News
DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING IN LONDON!
SEPTEMBER 2011
DTS students and staff with Byron Spradlin, visiting speaker.
We are thrilled to have four students over from Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan for a four month training session! The conference and outreaches will follow the DTS curriculum and these trainee leaders will have opportunities to meet other leaders from YWAM and be able to concentrate on developing many areas of their lives while over here.
We hope to find them friends who will pray for and finance them for the long term, so that they can serve YWAM Pakistan fulltime upon their return. Most of them not only need their own support but also enough sufficient to give to their families who cannot survive long without their financial help.
The young ladies are also pursuing higher education, one is wanting to study medicine and another wants to become a lawyer. While here they will also be learning English which will help them to engage with the wider world in the future. These small beginnings will lead to great growth in the years to come and these young ladies are already leading the way for thousands of others!
Thank you to those who are funding this event in London! Let us know if you are considering becoming a regular donor so that they can pay for their living expenses and course fees in Pakistan when they return..
TRAINING IN LONDON!
AUGUST 2011
Three trainees have been given visas to come over for three weeks' training in London. The conference included key topics from the Disciple Training School curriculum and opportunities to learn from London's world class educational resources including the British Museum which holds items from Ninevah and the British Library which displays a rare fourth century manuscript of the Bible, Codex Sinaiticus. We are trusting this time will result in changed lives and enable the work to grow in the months to come.
Karachi faces Meltdown
August 2011
It's been escalating all year, but no-one has yet stopped the killings.
First it was targetted murders, then the slaughter began. In July, a mob of Karachi's Taliban went on a four-day shooting spree, opening fire on anyone they could see: labourers on their way to work, shopkeepers, even women with small children. The sprawling city of 18 million shut down in terror; rockets were launched into residential areas (as reported by Pakistan’s main English language newspapers:-
“Death toll in Karachi violence rises to 102”, Dawn, 9th July 2011
“Death toll hits 94 in four days: official sources”, News International, 9th July 2011
The situation, reminiscent of what recently happened in Oslo but on a larger scale was something Karachi residents have been dreading for months. It took the government four days to bring everything under control, even though such conditions are not new to the city's law enforcement officers. Now, with onset of Ramadan, it has been announced that the city will shut down completely, this time for the entire fasting month. The government fears that fundamentalists will engage in large-scale public killings. They have even called on unpopular paramilitary units to intervene. The situation is especially tense and difficult for Christians. They live in some of the poorest areas, slums that are vulnerable to attack from hostile groups. Everyone has been warned by city leaders to stock pile food supplies for the next four weeks. Unfortunately, with this announcement, food prices have shot up.
Suddenly YWAM Karachi's leadership is faced with the challenge of protecting the centre’s staff and their families. Most Christian families don’t have equal opportunities for education or employment, so the parents of the young people at the YWAM centre can’t get regular jobs and most are casual labourers. Living hand to mouth, they have no financial reserves to draw upon. They cannot stock pile food, but they will risk their lives anyway to go out to find supplies for their desperate extended families. The scale of need is beyond us, but we will do what we can to save lives.
You can help us to respond to the needs of at least 200 needy people in our circle, particularly women and children, who are the most vulnerable members of our society. The painful stories of many young ladies who have suffered from earlier such incidences are likely to be repeated.
We are stockpiling food supplies for distribution and preparing shelter for 200 for the whole month. Because of the trauma and fear of being shot, people are already very reluctant to go to work. Sometimes it is not even possible as there have been frequent power outages and strikes making transport impossible. They need our help as soon as possible before civil unrest increases and money runs out.
AUGUST 2011
TRAINING LEADERS TO INCREASE CAPACITY:-
while some staff tend to the needs of those affected by the city’s threatened lock-down, we also want to bring a small group of five future leaders to the UK at the end of August. This way we will be able to continue their training and increase their capacity for leadership roles in their nation. They already hold the necessary visas but each needs sponsorship to cover travel and expenses for 3 months (£700 plus £1,200 each). Relief and development go hand in hand, the better equipped our emerging leaders can become, the better will be able to respond to the crises around us. With your help in this effort, we will all be able to make a difference to this neglected and needy city.
JANUARY 2011
A major quake hits Pakistan, this time in the South West, in the province of Balochistan. January 18th 2011. The area is a sparcely populated, desert region of the country, bordering on Iran.
FLOODS 2011
The nation is still recovering from the devastation of the 2011 floods that inundated one fifth of the country, destroying vast areas of agricultural land and infrastructure.
Inflation has now risen to an averge of 16%, but some crops are hit very badly, tomatoes, a staple for most local dishes and fresh salads, are twice as expensive now as they were before July 2001 when the waters first destroyed harvests, villages, roads and bridges. Peasants are still living on mud embankments waiting for the rehabiliation of their homes, fields and livestock.
YWAM Pakistan has been distributing mosquito nets, water filters and clothing to empoverished families and will continue to do so throughout 2011. The teams have adopted specific villages in Sindh and wish to provide for their needs until they become self sufficient once again.