Pakistan
I’ve been working in Pakistan for twenty years. Our first work was a church plant in the community of Iqbal, outside Islamabad. That church is now a mature congregation of about 2,000, and it has planted scores of congregations. One of those church plants became our second major work, and it’s now about 800 members. These two congregations are what I refer to as “model churches,” serving as examples and leadership for our small town and village works. This year, I will be focusing on Pakistan, and I want to launch several projects that will help us develop the work to a more national footprint.
Congregation
In 2017, we purchased an $80,000 property in Islamabad for our second model church, and in 2019, we invested $130,000 into a building for that congregation. We completed the basement where the congregation now meets, and we built a three-level shell above it for future expansion. Because the upper levels are unfinished, it’s a bit of a monstrosity, but building in phases saved us roughly $50,000. It also gave us time to grow the congregation.
The church has done well, and our basement meeting hall is packed on Sundays with about 800 adults. I could let them slowly complete the upper-level construction, but it would take at least five years and cost us twice as much due to rising costs and the inefficiency of stop-and-start building. I’d like to accelerate this project and complete the building. As the church grows, our indigenous income grows, and the congregation is better able to help with outreach funding for projects such as the Marwari school and church plants.
Pastor Shoukat Siddique has done a tremendous job in leading this congregation and in that process he is developing a strong national influence. As that influence grows I want to help him strengthen his national voice through church planting, leadership development strategies and media ministry.