Last month over a billion Muslims were fasting for their holy month of Ramadan.
Jesus has given his followers the extraordinary privilege and responsibility of gathering people from every nation, tribe, tongue and language to worship him forever. We get to be involved in something international and eternal?!
Rey, who now attends Dundonald Church, grew up in a Muslim family diligently observing Ramadan every year:
“As a devout Muslim I was very zealous but I did not know that I had misdirected zeal. I thought that through regular praying and fasting I was pleasing God which is why I thought I was closer to God in Ramadan.”
For the last several decades Christians across the world have united to pray for Muslims during Ramadan, asking God to give us a heart of love for them, and to pray that they would encounter Jesus Christ in the gospel.
Rey notes:
“I obeyed everything the Quran told me to do, but none of it gave me peace or happiness. The closer to God I wanted to be, the more burden I had on my shoulders.”
Ramadan 2020 was very unusual
Ramadan 2020 was very unusual as lockdown prevented normal practices and traditions, and provided new opportunities for Christians to share God’s peace in Christ with Muslim friends, neighbours and family.
The Dundonald SUPPORT ministry is all about supporting God’s global Great Commission, and as part of the 2018 Open Hand commitment our churches committed that we would PRAY for the nations.
Read personal stories
and encouragements from this month, and feel free to get in touch to learn more
about getting involved in our local international outreaches.
“We’ve prayed through the ’30 days of prayer for the Muslim World’ guide together each year since we married. The most memorable year was when Sophie was a newborn and we often prayed during the 3am feed! (We are pleased to be praying at a more human hour this year.)
The guide is always a great resource to fuel prayers for the Muslim world and our Muslim neighbours. Day 1 introduces the great diversity in Islamic believes and practices around the world. As usual, we are sure we will learn lots as we pray each day of Ramadan.”
The Parkes
“I learn loads from the 30 Days of Prayer guide as I read about Muslim peoples around the world and that refines my understanding of Muslim international students. Today, the guide focusses us on Quranist Muslims whose passion is to find the truth from the Qur’an alone. As Christians, let’s pray that the Lord will lead Quranists to the only true word of God, the Bible, and to the Gospel it proclaims.”
Rachel Chard became a Dundonald Mission Partner when she and her husband were pioneer church planting in Tanzania. Now back in the UK, we continue to support Rachel in her role as Head of Hard to Reach for Friends International. Rachel has contributed to this year’s booklet and we look forward to praying for International Students on Day 22!
Peter Kamau Gikunju is an Elder at Grace Point Church in Kenya, a Director with iServe Africa, and one of Dundonald Church’s Mission Partners. Grace Point Church sends missionaries across Kenya, and one serving in an area that is almost 100% Muslim reports:
“Ramadhan is here with us. The opportunities we had for Bible study with some people have paused after they requested we stop the intensive studies during Ramadhan as they want to be “holy and undefiled.” This was sad for us to see the bondage they are in even to consider God’s Word as defiling. This deepens our anguish for their souls to be saved from the bondage they are in, blinded by the god of this age. This happened in the 1st week. Brethren your prayers count so much especially now when we may not be having much ability and opportunity in our hands. How beautiful it is when the Body of Christ wrestles in prayer for the unreached. The task of faithfully praying where you are is equal to the task of faithfully serving in the field. So thanks for your prayers… they mean so much as you pray for God to us and for bondages of darkness to be broken and hardened hearts softened as Christ’s light penetrates.”
“At Wimbledon International Café we regularly pray that God would bring Muslims to hear about Jesus. God has been so gracious in answering that prayer this year! Even during lockdown we’ve had new guests join online and been able to look at John’s Gospel together. For Rupert and I personally, the 30 Days booklet has encouraged us to pray for and seek to reach Muslim neighbours, and wonderfully God has provided a lady who regularly leaves hot food at our door at the end of her day’s fasting as she knows our cooker is broken!”
Flo & Rupert are part of the 6.30 congregation, and Flo serves on our wonderful International Café team. Please pray for the International Café, for the work of Friends International with international students studying in the UK, and for Flo & Rupert’s opportunities with their neighbours!
“I’ve enjoyed praying for Muslim friends, neighbours and colleagues each year during Ramadan helped by the Thirty Days of Prayer series and even more so since moving to Turkey in 2018. Two thirds of the NT books are written to or from churches in Turkey and all seven churches of Revelation were here. Yet today the church in Turkey is tiny, officially just 0.2% of the population professes to follow Christ. It’s my prayer that the Turkish church would awaken from its Laodicean slumber and become a light once more as in the first centuries. I pray that many Muslims would be drawn to Christ this Ramadan discovering the peace and rest found in Jesus alone.”
David was a member of the Dundonald Church family attending the 6.30 service before his move to Turkey, and is enjoying tuning in to Dundonald Online and partnering with us in prayer this Ramadan.