URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

Note: This letter was received from a gentleman who had been made aware of this situation on Tuesday July 17th, 2012. Letter has been edited and all names have been changed for the safety of persons involved, please keep this pastor in your prayers.


Pastor and missionary VS was living in Toba Tek Singh, near Faisalabad, Punjab. He was serving as Pastor in G**** B**** Church in Toba Tek Singh. On 7th July 2012 at 5.00PM Pastor was in his office. One police van and one Black car number LE *** with 3 police man in uniform came and 4 were without uniform entered in his office. They were in very good mood and told that you need to go with us to DCO office. Pastor’s 2 younger brothers went with him one on his motorbike other one in police van with Pastor. They told that they are from local police station but they went toward Lahore. When they went out of the city they dropped pastor’s younger brother there and said go back with your other brother, who was on motorbike, and they will drop him back.

Pastor’s family contacted local police station but all officers gave same answer that they don’t know any thing and no body gave any this kind of order to bring pastor here.

When Pastor’s family searched noted car number that was also fake. Pastor VS's younger brother W called me today and told about all incident.

My humble request to all brother’s and sisters please pray for Brother VS and do as you can do quickly.

God bless you all.

GIK

I'd also personally like to send out a prayer request for a situation occurring in my own village in Pakistan. The details of the situation there are not available to the public and for such reason will not be posted but please pray for the Christians in Pakistan; that God gives them strength of body mind and spirit, and wisdom beyond their own understanding when living in these difficult times.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be recruiting operatives in Canada, just an easy border crossing from the U.S., say terror watchdogs.

In a bit of a different report I'd like to share what's going on here in Canada via Iran with you all:

I was sent this from my dear friend Shabnam Assadollahi, someday we're going to have to interview her as well for you. Thanks for sharing this Shabnam..

Canadians must be vigilant. With all that's gone on in the past 10 years, we would be fools to consider these empty threats. As Mr. Amir Gissin said in one of his speeches last month on Isreal "When a country threatens to destroy... and seeks the means to do so, we would be fools to ignore it."

Let's not be the fool this time.

Has anyone had problems at border security/customs lately? Well ask me -- not only do I face the regular issues but being a Pakistani citizen as well has led to many an uncomfortable situation at borders. I'd still take a few rude people over anyone getting hurt so I welcome it wholeheartedly but how much worse would people like it to be before we open our eyes? Right now Canadian/US relationships are tense but still strong. Where will this lead us?

Although the liberal media would have us believe this man is a harmless kook, the inside scoop from Iranians tells the PC Inquirer that he is in fact quite brilliant. He has much of Iran on his side because he speaks to the hearts of the poor. Propoganda and manipulation of their minds gives him an advantage in those parts that we who see others only through our own understanding would not be able to comprehend. We'll be doing more on this issue soon!

UNITED NATIONS – The prospect of Iran using its embassy in Canada to mobilize Islamic Republic loyalists to attack the U.S. is raising alarm among terrorism experts after an official there issued a call to arms for expatriates to infiltrate the Canadian government and be ready to advance the interests of their homeland.

Details of the Iranian recruitment program came to light in a chilling interview Hamid Mohammadi, the Iranian cultural affairs counselor at the embassy in Ottawa, gave in Farsi to an Iran-based website directed exclusively at Iranians living in Canada. In addition to raising alarms in Canada, Mohammadi's message got the attention of U.S. terror watchdogs, who noted that radicalized Iranians would be just an easy border crossing from the American heartland, since Canadian citizens do not need a visa and typically face just a few questions from U.S. border officials.

Mohammadi said recent immigrants among the estimated 500,000 Iranians in Canada have “preserved their strong attachments and bonds to their homeland,” while second-generation Iranians are already in “influential government positions.” He urged all Iranian-Canadians to “resist being melted into the dominant Canadian culture” to aspire to “occupy high-level key positions” and said the embassy plans to extend its reach by offering “cultural programs” to Iranian immigrants and their descendants, who can then “be of service to our beloved Iran.”

The Iranian activity comes amid rising tension between the United States and Iran as toughening sanctions over Iran’s nuclear defiance impose additional hardships on the Islamic Republic, which Washington lists as a state sponsor of terrorism. Terrorism experts, noting Iran's recent failed plot to assassinate a Saudi official in the U.S., said Mohammadi's message is a not-so-subtle bid to recruit operatives.

