Tailoring training in Pakistan

Trainee tailors and dressmakers in Pakistan

An exciting project that we are starting is called ARTISTIC HANDS. 15 women from extreme poor backgrounds will begin training durch February 2013. The training continues for 12 months and after sucessful completion of the course, the participants will be in a postion to earn their own livings and also that of their families.

The target group as discribed by our Pakistani partnersare: widows, poor and needy, orphan young ladies, dull and over aged girls, prostitute ladies.After six months the women start earning money and this goes to pay for the sewing machines which they may take with them after they finish the course.

This is a real oportunity to empower people in poverty to rise up and take their future into their own hands. 

Sad, sad Pakistan

In the immediate aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, for example, the army was called upon to reopen devastated roads and distribute supplies. The scale of the disaster meant many victims were left pleading for more help. But, for all that, many acknowledged that the army did a pretty good job in atrociously difficult circumstances.

This time it's different. Hundreds of thousands of military personnel are fighting the Taliban in the north-west of the country. The constraints this has placed on the military's response to the flood has only served to expose more clearly the incapacity of the civil administrative structures.

The weakness of the state has reached extraordinary levels. Fewer than 5% of Pakistanis pay any tax. The government is unable to provide schools and medical care for tens of millions of people.

But even if the flood has heightened the level of criticism they face, the politicians will not be unduly concerned. They are so used to being viewed as incompetent and self-serving that they are largely immune to public criticism.

Some Pakistanis fear that hardline Islamists could exploit the state's failure by mounting relief programmes. But past experience has shown that the religious organisations also lack the ability to deliver aid on a national scale.

Except for a lucky few, Pakistan's flood victims are on their own. Many will survive only because their poverty has rendered them extraordinarily tough and resourceful.

Owen Bennett Jones

from the Guardian, 14th August 2010

The Floods in Pakistan continue to bring devastation

The flooding in Pakistan continues. Fortunatly we have been able to gather donation and later today, I will send them to Pakistan. They will hopefully bring relief to many people.
These last few days, I have been preoccupied with the events in Pakistan and more or less holding my breath as money has been donated for this tradgedy. In the midst of this, I received good news from India. The school that we had collected for in March/April was opened last week.

From: http://www.reliefweb.int

Terrible Floods in Pakistan kill more than 1000

After terrible flooding following the monsoon rains more than 1100 people have been killed in Pakistan.
Worst hit is the Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the province that borders with Afghanistan. Dozens of people are missing and 27,000 are currently cut off by the floods. More than one million people are homeless.
As the waters slower begin to recede there is fear that diseases might break out.

Two Pakistani Christian Leaders shot outside courtroom

Two leaders shot outside courtroom after handwriting report threatened to exonerate them.

FAISALABAD, Pakistan, July 19 (CDN) — Today suspected Islamic extremists outside a courthouse here shot dead two Christians accused of “blaspheming” Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

The gunmen shot the Rev. Rashid Emmanuel, 32, and his 30-year-old brother Sajid Emmanuel, days after handwriting experts on Wednesday (July 14) notified police that signatures on papers denigrating Muhammad did not match those of the accused. Expected to be exonerated soon, the two leaders of United Ministries Pakistan were being led in handcuffs back to jail under police custody when they were shot at 2:17 p.m., Christians present said.

Rizwan Paul, president of advocacy group Life for All, said five armed, masked men opened fire on the two Christians amid crowds outside Faisalabad District and Sessions Court.

“Five armed, masked men attacked and opened fire on the two accused,” Paul said. “Sajid died on the spot,” while Rashid Emmanuel died later.

CLF President Khalid Gill said the bodies of the two Christians bore cuts and other signs of having been tortured, including marks on their faces, while the brothers were in police custody.

As news of the murders reached the slain brothers’ neighborhood of Dawood Nagar, Waris Pura, Faisalabad, Christians came out of their homes to vent their anger, Pagaan said. Police fired teargas cannons at Christian protestors, who in turn threw stones.


“The situation is very tense,” Gill said. “Police have arrested eight people for damaging property and burning tires.”

Paul of Life for All said tensions remained high.

“The situation in Faisalabad has deteriorated,” Paul said. “Indiscriminate shootings between Christians and Muslims have ensued. The situation has become very volatile, and local police have initiated a curfew.”

The courthouse shooters escaped, and Punjab’s inspector general has reportedly suspended the superintendent of police and his deputy superintendent for their failure to provide security to the slain brothers.

Lynch Mob Mentality
The report by handwriting experts to Civil Lines police station in Faisalabad presented a major setback to the case filed against Emmanuel and his younger brother under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws.

