New Opportunities

Pir Goath

Some families in the village of Pir Goath (near Khairpur) invited Shakeel to share the Word of God with them. Men and women worship separately in Pakistan, usually in the same room, but on opposite sides. In this case, the available space was small, so Shakeel taught only the women on Friday night, February 8. These Christians have been meeting without a designated pastor - the women on Friday evening and the men on Sunday. Describing the photo, Shakeel says, "The old man who is with me in the picture is uneducated, but he has been leading them in prayer and worship for several years."

Shakeel encouraged the women by sharing from Matthew 6:33 and James 4:8 about believing God's promises. After his time of teaching, he met with church leaders who took him to homes where he prayed for those who were sick. He then met with and enjoyed fellowship with the church administration all of whom expressed great appreciation for his coming.

Qandar Bux Burdari

At Qandar Bux Burdari, Shakeel preached from Deuteronomy 27:15-16, 28:1-6 which lists the curses God would send upon his people if they disobeyed him and the blessings he would give if they were obedient followers. Shakeel made the message clear that if we, as followers of Jesus, want God's blessings in our lives, we must be obedient to his commands.

Korki

In visiting the Village of Korki, Shakeel felt he needed to teach them about speech and the use of their tongues, taking James 3 as a text. He told them that children will copy whatever they see their parents do. "So." he said, "if we are Christ’s followers or want to follow him, we have to be aware of appropriate use of our actions and our tongues everywhere, so the people who watch us will see Christ in us."

Church Building (Kumb}

As his final visit this past weekend, Shakeel taught the people of Kumb who came to meet in our church building outside of Hyderabad. He preached from Colossians 3:5-11 concerning New Life and Old Life and from Acts 3 concerning Repentance.

Then, he says, "After listening to the teaching from this passage, everyone was discussing the Word of God and what they had learned. They said it was a blessing for them to be able to think about and talk about the teachings after the sermon."

Shakeel also reported that there were some visitors attending the meeting and one of them was a Hindu religious leader. He listened with interest and told Shakeel he appreciated hearing the Word of God and, Shakeel says, "He invited us to visit his village on our next trip."

We are thankful to God for his blessing on this work as other villages are becoming more open to hearing the Gospel. Keep praying for Shakeel as he leads this ministry and Rustam as he works alongside him.