May 2020 marked 185 years since three Victorian visionaries – horrified at the huge numbers of people in London living in appalling conditions and without the hope of Christ – formed the London City Mission. They quickly assembled a group of missionaries to go to the slums to proclaim the gospel.
Yet most of our missionaries were forced to mark the anniversary by staying at home. Despite a massive increase in people raising serious questions about life, death and the meaning of it all, we are having to enforce social distancing and stop our physical meetings – initially it was so frustrating.
Our mission centres and cafés have closed their doors, group activities have been cancelled, and we are no longer able to visit people in their homes. Essential services such as food banks and ministries to people who are homeless continue, but it is hard to have in-depth conversations through masks and with social distancing.
Yet, as the days pass, I’ve been filled with joy to learn of the ways – large and small – that God is at work across London.
Saved!
Just yesterday I learned that one man who has been meeting with a missionary by video link has surrendered his life to Christ. Hallelujah!
A missionary working among the hard-to-reach Muslim population reports that for the first time in seven years a Somali Muslim has agreed to read the Bible with him. They will soon read through Mark’s Gospel together.
Others are finding that friendships in which they have invested time and energy for the sake of the gospel are beginning to bear fruit.
Trust and help
For example, another missionary received a text from a Muslim friend – someone he had helped with building projects and started conversations about life and faith over games of chess. This time he needed help with getting urgent medical supplies for Covid-19 symptoms. He said that he trusted the missionary the most, even though he was not a fellow Muslim.
The church quickly stepped in, getting medical supplies and more. When this man started to say in a phone call that he was ‘indebted’, our missionary took the opportunity to explain grace and speak of the hope we know through the resurrection. He welcomed the missionary’s prayers, and is keen to explore more of the gospel as he and his family recover their health.
I am praying for this man to respond to the practical grace he has been shown, by receiving the grace that Jesus has poured out on all of us.
It’s a reminder to me that the work of the bringing the gospel to people belongs to God. This is God’s work – as we reach out and show practical love and support to those around us in this time of pandemic and share the reason for our own hope, the Lord is able to use these situations for His own ends.
Time and again we are seeing God move in people’s lives in ways that we could not predict and did not expect.
It’s been the same for 185 years of our mission to London, and I am eager to see what next God has in store for the spread of the gospel in our great city.
