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‘The greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends’. John 15:13

'Asdika' is an Arabic word meaning 'Friends'. The aim of this site is inform you of the resources available to help you love your Muslim friends, and to let you know some infomation about the group that meets in the Northwest.

This group was launched to encourage each of us to be bold, yet wise and prepared in actively sharing the Gospel with our Muslim friends at work, university, school, and with those who are our neighbours, shop-keepers or where-ever we meet them.

As ordinary Christians, we know an extra-ordinary God who loves our Muslim friends even more than we do and He longs for them to come to know Him as Father and Saviour. However, often we find from experience that Muslim friends have questions and misunderstandings we have never encountered before, and a strong belief system of their own, which means we need to be even more perseverant in witness and persistent in prayer.

Humanly speaking, we know we can't convince anyone to become a follower of Jesus but we can trust God to bring the harvest as we continue to faithfully sow the Word of God and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide our Muslim friends into a revelation of all truth. In the UK, we now have so much opportunity to get to know Muslims and we may find a suprsingly openness to the Gospel like never before, so we need to make the most of these opportunities that we might see many Muslims gathered into the Kingdom of God, as followers of Jesus Christ.

Often in many of the communities our friends come from, the hard work really starts when they decide to make a stand for Christ. This is an even greater reason why we need to help one another to support our Muslim friends, so we can see them go on to become life-long disciples and witnesses for Jesus to their own communities.

Do get in touch for further details and please let us know if you would like to join us as we meet together to pray, discuss, and encourage one another. In summary, some of the ideas for the purpose of this group are listed here:

overcoming the misunderstandings & misconceptions that Muslims have about Christianity

( Future times and dates are open to negotiation depending on availability of those who attend )

Some of the most useful resources and websites we have found can be found in the menu to the side, but the links page includes so much more. We hope more links to websites, resources, courses, and helpful information will be added to this website soon!

It was great to that so many made it to all our previous ‘gatherings’ (jama’ats as they say in the Muslim world!). We’ve come from dozens of different churches so far, which is fantastic. Spending time over a meal is always great whether it Pakistani or Bangladeshi, but do feel free to bring side dishes or deserts you'd also like to share!

Despite, the sucess of EWI (see below), we do now have a vision to see dozens of smaller training courses going on in housegroups, cell groups, communities and wherever else Christians would like to learn how to respond 'in faith, hope and love' towards Muslim neighbours and international events. We now have 3 different courses available depending on your needs - a Friendship based course (see book above), Camel Workshop (www.camelmethod.com) and Bridges (www.crescentproject.org & www.bridgesstudy.com).

We are happy to meet with any church leader or small group leader to see how you could use any of these six-session courses. Please do get in touch, as they are easy to lead and don't require too much preparation as they are DVD and workbook based.

Links and previews of these resources are available, but you will need to order or borrow most of them through the Asdika network:

The Encountering The World of Islam (EWI) Course

www.encounteringislam.org

Feedback and Summary of our Early Asdika Survey in 2008

More information on the next run of this fantastic course will follow soon, but please get in touch if you have an interest in either doing the course or helping run it.

After suggestions at our January Asdika session in 2008 we had a 'Taster Session' for the EWI course in May 2008 that included a Middle-Eastern breakfast, along with testimony of a Muslim background believer who is now a Pastor in the West Midlands, as well previous student’s testimonies from the course being run in Manchester, a short session on the local Muslim communities and a general overview of the course.

The EWI course took place for the first time in the UK in Manchester in April to June 2008 and annually ever since. This means many lessons are being learnt, the course is now in development in the UK and we can be well prepared to co-ordinate future courses in the future.

The first Merseyside course took place on Thursday evenings between September and December 2008 and for the second from January to March 2010. The venues have been Bridge Chapel Centre and St Philemon's with the total cost now being around £100 that includes online & class tuition, refreshments, speakers' costs and the £20 course book.

There is presently some interest in future EWI courses, but if more people confirm their interest, this will ensure the course will go ahead at the nearest opportunity. Also alumni, as previous students are free to attend any sessions again, especially any session they missed, and we'd love even more if they would consider joining a future co-ordinating team.

