Pakistan Needs Prayer

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William Wilberforce once said, Let it not be said I was silent when they needed me. This is Lantern Rescue. Well, welcome to Lantern Rescue, and today we have a fascinating update, a somewhat scary update from Pakistan.

We got John with us. So John, what's going on in Pakistan? Yeah, so right now, with everything, especially with everything going on in Israel, there's been a lot of political volatility in the Middle East and South Asia, and right now Pakistan's government has begun really cracking down on refugees, and they're really targeting Afghan refugees right now. And we all know what happened in Afghanistan in 2021, when our troops left and the Taliban took over within a week. There have been, Afghan has just been a really a very chaotic place and there's been a lot of people fled. And Lantern has helped, you know, partner with other organizations to help get people out of Afghanistan that, you know, Christians and people that were, our lives were under threat. And they've also partnered with Voice of Christians to house people in Pakistan. So right now, most of those, a lot of those refugee Christians are Afghani. And that's just causing us a lot of problems, obviously, because the Pakistani government has become very dogmatic about the way they're approaching this.

And it's really, in some ways, it's not even safe to be Afghan, even if you have the right paperwork in Pakistan. Wow. So, you know, what does that, I mean, what in the world do you do? Yeah, there's still a lot that we don't know yet.

It's one of those things where you kind of just have to do, take piece by piece, one thing at a time. Kay John, one of the gentlemen that also works with me, he's in Pakistan right now trying to, he just got there yesterday, just trying to fix what he can fix and do whatever he can. We have a, so Voice of Christians has a partner who is pretty active in the political arena. And Voice of Christians also hired a, they have some lawyers, they got some connections with all lawyers, so they're really trying to work with Lantern to, you know, see what can be done. But the lawyers that Voice of Christians has are trying to, they already sent some appeals to the government, just trying to protest what's going on. And they've led some protests, some activists, you know, open protests, but also, you know, signing legislation, not legislation, but I have to double check, I can't remember the exact wording, but basically, they're filing legal cases against the Pakistani government saying that they shouldn't be doing this. And who knows if that's going to do anything, if maybe it'll help, or slow down the process or something, I don't know. But you've got that kind of larger level where you're trying to, trying to, you know, legally stop, or figure out this process, or slow down the process, or figure out, you know, there's something that we can be doing. And then you also got the personal level, because, you know, it really comes down to is this police officers are going to go into this building and infect these people, like it becomes very, very personable, too. And we have four, I'm sorry, so, and Lancer is really supporting a lot, financially supporting a lot what's going on there.

Really amazing work. And they've, like I said, partner with Voice of Christians, Voice of Christians has a few shelters for, and then they have, and Lancer's also, I'm sorry, Voice of Christians also partner with another organization called, I can't say their name or the radio, but another organization that's local there in Pakistan, to do a shelter specifically for, you know, refugee girls that have been kidnapped and things like that. We've talked about that in this podcast in the past. But so there's a lot of, there's a lot of people, we're talking, I think, close to just 100 people in, over 100 people, actually, just in Voice of Christian shelters, that are really don't, don't know we're doing. And there's many other families that are in our shelters, but that were, you know, helping.

And they're also concerned. So when you say that, when you say the police come in and they evict, so essentially, if you're living there, it's like all of a sudden, you're back out on the street and you've got no place to go. It's actually worse than that. You're arrested, you're taken to a group of trucks and you're sent back across the border, you're forcefully deported. So eviction is something we could deal with, but this would be, you know, they're arresting people and forcing them to leave the country. When you're talking about going back across the border, does that mean they're going back into Afghanistan? Yes, they're deporting them directly back into Afghanistan. And them being Christians when they get there, it's not good, right?

Yeah, it's not good. And even worse, the fact that the Pakistani government's doing it in this way, um, because a lot of these people are doing the transportation and things, they're Muslim. And if they get any inclination that the Afghans that they're transporting are Christians, um, most likely they will advertise that once they're sent. So not only are they going into a very bad situation where they're being deported back into Afghanistan, um, but the Taliban already know that all these people fled for some reason. And usually that has religious reasons. They didn't like, they didn't align with the jihad, um, and the, you know, kind of the barbaric law of Sharia law. So the Taliban are, are going to be waiting for anyone that's coming back over there, knowing that there's a problem with them. They may not know they're Christian, but they at least, at the very least, if they're being deported back, um, most likely they were, you know, left the country because they didn't want to be there.

And so that means the Taliban already has a problem with them. Wow. So talk about your urgent prayer request, right?

Cause this is actually like today is November 3rd, Friday, November 3rd. So, I mean, this is real time, um, urgent stuff that, that, that we can be praying about, right, John? Yes.