Muslims staged large demonstrations in the past week calling for the death penalty for the brothers, who were arrested when Rashid Emmanuel agreed to meet a mysterious caller at a train station but was instead surrounded by police carrying photocopied papers that denigrated Muhammad – supposedly signed by the pastor and his brother and bearing their telephone numbers.

The Muslim who allegedly placed the anonymous call to the pastor, Muhammad Khurram Shehzad, was the same man who filed blasphemy charges against Emmanuel and his brother and was already present at the Civil Lines police station when the pastor and an unnamed Christian arrived in handcuffs, said Pagaan of Harmony Foundation. Civil Lines police station is located in Dawood Nagar, Waris Pura, in Faisalabad.

Pagaan said that on July 1 Rashid Emmanuel received an anonymous phone call from a man requesting to see him, but the pastor declined as he was due to lead a prayer service in Railways Colony, Faisalabad. After the service, Emmanuel received a call at about 8 p.m. from the same man, who this time described himself as a respectable school teacher.


Pagaan said that Emmanuel agreed to meet him at the train station, accompanied by the unnamed Christian. As they reached the station, Civil Lines police surrounded them, showed them photocopies of a three-page document and arrested them for blaspheming Muhammad.

Sources told Compass that police released the young, unnamed Christian after a couple hours, and on July 4 officers arrested Emmanuel’s younger brother, a graduate student of business.

On July 10 and 11 hundreds of enraged Muslims paraded to the predominantly Christian colony of Dawood Nagar calling for the immediate death of the two Christian brothers. Some chanted, “Hang the blasphemers to death immediately,” sources said, adding that the mob hurled obscenities at Christ, Christians and Christianity.


Islamic extremists led the protests, and most participants were teenagers who pelted the main gate of the Waris Pura Catholic Church with stones, bricks and shards of glass and pounded the gate with bamboo clubs.

Some 500 protestors gathered on July 10, while on July 11 more than 1,600 demonstrated, according to Joseph Francis, head of Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement. Fearful Christians locked their homes, while others fled the area, as the demonstrators had threatened a repeat of the violence wreaked on Korian and Gojra towns in July and August 2009.

Nazim Gill, a resident of Waris Pura, told Compass that Muslims burned tires and chanted slogans against Christians last week, and that on Friday (July 16) announcements blared from mosque loudspeakers calling on Muslims “burn the houses of Christians.”

Khalid Gill contacted authorities to request help, and police forbid anyone to do any damage.

Saying “continuous gunshots have been heard for the past five hours now,” Kashif Mazhar of Life for All today said that Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif had ordered the provincial inspector general to restore law and order and arrest the murderers of the Christian brothers.

Other Victims
Khurram Shehzad had filed the blasphemy case on July 1 under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which are commonly abused to settle personal scores.

Section 295-C states that “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punishable with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall be liable to fine.”

Section 295-A of the blasphemy laws prohibits injuring or defiling places of worship and “acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class of citizens.” Section 295-B makes willful desecration of the Quran or a use of its extract in a derogatory manner punishable with life imprisonment.

Khalid Gill said Khurram Shehzad, a merchant of Rail Bazar, Faisalabad, filed the charge after his servant told him that the two Christians had put up blasphemous posters at a truck station.

The Emmanuel brothers had been running United Ministries Pakistan for the last two years in Dawood Nagar, area Christians said.

The last known Christian to die as a result of a false blasphemy charge was Robert Danish on Sept. 15, 2009. The 22-year-old Christian was allegedly tortured to death while in custody in Sialkot on a charge of blaspheming the Quran. Local authorities claimed he committed suicide.

Area Christians suspect police killed Danish, nicknamed “Fanish” or “Falish” by friends, by torturing him to death after the mother of his Muslim girlfriend contrived a charge against him of desecrating Islam’s scripture. The allegation led to calls from mosque loudspeakers to punish Christians, prompting an Islamic mob to attack a church building in Jathikai village on Sept. 11 and the beating of several of the 30 families forced to flee their homes. Jathikai was Danish’s native village.

Three prison officials were reportedly suspended after Danish died in custody.

In other recent blasphemy cases, on July 5 a Christian family from Model Town, Lahore, fled their home after Yousaf Masih, his wife Bashrian Bibi and their son-in-law Zahid Masih were accused of blaspheming the Quran. Some 2,000 Muslims protested and tried to burn their house, Christian sources aid.

Police have filed a case against them due to pressure from Muslim mobs, but local sources say the allegations grew out of personal enmity.

