Mission By Accident?

Several decades ago, I was interrupted by a phonecall from a Christian community worker I knew. Could we accommodate twenty Kurdish refugees from Turkey? They’d just arrived at Heathrow and the government didn’t know where to put them.

Over the next six months, a hundred came and slept in our church building, as our small congregation (20-30 people) gave money, and helped practically, to look after these arrivals. Other churches joined in: from Protestant and Catholic, Evangelical and Liberal, backgrounds. 

Someone who wanted me dead

 I had a friend. He was an English convert to Islam. Periodically we used to meet for a coffee and chat: discussing world politics and religion. He regularly Tweeted about Islam, and its superiority to all other world views. Although we disagreed, I considered we had a good relationship. When his father died, I reached out to spend time with him in his loss.

However, something happened which changed everything. He posted about the imposition of the death penalty on blasphemy and apostasy in Muslim countries. In western non-Muslim countries, such a Britain, he thought this was inappropriate. But, in Islamic countries, he felt it was justified.