Manor Park, east London, had already been struggling when the pandemic hit. More than half of children in Newham are believed to be in households in poverty. The borough also has the highest rate of people in temporary accommodation across London.*
Like many churches across London, Manor Park Christian Centre has been running a food bank to respond to the need.
LCM Missionary Ilyas Ayoub, has been working alongside the church, helping them to evangelise, including at the food bank.
“People are hurting, many of them have lost their jobs. And even the smaller additional jobs many people relied on justto get by, like babysitting, have disappeared because of the lockdowns.”
David Foster – the church’s pastor – was still taken aback when over 100 people lined up outside the church when they opened the food bank last year.
Tahreen's situation was especially bad – after paying her bills, she had only £100 each month to feed her family. As her bag was packed with food, Tahreen wept as she shared about her life and struggles. As well as receiving food from the food bank, Tahreen was helped by LCM’s emergency relief vouchers, to help her with buying groceries. But something impacted her beyond the physical help she received. Indeed, God had been at work in Tahreen’s heart long before she came to the food bank.
Throughout her 18 years in London, she had encountered Christians who helped her, including childcare support when she first arrived in the country. She had noticed something different about these Christians.
And so, when Ilyas asked Tahreen if she had heard of Jesus, she responded by saying ‘I already love Jesus, because Christians have always helped me’. But, despite the care she had been shown, she had yet to hear the gospel. Ilyas was able to explain the gospel to Tahreen for the first time, and he gave her a Bible in Urdu. Ilyas has connected Tahreen with another local church. It’s here, having committed her life to Jesus, that she is being cared for and discipled by a Pakistani family who are members of the church and have attended London City Mission training courses on relational Muslim outreach.
It’s estimated that one in five churches across London have been offering help in the form of food banks over the past year.
“So many of these churches are only offering the physical help, when people’s needs are so much deeper than that” says Ilyas.
This is where Ilyas and other missionaries have been assisting Manor Park Christian Centre. The church is just one of the churches in the area that you have enabled Ilyas to help. It’s about modelling behaviour – missionaries sharing the good news with people, alongside other Christians, so that involved church members might be equipped and emboldened to do the same.
Another one of these churches is Revival House, a church just down the road from Manor Park Christian Centre. Ilyas has also started working with the food banks the church has been hosting over the pandemic.
Alongside Ilyas is Vanessa, a member of the church who has been helping at the food bank for two years. She is ‘front of house’, welcoming guests as they arrive and ensuring the get the food they need. She has been watching Ilyas as he gently brings the gospel into conversations with guests and he encourages Vanessa to do the same as she is a little nervous at the prospect of starting up these conversations with strangers.
Because of your support, in addition to sharing the gospel at Revival Church’s foodbank alongside Vanessa, Ilyas and fellow team members are running training sessions with Vanessa and other church members, giving them greater confidence in how to share the gospel with the multi-national community in the local area.
Reverend Isaac Ndugire addressed the whole church during an online service in April and introduced LCM.
“We have come to love what London City Mission do. We believe there will be a great harvest and we believe that together we can see this area transformed by the love of Jesus”.
Our prayer is that the impact, by God’s grace and your partnership, of thousands of people can have across Newham, London and beyond, will be significant for God’s glory.