Please email ewi@toxtethtab.org.uk to register your interest, an offer the help co-orinate a class, or for further details of courses in other cities in the UK.

Please visit the website for more information on the course and the book that contains the majority of the course materials. There's even a short video clip that outlines a few things about the course.

There is now a video clip especially produced for promoting the course in the UK, you can go to the link here (www.vimeo.com/13679769) but you will need to request the password from us to view it!

You can click on the book below for one of the places where you can buy it independently of enrolment onto an EWI course:

^{Finally, please do pray for both the people who are
considering doing the course, those developing and overseeing the course and the instructor who faithfully teach around the United Kingdom.}

Of the twelve responses to the little survey you did, it turns out you have contact with at least 430 Muslims within a year in your current circle of friends and aquaintances. That’s amazing! Even if you only see these people once a year – that’s 100’s of people you could influence for Jesus and look to share the Gospel with.

You never know how much influence you’re having, because it takes one encounter with Jesus to begin the process of transforming someone's life. I can testify to divine opportunities where I’ve met Muslims only once in their lives who have been amazingly impacted with the truth of Jesus.

With those we see regularly, we have even more opportunity to see the Spirit of God reveal Jesus to them as we faithfully live and share the good news. Be expectant and continually prayerful for all those people whose names you wrote down.

We can look forward to opportunities to testify to how God is answering our prayers the next time we meet.


Resource Reviews Further Resource Recommendations	You can click on the images to visit online bookstores to purchase the items being reviewed
	Steve Bell's 'Friendship First: the manual' is about to be republished in an updated edition and it is one of several inspirations for this group. It's subtitle is 'Ordinary Christians Discussing Good News With Ordinary Muslims' which is quite similar to the description of this group! So we'd like to give Steve credit for the phrase, to recommend his book and to report that a short review of the book was given at our first meeting. The title friendship first' also indicates our main focus of this group in growing in our friendships with Muslims. "There is no quick solutions when discussing the Gospel with Muslim people. However, it is possible to make fewer mistakes. This manual shows how. It is as jargon-free and non-technical as possible. Written in a colourful A4 magazine format, it is a lively user friendly tool, designed to get the reader to the ‘first base’ of friendship with a Muslim. The manual is about how to relate to Muslims as people and is written for Christians who have little or no knowledge of the subject. It is designed to make it easy to retrieve information when you need it. This is a groundbreaking attempt at helping ‘ordinary’ Christians to relate positively to ‘ordinary’ Muslims." It's available at the Asdika meetings or from Kitab (Interserve Resources). Follow this link for further details: www.kitab.org.uk where the first edition (2003) was available for £7.00 + P&P, and the updated edition (2009) costing £10.00 + P&P. An order form is available here: www.interserve.org.uk/Resources It is also available here: www.eden.co.uk/en/friendship-first-steve-bell, as well as on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk.
	Also highly recommended is Steve Bell's more recent book: 'Grace for Muslims? - The journey from fear to faith'. This is Steve's personal testimony of his understanding of Islam & his witness to Muslims over the last 25 years. published by Authentic, pp.190, RRP £8.99, available from www.kitab.org.uk or www.eden.co.uk "Why should an essentially 'benign' religion turn some into 'demons'? asked a Muslim journalist. It is a question that is at the heart of the Islamic debate. Alarmist claims are made about these 'demons', while the possibility of a peaceful Islam is dismissed. Many are confused about the religion's contradictory faces. Is it possible for Christians to relate to Muslims without being politically na?ve or theologically liberal? Steve believes it is. He shares his own journey and reflects upon how he arrived at the crucial ingredient - grace." 'I am deeply touched and encouraged by this wonderful book'' Brother Andrew, Open Doors
	A fantastic new resource we can now recommend is the 'Al Massira Course' - please see here for further details: www.almassira.com - subtitled 'An Open Place: to walk with the Prophets and Meet the Messiah'. As a 13 lesson journey of discovery, we suggest you attend one of the training session currently going on around the UK, so like Alpha and Christianity Explored courses, you will be confident to co-ordinate and lead a small group through these chronological studies. This is the best resource available for Muslim friends who are open to exploring the Christian faith. It's presently becoming available in a variety of languages. Do get in contact, so we can put you in touch with the nearest training sessions for you to attend.