Through the month of March, Beverly and I have been focusing on a new church plant in a city on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.  This rapidly growing community is a rarity in Pakistan and about 80% Christian and 20% Moslem.  Christians in Pakistan tend to live in segregated communities and few of them are born again.  It is important that we launch a new work in a Christian area since the Moslem community will aggressively oppose open Christian activity in Islamic neighborhoods.  Pakistan is about 97% Moslem.  Christians are a tiny minority and make up about 1.5% of the population.

Bev and I have been concentrating on training a young pastor and developing a leadership team around him. We spend 4-6 hours a day with this emerging leader and his wife and I have been pleased with their progress.  We are following the same pattern we used in the church plant in Sri Lanka and it appears that we will have the same results.  They already have about 100 adults attending a house church.  It is a bit crowded!

The Lord has helped us with the funds to purchase land and start the construction of a building.  We are negotiating now with three different property owners.  All the properties are suitable and well located so we will take the one that is the best price.  Land values are increasing rapidly so it is important that we agree to a purchase price as soon as possible.

Thanks for all you have done to help us in this vision of building a solid model church in Pakistan.

Rick