Pakistan Revisited 2007 by Roger Pomeroy

I would like to share with you a little of my recent trip back to Pakistan. I spent two months from mid January back in familiar surroundings and among people who are well known and much loved. I also visited new places and spent some of the most wonderful days of my life, knowing at times a deep sense of the presence of God. Perhaps if I rave on a little I might persuade someone to think of joining me for my next trip, hopefully next January!

Teacher Nusrat with her class near Bahawalpur The high point of my two months in Pakistan was the Prayer Summit/Walk in which nearly 30 prayer warriors from various countries gathered to lay hold upon God for His working in the needy neglected Sindh province of South East Pakistan. We assembled at the Christian Conference Centre at Rattenabad, near Mirpur Khas in the lower Sindh for two days on 11-12th February. We sought God's face and listened to His Word. We heard reports of various ministries taking place and we interceded for the peoples of the Sindh. We then set out in six teams to travel and pray throughout the whole province. The team that I was asked to lead consisted of two Americans, a Punjabi pastor, two Marwari believers and myself from the UK.

As we travelled north via Hyderabad towards Sukkur we were very conscious of the Lord's presence. The two Muslim drivers of the hired vehicle knew what we were doing and one of them asked us to pray for his family situation. Can you imagine that happening in the UK? In fact as we continued in prayer for the towns and various rural areas through which we passed, so the Lord seemed to be moving and there were calls in on our mobile phones with people making contact. A recent convert phoned, asking for prayer in a situation that had developed and we prayed with and for him as we travelled. The Lord was evidently at work. A Muslim couple living in lower Sindh asked on the phone to come and meet us for prayer and we arranged a meeting place at the roadside. The woman had been possessed by evil spirits but through the pastor's ministry she had been delivered. Some evil influence remained and the couple desired prayer. We met with this young couple just off the road and one of the team engaged our two Muslim drivers in conversation, while the rest of us met and prayed for the couple in the van for 20 minutes or so. We sensed that the Lord was among us and that a good work was being done (a phone call the next day confirmed this). Further north we travelled through districts more familiar to me. There was a phone message from one of my colleagues and he also came to the roadside at a small town and took us a few miles out to the new Marwari church in a village area. Effective prayer for needy ones was made and again we moved on.

Prayer Walking During the following two days we were joined by others at Sukkur and travelled in the northern Sindh through bandit country. We prayed in a Hindu temple and a Muslim shrine for the release of captives held in darkness. We called to visit the new group of Bagri converts in a small town, where just three weeks earlier I had visited with two others of my colleagues and been involved in the baptism of new converts. In the home of a new Bagri believer there was a vital sense of the Lord being among us and a work of significance was affected there that day. This man is truly is truly transformed. Since then, in this place, the school we desired to start has commenced and the Lord is at work in both the Bagri and Sansi communities. We drove on to Shikarpur and prayed over difficult situations and on our final day in the north we had vital times of prayer and witness with Muslims in the hard and resistant town of Sukkur.

Baptism of new believers in the Choondka Area (North Sindh) Most weekends I spent with two of my colleagues among Bagri, Sansi peoples and also some newly contacted Marwaris out from Shikarpur. In this ministry there have been encouraging developments with the new school (mentioned above) at Rato Dero. After much prayer we have found two young Bagri men who will share the teaching. Another school among the Sansi people in Shikarpur is progressing and the two teachers, who are new followers of the Lord Jesus are growing in their faith. They are enrolled in our discipleship training programme.

During the two months in Pakistan I made two visits each to areas of our work both in the Bahawalpur district of the lower Punjab and in various centres in the north Sindh. These ministries involve work among the Marwari people. New churches are coming into being and there is a real sense of the Lord's blessing upon the work. Several new schools have recently started and the ministry of discipling new believers is progressing well with new small groups of believers being gathering together in what we describe as house churches.

We praise God that the Lord is at work in these days, even in Pakistan where news reports would have us think only negative things about this part of the world.

Roger Pomeroy