“Definitely there is recruitment – they want Iranians with Canadian passports, Iranians with U.S. passports,” said Steven Emerson, executive director of the authoritative Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism and executive producer of the upcoming documentary “Jihad in America 2: The Grand Deception.”

“Canada is not of the highest rank among the enemies of Iran, and so it is more likely this [cultural program exists] for possible recruitment for use in the United States – anything from intelligence gathering, to being an intermediary in the recruitment of others, or to actually carrying out an attack.”

In recent years, the U.S. has foiled an increasing number of terror-related fund-raising and other activities linked to Iran and its Lebanon-based terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. Most brazen was the plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador Adel A. Al-Jubeir in Washington last year. It has also expelled security guards attached to Iran’s mission to the UN for spying, typically photographing tourist landmarks and key infrastructure.

But Iranian operatives in Canada would be out of the direct reach of U.S. authorities.

Iran’s purported cultural expansion program is also on fertile ground in Canada, where constitutionally protected multiculturalism – established under past Liberal governments – encourages immigrant groups to maintain their national and cultural identities.

“Multiculturalism is killing Canada. I’m sick and tired of political correctness in this country,” said Shabnam Assadollahi, an Iranian-Canadian anti-Tehran activist, who helped translate the Mohammadi interview.

“We don’t want these people to have a safe haven in Canada. And yes, the people they recruit can easily get to the United States.”

In his interview, Mohammadi speaks of Iran’s plan to win the hearts and minds of Iranians living in Canada.

“By 2031, the total immigrant population of Canada will increase by 64 percent, and that the number of Iranians will increase due to birthrate,” Mohammadi tells the website Iranians Residing Abroad.

“So, therefore, we need to put into effect very concentrated cultural programs in order to enhance and nurture the culture in this fast-growing population. It is obvious that this large Iranian population can only be of service to our beloved Iran through these programs and gatherings.”

Canada officially takes a tough line with Iran, annually leading a United Nations censure of its appalling human rights record. It also limits government-to-government contact to just four topics in accordance with Canada’s Controlled Engagement Policy (CEP).

Although part of the CEP bars Iran from opening consulates or cultural centers outside Ottawa, the directive does not appear to be well enforced.

An “education advisory” section of the Iranian Embassy in Canada is the main sponsor of a three-day Iranian Students Convention planned to take place at a meeting center this summer in Cornwall, Ontario, say Iranian-Canadians opposed to the regime in Tehran.

Iranian-published books promoting anti-Semitism and encouraging jihad (holy war) have also been used to target Iranian and other Muslim students for courses in Toronto and Ottawa, these same activists have revealed.

“Iran, with its nuclear weapons development, and thousands volunteering for suicide missions, has an aggressive presence in this very city [Ottawa], variously relying on, and victimizing, its expatriates,” David Harris, director of the international and terrorist intelligence program at Insignis Strategic Research in Ottawa, testified last year before a Canadian Senate social affairs committee.

Despite its platform of being tough on security, Canada’s Conservative government appears hopeful the Iranian Embassy will self-censor when it comes to spreading the word of the Islamic Republic.

“Foreign embassies are allowed to undertake domestic outreach activities in Canada; however, we expect them to do so in accordance with Canadian laws,” said Rick Roth, a spokesman for John Baird, Canada’s minister for foreign affairs.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred questions on Iran’s activities in Canada to the State Department, which in turn referred inquiries to the Canadian government.

Any naturalized Iranian-Canadians would be fingerprinted at the border, regardless of whether they had a Canadian passport, said Homayoun Mobasseri, director of the U.S.-based human rights activist group Neda for a Free Iran.

But that would not necessarily apply to Canadian-born descendants of Iranian immigrants, who are also the targets of Tehran’s recruiting efforts. That means this group has the best chance of entering the United States with the same relative ease as any other Canadian.

