October 30, 2006
Peter standing in front of his favorite road sign in Pakistan. Peter’s top ten list for a better Pakistan
We spent part of the summer in the foothills of the Himalayas,
studying Urdu and thinking about life in Pakistan. Robert and
Marianne took the time away from the modern world (we were without
television, telephone, and reliable Internet access or electricity)
to read as much as they could about Pakistan and its present condition.
Peter and Nathan pursued less heady reading but the dinner conversation
clearly affected Peter. He presented his 10-point plan for improving
the lives of Pakistanis in careful handwriting and many charts
and graphs drawn on the whiteboard we used for Urdu lessons. While
we are not able to reproduce the charts and graphs, as they were
quickly erased for a game of tic-tac-toe, here is a summary of
Peter’s plan for improving Pakistan:
- There needs to be more underpasses so traffic won’t
get backed up so much.
- We need to give more food to the poor people of Pakistan.
(Malnutrition here is common.)
- We need to control pollution so people can breathe cleaner
air.
- Pakistan needs more cell phones so that people can communicate
with each other more.
- The water needs to be cleaner so people won’t get sick
when they drink it (there was a rash of water-related illness
and death this summer).
- No cutting trees. Pakistan needs all its trees to provide
healthy oxygen for people to breathe.
- The country needs more churches so people can worship God.
- Find ways to stop the power outages so people can have fans
when it is hot and electricity to see.
- Pakistan needs more gems and minerals so it can mine them
to have more money to pay for all the things the country needs.
- Don’t harm the whales.
We will admit that living in Pakistan can be frustrating at times.
The traffic in Lahore is awful. The air pollution is stifling,
especially in winter. It’s heartbreaking to read of people
dying because of contaminated water. You wonder sometimes how
people manage.
And therein lies a fundamental culture clash: even at the tender
age of 8 and as an immigrant himself, Peter has absorbed much
of the American can-do spirit and urge to fiddle with everything
to make it “better.” We Americans are great “improvers,”
anxious to bring modern technology and know-how to solve intractable
problems. We often think we have all the answers. Certainly as
missionaries we often unintentionally project that belief in what
we do.
We have had to learn that we are not here to solve all of Pakistan’s
problems. In truth, we can’t solve any of them, even with
Peter’s help. We are often overwhelmed by all the work here:
developing a sustainable education model for Forman Christian
College, developing leaders for the Christian community in Pakistan
among the students at Forman, helping the Presbyterian Church
of Pakistan build a structure that will serve it into the future,
finding small ways to help those we meet to have a better life.
Still, whatever we do never seems to be enough.
A group of Forman Christian College Christian students at a
social event on our lawn this week. There were 250 of them and
our bathrooms got a workout!
And yet, the Pakistanis don’t need us to do anything for
them to make things better: they are encouraged simply by our
presence here. When nearly all Westerners left after 9/11, many
Pakistanis felt abandoned. We have shown them, simply by arriving
and smiling, that people from the United States care. The fact
that we brought our children here is a source of sheer delight
for them and confirmation that the Church in the United States
wants to support them. This message comes to us from Christian
and Muslim alike. For those at Forman who remember the college
in the days before nationalization, the presence of the missionaries
is what made Forman special and memorable. Our return now is confirmation
that this special place might exist again. The fact that we came
when many others are scared to come has given them hope.
And so, we try to balance our American proclivity to solve problems
with the Pakistani appreciation for our “ministry of presence.”
We are honored guests here, and in their humble ways, the Pakistanis
show us their appreciation. They line up to shake our hands, say
a few words of English, take our picture and bless our heads.
If we can help solve any of their problems, they are grateful,
but mostly they are simply glad we’re here. We’re
keeping Peter’s Pakistani Improvement Plan on file, however.
If we can help in any small way to make this a better place to
live, we’ll do our best.
With that in mind, your prayers for the following would be appreciated:
- For the students Robert and Marianne are teaching this semester.
- For patience and fortitude for all of us as we continue to
adjust to the challenges of living here.
- For peace in neighboring Afghanistan.
- For continued good health so we can work with energy and
enthusiasm.
Our new snail mail address is on our
home page and our new phone number is 92-42-575-9065. We moved
to a newly renovated house over the summer and are grateful for
the better ventilation and more spacious rooms. If you’re
not on our email newsletter list and would like to receive our
monthly updates, please email
Marianne. Thank you for your interest in our work!
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
112 |
