Hatima has more tenacity than anyone I’ve ever met.

She’s also one of the most desperate people I know in the urban poor neighborhood where my team lives and serves.

An industrious woman who will take any odd job, Hatima has several living children—as well as several that she’s lost. She’s been caring for her children on her own ever since her husband left the country to try to find work.

In spite of her efforts and the occasional sums of money her husband sends, Hatima struggles to make ends meet. Sometimes she and her children beg for food or money. Other days she asks for help to buy cooking fuel or antibiotics for the child that supposedly drank bleach.

She embellishes a bit when asking for help and often fabricates stories.

Still, one thing is undeniably true: Hatima is a steely woman fighting for her children’s survival.

Millions of Muslim families around the world face the same daily burdens as Hatima does. The urban poor represent one of the largest, fastest-growing populations in the Muslim world.

As the urban poor, they represent one of the largest, fastest-growing populations in the Muslim world.

Several Frontiers teams living in urban contexts are dedicated to bringing the Gospel to Muslims living in slums, migrant worker settlements, and refugee camps.

Still, most Muslim families in urban poor communities have never met a follower of.

But Gospel messengers living among the urban poor are finding genuine openness to the Good News. As workers use their degrees and skills to bring about physical, economic, and spiritual transformation, they’re helping make a lasting difference for families like Hatima’s.

I admire Hatima’s persistence. She’s a bit like the widow in Luke 18 who kept going back to the unjust judge and crying out, “Give me justice!” She wore that judge down until he relented simply to get her off his back.

God hears when His people cry out to Him day and night, pleading for justice. Unlike a judge who is indifferent to a poor woman’s suffering, the Lord promises not to delay His mercy.

May we mirror Hatima’s tenacity as we cry out to the Father, asking Him to pour out His love and mercy wherever lives are broken by poverty and injustice.

• Ask God to use us, His children, to proclaim the Good News to the poor, give sight to the blind, and set free those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18).
• Pray for the Lord to raise up courageous Gospel messengers to go and share Jesus with Muslims living in difficult conditions.
• Pray that Muslim families in slum areas will embrace Christ and experience the power of the Kingdom to transform hearts, lives, and communities.
• Pray for Frontiers teams involved in crisis relief, development, and social enterprises, and ask God to give them creative solutions to the unique challenges faced by urban poor families.
• Ask the Lord how He wants to use you to share the Good News of the Kingdom and to help reach people living in poverty.

**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names and places have been changed for security.**

Main photo by Adrien Taylor

Original article: https://frontiersusa.org/blog/justice-for-the-urban-poor