As I write this it is the day before Christmas. Here in the US we’ve been seeing houses decorated with colored lights, special church services, people getting together with family and friends, and presents being wrapped then unwrapped. Even for those who are not Christians, it’s a time of celebration.
But what does it mean to be a Christian and celebrate
Christmas in other places in the world? How about some place like Pakistan
where Christians are in the minority?
August 19, 2023
It didn’t make the headlines here in the US, but back
in August there were riots in the city of Jaranwala, a small city of 120,000 in
NE Pakistan. This city is located about 20 miles from Faisalabad (3.2 million
people) and 70 miles from Lahore (11.2 million people). [For local readers of
my blog, think of Jaranwala being Allentown, Faisalabad being Philadelphia, and
Lahore being New York City.] During the course of these riots some 20 churches
and nearly 80 homes (of Christian families) were burned by the mobs.
The cause of the riots, which seemed to happen
somewhat spontaneously, were ostensibly as a result of a report of a Christian
man desecrating a few pages of the Quran. A report in Aljazeera just a few days
later gives some of the particulars.
Two weeks after this report, there was an article in
the Diplomat which explored the incident as apparently stemming from a personal
dispute between two individuals.
As a follow-up, BBC published an article just yesterday
with the title “Months after attacks, Pakistan’s Christians still feel unsafe.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67781469
I’ve been following this story closely because I have
a friend who lives in the Christian community in Lahore. Here are some pictures
that she sent me back in August when these riots had just occurred.
[Fires] [Burned building] [Burned wall]
So, what should our response be in cases like this?
Before I answer this, let me introduce you to my friend, Samreen.
Samreen
I became acquainted with Samreen somewhat by accident
back in May 2023. I had identified a scammer who was trying to become friends
with me and as I checked out their account in Facebook, I noticed that they had
also sent a friend request to someone else - Samreen. I sent a message to Samreen
letting her know that her new “friend” was a scam and suggesting that she block
that person.
She thanked me for watching out for her, then asked if
she could friend me instead. After checking her out, I quickly determined that
she was a real person and agreed to accept her friend request. This began our
friendship.
Samreen was orphaned when she was quite young. She has
no memories of her parents or grandparents, and she had no siblings. But she
was fortunate enough to have been raised in a Christian orphanage in Lahore,
Pakistan. When she was a young teen, she began helping to teach the younger
students in the orphanage. This led to her founding her own ministry to widows
and orphans in the Christian colony in Lahore, a ministry that has continued to
this day (she’s now in her mid-30s).
Her ministry is called “Faith Fellowship Ministries”
(FFM). Here is a link to their website.
https://faithfellowshipminis.wixsite.com/mysite-3
While there are pictures on the website, here are few
that give some good insight into this ministry:
[Children] {Rice] [Church]
When the riot of August 19 happened, it of course was
upsetting to her and all the other Pakistani Christian. There were some radical
individuals in Lahore who also joined in the actions against the Christians
there. While not as bad as those in Jaranwala, all the Christians in the
province were fearful for their lives.
What Can You Do?
While it’s difficult to appreciate the atmosphere in
places like Pakistan where the Christian population is a small minority
surrounded by individuals who may be hostile to Christianity, there are three
things I can think of that we can do.
1 – Educate yourself on what’s going on in the world.
Don’t just follow news sources from US media. Periodically look at outlets like
BBC, Aljazeera, and other international sources. Here is a quote from one of
the above references that might give you a perspective.
“Our colony was a model
of peace and unity. But this one incident has sent us back centuries. I don’t
feel any safety or security here any more.”
2 – Realize that there are people around the world who
need our prayers. Samreen told me recently:
“Please pray for me. I
will be praying for you too, Alan.”
I have put together a list on my phone that has
various people/families around the world divided up into regions. So each week
I “pray around the world.”
3 – Realize that we sometimes need to move from just
prayers to actions. Here are few more quotes from Samreen:
“We have people who don’t
even have their own Bibles”
“Here people just say we
are praying but we need action than words too”
While there are some overseas ministries that have a
US affiliate who collects money for them (and gives them tax credit), there are
many others like FFM that have no such connections. When the incident in
Jaranwala happened, they set up a GoFundMe to try and collect money for the
affected families. Having a personal contact with Samreen, I made a small
donation. Checking a month later, I was upset to see that I was the only person
who made such a donation. That’s sad!
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