Faisalabad was the site of the suicidal protest of Bishop John Joseph. The late Roman Catholic bishop of Faisalabad took his own life in May 6, 1998 to protest the injustice of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Taken from: http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/pakistan/

BAD NEWS BUT ALSO SOME GOOD STUFF

I felt a little depressed yesterday as one email after the other rolled in. I got an update on the situation in Kenya. The famine is bad and our friends are looking after up to 3000 people. The best case is that they need to feed the people until spring of 2010, when the next harvest is due. If the expected rains in October fail, then this period will stretch on indefinitely. The burden is enormous as food prices have sky rocketed.
More bad news was received from Pakistan. I wont go into details as it starts to depress me when I just think about it.
I also received an email from Sri Lanka giving me the latest on the situation there. It is also a hard place to serve God in. Intimidation and threats have been expressed to our friends. We sent six good working photo-copiers and they arrived in the country in April. To this day they are still being held by the customs and excise. The children's home which we build in 2005 has still not got permission to start working.

The news is grim and depressing.
But this morning as I looked over our bank accounts I noticed that people have been generous and have given a good sum to help with the famine in Kenya. We are very pleased and relieved about that. Perhaps only a drop on a hot stone but very encouraging.

MURDERED OVER A CUP OF TEA

Young Christian murdered in Pakistan for drinking from Muslim teacup

Ishtiaq Masih, a young Christian man from rural Pakistan, was taking a long distance bus to the big city. His bus had been bumping along the dusty roads for hours, and there was no air conditioning. The passengers were ready for a break. At Machharkay village, the bus finally stopped to let the passengers get out and stretch their legs. Ishtiaq piled out with the others and followed a crowd to a tea stall on the side of the road.

Sadly, Ishtiaq did not notice a red sign with a death’s head painted on it posted on the wall that said, “You must declare your faith before you are served.” He innocently ordered his tea, sipped it quick ly, and went to the cashier to pay for his drink as the driver gave warning that the bus would be leaving soon.

However, when Ishtiaq showed the cashier his teacup in order to pay his bill, a routine bus ride turned into an afternoon of terror. The cashier was Mubarak Ali, the owner of the tea stall, a radical Muslim. Ishtiaq was wearing a cross necklace, and when Ali saw that a Christian had drunk out of his teacup, he became enraged. InPakistan, restaurants routinely provide different silverware for Christians because it is a Muslim belief that

Christians defile what ever they touch.



Ali grabbed Ishtiaq and shouted for his employees to bring anything avail able to beat him for violating the sign posted on the wall. Fourteen men responded and gathered around Ishtiaq, beating him with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbing him with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.

The other bus passengers and passers-by finally intervened and took Ishtiaq to the Rural Health Center in the village. There Ishtiaq died as a result of spinal, head, and chest injuries. The doctor who took Ishtiaq’s case told that Ishtiaq had excessive internal and external bleeding, a fractured skull, and brain injuries.

People visited the tea stall and the large red warning sign with a death’s head symbol which read, “All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This tea stall serves Muslims only.” The warning also threatened anyone who violated the rule with “dire consequences.”

A neighboring shopkeeper told on condition of anonymity that Ali is a fundamentalist Muslim and all his employees are former students of radical Muslim madrassas (seminaries).

Ishtiaq’s family said that they immediately reported the incident to the police and filed a case against Ali. Though the police registered their case, no ac tion has been taken to apprehend Ali or his employees.

When Iasked the Pindi Bha tian Saddar police station about the murder, the po lice chief said that inves tigations were underway and they are treating it as a faith-based mur der by biased Muslims. When asked about Ali’s warning sign, police chief Muhammad Iftikhar Bajwa claimed that he could not take it down.

However, the constitution of Pakistan ex plicitly prohibits such discrimination, and the police could take strong action against the warning sign. But because the police are also Muslim, Ishtiaq’s father claims that they are being derelict in their duties to prosecute the murderers who are still freely operating the tea stall.

Pakistan

I got this email today:

Today I would like to draw your attention over the distress condition of God's people in Pakistan, the Clashes between Government forces and militants in north-west Pakistan are continuing to uproot people from their homes, with nearly 130,000 people being registered daily as displaced.

The provincial government authorities have noted that the number of uprooted from the Swat, Lower Dir and Buner districts registered in a fast-track process since 2 May has now reached almost 2.4 million people, still these figures are being verified and could change.

We had identified food, safe water, medical assistance and shelter from the sweltering heat as priorities, also recognizing the need for displaced children to continue schooling and for mothers and babies to access special health and nutrition assistance.

There are 250 Christian families affected by these clashes between Govt. Forces and Militants. These families need our support. We are urging the churches and ministries to show their solidarity with the nearly 2 million people who have been driven from their homes by violence in Pakistan’s north-west.

