Brave, zealous and committed

A portrait of Pakistan’s Christians

Nathan Javed serves the South Asian community in and around Bradford. During the summer of 2023, he visited his homeland of Pakistan where he found many churches thriving despite the pressures that they face in this majority Muslim nation

I grew up in the north of Pakistan, which has similar weather to England—but the landscape is spectacular, with views to K2 and the Himalayas and other mountainous ranges. It’s a beautiful place to live.

I was eleven when we first came to visit England. Back in Pakistan, I felt a growing desire to return to the UK and work with the church we’d got to know. At the age of eighteen the door began to open, so I left my university studies in Pakistan to come to the EMF Bible college at Welwyn, and I have lived in the UK ever since. But Abbottabad, my hometown, is still very important to me—and like Bradford, where I now live, it has a diverse mix of South Asian cultures.

Difficult times

Pakistan has long struggled under significant problems—political instability and terrorism, poverty and natural disasters. Founded in its current form as an independent Islamic republic in 1947, Islam remains overwhelmingly dominant. Pakistan has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world. The population is also very young, and many of these young Pakistanis are increasingly looking West, influenced by technology and Western culture. The encroachment of Westernization is opening up a generational divide, which extremist elements try to combat by reinforcing Islamic traditions and teaching within the madrassas.

A succession of devasting floods have hit the country in recent years, with up to a third of the country and an estimated 33 million people affected, especially in the north. The floods have been caused by a combination of heavy rains and melting glaciers—Pakistan contains more glacial ice than any other country outside the polar regions. The country also faces more summer heat waves in the south.

Recently I visited Pakistan, and it was hard to see so many people struggling because of the economic woes and pressures—and especially in the Christian communities who have always played a vital role in the country. Many parents find it hard to pay for the cost of schooling for their children, and the older generation have very little pension available when they retire after a life of hard work. Young people worry about their future because finding work in mainstream society is a challenge for Christians. The Christian community has had a history of creating jobs within their own organizations, such as hospitals and schools. As well as providing Christians with work, these also provide the highest standard of care and schooling for both Christian and Muslim communities. Many of the highly qualified people in the country received their education in Christian schools.

Growth amidst persecution

Despite the good that Christians are so clearly doing in Pakistan, the Christian communities have faced significant persecution. Often I saw police protection outside the churches. Twenty-one churches were burned in one recent incident, and a whole area where a Christian community was settled was burnt by extremists. Many Christians are being forced to flee; those who are left often struggle to get the basic necessities of life so that they can survive and care for one another.

Yet it’s common for churches in Pakistan to be so full that people who cannot get in will stand outside the building to listen. I had a great opportunity to preach at numerous churches and church plants, and to deal with people and help where necessary. It was a great privilege to spend time with brave, zealous, committed believers who are under pressure yet remain faithful to God and his word.

Blessing the community

Just north of Abbottabad there’s a little place called Qalandarabad, where a Christian mission hospital has been based for nearly seventy years. My parents were employees there and got married there—and I was born there. When I visited over the summer I preached almost every Sunday in local churches, and at a church plant in Mansehra, to the north of Qalandarabad, and at another church further up into the mountains.

It has become harder for the Christians to share the message of Jesus. In the past they could be very open—my dad used to do open-air preaching with his team and set up book tables. But this is no longer safe. The staff at the hospital can still chat to the patients, pray with them and offer leaflets. World events impact the Christians in Pakistan; for example, the burning of the Quran in Sweden would stir up opposition because Christianity is associated with the West. If there’s anti-Western feeling it can get taken out on Pakistani Christians. But despite these limitations, the number of Christians is increasing, and among the non-Christian majority there is a curiosity—Pakistan is one of the countries with the highest rate of online Bible reading. Pakistani Christians are seeking to be faithful believers in the Lord, so that as a minority they will still be seen as a witness for Christ.

The schools and hospitals are an important way to do good deeds as a blessing to the wider community, even when they’re facing hatred and opposition from the majority. A while ago there was trouble from the mosque next door to a Christian hospital, and there was a danger that things could get out of control. So the hospital came up with the idea that they would build a well for the mosque—and they’d do it for free. That act of grace returned peace between the two communities and the suspicion was overcome. It was a good deed that showed Christian compassion.

Today’s needs

Pakistanis often become financially disadvantaged when they turn to Christ. They have problems in business because some Muslims turn against them. They may be abandoned by their family, and even have a fatwa put on them for them to be killed. Converts with no money to survive can become a burden on the Christian community—but Christians look after one another, and that is a great testimony. So is the joy that they felt when they became Christians and were baptized—they are one with Christ, and that’s what they will stay.

Our brothers and sisters in Pakistan need our encouragement and prayers that they will remain faithful to God. They could easily slip because of the pressures from the Muslim majority. There is also need for church planting and constructing church buildings. In the far north of the country, beyond Mansehra and all the way to the border with China, there is a huge need. It is basically unreached—if the Lord provides a way, then massive church planting work could be done in those areas.

Pakistan could do with many more Christian workers, especially the mission hospitals and schools. And there are plenty of opportunities for people to go to preach on a regular basis, to teach and encourage pastors and other Christians. For all their zeal, they lack the resources of theological books and education.

Pakistan is a joyous place to be, and I sensed that the immensity of people’s love for Christ was different to the feeling I get here. God has his people in Pakistan for his glory. We need to pray for them to continue to faithfully serve the Lord in this wonderful nation where God has placed them.