The seven narratives available for download individually on this page are also available as a book, Where There Was No Church: Postcards from Followers of Jesus in the Muslim World, E.J. Martin, ed. It is available in paperback, ePub, or Kindle formats. Find out more at >Learning Together Press [external, unsecure link]
These true stories illustrate clusters of fruitful practices among MBB communities. They provide an honest view of how the kingdom of God is being established among Muslim communities today.
A discussion guide is available for each narrative to help teams glean lessons from these stories. If you wish to lead a discussion, you will find it helpful to also download the Fruitful Practices Descriptive List.
All the narratives and the discussion guides are available either in a format optimised for viewing on screen or in A4 format (best for printing).
Not a Foreign Message
Narrative | Discussion Guide
Does it matter what language you use?
Nabil reclined on a mattress on the floor with his mother and his six-year-old nephew, Ahmed. Nabil was trying to make funny faces to lighten their mood, to counteract the gloom that spilled over them as bomb blasts filled their ears. Nabil’s sister, Sarah, came in with a sandwich and a cup of milk for her son, Ahmed. She had mixed up the milk powder with more water than usual. Who knew when they’d be able to get to the supermarket again? Or whether there would be any milk on the shelves when they did. Ahmed didn’t seem to mind. He gulped down the milk in spite of its watery taste.
“Allah!” Sarah exclaimed as a nearby explosion rocked the building.
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Uncle, Is It True?
Narrative | Discussion Guide
A young man visits his uncle in the city to find out whether he can believe the stories he’s heard about Jesus the Messiah.
The young man walked down the dusty street of the market, looking self-conscious dressed in robes that mark him as from the countryside. He made his way through the throng of shoppers bartering with merchants, milling at the open booths and looking for bargains at the end of the day. Even now, some of the shopkeepers were striking the awnings, packing away their vegetables, meats, fabrics, and pots for tomorrow’s business. He dodged between a man loaded down with plastic bags and housewife in intense discussion with a greengrocer over carrots.
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The Messiah Is Not a Liar
Narrative | Discussion Guide
Villagers gather at the home of an elderly shaykh who tells stories from the Taurat and Injil. They discover together about the life of following Isa al Masih.
The young man paused, bowed slightly, and came to shake the hand of the old man sitting in the quiet shade of the thatched roof overhang. “Hello, shaykh [leader],” the youth said. The old man looked up and smiled.
“Please sit,” the elder said, waving to the worn brick stoop on his right. On the side of the house, chickens pecked in the dust. A woman arrived with a pail of water on her head and walked into the back of the two room house.
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Stoking the Home Fire
Narrative | Discussion Guide
A Western couple struggle to find the best approach for establishing a community of Jesus’s followers among nominal Muslims in Eastern Europe.
Equipped with faith, youth, and an impossible dream, Jack and Barb moved to Eastern Europe 25 years ago. Their belief in the power of the living God motivated their decision, but the nominally Muslim, officially atheistic nation that occupied their prayers didn’t issue visas to foreigners. So they moved to a neighbourhood with a majority of the people they hoped to reach in a city across the border and began to adapt to the culture. As they became fluent in the language, their integration with this community forged an identity that re-defined their future.
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Desperate Enough to Pray
Narrative | Discussion Guide
What can you do when nothing happens?
“Father, move on Abu Yusuf! Grant him a sign to confrm who Jesus is.” </i><i>On the roof of the house where he lived with a local family, Owen Campbell called out all night for God to reveal himself. Tough he had lived with Abu Yusuf’s family for only a few months, Owen sensed that God was stirring the man’s heart. Owen’s brother Samuel, visiting from abroad, joined him for that night of powerful prayer, when they sensed they were encountering spiritual powers at work around them.
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Meeting the Saviour through the Quran
Narrative | Discussion Guide
Soon after arriving in the Middle East, an English teacher invites his students to holy
Just six weeks after he left his Western homeland to move to the Middle East, Abu Roo found himself in his living room opening the Quran and his Bible with four Muslim guests. These men, all students from an English class Abu Roo was teaching, had accepted his invitation to come to his home for a holy book study. They came because Abu Roo had demonstrated a deep spirituality in his personal life, while at the same time rendering respect to their religion. From the very first day of class when Abu Roo stood up to address his students, he had made his spirituality clear to them.He faced questions such as “Who are you?” “Why are you here?” “What makes you diferent from the other Christians we know?” To these questions, Abu Roo answered honestly, using words that would communicate a correct understanding.
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Couscous on Sunday
Narrative | Discussion Guide
What is it like to grow up in a family of believers from a Muslim background who live among millions who don’t yet know Jesus Christ?
When you’re a child, your own life defines normal. Your house is painted white outside, and comfortable. Other houses in the neighbourhood are white, too, and are also probably furnished with couches covered in richly coloured fabric with golden trim. Every ceiling in the neighbourhood is decorated with intricate plaster carvings with a chandelier suspended from the centre of the design. The walls around each property all keep out the same thieves. And so you assume that mothers and fathers inside all those other houses love each other, that other fathers are gone for most of the week, and that brothers and sisters are all treated equally, with older brothers being responsible to protect their sisters. And once a week they all eat mountains of steamed semolina draped with savoury orange pumpkin and carrots and cabbage and turnips and chickpeas and more, and if they’re lucky, lamb or beef or chicken buried down in the middle. Couscous.
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