By Martin Roth, BosNewsLife Senior Columnist
MELBOURNE/ISLAMABAD (BosNewsLife Columns)– I have just received a surprising gift from some returning missionaries. It’s a small 2015 calendar, with each month’s page depicting a color photograph of a church. An accompanying card tells me that these are all vibrant churches, full of joyful worshippers who love to sing the praises of Jesus.
Nothing surprising about that. Except that the country involved is Pakistan, which is supposed to be one of the places most hostile to Christians. The 2015 World Watch List from the Open Doors advocacy group, listing the 50 countries where persecution of Christians is worst, ranks Pakistan at Number Eight, with “severe persecution.”
Open Doors comments: “Pakistan’s Christians are caught in the crossfire between Islamic militant organizations and mobs that violently target Christians, and an Islamizing culture on the other hand that results in Christians being isolated from the rest of the population.”
And it notes: “The notorious blasphemy laws continue to have devastating consequences for minorities, including Christians. A Pakistani mob beat and burned to death a Christian couple in November for alleged blasphemy charges. Women and girls are experiencing violence every day; especially those from minority groups who are vulnerable and easy targets for rape, sexual abuse and kidnapping.”
CHRISTIAN WITNESS
Yet when I look at that calendar, which I now have on the wall beside my desk, I really do see a joyful expression of Christian witness.
On one page I see a baptism at a large, red-clay church in Islamabad. Another month shows a simple village congregation, with worshippers sitting outside on brightly colored carpets. Then there is the image of worship at a busy, big-city church, with expectant men, women and children seated on carpets on the floor.
The picture for December shows Pakistani Christians celebrating Christmas outside a house of worship in Punjab province I remember when the head of a Pakistani Bible college came and spoke to our church.
He told us of a thriving community of inspired young Christians, future church leaders, eager to hear more about the Gospel.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES
We learned that Pakistan actually has a special visa category just for Christian missionaries. “So the missionaries that you send to us in Pakistan really must engage in Christian mission work,” he said with a smile. “If they don’t, then they are breaking the law.”
When you are passionate about the plight of persecuted Christians, as I believe I am, it is easy to fall into despair.
Such is the ease of communications nowadays that almost every day I receive an email from a Christian organisation telling me about an appalling new incident of persecution somewhere in the world. Pakistan seems to feature prominently.
So that simple calendar is important. It reminds me that, in the midst of the trials and the suffering and the oppression, God is powerfully at work, building His church.
(Martin Roth (www.authormartinroth.com), BosNewsLife’s Senior Columnist, is an Australian journalist and a former Tokyo-based foreign correspondent. He is the author of “Journey Out Of Nothing: My Buddhist Path to Christianity” and of the Brother Half Angel series of thrillers, which focus on the persecuted church. BosNewsLife Columns distributes opinionated columns and commentaries providing a fresh perspective on issues in the news. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BosNewsLife News Agency or its parent company).
Such news from Pakistan! Exciting. I love the image of Christians sitting around the pastor an colorful carpets. It inspires our hope to hear of Christians worshiping in peace in such a place. It reminds me that our hope is in God, not in circumstances.
Thank you for this post.
Praise God. What wonderful news.