!

I remember just after the events of 9/11 that Muslims in the UK were terrified of being persecuted and so they gathered in large numbers in mosques to try to make sense of the events. I quickly sent a message to all the other pastors in my town, asking them to join me outside the local mosque after Friday prayers, so that we could press flowers into every hand as they came out, telling them not to be afraid: we were true believers in "Isa Al Masih" - Jesus the Messiah - and they could count on us to be their friends. This was the Love Challenge – to respond in the opposite spirit, when our love tank was totally dry, and inside we were raging against Radical Islam; we had to choose to love the very people whose Holy Book had inspired such senseless carnage.

Sadly not one pastor turned up, due possibly to fear or anger, and I was left alone with 5 intercessors pressing flowers into every hand. Most were in tears as we did this, and one young man jumped into my arms and said, “I don't care where you come from- I'm following you!” This was the impact of one simple act of true love. That moment profoundly changed my life: learning to see behind all the veils and facades of religion, refusing to stereotype people, and actually feel God’s father heart of love for them.

The seeds of this love for Muslims had been sown over several years as I went ahead of Reinhard Bonnke, as his Campaign Director, into many Islamic cities, believing that thousands would come to Christ. During our prayer times, we again and again heard the prophetic heart cry of God from Isaiah 45, that He would give us these precious Muslim people, whom He saw as “treasures in darkness”. Somehow we needed to choose to see Muslims as people just like us – but people who had become prisoners of an ideology which denied them the joy of living in the Light of God’s forgiveness and grace.

It can be at any moment that we suddenly, even years later, are able to release the pain of those moments. For me it happened at the National Prayer Breakfast in the Houses of Parliament in London last year, as my heart was heavy after the news of the Orlando bombing. At the breakfast, unexpectedly all the memories of losing my 4 soldiers almost 40 years ago began to resurface: I listened to the Middle Eastern Bishop talk of the martyrdom of 21 courageous men from his Church being beheaded on the beach in Libya, and how he knelt down and then tweeted #fatherforgive. He then finished speaking, there was silence, and the band began to play.  I cannot explain what happened next as I closed my eyes, but tears just flowed, and those years of locked up pain were released and healed….instantly!

Only embracing the Cross at this time will enable us to respond well to the Love Challenge. Oh, how it hurts, but it is the only safe place to bring the kaleidoscope of emotions and reactions that we are all feeling.

Here is the animation we've created for phones to mobilize your Christian youth to pray for and engage with local Muslims.  https://vimeo.com/216650233. (If you don’t have the Vimeo app, you can get it from the App Store:http://bit.ly/vimeo_ios )

Please do forward it to some youth who love social media and can send it on to their friends. (If you’d like us to make a copy in another language, do let me know!)

If you’re also passionate about Muslims finding Jesus here’s the Lausanne article about Mahabba:

https://www.lausanne.org/content/lga/2017-01/ordinary-christians-can-reach-muslims-better-than-specialists.  

If you want to know more, here’s a dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qnsq44uxgped1mz/AABqYXJrG0u-TzJGM9-7ITiea?dl=0  

Gordon Hickson is an Anglican Vicar from Oxford, and has been in Missions and Pastoral work for over 30 years. Recently he and others have launched a Prayer based relational network called Mahabba, motivating and mobilizing ordinary Christians to unveil Jesus to Muslims. (https://vimeo.com/218947549)

Monday’s devastating attack in Manchester can cause us to think that there is nothing good in the world. It can feel paralysing not to be able to do anything, but it is good for the soul to hear of small kindnesses. In between spreading fake news, social media has been filled with examples of helpers supporting the emergency services, and their community. Here are some examples:. #RoomForManchester saw people and hotels offering up their spare beds. #Anybody stuck in Manchester tonight I have a spare room and I just made some really nice soup. #I live 5 mins from the Manchester Arena. I have sofa bed, food/drink and phone chargers if anyone needs any help. Cabbies offered their services free to get people back to where they needed to be; some even drove from Liverpool to help. People queued to donate blood, or brewed tea for the police and emergency services still on call.

Monday night a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, and injured another 59 in an explosion that targeted fans leaving a pop concert in the Manchester Arena. By Tuesday lunch time a large cordon was still in place around the area. Pray for the police carrying out forensic work to have the support they need to perfectly complete their task.  Ask God to heal and bring comfort to the young people and their parents whose bodies and emotions have been damaged by a bomb of nuts and bolts and a terrifying experience. Lord, we ask for healing, comfort and strength to every person injured and the relatives of all those killed. Father we ask you to provide a powerful spiritual hedge around our nation and the key targets for terrorists within our borders. We ask for you to give incredible wisdom to Cobra, Police and government at this time. Ask God to strengthen doctors and nurses saving lives and caring for the wounded.  Pray for the friends and relatives experiencing unimaginable worry over people who are missing and not yet identified. And Lord God we your watchmen stand at the gates of cities, towns and all high profile locations and raise our voices for protection in the  Name of Jesus Christ. We declare protection over shopping malls and transport systems in the Name of Jesus.

In April 2016, we prayed for a Kickstarter account that was set up for a Wall of Answered Prayer made of a million bricks - each brick telling the story of how Jesus answered someone’s prayer. This wall will now go ahead and be built as a national landmark in the UK. It will lead people to consider and reflect the worth of prayer, through people sharing stories of how God answered their prayers. It will become a source of inspiration. The project is being led by Christian entrepreneur Richard Gamble, former chaplain to Leicester City FC. A person can pledge £5 and get one brick, which will be linked to them and their unique story of how Jesus answered prayer. A corresponding website will be created to give details of the answered prayers. It will be like a ‘database of a million prayer testimonies.’

A note was left on a vending machine at a cancer hospital in Manchester asking people to help themselves to free treats. Staff at The Christie found the anonymous note on Sunday on a machine where the tray had been left full of paid-for snacks. The donor said they hoped the ‘random act of kindness’ would ‘brighten up someone's day’, and ended by saying ‘Finally, if you can, try and spread the kindness.’ Nurse Emma Widdowson said: ‘It made me feel so happy I was beaming all day. Who doesn't want chocolate on a Sunday?’ Healthcare assistant Lauren Hunstone said: ‘It just perked up everyone's day that someone would do something so lovely out of the goodness of their own heart, not wanting to take any sort of thanks.’ The Christie was recently praised by health inspectors for providing ‘exceptional’ care and being a ‘leader in its field’. It is the largest single-site cancer centre in Europe, treating more than 44,000 patients a year.