‘How can I pray to Jesus?’

Robert (Zambia) and Eva (Switzerland) Chikoki, along with their three small girls, joined OM in France in August 2024, after serving with OM for more than a decade in different ministries across Africa. They are passionate about seeing Muslims come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

France has a large number of migrants from Muslim backgrounds from all over the world. As we have the freedom of sharing our faith openly in France, we have an opportunity to serve and reach out to these migrants, most of whom had no access to the gospel in their home countries.

Each Wednesday we share the good news of Christ and distribute Bibles in Barbes in the 18th arrondisment of Paris, which is known for its large Magrebian and West African community. One week, we had a long discussion about the Bible and Islam with two young men from Muslim backgrounds, Kofi* and Zeine*. They had lots of questions, but were also trying to find mistakes in what we said. Out of the two, Kofi was more attentive and respectful, and genuinely wanted to know more. At one point, he asked, “How can I pray to Jesus?” He seemed touched by what we shared, and our team member encouraged Kofi to ask Jesus to reveal Himself to him and to read the gospel that he had received.

We also collaborate with a local evangelical church in Montreuil, a north-eastern suburb of Paris of over 120,000 inhabitants. The area is a hotspot for Muslims as a large part of the population are migrants from West and North Africa. This city has the largest Malian community outside of Mali and for that reason, is often jokingly called ‘little Bamako.’

Together with the church, we have outreaches every Friday — similar to the ones in Barbes — as well as organise a secondhand clothes bank once a month. We are planning to start literacy classes in November 2025.

During one of our Friday outreaches in Montreuil, our team members met Adam*, a West African Salafist Muslim. During the conversation, Adam was a bit aggressive and confrontational. Hours later, when we were back at the church where we had the secondhand clothes bank, guess who walked in? Adam. He apologised for his earlier behaviour, and we invited him for a coffee, where we had more time to chat with him. Since then, Adam has been meeting with one of our members and learning about Jesus and the Bible. Please pray for Adam to get to know Jesus as his personal Saviour.

*name changed