We emphasized the urgency of rising over $30,000 this month to assist some of those affected Christian families by the clashes. As founder and president of ministry, I would like to extend an invitation to work with our organization to in Pakistan to help others, we will sent you reports and pictures after all campaigns.
Please prayerfully contribute and sow your seed in this kind act. You can contribute $ 500 for 10 families and $1000 for 20 families.

Some of our Ministerial fellows has been there to see all these families and they were crying over that situation and asking for urgent help.

Pakistan

During my time at the seminar, I got the following report from friends in Pakistan:


Christian Breaking News from Pakistan
By Pastor John
Another Christian Colony attacked and burnt by Taliban
Karachi: April 22, 2009. The Talibanization of Karachi city; began with attack of armed Taliban on a Christian colony.
The recent attack on Christians here in Taisor town Karachi is a continuity of persecution or maltreatment that started years ago in Pakistan against the church. The attack seemed well organized and heavy firearms were used by many of Taliban to threaten unarmed Christian elders, women and children. The Taliban chalked slogans against Christianity and to accept Islam on Church walls in Taisor Town in night of April 21, 2009 which horrified and harassed Christian residents.

On April 22, 2009, the local Christians took out a peaceful procession in vicinity of Taisor Town to attract attention of local administration for protection of residents but no action was taken nor police guard were provided for protection of the Church.
On April22, 2009, many of the masked Taliban encroached in Taisor Town and attacked Christians with heavy machine guns. The feared Christian locked them in their homes but they pulled elders out on gunpoints and dragged women from hairs in streets and humiliated them.
According to some survivors, Taliban loudly said “You infidels have to convert or Embrace Islam or die and if you want to live here you need to pay JUZIA (Those who were made slaves during the wars they would pay money to the government that is known as JUZIA slaves in Islam). Why you wiped out our warnings chalked out or written on the walls of Church and home doors? How you dared to take out procession against Taliban? We shall uproot/wipe away your infidels from this land.
Some of the men who were in the area they agitated again their attack but they would not listen to them and they opened fires and killed one of the boy of 12 before the eyes of his father like they are being executed. Some of the men were shot on the neck, arms and legs and many other were injured on their resistance.
Police was there on the sight while this firing was going on they didn’t do anything they and people were crying and asking for help and they were watching these things like helpless spectators. After that, ranger came to rescue Christian community after the firing of three hours.
Then they started burning their homes, shops and made everything likes ashes on the ground.
Bishop Javed Nawab and other church leaders including, Pastor Muazzam John, Rev Yaqoob, Rev Farooq Amjad, Rev Robin Raz, and many others took immediate steps to help the Christian they went there to see the things and ground realities as they got telephonic calls from the affected people.
Bishop Rev Javed Nawab (Chairman Gospel Pentecostal Church) condemned the killing and attack on the Christians and their churches, he said,” it’s nothing other than a genocide of Christians here”.
They have press conference there in the Office of MQM 90 that was captured by media but because of the pressure of high authorities it has not been highlighted and brought into light.
Government did not declare anything to help those victimized people those who lost their homes and lives.


Call for Help: All of the Christians around the world are requested to pray for these victimized families so that may God give them peace and protect them from the enemy as they are committed to crush and destroy Christians from Pakistan as they said to come again.And lets stretch our loving hand towards our Christian fellows in these hours of need and help them with our donations so they can reconstruct their homes and can start their business again.
If you people need more information on these attacks and about the families please contact us on this following address. You are requested to talk with Government officials, NGOs and high authorities about persecution in Pakistan for the security of this area and churches.

Feedback: Pakistan

For about a week last November I went to Pakistan. This was my first time in that country. I was very surprised at the zeal of the Christian I met. They were very lively.
The people who I had the privilege to address were very open and very hungry for God's word. There was a lot of prophecy and God met a number of the people personally. I prayed also with a number of people for healing and was at first quite happy with the results.
However towards the end of my stay, people started coming who were in great need. Blind people wanted prayer for healing. Although I did pray for them, I am not at all sure that anything happened.
This opens a great debate about the question of why some are healed and some aren't. Why I rejoice over the healings that did happen, I was disappointed and in fact discouraged because of the failed healings.
I mean some of the people were desperate.
I left Pakistan and went to Sri Lanka.
I had a dull feeling inside of me that I had actually failed in Pakistan, although at the same time I knew that I could do nothing about it.
Last night - some months later, I had a talk to a friend who had just visited the same people I had. He was enthusiastic and reported to me that many -many more than I had personally witnessed- had been healed physically during my visit. This news really lifted my spirit.
I am learning to trust God more and more.