February 2006

In January we visited Pakistan, a country we love and respect. Christians, however, do not have a very easy life because of the hostility of extremists. Christians in K are often poor, because they have no access to professions or businesses which could offer a better quality of life. Those working for government agencies or private companies find it hard to reach the high career levels. Mostly they live in ghetto type of Christian "colonies", with little or no space for expansion. It is common for a family of six or even eight siblings to live under the same roof, with their respective spouses and children, parents, grandparents, in-laws....

Some "house churches" are literally a room tucked somewhere inside a house, with no visible outside signs. Some church buildings are shared by different congregations from different denominations.

Catherine had to wear the local dress at all times. We went out during the day only twice; otherwise we had to wait until it was dark. Then our hosts checked that there was no one else on the road and quickly spirited us into the back of a car.

At the public meetings we had armed police escort, two or three very respectful and discreet policemen, with very smart blue uniforms and shining machine-guns. The local believers, however, do not enjoy such privileges. One of the pastors told me that when he goes into certain areas he carefully hides his Bible. If he is stopped and the Bible is found, in his words: "I would never be heard of again".

In the average congregation there is one Urdu Bible for every ten people. The level of literacy among Christians is very high. Christian schools, mainly Catholic or Anglican, are excellent. The means to buy books and Bibles simply are not there. Urdu Bibles cannot be printed in Pakistan and they come mainly from South Korea.

One public meeting was cancelled because it coincided with the second night of Ashura, a Shia festival when men cut themselves with swords and spears in a religious frenzy. The police advised the local pastor that because of the public protests against cartoons published in a Danish newspaper, it was too dangerous to keep our program going. The venue of the outreach the night before was moved at the last moment to a safer location. The ushers, sporting proudly big yellow badges, were armed with shotguns.

However, in spite of that, we had crowded meetings all the time. At the last outreach in B., more than 2000, probably 2500, people came. Many were non believers and many made a public commitment to Christ. At the first one in A., people were rushing to the front. We stopped counting the healings after the second meeting.

The greatest excitement was to preach the Gospel in its simplest and most direct form. The Gospel by itself, with nothing added nor subtracted, is extremely powerful. It was sufficient to speak out and explain John 3:16, in the simplest possible way, and the hearts of many were pierced to the core. We did not have to use too many examples, or to preach in a refined way, or to show too many signs, they were happening anyhow. The power is in the message itself, in the good news, in the proclamation of the love of God and the blood of Jesus. Catherine and I were aware, as never before, that anytime we pronounced the name of Jesus power was coming out of us.  

We have no idea how many were actually saved. We do not venture to give any figure. We need to wait for the local leaders to tell us how many have been baptised, how many joined the local congregations. But even that cannot give any realistic idea. We knew that there were many non believers in the audience; we knew that many more were standing at the end of the road and at the sideways, but the majority were in their own houses, peeking through the windows or from the roof tops. All, out of curiosity, good will or bad will, had no choice but to listen and the word of God will not go back without having attained the desired effects.

It is not our task to count heads, or to check the size of the catch. The harvest does not belong to us. Our task is to scatter seeds. However, we have not experienced such a joy for a long time, as when we saw all those hands up, people on their knees, people calling on the name of Jesus, reflecting the glory of God on their resplendent faces while they were giving their lives to Christ. Glory!

We were treated like royalties by the local brethren. Their houses are very simple, basic, but they gave us all that they could. We had meetings every night. Even the night the public gathering was cancelled, we had a private prayer meeting in a house. Many came and then stayed, to sleep on the floor or on a "charpoy" under the stairs. It is too risky to go out at night time without the security of a car.

Every night we finished praying for people after midnight. Then every night a banquet was provided, with beautiful displays of all varieties of food, lovingly prepared and served, eaten sitting on the floor around the communal plates. Everything was delicious, but even the mildest dish was pretty spicy for our palates. Well, we are still recovering from the experience, but we are on the mend.

The final touch: on our way back our flight to Muscat was cancelled. We were first stranded in a hotel in Karachi, and then redirected to Bahrain. One of our fellow stranded passengers was a giant of a man in oriental attire, travelling with his son, a tiny little boy called "Tiger". He is a sergeant major in the Omani army. We are now friends for life and we have an open invitation to visit Oman!

Giancarlo & Catherine