Church Planting in Pakistan, One Brick at a Time

If you were to travel to a Pakistani city, one thing you will notice is the predominance of bricks as building materials. Brick kilns dominate the landscape as you travel from one city to another. Thick black smoke pours daily from the chimneys. The people who live and work at these kilns are housed around the kiln and most are subservient to the kiln operator. The work is hard and pay is low.

Many laborers are trapped in a system of bonded labor, locally known as peshgi (advance payment), in which advance payments or loans bind families to kiln owners for years—sometimes for generations, driving families into deeper poverty and repayment of debt is often impossible. Poverty, debt, and social discrimination combine to keep these families locked in a cycle of cruel slavery from which escape is extremely difficult.

Labor at brick kilns is commonly organized on a family basis. From before dawn and in the blistering heat of the sun, men, women, and children all participate in brick molding, carrying, and stacking bricks in huge mud ovens. If they manage to make 1,000 bricks in one day, they receive about $4. Children who ought to be attending school instead spend long days laboring, but most will never see the inside of a classroom.

National local churches are reaching out to these communities with missionary efforts that focuses on church planting but also responding to the need for education and humanitarian support. One brick kiln I visited now has a building for the new church and brings in a teacher to work with the children who are allowed to attend. For these children, this is their first exposure to learning. Education has also been a tentmaking strategy among Hindu people. Like Christians, Hindu people are marginalized and treated unfairly by the majority population.

Through church planting, education and humanitarian efforts, men, women, children, and entire families are turning to Christianity.