Dear Friends of
Ting Ministries, we have an immediate need to share with you from our friends at
ICII.
Please take time to read this story. Are you looking for a way to get involved with orphan care, but unsure of how you can help?
Please keep reading — there are three precious children in urgent need of sponsors! If you would like to help these children in need, please contact us at tingministries@comcast.net or ICII for more information (contact info at the bottom).
Greetings, in the name of Jesus!
Each of Independent Church in India’s (ICII’s) four children’s homes were founded for the purpose of providing a light of hope for children who are scared and alone in the dark landscape of their poverty-stricken and cruelty-filled world, where there is no one else to help them. We want to be able offer them compassion and relieve their suffering. Yet all too often, yet more young faces full of hopeless desperation come forward to us out of these shadows, and we have to turn to others to join with us in reaching out to them.
We have just such a sad story to share with you today, about three totally innocent children in Pakistan who have become orphans. Even though their story is tragic, it is not hopeless – God can bring hope in their lives through you. Please read on, and pray about how the Lord can use you to give a new life to these dear children.
Rafiq and his wife had three small children: a son, Shamil, and two daughters, Angelina Rose and Arqa. The family was living in suffocating poverty. Rafiq worked hard at a brick company, where he made low wages as most Christians do in Pakistan. But through all their struggles Rafiq was faithful to Jesus, and whenever he had a chance he would share the Gospel at his workplace. Rafiq would do evangelism when he could. One day Rafiq was arrested for sharing about Christ and he had to appear before the judge. If Rafiq would have denied the resurrected Christ that day, the judged might have released him. Instead, because he would not deny Christ, Rafiq was sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole.
Rafiq was thrown into a crowded prison cell along with thirty or forty other convicts. The prison was smelly, filthy and putrid; there wasn’t even a toilet in their cell. The only food they were given was very unsanitary rice and dhal (beans), full of worms and bugs. Whenever a person got sick in the cell, there was no medical treatment. As a Christian, Rafiq was a prime target for bullying and abuse by other prisoners.
After spending more than two years in that hideous place, and due to all of the nightmarish things that have happened to him in jail, Rafiq has become mentally disturbed. The last time his children went to see him, he was weeping, incoherent, and he no longer could even recognize his own children.
On top of all this, their mother was unable to provide for her three children, so she left them with a family member and vanished, never to return. The children were passed along to four different families, none of whom wanted them or could bear the burden of providing for them. At such young ages, their lives had become unbearable. Often the children were forced into labor. Rather than receiving any love, they were treated as slaves.
One of Independent Church in India’s Pakistani pastors named Mehbob was preaching the Gospel in the area where the children were living, and he discovered them in this terrible condition. The family they were staying with told Pastor Mehbob they didn’t want the children and would no longer be responsible for them. Frustrated that the three kids had been left to them, the family was considering turning them over to a private orphanage nearby. It is well-known in the area that girls in that orphanage are often used for prostitution and boys crippled so they can beg for money, just as in the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Shamil is seven years old, Angelina Rose is six, and Arqa is four. Pastor Mehbob currently has only one sponsorship for $30 per month, which barely provides for himself alone. Still, he was filled with compassion for these three children and has taken them for now into his own home to rescue them from having to go to that orphanage. But he can’t afford to provide for them properly. ICII wants to help these children find safe and loving homes where they will be well cared for. We are looking for those who would like to personally sponsor these children. It takes only about $60 per month to help a child. You can fully sponsor a needy child for $60, or $30 for a partial sponsorship.
All throughout India and Pakistan, there are tragic stories of young children who vanish into the night, never to return again. Terrible things are done to kids like these every day, by those who practice evil so horrible it is unspeakable. We can not turn our backs on these precious children who are in desperate need of our help. This is your chance to help us rescue three innocent young lives who have suffered greatly, all for Christ’s sake.
100 percent of gifts given for this project will be used towards these three children’s most urgent needs. Any gifts we receive for this project over the amount that is needed will go toward meeting the needs of orphans in Pakistan.
If you would be able to send a gift by mail, please make your check or
money order payable to “Independent Church In India” or “ICII”, mark it
“Orphans in Pakistan”, and send it to the address below:
Independent Church in India
PO Box 238
Fredericksburg, PA 17026
Thanks so much, and have a blessed day!
Reaching the Unreached in India, Pakistan, and Africa,
Lowell and Kathy Smith
Independent Church in India
http://www.indchurch.org(717) 865-7885 (717) 865-7885
info@indchurch.org
