Pakistan (MNN) — Every day for the past week, we’ve been highlighting different efforts to reach unreached people groups. See the full list here. Why do some believers prioritize one population over others?
A believer we’ll call “Victoria” says every Christian will be held accountable for what they do with the Gospel truth. Reaching people who have no way to know God should be important to all believers.
“We have this huge responsibility and God will ask us one day, ‘What did you do with the time I gave you? Did you share with people so they could know about Me?’”
Victoria partners with ministry workers in Pakistan. Along with sharing Christ in your community, she says you can help unreached people groups in this country know Jesus.
“They’ve never heard about Jesus. They don’t understand who God is. They don’t have a chance of picking up a Bible,” Victoria says of Pakistan’s unreached people groups. “The only way they’re going to hear is if we enable that to happen by our prayers, by our financial giving.”
Why prioritize Pakistan?
As noted here, hundreds of ministries are teaming up to reach the world’s unreached people groups. There’s a new collaborative outreach underway in the Greater Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan.
(Photo courtesy of Prayercast)
“Pakistan is the fifth-largest country in the world; [it has a] huge population – 220 million – and of those 96-percent are Muslim,” Victoria says. “The vast majority of the 96-percent… are unreached.”
Pakistani believers do exist, she continues. “There is a Christian community, some two-percent of the population; they’re all descendants from Hindu converts from about a century ago,” Victoria says.
However, “unless the 96-percent happen to live as neighbors to them, or work with them in big cities, they will not come across Christians perhaps the whole course of their lives.”
Barriers to Gospel growth abound in Pakistan; blasphemy laws and fatwas pose an ongoing challenge. Nonetheless, hope remains.
Victoria says a radio ministry is making inroads among one unreached people group. “This is being led by people who understand the culture and speak the language and communicate the Gospel in a way that is well understood,” she adds.
Fear keeps most people from responding to Gospel programming by calling in, Victoria admits. In recent weeks, one woman’s determination caught workers by surprise. “A lady who’d been listening to the radio programs phoned into to say she wanted to talk to somebody,” Victoria says.
“She said, ‘Ever since I heard that story about the lady who touched the cloak of Jesus and got healed, I believe in Him. Where can I find out more information? All these lovely stories about Jesus; what books can I find this in?’”
Next steps
There’s a place for you in this story. “Pray that people would listen, that they would have the courage to respond, that they would experience Jesus in dreams and visions,” Victoria requests.
“Prayer is the most powerful thing that God has given us to do, and it makes a huge impact when people are praying for a particular people group.”
(Photo courtesy of Prayercast)
Use this new resource to pray for one of Pakistan’s unreached people groups, the Baluch. The Baluch most likely originally practiced Zoroastrianism, an ancient, pre-Islamic religion, but eventually became Muslim. In total, the Baluch people number around ten million, and they’re spread across Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan – an area known as “Baluchistan.”
“[The Baluch are] a very tribal people, a very impoverished people; they’re amongst the poorest. They’re farmers in a very harsh climate and struggle with a lot of suppression,” Victoria says.
Header image courtesy of Prayercast.
