Pakistan Report
December 6, 2007 E-mail Update
Jean Pierre Rummens, Director of Feed The Hungry Germany
We will drive to Youngton Abad where will be crusade on Thursday and Friday night. Salik John, with whom we worked before, will preach the gospel.
Please pray that many people will come with an open heart to receive Jesus Christ. Along with the crusade will be a food distribution.
I got an email from him yesterday saying that food prices got up high because of the situation in the country. The company that are always paying for my field trips gave us additional money just an hour ago in cash to help paying for the higher expenses we face for the food.
Please pray for the crusade that people will get saved and healed and what ever need they come with will be met.
Also pray for protection for the team and myself.
December 12, 2007 Pakistan Field Report
Dear FTH Family
First of all let me thank you for all your prayers. It was a very successful trip to Pakistan.
The challenge just before I took off was the inflation rate really got up and made food even more expensive as it already is. But a company gave me cash to match up with the higher prices. So wewere still able to buy the same amount of food as we had planned to do.
Also the government refused to give allowance to sell big quantities of flour. But praise the LORD we got it anyhow. The delays set our timetable back. We lost a lot of time in waiting on approvals to get the food.
CRUSADE
Because of the big delay with the truck we did the open air service at night and the distribution the next morning.
I assume that about six hundred people showed up at the service. Pastor Salik and myself we shared the pulpit in order to preach to the people. Almost everybody responded to the call for repentance. Several people stood back to receive individual prayer.
FOOD DISTRIBUTION
The next morning we started the first distribution in the village of “Youngston Arbat”, about three hours drive from Lahore. The church and the teens from Salik´s Orphanage made a roadblock in order to let only those people trough, that really were pointed out from the pastors as those who need help. At the Curtain there was a lot of turmoil, as you can imagine, but the church leaders handle it very good.
The people who should receive help got a stamp in their hands and this was kind of a ticket to go further down the road to the actually distribution side. We separated the side in four quarters and people had to gather in one of those quarters to make the actually passing out of the food easier and less dangerous, instead of having everybody running at once.
The people on the distribution side had to wait for more than three hours until the truck with the flour finally arrived. Pastor Salik ordered the flour in 10 kilo bags. So each family got a whole bag.
To my surprise children in the age between 8 and 14 started to unload the flour and carried it about two hundred meters to the platform. I saw that those kids had big fun doing that. It was so good to see children smile and give them a highlight in the boring life after school, if they can go to a school.
In the package was flour, rice, lentils and cooking oil.
DR SUMRALL's LEGACY
The next day I had a chance to spend some time with Nathaniel Barkat, the father of Salik. Pastor Barkat was many times in South Bend, invited by Dr. Sumrall. He also spoke once in the church in SBN. He is an old brother with a lot of experience and a lot of testimonies from his life and with a vision for Pakistan and a heart for the needy and hungry of this world.
Sitting with him I was reminded of several meetings I had with Dr. Sumrall. Because Dr. Sumrall had the same passion for people. Pastor Barkat founded Christian Fellowship of Pakistan, one of the few registered Christian organizations in the country.
In Youngston Arbat, they have an orphanage with a full day school. They have great facilities and orphanage.
The part I really admire was the tailor shop. Young boys and girls can learn how to become a tailor to make their own living someday. Maybe interesting for us to know, that 65% of the Pakistanis are under the poverty level.
SOLDIERS GUARDING THE CHURCH
On Sunday morning I preached about Judges 14, in Salik´s Church in Lahore. It was strange to see police outside of the building to protect the church people from radicals. This is a “service” that the government provides to minorities like Christians in the country. That’s why Christians in Pakistan admire President Musharaf to a certain level.
But I sensed again all over the place that Islam is in control. So it takes a strong church to stand up against that. And that’s why the distribution was a great witness not just to the people who went home with a bag of food, but also to the leaders and government that was able to see, that Christian do care about their neighbours.
THE HARVEST SHOW
Sunday afternoon, I made an Interview with Robinson Sajid. He is a young man, 22 years old from Lahore. He is a regular viewer of the Harvest show. He watches the show at 8 PM, if his TV set is working. It was not working while I was there.
The room where he is living in, is maybe six square meters. And he is living in there with 5 other family members including his mother. Don’t ask me how that works, but it obviously does. Salik told me that is “normal” for people in this poor area of town.
He lost his job three weeks ago. He was sharing the gospel with one of the customers in the shop where he used to work. The customer got in contact with the owner (who is a Muslim) about it and Robinson got fired.
PROJECT: AMBULANCE 2008
I spoke a lot of course with Salik and his Father about he ambulance project that we plan from over here in 2008. They have a medical unit in the boys dome in the orphanage. But they really would need an ambulance to go into remote areas to help the people there. It would be a good testimony for the church. I met again Arif whom I met already two years ago, he is a medical person.
So I am more convinced than before, that it would be a great help for them.
FTH Germany
Jean-Pierre Rummens
December 21, 2007- Testimony
First of all I would like to thank you for helping us with food and evangelism this year. It was a tremendous blessing for the people of Pakistan especially this time because the food prices were very high and it was going to be difficult for people during Christmas.
Food packages that were given to almost 1300 families (around 7000 People) from both villages were truly a Christmas gift for these poor people.
More importantly hundreds of souls that made commitment to the Lordship of Christ during the first evangelistic meeting was awesome.
I thank the Lord for you and FTH that made this possible for us to feed the poor in Pakistan spiritually and bodily.
Thank you very much!
May the Lord bless you abundantly and use you continually to expand His kingdom.
In His Service,
Pastor Salik John
Christian Fellowship Of PakistanPakistan Report