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A Christian Call to Prayer Posted on 04/30/2008 04:00 PM   |  EMail to Friend   |  View Comments (0)

Since Pervaiz Musharraf took over in 1998 Pakistan’s media scene has ben transformed! When I was only little there was one channel on TV (PTV) and that was it! I would sit with Dado (my paternal grandma) for one particular TV series called ‘Tanhayan’ (meaning loneliness). I do not remember much about it, I was only 3 or 4 but I remember a couple of scenes and I had a favourite Pakistani actress Marina Khan. She still appears on popular TV and is still one of our best actresses. That was aired after Air Wolf or Knight Rider or the Aussie TV show ‘Lassy’ and the 9 pm News in Urdu. Sometimes Pakistan Television (PTV) ran ‘Little House on the Prairie’. It began at 7 am- a talk show and cooking and DIY program. By about 12:00 pm TV went off air and a screen would appear with bright red, yellow, green blue stripes and a timer which counted down the time to 4:00 in the afternoon when it came back on air again (after we were back from school). That’s when we’d get the News in English, Tom and Jerry, Laurel and Hardy (Pakistanis loved the black and white comedy even when I was a little girl in the 90s). Basically anything that was about a year old in America would be re run on PTV. Full House was a favourite. I had a crush on Jesse- but that was a secret. I think it was his black leather jacket. I used to pray he was a Christian! At 5 regular intervals there would be a ‘Namaz Break’ when a voice would tell us that the program was being paused for prayer and all faithful Muslims should respond. Then a mosque or Holy Islamic Site would appear on the screen while a man with a beard and a prayer cap or a little child would be heard calling the faithful to prayer in Arabic. Dado would close her eyes and pray for all those praying to Allah that as millions of Muslims knelt and prostrated themselves before Islam’s God and beliefs, that the God of Love and truth – Christ Jesus would be made known to them. Sometimes she would call me to join her in her prayer. PTV has changed completely now but prayer breaks and Islamic shows continue. A lot of my understanding about Islam came from a popular afternoon program just before Tom and Jerry. It was a teaching program in which a Maulvi (Mullah) taught some children various verses from the Koran and what they meant and how to recite them. I would listen carefully. I will never forget those little faces or even the faithfulness of the teacher. Such faithfulness and trust. If only they knew Jesus. That’s what I used to pray. My beloved Pakistan has changed a lot but in some ways it’s the same. Continue praying for those honest folk with a simple desire to know God better, caught in the battle between Extremist & Modernist elements. To them the Koran is the way and the Maulvi knows all. Pray their sincerity and honest desire for God be rewarded as their eyes behold Jesus and their hearts and minds know He is God. Pray for miracles of visions and dreams, and for Christians to be good examples in countries like Pakistan, Egypt and the across the Islamic World.

Small Chai Corner, Big Debate! Posted on 04/27/2008 10:00 PM   |  EMail to Friend   |  View Comments (0)

Ghani- a medical student and friend at college and shares his lunch breaks with us at the chai corner had walked in demanding to know if we had read the email going around about the governor of New York City? He is always taking popular gossip, hearsay and making a big deal. I know little about US politics but he desperately tries to stir the pot. I am concerned about my own country. With his long beard, white turban and Shalwar Kameez and sandals he is quite the Pharisee and pontiff on everything. He always wants to draw me out of my little sun bathed corner of golden quiet where I’d rather disappear into my book. He always attempts to engage some part of me that he has assumed is American-the Christian part of me. Amazingly, Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia view Christian and Western as synonymous, reducing the quality of our Pakistaniness. It is very irritating and always a struggle for my Christian friends and me. It’s constantly a test to prove we are Pakistani and Christian. Our grandparents became Pakistani when Pakistan was born on the 14th of August 1947-some already Christians, others converted from Hinduism or Sikhism, yet others may have been Muslims. But they lived in the part of the sub continent that became Pakistan and chose to stay, taking on this identity. We were all born Pakistani. Our Christian faith comes from a Bible put together in the Middle East, not in the USA and from a God who came to the world as a Middle Easterner. We do not feel like full citizens. The whole idea of this discussion was to start a debate about how Christian America was, how immoral and did not value life blah blah blah… I refused to get pulled into a debate which I had entered a thousand times in the past. I was tired of this. Lately God was leading me to see evangelism and the Great Commission in a new way. Not by theological, political and social debates and arguments which always left me drained, but by being Maaria in Christ form. Being Christ in the midst of my friends. Not trying to justify the actions of America, but by being the Christian I was called to be in Pakistan. Please pray with me and my youth group. We find that the discussions on politics and religion are becoming increasingly volatile and we no longer feel safe making our opinions known. Till two years ago I was very vocal. Now I feel we need to be a lot more careful. My friends recognize my Christian faith and Pakistani identity. I have shared my concerns about Pakistan and Pakistani Christians. They claim to understand, but times are changing. Apart from Bilal, I do not know who I can trust all the way. Their Islamic identity is primary and our friendship is disposable-a fact we learn to live with. I tired out as Ghani continued into the afternoon heat. I didn’t participate too much but it left me feeling someone had drained my body of its energy and my mind of its thoughts. I am only one of millions of Christians in the Islamic World who go through this. Pray for us for the Holy Spirit to strength us.