The Iranian Embassy in Canada did not respond to a request for comment, while the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said only the Ottawa embassy could comment. Iran does not have an embassy in the United States since there are no formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Steven Edwards is a freelance journalist based at the United Nations

For more information on the situation in Iran, please watch Shabnam's speech outside the United Nations in 2011:

ooberfuse Produces Another AMAZING Song -- Free Asia bibi

I can't believe I haven't shared this until now! The song was released a few months ago but anyone who HASN'T for some reason heard this amazing song by UK's premier Christian electro-pop band ooberfuse, PLEASE check it out. My huge thanks goes out to this group and the BPCA for being so vocal and creative and just plain amazing! The message is simple and necessary: Free Asia Bibi. Listen to it, share it, say it everywhere -- this woman deserves freedom.

Also, note to ooberfuse -- this song is SO catchy I literally have it stuck in my head all the time.

There's a story of a woman 

Who's the mother of five 

Three years in prison 

Now she's barely alive 

"Death to the Christian!" 

The angry mob screamed 

The penalty is death 

They say "she blasphemed!" 

In the stifling heat 

And the sickening smell 

She's sobbing in the dark 

Of her prison cell 

Crying out for her children 

As she bids farewell 

They're screaming for the blood 

Of the infidel 

Free Asia Bibi 

Free Bibi 

Free, free her now 

Dying on death row 

Behind prison bars 

She can't see the light of day 

Or gaze up at the stars 

Give back her freedom 

Life and dignity preserve 

Killing in God's name 

Destroys the peace we deserve 

Death by hanging 

Under 295C 

Imprisoned for three years 

Now set Bibi free! 

Give back her freedom 

Life and dignity preserve 

Killing in God's name 

Destroys the peace we deserve

Also for anyone who hasn't signed the petition, check out this video about her story via VOM and please go to www.callformercy.com to sign it today!

This is Our Lot -- We Clean Pakistan.

Reporter Rabia Ali asks: Minorities' share of jobs equals sanitary work only?

Have we become the inside joke in a country that does not value the labour of a man's hands? I wonder sometimes though, are we not meant to clean up the world anyhow? I heard someone once say that Jesus won the battle, we are the clean up crew in the aftermath. Picking up the brokenhearted and the lost, the angry and the hopeless. We're the ones supposed to be making this a fit place for the King --so that once He arrives in His victory parade that this place is covered in the culture of His Kingdom. He arrives to the best possible scenario --and He's literally given us all the help we'll need in the Holy Spirit. 

Ok preaching aside, this is a painful reality. I don't want to and nor do I think it's possible to sugarcoat the rampant injustice that Christians and really all religious minorities face in Pakistan. I just hope that with the way it's being shared worldwide that something will come of it. Muslims are always commenting their rage at how sad it is that minorities are treated with such disregard and even malice in their countries --but I don't think we can expect much more than agreement from the "moderate" citizens. What we can do is keep speaking, keep sharing and SET OURSELVES APART. 

Stop conforming to and enforcing our own stereotypes. At least among ourselves we need to change our perspectives and not look down on people with certain positions. Maybe our influence through our lives can reach others, after all --isn't that our real job? 

Despite being college graduates, their applications for desk jobs stand ignored. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID

KARACHI: 

Asif Ghani Masih starts his day by sweeping the dusty corridors of the Sindh Secretariat. As the day progresses, he scrubs dirty toilets and empties dustbins, tasks that are part of his day job as a sanitation worker.

In the evening, however, the 27-year-old becomes a neatly dressed student, who attends classes for a Bachelor’s degree; the tasks of the day shelved away as he scribbles notes. At school, he had often dreamt of being an engineer.

Three years ago, Masih was thrilled when he heard about the five per cent minority quota in all Sindh government departments. The prospect of having a secure job and pension made the intermediate graduate leave his job at a small, cash-strapped courier company and apply for a clerical post at the secretariat.

“I was hoping that my education would be enough to land me a decent desk job,” says Masih, as he sits in his modest house in Old Golimar. “But when the list came out I was shocked to see myself appointed as a sanitary worker in the finance department.” His eyes fill with tears as he remembers the day. “It hurts to be called a bhangi [sanitation worker],” he adds.

The ‘lucky’ few

For the religious minorities’ members lucky enough to land government jobs on the oft-bragged five per cent job quota, the only positions available at dozens of departments for them are of sanitation workers.

Take, for example, all 21 janitors who work with Masih. All of them are Christians or Hindus. Of the 16 who work at the Sindh minorities’ affairs department, most are Christians or Hindus too.

