Bev and I walked across the border between India and Pakistan the first of April and spent the month in Islamabad, Pakistan. The progress of the church we planted here exactly one year ago has been nothing short of phenomenal! The attendance in their Sunday service is right at 550 adults and the church is growing so fast that it has become difficult for us to maintain a meeting place. There is no building of significance in the area we have targeted so renting is out of the question.

We purchased a piece of property last year and the congregation has been meeting outdoors for an entire year on the property. In the winter it's actually nice, since the sun warms the grounds and the people enjoy worshiping out in the open. But the summers and monsoon seasons are brutal and the property pretty much turns into a steamy mud hole. On more than one Sunday they held services in the rain and still no one left the service.

The Lord helped us in March with $35,000 which we are using to start construction on a building. We will be building in three stages and have enough funds to construct the first floor which will actually be a basement. We will be able to seat 600 people comfortably in the basement which will double as a community center and overflow auditorium when the building is completed. We are constructing a canvas cover with a light gauge steel frame that will serve as a temporary auditorium on the ground floor. At the rate of growth we are experiencing I believe the church may reach 1,000 by the time the building is completed. We will be able to seat up to 1,000 under the tent and another 600 in the basement where we will install a video screen. That will be quite a novelty in Iqbal town! The second phase will be an auditorium on the ground floor and second floor balcony which will give us a seating capacity of about 1,200 plus the 600 in the basement.

We held five nights of open air services on the property and saw quite a few miracles take place. One of the most remarkable was a man who began to manifest an evil spirit. He was delivered in a matter of minutes and when he came to the next night service, clothed and in his right mind, Beverly and I did not recognize him! On the last night a Moslem lady was healed while I was preaching.

Thanks for all you have done to help us establish what has become the largest life giving church within 150 miles of Islamabad!

Rick & Bev