Victory despite of challenges in Pakistan!
"If you want to become a missionary, learn to love trouble". These words that we heard from a famous Swedish missionary when we were newly married have spoken to us many times in our thirteen years together in the mission field. Our trip to Pakistan started and ended with trouble, but though it all God gave a great victory!
According to the plans I was not even supposed to go to Pakistan this time but just one week before the set date both of the preachers that were supposed to go with Marcus had to cancel. Due to this I had to cancel all my plans at home, book a ticket and go with him. The forth night of the first Gospel Campaign, just before the preaching, we got the notification that our permission to hold a Gospel Campaign in our next city, Multan, has been withdrawn. After trying hard for many hours to get them to change their mind and give us the permission they had promised we unfortunately had to cancel the second Gospel Campaign, rebook our tickets and return home earlier than planned with only one Gospel Campaign completed. In the midst of all trouble we still had a wonderful victory in an unreached city, Khanewal, where we saw Jesus save, heal and deliver thousands of precious people.
Khanewal is a very simple and poor city with about 150 000 inhabitants. Only three smaller churches with about 300 believers were in the city before we had our Gospel Campaign so the need of the gospel and teaching was great. All preparation work had been made rather late because it had been hard to get permission in Pakistan due to suicide bombers. Despite all these challenges our team in Pakistan had succeeded to do a good preparation work and the first night we preached the Gospel to a good crowd of people hungry for the truth and to see Jesus do miracles. The meeting started with worship and almost no one sang along and their behavior revealed that they were not used to this kind of gatherings. We only thought that was a good sign, we were on unreached ground. If everybody shouts hallelujah and know the songs we are in the wrong place. No other experience is more precious than the experience to preach the Gospel in unreached ground.
Marcus preached the first night and the response when the altar small went out was huge. Every night is was the same, the hunger for Jesus, salvation and peace with God was great and the last night about 4,000 people were gathered to listen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Totally 8,125 precious people responded to the call of salvation in Khanewal and filled in a follow up card. This is a great victory in a city which only had 300 believers before.
After everybody filled in the follow up cards Jesus didn’t wait long until He confirmed his word with signs and wonders. A man who had been demon possessed since childhood was totally set free and testified about his salvation and deliverance. One woman testified how her tumor with the size of a fist had disappeared. One man hadn’t been able to drink water for several years without terrible pain in the stomach was totally healed and drank a whole bottle of water in front of the people as a sign of his healing. Another man who had come to the campaign with the help of a crutch ripped of his bandage after prayer and literally danced up on stage to tell about his miracle. A totally blind and partly lame Muslim woman was totally healed and testified with great joy. Tumors and rheumatism disappeared and a boys foot which had been twisted since birth was completely healed and worked perfectly. Many Muslim women proclaimed loud and clear in front if the whole crowd: “I am a Muslim but Jesus has healed me”.
As usual during daytime we had a Fire Conference for the local leaders and believers in the city. In the heat of forty degrees celsius under a simple tent roof we preached, taught and ministered to these precious people. Many were encouraged and got a renewed faith to continue building the kingdom of God in this needy nation. One pastor told us afterward that he had faced a lot of persecution and had been tempted to give up and move away from that city but during the conference the Lord had spoken to him and he got his passion back to preach the Gospel in Khanewal. Others were challenged to bring the Gospel to the villages around the city. The last day, when we prayed for the Holy Spirit, many were filled with fire and power and started speaking in new tongues. It’s always one of the high lights in our Fire Conferences when we pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Together with the Holy Spirit and his power we encourage all leaders that they can do the same things as Jesus and even greater according to John 14:12.
Now we look forward to the next two Gospel Campaigns in Pakistan. In April next year we will go back and preach in two unreached villages where it is easier to get permission. Thank you for your prayers and support that help us to continue to preach the message of the light of the world, Jesus Christ, to some of the darkest and most unreached places in the world.
Your missionary
/ Hanna Bloom