Why a Christian?

Their story is complicated… Their predicament different from that of other street kids…

Many Pakistani Christians battle with a Hindu or Muslim past and syncretism (the combination of different beliefs). This has altered how they understand the Christian faith. Rika and her family are Christians by birth, identifying themselves as Christians because four or five generations ago, an ancestor believed in Jesus and was baptized.

Over the past 68 years, Christians have experienced institutionalized persecution and discrimination, effectively blocking them from growing into an educated and developed community. They remain the poorest of the poor, suffering humiliation and abuse day after day.

It is to combat the depths of this poverty that Open Doors’ partners have begun planting and supporting community churches in the poorest Christian communities of Pakistan (The Community Church Project). Masses of people get together on Sundays in open fields where they worship and pray. For generations these masses have been undiscipled and untaught, separated by endemic illiteracy and persecution from access to Christian teaching.

When a Community Church team first met Rika and Johnny, the children had no idea who Jesus really was. But they did know about the blasphemy law; that they should whisper when they say that they are Christians and to be careful of the local mullahs who watched them.

Throughout The Community Church Project, children like Rika are learning that Jesus is God, the sole provider of their needs. "You can talk to Him when the cold cuts through your clothes and when you experience the sweltering heat on summer afternoons," a kind Christian worker explains to them. "Yes, you were born into a family of Christians. But you become a Christian yourself when you have a relationship with Jesus."

*Pseudonym

Thank you for your faithful prayers for the many Secret Children; may the Holy Spirit continue to capture their hearts with His love.