LCM partner, the New Asian Friendship Centre, opens its doors to the community to share the love of Jesus. Through their care, Faruk came to know him personally.
It's a rainy Wednesday morning. The New Asian Friendship Centre (NAFC) is about to open its doors to the predominantly South Asian Muslim community in a corner of Newham. Tables and chairs are set up in the small space that was once a furniture shop, ready to welcome the line of people waiting outside.
The doors open and within minutes, the centre is full.
A lady in a headscarf, visibly distressed, sits herself at one of the tables. She’s clutching paperwork, including a letter from a debt collection company, chasing her for payment for dental treatment.
On the other side of the table is Mike, Director of the Centre, who gets to work sorting through the paperwork, and before long is on the phone to the debt collectors to explain why his client shouldn’t have been charged in the first place.
At another table, a man with terminal cancer is in desperate need of universal credit but cannot navigate the bureaucracy that comes with it. Others may be on the brink of eviction and homelessness.
Joining Mike and the other volunteers are LCM missionaries Ilyas and Isabella. They’re at the centre, not only to provide practical support, but to build intentional friendships with clients and to model this to the other volunteers.
Just before midday, Farouk, rushes into the centre and is greeted like a family member.
He has a huge smile on his face, and is carrying two massive tubs, one filled with rice and the other with chicken curry. He’s been up since 8am preparing it.
Farouk is one of the people Ilyas supported when he was referred to the NAFC by his local GP surgery some years ago.
Spiritual nourishment
At about noon, lunch is served. Farouk and the volunteers move to and from the kitchen, ensuring everyone has a plate. There is a hum of conversation as people eat their lunch of rice and curry.
After lunch, the plates are collected, and a short Bible study begins.
“Here we are helped practically. We are nourished physically at lunch. And we are fed spiritually through reading God’s word,” Mike announces before they start.
Today’s passage is on the parable of the prodigal son. Farouk sits and listens intently.
When he was 15 and living in Bangladesh, someone handed him a tract about Jesus. And that small act started his long journey to faith.
Finding Jesus in London
“My great-grandfather came from a Hindu background, but then my father became a Muslim, raising me as one. I remember looking back to my heritage and wondering – what is the truth?” he says.
Many years later, when Faruk stepped into the NAFC, he became deeply moved by the faith and attitudes of the Christians he met there.
“The way they talked and lived their faith was very different from that of my own people. I saw their character. They had more compassion and love for others than what I saw in the Muslim world,” he admits.
Faruk was struggling with some aspects of his Muslim upbringing, particularly regarding the treatment of girls and women which he’s witnessed. In Christianity, he saw something radically different. And it was through Ilyas, that Faruk understood the gospel for himself.
