What God laid on my Heart

While I was on the plane traveling home from Pakistan, I asked God to bring to mind what he would like me to testify about concerning what I had witnessed in Pakistan. Before I prayed, when I considered all that I had seen and experienced, I felt like I was looking back over a sea of puzzle pieces, baffled as to how they fit together and unsure even of what the final picture was supposed to look like. But after I prayed, as I sat on the plane, three clear messages came into focus. I would like to share with you these three thoughts.

First came to mind the many relationships that I had developed with various families in Pakistan. I thought of the women who mothered me, men who had protected me as their own daughter, children who overcame every language and culture barrier to make me comfortable, and dear girls who had become my close friends. I realized that Pakistani Christians are more than just exceptionally friendly and hospitable, they honor and accept the stranger in their midst as family. When I asked a group of Christian Pakistanis what message they would have me send to the Christians in the West, they did not tell me to ask the west for monetary or physical gifts; they told me to send their love, to assure us of their prayers, and to ask us to remember them in our prayers.

The truth is that the Christians around the world are members of our family in the body of Christ; we owe them the same kind of love that we so intuitively give to our natural families. Not only is it right, in Christ, to develop loving relationships with Christians around the world, but we have much to learn from them. If we fail to follow Christ’s command to extend honor to the foreigners among us, an honor that they show us when we visit them, we will be the ones to lose out on how we could benefit from being in relationship with each other.

The second thing that came to mind in the plane was a barrage of memories of all the various ministries I had witnessed in action. There is much more ministry going on in the rural areas of the Middle East, like Pakistan, than I previously imagined. The Hindu people who live in the region where I stayed are very open to learning about the Christian God. When I asked one woman why she converted she said, “Because I wanted to know a living God who is good. We are afraid of our gods but this God sets us free from fear.” The harvest is vast, but there are far more workers already in the fields than I guessed. The husband of the missionary family I stayed with personally disciples evangelists who teach Bible, adult literacy, and health awareness in 90 villages weekly. This ministry is just one of many that I saw at work around me.

Though much work is being done, those who are trying to minister are not able to work at their full capacity because of lack of monetary support. One priest I met has planned seminars to keep the building under his charge busy for a year, but he is not able to proceed because he lacks funding. The fact that ministers are in the field, devoting their lives, but are held back by lack of investment, brings to mind the phrase, “A worker is worth his wages.”

The last thought that came to mind while I sat on the plane flying away from the dust and heat, was that God has a great love for Pakistan. Consistently throughout the Bible God demonstrates love for the lowly, the poor, the ill, and the rejected of the world. The Western world regards Pakistan with inhibition, fearing terrorists and accidents; we are deterred from visiting by heat and dirt, discouraged from investment by poverty and disease. Even Pakistanis express frustration with Pakistan! But God cares about this place and these people. Additionally, God is moving in Pakistan. I heard many stories of miracles while I was living there and I witnessed the dramatic gains made by even inexperienced evangelists and teachers. To be involved in the ministry going on in Pakistan right now is to be on the frontlines of what God is doing today.

After living on the mission field in Pakistan for two months, learning about the reality of the people and conditions, I encourage you to develop relationships with Christians around the world, especially with the poor living in less than popular places. They are our brothers and sisters and we need them as much as they need us. We fortunate ones in the West have a crucial roll to play in supporting the ministry being done in the less affluent countries. If we can build relationships based on mutual respect, investing in each other’s ministries, we will be acting according to the heart of God.