On the 5th October for our first visit on a new missionary trip, we visited a small brick kiln colony, near Faisalabad at Chuk number 3, the village of Ramdiwala. These people are the poorest of the poor, with barely enough money to buy suitable clothes for their children. They live in stone huts of a sort barely 5 feet in height and they are much darker in complexion due to the fact, they spend most of their lives in the outdoors, often breaking their backs in the suffocating heat. We can see all around us the red bricks they have made, often just to get a pittance to barely survive and feed their families.
The meeting is a good one, and we are serenaded by the children led by an 11-year-old boy, who sang with great heart and joy, which would put most of us Western people to shame. The gathering is between 40-50 people, mostly families with lots of children and they are in remarkably good spirits. I preach from Luke 18:1-8, on the parable of the persistent widow, titling the sermon, persistence pays off.
These people know about persistence, it is not just about letting go and letting God, there is an effort we must put in as well. We must be persistent in prayer, even when things are tough, we must never give in. That is the call of the Christian life, that no matter what we keep trusting in Jesus until the end.
They understood the message well and really engaged with the teaching, particularly as I gave them examples of Asia Bibi and Youngsonabad, where a Muslim attack was prevented due to a day of prayer and fasting. The translation from Brother Shahan was effective and we interacted really well. However, due to this community being mostly illiterate, they have virtually no bibles, which is an area we need to look at. We should remember these people in our prayers, as they are largely forgotten by the rest of the world. It is easy to forget those whom we do not see every day, on our TV screens, and pretend they don’t exist, but they do and we do well to remember them, as often they will die for the faith.
My prayer is that we can get some literacy training here, so we can educate these people on how to read the bible, thus ensuring their continued growth. Theirs is a simple faith, only wanting the simple things and that is often the best faith. Perhaps we too, could learn more from these people about real faith, which is often the difference between life and death.
Once again, many thanks for those donors who gave so generously to make this trip happen, I salute you and pray for you always. May God bless you and keep you.
Brother Leighton
