I recently had the opportunity to share about the Loving Muslims Together Network with a Chinese church in Toronto. To my delight and surprise, I witnessed how the Lord stirred up their hearts to start praying for the Muslims of a Mosque community close to them.
I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised by their decision, since the churches' mandate is found in Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
To have the opportunity to share with a church about what God is doing in and through the Loving Muslims Together Network is a treat from the Lord, and something that I am quick to embrace and careful not to take for granted. I’m often looking for opportunities to encourage, inspire and nudge Christians to take one small step that might lead to a Muslim coming one step closer to meeting Jesus.
So, a few weeks ago, I approached a dear friend and asked if she would help me gather a group that would be interested in hearing my story of how the Lord led me to serve among Muslims. She then approached her former church, a small Chinese church community located in Markham, ON, and asked if they would be interested in meeting with me. They accepted her invitation and asked me to join their annual board meeting, via zoom, for half an hour.
As I went into the meeting, I prayed that the Lord would put His vision for Muslims in their hearts, and that they would be inspired to love the Muslims around them. I then enthusiastically shared the vision of the LMT Network, that every Muslim in Canada would have the opportunity to truly discover Jesus Christ. That our prayer is that Christians across Canada would begin lovingly reaching out to their Muslim neighbours. I explained that we exist to mobilize, equip, and support the Canadian church to help Muslims in Canada become disciples of Jesus Christ, and shared that we encourage churches in every neighbourhood in Canada, to pray for the mosque community closest to them.
A few days after the meeting I received a message from my friend; the church had requested my help to find out which mosque was the closest to them. If there were specific needs for prayers they would also pray individually or in their church’s Wednesday night prayer meeting. They went on to say that “cross cultural gospel sharing is important to hasten the return of our Lord. We will keep Loving Muslims Together in our prayers. Together serving Him."
My heart became full of joy as I read their message, for they had answered the call of the Lord, and were ready to step out in faith and start loving the Muslims around them. I knew then that God’s purpose for that meeting had been accomplished.
Opportunities to love like Jesus
“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9: 37-38)
There are an estimated 1,921,418 Muslims in Canada, which amounts to 5.08%. Islam is Canada’s second largest religion after Christianity, and it is one of the fastest growing religions in Canada.
Muslims in Canada have limited experience with Christian friends, with a local church, and with Bibles in their heart language. These are the key factors for Muslims to receive the Good News of Jesus.
The challenge is great, but the opportunity is greater! The nations of the world are in our neighbourhoods. Muslims who in years past would never have had an opportunity to meet a Christian, to receive a Bible to read, or to hear the truth about Jesus Christ have become our neighbours. We don’t have to travel thousands of miles to find a mission opportunity—we can walk in our neighbourhoods with our eyes open to see what God is doing and join Him there.
An invitation to churches to pray for a Mosque community
Jesus said, “You shall LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” (Luke 10:27-29)
There are 650 mosques across Canada, scattered in our neighbourhoods.
The vision of the Loving Muslims Together Network is that each mosque across Canada would have at least one church praying regularly for them.
We believe that Christians in Canada are strategically placed to love their neighbours.
We invite churches to:
- Personally commit to regularly, and fervently pray that members of their neighbourhood mosque community come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God’s Son and experience the grace and blessing of His atonement
- Periodically pray publicly from the pulpit for this mosque community to experience the freedom, hope and purpose that is found in Christ Jesus alone
- Convene a group to meet at least monthly to pray specifically for this community
- Follow God’s leading for ways to tangibly express the loving hospitality of Jesus Christ
We encourage churches to use our Monthly Call to Prayer blogs to help inspire prayers of love and compassion for those who call your neighbourhood mosque their home.
If you would like to help us locate the mosque community closest to your church, please let us know! We will be happy to help you!
For more information about the Loving a Mosque Community Together prayer initiative please click the link here: Loving a Mosque Community Together or contact info@lmtn.ca
As the National Coordinator for Loving Muslims Together, Cristina serves as the administrative hub for the Canadian Leadership Team and the larger Canada-wide network. She has experience in office administration, newcomers settlement and international students admission. Cristina’s caring and enthusiastic personality, cross-cultural experiences and evangelistic heart for the unreached Muslims are great assets to the Outreach Canada team. She lives in the Sarnia area, ON with her husband and their two boys.