Update on the Blacks

When Donna and I first went to Pakistan, our team there had a literature van which would travel all over the province visiting country fairs and religious events, anywhere that people gathered. Thousands and thousands of books and Bibles were sold in hundreds of towns and villages. It was a grueling task and frequently the team would be chased out of the town by religious leaders or police. Once or twice they ended up in jail for their efforts.

     In those days that was one of the few ways of getting the Good News into the hands of the millions of Muslims and Hindus living in Sindh. Our literature van has long been retired, but today there are new ways of distributing Scripture, books, music and videos.

     While computers are still too expensive for the majority of the population, estimates are that over 130 million smartphones are now in use in Pakistan, meaning almost everyone now has the ability to listen to music and watch videos. The team in Sindh has been putting music albums, films and audio Bibles on memory chips and distributing those to anyone who asked. In addition, thanks to the skilled participation of brothers and sisters in Sindh 19 of our books are now in e-book format and can be downloaded to phones.

     Praise God that where once a single literature van brought good news to the Sindh province, now anyone with a phone can download books, Bibles, music and videos – and then pass the material on by copying their memory chip. Thank you for your support in making all of this happen. I have a trip to Pakistan planned for October, and I am working on the following projects here in Canada to get them ready for production there.

     Please pray for me:

 As I update and edit the Sindhi Literacy manual

 As I edit eight more books to get them ready for printing

You can be involved in the production of the literature in Sindh. Each new book costs around $500 to print, and you can donate to this here: Canada: www.fellowship.ca/qry/sd_donate.taf?dsfg=1&dsfd=549 USA: www.worldventure.com/give/select.php?id=a5RF00000008OU5MAM&type=p

     Part of my role in Canada is to coach our churches on the Prairies to cross cultures in their own neighborhoods. The experience we gained in Pakistan in planting house churches and multiplying disciples is being used here.

     One of the ways this is working out is for me to lead a workshop prepared by fellow worker Mark Naylor called Significant Conversations. The premise of the program is to help ordinary believers become more intentional in their everyday conversations, supporting each other in their efforts. One of our churches has completed the workshop as an 8 week Sunday School class, another church did a 4 hour intro to that workshop. One student reported that a person she had begun praying for asked to come to church the next week. She then had significant conversations with two other people on her prayer list. Not everyone had results like that, but we are sure hoping they all will as they continue praying!

     Two of our churches are also working on developing missional small groups all over their city and it is exciting working with these leaders! As well, in June I will be working with another church that wants to become more outwardly focused in their community. Plans are underway for a group of churches in another city to take the workshop on Significant Conversations this fall.

     Thank you for your support in making this possible. It is a delight to work with believers who are determined to see God’s Kingdom come here in Canada.