Flying to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
[Adventures in Faith: England; 1992] In London, we were sensing a change. Our era as a team was about to end. It was time for each of us to go our own way.
We were in the midst of our evangelistic outreach to homeless people in England. We were at Trafalgar Square in London.
We had been sensing the Holy Spirit leading us in separate directions.
Then Tom was notified that he had inherited $20,000.
When it arrived, Tom split it four ways among us. Each of us got one fourth of the total. That was a fantastically generous thing he did!
So in the midst of our considering going our separate ways, we were abundantly blessed. I took it as an authentication from the LORD God.
Then in June, we departed.
Regarding Alexander, India had captivated his heart. It’s where he felt led to go, long-term.
But in the short-term, he returned to New Zealand. He would go to nursing school, and then return to India.
Tom and Yuki-chan would go to the U.S. There, they would return to a more mainstream life.
Apart from the constant presence of missionary team members, they could finally focus more on their relationship.
And I felt led to travel to an Islamic country and speak with Muslims about Jesus Christ.
There were three factors that led me to that decision.
The first factor was when we met Muslim street preachers.
To this day I still esteem those them. I am very thankful for their welcoming us into their lives, and for their sharing their faith with us.
The second factor was living with our Muslim friend Zayan.
He was humble and generous and godly. He was a Man of God.
The third factor was that I had not been to Pakistan yet.
- I had been a missionary to Japan, which is predominantly a Buddhist nation.
- I had been a missionary to New Zealand, which is predominantly a Christian nation.
- I had been a missionary to India, which is predominantly a Hindu nation.
- And I had been a missionary to England, which is predominantly a Christian nation.
Islam was the only major world religion left.
Pakistan—it was an Islamic Republic. Those very words sounded so exotic to me.
St. Paul tried to go where the Gospel of Jesus Christ had not yet been preached:
Romans 15:20. yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another’s foundation.
Instead of going to the easiest places, St. Paul the missionary went to the most difficult places.
Pakistan seemed a place like that.
With no urgent need to go anywhere else, Pakistan it was.
In London, I went to the Pakistani embassy to get a VISA.
I already knew the Islamic Republic of Pakistan did not grant a missionary VISA to Christian missionaries.
So instead I asked for a tourist VISA. They granted me a 30-day tourist VISA.
Then I bought a round-trip ticket from Heathrow in England to Karachi in Pakistan.
It was the cheapest airfare I could find. It was with a Russian airline called Aeroflot.
The quality of service aboard Aeroflot left something to be desired. It redefined the word “service.”
The Russian flight attendants treated us with rudeness and insults.
They reminded me of the propaganda movies about the Soviet Union that I had seen during my days in the U.S. Air Force.
Once we got to cruising altitude, just about every Russian passenger lit a cigarette.
They chain-smoked all the way to our destination.
That was really harmful for me, as I’m quite allergic to cigarette smoke.
The first plane took us from Heathrow to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.
There, I transited for about 24 hours. It was another super-long transit, like when Alexander and I waited 40 hours at the airport in Sri Lanka!
Like lots of other people, I tried to find some place to sleep in the airport. The seats were form-fitting fiberglass. They were not built for sleeping.
They reminded me of when Tom and I sat upright in fiberglass seats all night long, during our Bitter Defeat at Awaji Island.
Some people tried to sleep on the hard tile flooring.
I tried it too. I couldn’t fall sleep.
Finally, it was time to board the next plane. It took us from Moscow to Karachi.
The service was no better.
But on the way to Karachi, we passengers beheld an awesome sight.
The pilot told us to direct our attention to the left side of the airplane. We saw a mountain. He told us we were flying past the Himalayas.
The mountain was higher than us. It went all the way into the sky, hidden by clouds.
As we flew toward Karachi, a man walked up the aisle and sat next to me. I had no idea who he was.
He was dressed in white, just like the Saudi men in movies. But his face, to me, looked Korean.
He introduced himself to me. He was a Christian evangelist!
He was indeed from Korea. He was a born-again Christian. He was going to Pakistan as a missionary.
Each time he flew to Pakistan, he was on a tourist VISA, just like me.
Right away, he spoke to me of the hardships of Christian evangelism in Pakistan.
One of his lessons was for me to always be respectful of the beliefs of others. This was an easy lesson, as it was a founding principle of my missionary endeavors.
Another of his lessons for me was to always, no matter what, be respectful of the prophet Mohammed. He warned me to never, ever speak ill of the prophet Mohammed. No matter what.
This was not news to me. Back when I was in Birmingham, England, I had observed that from the Muslims I knew.
When Muslims mentioned the prophet, they always added a phrase. It went like this:
The prophet Mohammad, “peace be upon him.”
When they wrote, they wrote it like this:
the prophet Mohammad, “P.B.U.H.“
I accepted this unsolicited advice from my Korean colleague.
If I would have rejected his advice, I would have made Christianity seem to disrespect people.
Basic human respect seemed, to me, to be a basic foundation stone for human relationships. It was not negotiable.
To disrespect Mohammad, my Korean colleague told me, would just be wrong.
He shared with me some current news to back up that point.
A week or two earlier, up in Islamabad, two Christian evangelists had been stoned to death.
Stoned to death.
A week or two ago.
The official explanation was that the Christians had disparaged the prophet Mohammad, and thus Muslims were obliged to stone him to death.
But my Korean friend told me that in all likelihood, the Christians had not disparaged Mohammad.
In all likelihood, they had invited Muslims to become Christians. Then the Muslims had stoned him to death. They were martyrs.
The story of Christians disparaging the prophet was probably just a cover story.
This, my Korean friend said, defined the risks we were taking.
This was how dangerous it was to be a Christian missionary to Pakistan.
That’s when our conversation ended. The pilot announced that we were in final descent, and ordered us back to our seats.
My Korean friend left our conversation and went back to his assigned seat.
I was left with my thoughts about what he said.
ADVENTURES IN FAITH
NOTE. Names, dates, and locations may have been changed.
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