It's Almost Summer Posted on 04/25/2008 12:00 AM   |  EMail to Friend   |  View Comments (0)

Winter is over and the spring sun is getting stronger. While we can enjoy the last of its wintery milkiness we follow it around and sit in it. A few weeks from now it will be far too hot to go out and read in the gardens and parks. Since December my girl friends and I have spent our 11 am break in the botanical gardens of the University. There is a little Chai wala (tea stall) in the corner where the medical students and other University students can meet and share break times. Normally we sit quietly reading a book or in quieter more personal conversations. There was a time when we would sit and paint each other’s nails and braid hair, but lately things have changed. It is not easy being a girl on the campus. There are a bunch of extremist students who took it upon themselves to put pamphlets in our classes and on notice boards. They have warned that women on the campus need to be more discrete in the way they behave. So now we just read and talk – we enjoy it because it is our favorite place in the world. Lately the conversations are about politics. I did a Google search and found a whole lot of references on news networks about the violence in Pakistan. Well, yeah I guess there are some pockets of unrest and uncertainty but I really feel I want to reassure you guys that we are not in the middle of a civil war. That is not to say that it is not possible but we ask that you pray with us and for the political situation in Pakistan. We crave stability and that is the greatest destructive factor for Pakistan. Most students on campus go from liberals to extremists. My friends are a real mixture and with the exception of two of my friends, Ghani and Ayesha, not all of them are aggressive and out to kill. Even Ghani and Ayesha are aggressive in their preaching but I doubt they would kill me for my faith and my political views. All my friends (and even I sometimes) are frustrated and looking for answers and if in the midst of that searching they become enmeshed in extremist policies and promises, I cannot blame them. In the midst of these frustrated and desperate discussions, the utopia that Pakistan’s youth had hoped for our future is crumbling. The more despair and frustration grows the more students start leaning toward extremist Islam. This is the real danger for Pakistan. In that despair I can only be Christ’s hope and light. I can only hold firmly to the truth of Psalm 2 that Pakistan, like the rest of the world, belongs to Jesus. I can only keep my eyes on Him and hope that when my Muslim friends look at me they see Jesus in my eyes. Because I only want to behold Him in the midst of all this. Maaria

Greetings! Posted on 04/24/2008 07:20 AM   |  EMail to Friend   |  View Comments (0)

So finally we meet! Here we are standing at the brink of a brand new friendship. I know there isn’t much of a picture to go by and during the course of our relationship, you will need to understand that for the safety of Secret Believers in my country I am unable to give you certain details. So if in our time together I decline to answer some of your questions, remember it is to protect your brothers and sisters. Though I cannot give you a digital picture of me, I can promise to share my heart in its entirety with you--a heart given me by Jesus. When I read Secret Believers I was so impressed! It gives you a beautiful and accurate picture of the world of Secret Believers and the countries where we live. So if you have not read it already—please do so! I just met a sister in the Lord and she told me it’s on her ‘To Do’ list. I suggest you do it fairly soon because I assure you that the harvest is ready and we need more workers praying with us and supporting as we sow, nurture and reap the fields of our Lord in the Middle East and South Asia and in all the Islamic countries where the Church struggles to survive. That’s where I am from. I am a 20 year old University student from Pakistan. I am reaching the end of my studies for a degree in Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at a regional college which is part of the central university set up. I like the challenge of this study program and the choice of subjects which I am in now. I am one of the few young Christians who have made it to University and I praise God that He has given me the opportunity to get a good education. I did the first part of my school education at St Xavier’s and am now in a Government based Provincial University. We have two types of education running parallel. We have the British system which I was in till I was 16 at St Xavier’s. Then we have the option to go on and do our A levels in the same system, or to enter the local system of education. A levels are only now becoming more accessible and less expensive. I am so thankful that my family sacrificed to make sure I had the best education possible. I love reading and keeping abreast of new books and movies. My course-work also allows me to do some traveling and to glean from my travel experiences. Many of these experiences come from our travels with Aba--my father. He works for a firm that expects him to travel to the Middle East a lot. Not all Christians have these opportunities of being able to travel and study and experience diversity and change and so my brothers, sister and myself are thankful to the Lord for our blessings but also aware that with great blessing comes great responsibility and the Lord wants us to take responsibility for the young Christians in our country and help them and raise up prayer for them and their sometimes very difficult circumstances. That is why I have embarked on this journey and I pray that you will walk with me, with us. Pray with us and seek with us how to encourage and strengthen brothers and sisters in Pakistan and across the Middle East. I look forward to our relationship developing and I hope I am able to help you understand my world better and to guide you as you learn to pray for these lands and the Secret Believers who dwell in them. May you be filled with God’s love for Muslims and Christians, both of whom are worthy of God’s love and promise. Many Blessings, Maaria