The Christians in Pakistan

Based on an interview with the director of the school

Unlike most of Pakistan there are twelve villages, called Bastee, in which more than 100,000 Christians live within 200 kilometers of my home. Most of the Christians perform cleaning jobs in the cities, such as sweeping buses and cleaning offices and public places. Theirs is a thankless job.

Christians in Pakistan are ready to suffer and die for Jesus, but unfortunately they have very little knowledge about their faith because most of them cannot read and write. Their children are literate but unfortunately the churches in their areas are not able to give them any literature.

On Sundays in most of the places where Christians live there is a worship service that lasts more than two hours. Only five percent of the faithful attend because the others go to work. In most of the places Friday is the day off. The worshipers sit together in the church from infants to the elderly. A man stands among the people who are sitting on the ground, and with a stick in his hand he tries to keep everyone quiet. Anyone who makes noise is asked to leave the church. The pastor starts the service with two or three hymns followed by a sermon that lasts about an hour. His sermon provides some teaching and preaching, but generally it is very difficult to remember the entire sermon because it is too lengthy and complicated.

There is no Sunday school or any regular youth program with the exception of preparation led by the pastor for a Christmas drama and carols. The rest of the year there is no activity in the church, although some youth groups do carry out some activities independently.

Because the churches are financially independent, the pastor has to visit every house to obtain money and perhaps food for his family to eat. While the pastor is visiting, the children are watching television and their mothers are cooking, so they ask the pastor just to read one Bible verse and have a short prayer. The pastor doesn’t object because he fears that if he upsets the family, it will not give him any money.

This is all a Christian family receives from the Word of God. In most of Pakistan there is no Christian literature available for the families and their young ones, although they have much material from other sources available to them.

The effort in Pakistan is an alternative method of the Board for World Missions. This method also reflects one of the purposes of Multi-Language Publications–to provide Christian literature in other areas of the world where our synod does not have resident missionaries.

Team Nigeria is dispersing to their various normal duties. Missionary Dan Myers took the sea-going ship back to Cameroon early Wednesday morning. Jason Paltzer flew back to Zambia from Lagos on the same day, returning to his health and development work. Prof. Ken Cherney split away in Amsterdam on Thursday morning to head to Mequon. Beth Correll and Nigerian Liaison Doug Weiser will leave for Seattle later on that day. Funny how five people can grow so close by meeting new friends in Nigeria over a ten-day period! Maybe not so much “funny” as a promised blessing from our gracious Lord.[slideshow=91]

In a sense, we had a hard time tearing Missionary Myers away from the current class of 11 pre-seminary students. He came wanting to learn about the Nigeria seminary and what lessons he might apply to a potential restart of seminary classes in Cameroon. I planned one or two hours with the pre-seminary students, so I could get to know them and Myers could ask them a few things. Turns out, Myers met Read more ›

This too is life in Nigeria. Yesterday Team Nigeria arrived in Calabar hot and hungry. After checking into a hotel , buying our air tickets for Lagos, and eating a tasty Chinese dinner, I wrote a newsy blog piece for our friends on wels.net. Just finished a page, started to locate a picture to send, and the power went out. All was lost. This is how we live.

Electric power in Nigeria is a fickle thing. Not so with the people of our two sister synods. They make us so very welcome. Individuals break into a broad smile when they offer a hand of welcome. And they are so eager to see which people come along with me as new visitors to Nigeria.

So who joined Team Nigeria this time (January 2009)? Prof. Ken Cherney, health officer Jason Paltzer from Zambia, Cameroon Missionary Dan Myers, and WELS sister Beth Correll. Read more ›

We have come to associate this Islamic country with war and terror. Can Christians even survive  here, let alone share the gospel? Yes they can! Based on responses to an interview with the director of a Christian outreach effort in that country, this issue demonstrates how dedicated Christians are not only holding on to their faith but discovering an amazing response as they proclaim the gospel.  For understandable reasons, the names of people and places are withheld.

The effort in Pakistan reported in this issue is an alternative method of the Board for World Missions.  This method also reflects one of the purposes of Multi-Language Publications – to provide Christian Literature in other areas of the world where our synod do not have resident missionaries.

The following is based on an interview with the director of the school.

Many years ago a Muslim representative of a medical company told me that I was a famous God-fearing doctor. How had I helped my Christian community and the other poor communities? I could not give him a satisfactory answer. I felt very ashamed that I have not been more helpful to all the people around me. I started praying about it and I also started writing to the different churches in the United States. I am thankful to God that the WELS started correspondence with me and that very soon God used me through his grace to be helpful to my family and to my people around me. This is his grace that I, as a small servant of God and an insignificant person, have been used by Him to provide Christian literature to many Christians and Muslims in Pakistan. At the same time the public health clinics, Friday free clinics, lectures on medical awareness and helping earthquake victims have added icing to the cake. May God bless all those people who have been so gracious and compassionate in proclaiming he Word of God to this part of the world. I deeply appreciate their kind gesture.

This article is taken from the Multi-Language Publications newsletter.  Additional articles will also be posted on this blog.

Hello from Ogoja. The current WELS visitors arrived on 22 Jan.

We had six intense days at Uruk Uso, where the seminary mission house was our home. In additions to countless meetings, Team Nigeria was able to meet with students of the new pre-seminary class and with the pastors’ conference of Christ the King Lutheran Church of Nigeria. They gave many encouragements to the new students, including their most prized gift, personal copies of the Concordia Self-Study Bibles. WELS Cameron missionary Dan Myers gave the students hours of personal attention, leading them in extra-curricular studies and fielding their many questions about faith and ministry.

Pastor Myers, Prof. Ken Cherney and Health and Development Director (Zambia) Jason Paltzer each addressed the pastors’ conference with studies and discussions. The last discussion especially important to the pastors was Paltzer’s guidance about their plans for more self-support.

Now we are in Ogoja, to meet with pastors and people of All Saints Lutheran Church of Nigeria. Here too we will ‘ meet with their pastors’ conference.

In both areas Paltzer is asking many questions about health care currently available and planned for the future.

We are seeing and sharing so much. It’s a joy.