Good News for Pakistan

By Rod Matthews, Mission Developer for South Asia

In August Mohan Jayasekera (pastor in Perth, Australia, formerly from Sri Lanka) and I travelled to Pakistan to strengthen our developing relationships with a church in Faisalabad and its leadership. Pakistan is the second-largest Muslim nation in the world, with about 170 million people. Less than 2 percent of the people are Christians.

I flew into Lahore, Pakistan, around 11 p.m. and was welcomed by the pastor and several of his pastoral team, and Mohan Jayasekera, who had arrived earlier. We will call the pastor Yusef rather than by his real name, because Christians are sometimes persecuted in this nation. He is our ministry partner in Pakistan and is the leader of a network of congregations that are served from his base in Faisalabad.

We drove to Faisalabad on the new tollway and arrived around 2:30 a.m. A severe thunderstorm had just flooded large parts of the city. The water seemed to be about wheel-high in places as our van negotiated the narrow streets and stalled cars to reach Yusef’s house.

We were scheduled to speak at 10:00 that morning at a seminar for congregational leaders in the church building only 200 meters away from Yusef’s home. But there was no way of getting there without wading through muddy water. Some streets had been dug up for drainage(!) works and many were unpassable for any vehicles. So we put on some old shoes and sloshed our way to the hall.

The temperature was over 90° and the humidity around 90 percent. Due to a chronic electricity generation shortfall during summer in Pakistan, there were rotating blackouts every day. It was particularly hot when the power went off and the overhead fans stopped.

At Yusef’s request, Mohan spoke on the encouraging news that we are blessed to participate in the remarkable relationship that has eternally existed between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A catered lunch for everyone followed on the flat roof of the building under a canopy.

The following day, since we were foreigners, we had to go to the central police station in Faisalabad to register with the local authorities—so the local police would be aware of our presence and could offer any assistance, if needed.

Later that afternoon, Mohan and I addressed about 30 women, who comprise the women’s ministry group, led by Yusef’s wife. These ladies are energetic, dedicated to their calling and deeply involved in the life of the church. While to some this might seem counter to the culture in a Muslim country, it should be noted that many women have been—and are—prominent in government roles in Pakistan.

That evening, we travelled a few kilometers beyond the edge of Faisalabad to a village where a new church had been planted. We arrived as the sun was setting, but many people had already gathered together in an open lot between existing buildings where they hoped to construct a meeting hall in the future. I don’t know how long they had already been there singing Christian songs in Urdu accompanied by drums and a small portable squeezebox organ.

After getting acquainted with the pastor and his helpers, we joined the worship service. I gave the message that evening, which was translated into Urdu by Yusef. Of course, when every sentence has to be translated into another language, any message takes twice as long in the delivery—or perhaps I should say, the message needs to be half as long in the preparation!

Timed perfectly for the start of the sermon, the night was punctuated by the arrival of a thick plague of flying insects, which were drawn by the thousands to the portable fluorescent light near the lectern—although many missed the light and found their way down the necks of our shirts, under the scarves of the ladies, and into our eyes and hair. While it may have offered a meaningful spiritual lesson, the light had to be moved to the entrance to draw them away, and that meant preaching (forget the notes!) in near darkness. I did recall that Paul and many other preachers since have had it much worse!

After the service, we sat under the stars in the courtyard of the home of the village’s pastor with his congregational leaders, with Yusef and some from his ministry team who had come with us. There we enjoyed a fine meal and a sense of peace and community in Christ, hindered only a little by language difficulties.

On Sunday morning, we joined the Faisalabad congregation of 130 people sitting on mats on the floor of their new hall and I gave the sermon with Yusef translating. This congregation was founded and is pastored by Yusef’s father. After services, the congregation walked to another church nearby to use their baptism pool. Thirteen people were baptised, accompanied by singing and celebration.

In the afternoon, we were special guests at a children’s ministry activity of songs and dances, supervised by the younger ladies in the congregation. There were over 100 children present, some from church families and some street children who had been invited and drawn into the activity as an outreach initiative.

Before we left Faisalabad, we met with a group of men and women who will make up the first intake of students for the Bible college that Yusef plans [see group picture]. While there is much activity in Pakistan by Christian groups seeking to spread the gospel, there are urgent deficiencies in developing the new believers—namely, in making disciples of Christ, of teaching what he taught, and understanding and sharing the Scriptures.

Over the past months Yusef has sought advice from us on a proposed curriculum, introductory classes and their content, and support resources. Some of the basic classes will use our publications as study guides.

Barely half of the population of Pakistan is literate. Many church members cannot read Urdu well, and some are completely illiterate, so they are totally reliant on verbal teaching. The need is great for theologically sound, balanced and basic teaching for pastors and congregational leaders so the knowledge can be passed on to the people, to support the work of the Holy Spirit in transforming their lives.

The church building is not finished yet, needing painting inside the downstairs hall, but it is utilized well. Soon classes will begin for teenagers and young women in sewing and tailoring so they can gain skills to earn a living. Many young Christian women, because of a lack of education and literacy, have access only to jobs as maids for Muslim families, where many are abused. We have committed to helping this vital activity get under way by sending funds to purchase 15 hand-powered sewing machines and the equipment needed—scissors, threads, measuring tapes, etc.—plus a desk and whiteboard for the instructor. The students will sit on the floor, as is the custom.

More funds will be needed in the future to continue paying a stipend and expenses for the instructor.

In conjunction with the vocational classes, the church will run literacy classes for these young women—initially in Urdu and then later in English, which will vastly improve their prospects for gaining meaningful (and safer) employment. Equipment and teaching materials have to be purchased for this, too.

On the second floor of the building (which is now the roof) it is planned to build three more rooms to be used as class and activity rooms for the vocational and literacy classes, the Bible college, children’s and women’s ministry activities, when funds become available.

Our visit to Pakistan was very encouraging. Over the last few years, I have had many email inquiries from other ministries in Pakistan seeking a relationship with us, but most want only financial support. Thankfully, God has led us to a relationship with Yusef, where we can bring the blessings God has given us to bear on the work of the kingdom in Pakistan through a locally established ministry. They work in the local languages, which we couldn’t if we were to attempt to establish ourselves there. Our commission is to go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus Christ, teaching what he taught—not specifically to make members for our denomination, although if God should lead someone to us to nurture, we are grateful for and sobered by the privilege.

The 10-lesson course entitled "Discipleship 101" available on our HQ website has been translated into Urdu, and we have already sent Yusef the funds needed to print 1000 copies for teaching use and for distributing to other pastors in Pakistan. Yusef has also requested and been given approval to translate our publication entitled "35 Doctrines" (also on our website) into Urdu to use as an outline for a course in basic Christian beliefs in the Bible college. We are blessed, excited and challenged to be serving in Pakistan with and through Yusef and his church.

Pakistan is a challenging country for Christians to live in and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. As our ministry partner there, Yusef much appreciates our prayers and spiritual support, and we are privileged to be part of the work of God at the frontline of the commission to go into the entire world.