Pakistan & China July 2003
Visit by bre S and D
According to the criteria which we set for success-establishing indigenous ecclesias in the mission field, able to preach and pastorally care for themselves- the work in Pakistan is a tremendous success. The ‘seed´ of the initial 10 baptisms performed 14 months ago has shot up, not without great loss, cost and persecution, and there are now around 70 brethren and sisters in Pakistan, meeting together in 4 ecclesias. The growth of the work is, humanly, associated with the fact that we fund two full time pastors/preachers, who left the Campus Crusade for Christ after becoming persuaded of Christadelphian doctrine.
They work tirelessly and fearlessly in spreading the Gospel throughout this fanatically Moslem country. As readers will likely be aware, Br K has had his photo published in the newspapers with a demand for his death, and there is a price on his head. He has several times been beaten and attacked, and recently was imprisoned for 23 days near the Iranian border on his way to see contacts there. He was badly beaten, blindfolded and taken out in a car and told he would be killed and his body left in the desert [he was imprisoned on the Iran/Pakistan border area] and would likely have been executed under the blasphemy laws had not Br F and Sis R managed to pay a large bribe for his release. He continued immediately in his ministry from where he left off, getting on with organizing the Bible School where we were due to speak. He is a remarkable example of a man who has grasped what it means to carry the cross, to overcome the fear of going out to the Lord walking on the water, and who has sacrificed most of his friendships to that end.
We made a video of our brother´s account of his experiences. Our brother has excellent prospects of getting asylum in a Western country but he truly prefers to suffer persecution for the sake of fulfilling his vision of establishing Christadelphians as a large and active body of believers ready to meet the Lord at His return. His example is both worrying and challenging to the Pakistani brotherhood, and indeed to us all. We made a chilling video of him talking about his ordeal; he said that he realized that he had signed himself up for this life by having chosen to be baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus. Marks of the beatings and other deprivations suffered were evident on the body of our brother. When bro. F first went to see him in the prison, he had to wait 2 days to see him because the guards would not allow anyone to see him in the state he was then in.
The Bible School was a vital part of their year, in that the brethren and sisters from throughout Pakistan were able to meet together and discuss their strategies and programmes, and take encouragement from each other in the unceasing pressure they are under from radical Islam. Br F. from Quetta, on the Afghani border, needs our prayers especially, as he arrived in Karachi only to get a call on his mobile that Islamic fundamentalists had broken in to his academy and destroyed much of the equipment in response to his giving a lecture about Jesus to the students. We gave them many studies which seem to have gone down well. The brethren had made a banner stating Gal. 3:8, showing how they are so based around the promises to Abraham. We were impressed with the way they all had a firm sense of their purpose in life as witnesses to the Lord Jesus in this dark world. Their vision is to have a large Christadelphian community in Pakistan to meet the Lord, and their sense of purpose is thrilling.
"Basic Training in Evangelism"
Banner - Galatians 3:8
Br K giving one of the talks