The third outreach programme which BPCA conducted was in Sialkot Kotamblawala village which is 22km away from Sialkot city.
We could not have organised the Christmas outreach programme without the coordination of Pastor Stephens who works as a lead Pastor in FGA (Full Gospel
Assemblies) Church in Sialkot.
It was a wonderful opportunity for BPCA to reach out to this village and to preach the good news of the Gospel to this poor rural community, also to show
God’s love and care for people through sharing a meal and giving gifts. Pastor Stephens shared that this community has many who are nominal in their faith
or are unreached due to the lack of resources.
There were around 80 Christians in attendance and security was high due to the risk of terrorism still being very real for Christians in this area. The
Church community, especially the Sunday School children, wholeheartedly welcomed the BPCA team and helped us with organising the event when we rocked up
in the morning. The children were beautifully dressed and performed a Christmas song with its message of peace and love which was a very touching moment.
Pastor Stephens gave a powerful message from the word of God explaining how we should put ever emphasis in walking in faith as this reciprocally
enables us to receive God’s blessing.
At the end of the service attendees were invited to go forward for prayer, healing and deliverance and 50 people responded to that call. Contact
details were obtained and Pastor Stephens and his church aim to follow up on those that came forward. 10 testified to being healed from flu, headaches
and bodily pain and God’s presence was felt by all in attendance.
During our fellowship meal Pastor Stevens assisted our officers with the distribution of gifts among the community, including ten audio bibles to those
who expressed need. Pastor Stephens shared that people of this community love God and do have strong faith, but many are illiterate and therefore
unable to read the Holy Bible for themselves and grow in their faith. He introduced our officers to some young people who are very serious about
their faith in Jesus but who can’t afford to go to school. They fully participate in the Sunday school programmes and the pastor requested that we
distribute the audio bibles among these saved youths who are growing in Christ and can lead their own families to salvation. Our officer Mehwish Bhatti
demonstrated how many more people can also benefit from the audio bibles by plugging them into some additional loud speakers that we provided. These
are invaluable as they enable the audio bible to be used in a small group or bible study setting, or at a larger church gathering. Everyone was very surprised
and blessed by the gift of audio bibles and we had many requests for more. People were very positive about the outreach, the Sunday school teacher Miss
Rabia said:
‘’We really honour the efforts of BPCA to remember us and to reach out to us in love and care. The audio bible is like precious treasure for us enabling us to hear the word of God in such a simple way.’’
BPCA also provided food for everyone and the villagers were touched by this, eating with great joy and giving thanks to God. Pastor Stephen’s
family who hosted the event, and helped BPCA to organise the programme, highly appreciated and recognised the ongoing work of BPCA in general, and in particular
this outreach programme which was so special and encouraging for them. They said:
‘’We rarely see such love and care for our people as has been shown through this event. The gifts and the audio bibles which BPCA gave to our people are certainly highly appreciated. We pray for BPCA and for all the work which they are carrying out for the Christians of Pakistan.’’
We installed a water pump for the beleaguered community here after a request form Pastor Stephens. There is a lack of available, clean water and Christians
here are living with the associated health problems poor quality water brings, along with poverty and malnutrition. The pump will bless this community
in a practical way, in tandem with our gift of the word of God, we hope to help sustain a better quality of life in 2016.
BPCA would like to give special thanks to our generous partners who helped us to organise such a big event in a remote area of Pakistan, and to our faithful
donors whose generosity made it possible.
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the BPCA, said:
“These outreaches enabled us to forge stronger partnerships with local churches, while also helping to edify local Christians with accessible word of God in a format they can comprehend. We will be praying for them and hope that our small seed might germinate revival in a desperate community.”
We would like to hold more outreaches like this in Pakistan desiring to share the gospel with weaker or nominal believers to strengthen their faith and help draw them closer to God, that they might truly understand grace and the gift of eternal life. We also aim to reach out to the Muslim majority and other minorities living in Pakistan. Christianity is growing in Pakistan despite the severe persecution that believers and converts suffer. God is moving in this nation and hope is restoring a broken people. We still have further audio bibles to distribute and will be sharing these at our gatherings bringing the word of God in a very natural way, spoken word, as was the tradition of believers for centuries.
If you would like to contribute towards our work and would like the name of Jesus proclaimed throughout Pakistan our bank details, paypal/visa payment facility can be found (click here)