Even educated young men can’t get anything out of the quota but jobs as sanitary workers. He was a role model for his family, but does not like to talk about his job with them.

“Of the few educated youngsters in my family, I was lucky to land a job in the Express Courier Link and worked there for almost eight years,” said Masih. He started off in the customer services section and became an operations manager, but then switched gears in favour of a permanent government job.

Months ago, Masih had applied for the position of a dispatch rider at another department, but had no luck. He has reached out to politicians also but received no replies.

Sad plight

At the Sindh law department, a Hindu employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing his dismissal from service, said he had completed a college degree but is suffering due to his different beliefs.

“This is what the poor and minorities get for educating themselves,” he said. “We are suffering because of our faith.” He does not plan to spend money on educating his child, as he believes that won’t help him get a decent job in the end. The sanitary worker had got the job on minority quota after he asked for help from his community’s political representatives.

“It is sad that uneducated Muslims are appointed as clerks and cannot even write their names, but we are cleaning trash.”

Cold shoulder for Sikhs

The plight of young men from the Sikh community is no different too; they have been entirely left in the cold. Vijesh Singh, 28, applied to the Sindh wildlife department but never heard back. “Many of our people are turning towards shipping, since there we don’t have any Sikhs in the government and there is no one to pursue our case,” he says

MPA Saleem Khokhar acknowledges the issue. Minority members are only given such jobs, he said. “Muslims who are appointed sanitation workers, do not work and only draw their salaries,” he claimed.

Michael Javed, a Christian community representative, alleges that this is not happening in Karachi only, but across the province also. He cited an example in Jamshoro, where a Bachelor’s graduate Danish was appointed as a sweeper. “All nine graduates who applied for desk jobs were given posts of sanitation workers,” Javed said. “Three of them refused to take the job.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2012.

PC's Once Upon a Blessing: Episode 2

..and in this case, they're delicious too!

Word's have power. The bible tells us this but today's blessing is a shout-out to that well-known fact of life (and also to my love of purses).

My mum tells me daily my words have power, use them carefully. No complaining, no negativity -- and no more sullenness or low expectations. On one particularly memorable day of shopping during the holiday season, it was so crowded in our local mall and we were getting quite tired heading out; my mum had just finished the "Serena, your words have power!" lecture, when we were accosted outside a store by a crazed salesperson who's over-excitement took us off guard. We stopped. "DO-YOU-WANT-TO-TRY-A-KEY-IN-OUR-PRIZE-BOX?" the girl sped through in one breath so as to make sure we caught it all before walking away.

Box? The store was getting people to come inside and look around by offering each person a key at the door. Simple concept: open the lock using the key and whatever's in the box is yours! We were told that inside the box was a $100 gift card. To answer the niggling question I can feel burning in my female readers' minds: the store was Guess; and Yes, I did want that gift card. (It's Guess!)

So I grabbed a key and headed inside followed by my mum. We were immediately drawn into a swarm of other young women all determined to open that lock. The salesperson looking after the box and attempting to draw the crowd into an orderly line spoke up loudly and said "Isn't this exciting! Who's got the key that's going to open this lock?!?" Girls started giggling and raising their hands and that's when I firmly shouted "I GOT IT! MINE WILL!"

The young salesperson smiled down at me and beckoned me forward saying, "Great! Let's try it then shall we?"

She took the key from me and with some added flair she put the key in the lock.. as we all waited for baited breath I thought to myself.. This time. This time I know I'm right. And there it was: One simple turn and that lock fell open.

Unbelievable.

Coincidence? I don't think so. God just told me my mum's always been right.

Words have power everyone, and now you've got an example where that power was positive!

-----------

Speaking of words, I recently had the opportunity to be on Brantford's Christian Radio Station: Power 93.9FM and parts of it will be airing within the Brantford and surrounding area tomorrow evening (Sunday July 8, 2012) at 6PM! Hopefully my words are able to share something with our listeners tomorrow and I can inspire others to use choice words and actions to seek change here in Canada!

I'll be posting that interview as well as another speaking engagement I have tomorrow at a church in Kitchener, Ontario on here once they're available! So keep an eye out for that!

As always: be bold, be faithful, and be active. Kingdom life demands it.

For your perusal.. The US Comission on International Religious Freedom from earlier in 2012

US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Annual Report 2012