Mohammad Fiaz is an elderly man living in Greater London’s Newham Borough. He is one of the most welcoming and friendly Londoners I’ve ever met. Last July, Jess, the boys, and I joined our dear friends and fellow SEAPC board members Steven and Wei Wei Chang along with their two lovely daughters Noel and Clarissa in Newham for a prayer walk. It was there that we met Mohammad, who invited us to attend his mosque’s prayer service.
Newham Borough and East Ham are home to England’s largest Muslim communities. If you take the Hammersmith & City line or the District line on the London Underground and emerge from it into East Ham, you may feel as if you’ve entered a community in Kashmir or Pakistan. It’s an odd feeling at first because the traditional English storefronts, homes, and curbside aesthetics in no way align with the equally moving and beautiful Asian goods, sounds, and smells coming from within them.
On that day we asked to pray inside the oldest mosque. We explained that we were Christians and prayed to Jesus and that we had come from America to pray for new friends that God would bring to us. We were first kindly redirected to a more “tourist-friendly and attractive” location by a young man in the mosque.
Mohammad stepped in front of the man and said that we were very welcome and that we were his guests. After the service, he welcomed us to the restaurant across the street and offered us lunch. He asked why we were doing what we were doing, and we explained to him that we wanted to bless the United Kingdom and bless his community. We shared what Jesus had done for us and the desire to pray for peace and the love of Jesus Christ to come to Pakistan, Kashmir, and London.
He welcomed the thought and agreed to stand and pray with us! What a joy to join hands and pray with him.
The world comes to London, and they bring their cultures with them. If God’s people do not reach them with the love of Jesus Christ and the glory of God in prayer, then we will witness a nation and kingdom become even more fragmented, broken, and ultimately lost. The call from London’s Westminster Abbey, that “the Kingdoms of this world would become the Kingdoms of our Lord and Christ” will come to fruition only through prayer.
This is a prophecy of righteousness, peace, and prosperity in Christ and one that we will witness come to pass as another generation of UK citizens submit themselves into prayer. We stand strong with London this month and carry a blessing to its citizens in great hope and anticipation that ALL will come to know the true nature of Christ and the power of fellowship in HIM.
This month we mobilize prayer across the UK and ask that you stand with us in prayer.