Yeah. I definitely am pleased to, I actually was just on the phone, um, with one of our directors of, uh, voice of Christian shelters. And he's a, um, wonderful young man. He's 21 years old. Um, he fled Afghanistan, uh, with his family, um, at 20 and, and we picked him up and, and, uh, got him in one of our shelters and, and he is just, I mean, just a stellar young man, very intelligent, taught himself English, um, really knows, understands computers well. And he has been managing, you know, a shelter of, uh, over, I think over 40 people, um, by himself. And I mean, not by himself, he does report to other people, but essentially, you know, he, and a lot of times he is, um, doing a lot of the day to day tasks by himself and just, he's been doing an incredible job, but, um, this has been beyond stressful because not only is he trying to take care of the people and, and every one of the shelters just been in panic for weeks, but, um, but also he wants to, he has his own family that's living in that shelter, his sister, his mother, his father.

And so emotionally, it's been incredibly challenging for him to be in a leadership position as a very, very young man and still, uh, um, deal with all of this. So I, I called him this morning. I was just talking to him and trying to encourage him and, and let him know, praying, praying for him. And that is one thing he really requested was, you know, if people could pray. And so I asked, you know, people as, as you, God leads you to pray for Pakistan, um, definitely, you know, hit a few prayer points. One being to pray for, uh, legislation that Pakistan government would stop, um, stop this just crazy, uh, attack on specifically Afghans in their country, um, provide some kind of alternative or, or safe way instead of departing them back into their home country. If we, you know, allowing them to go to different country, anything, um, we're working with other countries to allow them to go to, um, but also, uh, you know, praying for the Christians that they would have the hope and faith to, and wisdom on what, you know, what to do, um, organizations that they can continue to, to cert work with wisdom, whether that's lantern with the Christians or any other organizations that's in the area. Um, but also do please keep in mind, uh, our young man. Um, I can't, I don't, he doesn't have an alias for me to give over at the radio, but if you could definitely pray for, um, this young man and he's a young Afghan man who's in charge of our, uh, the shelter, he's just under a lot of stress, mental stress, and he had to really use our prayer. Oh, wow.

I can't even imagine, um, you know what it's like. So he's essentially just waiting for the shoe to drop, like the police could show up any day. And so this was something that came down with the government. Has, has any enforcement of it happened yet? Um, as far as I know, yes, there are some, um, because I heard some stories of, they were, they were just arresting anyone.

It didn't matter if they had proper paperwork, they even had visas. Um, they were, uh, they were arresting and, and detaining just, uh, just about anyone that looked Afghan. Um, and, and on top of that, um, I think I may have mentioned this, but so our shelters, a lot of our shelters, uh, we rent them, um, that just is more prudent because if we have to relocate that shelter, because it's not safe in a particular area, that's a lot easier to do when you're renting. And if you own the place and now you have to buy a new place and sell that old one and all that.

So, um, we have been renting last years in Pakistan specifically. Um, and because of that are the land owners or the building owners, um, have been put under a lot of pressure to not house any Afghans otherwise they'll be in trouble. And one of our shelters, um, was received a notice by the police saying, um, that there can't be any, uh, there's just a lot of pressures and that they can, they cannot be housing any Afghan refugees and the fine and jail prison time that they're, they're subject to. Um, so the owner kind of went into panic yesterday and was trying to basically told everyone they had, you know, until, um, this morning to get everyone out. And I mean, we're talking, I'm getting messages, you know, middle of the night from family members, people that are saying, Hey, my, you know, my children's have cold, they're sick. We can't, we can't leave.

We can't go out into the streets. Like, what are we going to do? Um, it was, it was pretty, uh, chaotic, but thankfully to a voice of Christian structures was able to go to, um, this, uh, this gentleman and kind of talk with them and including that young man, I mentioned the Afghan and Afghan man, and they were able to convince them to, to at least buy us a few days to figure things out. So, uh, he, he agreed. So as of right now, that, that one shelter didn't get shut down. Um, but like I said, these are some of the things that, uh, in the area that just, you know, I'll be trying to sort out and figure out relationships. And I mean, bride, please, I don't know, whatever we have to do. Right. Right. Hey, we got to go to a break, but, uh, we will be right back more with this update on what's going on in Pakistan with the Afghani refugees.

We'll be right back. Lantern Rescue is a USA based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. Lantern specializes in sending former US special operation, law enforcement and intelligence personnel to partner with host nations and assist them in creating specialized units to combat ongoing security problems, such as genocide, terrorism, and human trafficking.

As a nonprofit charity, they offer services free of charge to their host nations. Human trafficking is grown into the second largest criminal activity in the world, reaching an estimated $150 billion in annual activity. Lantern Rescue has developed rapidly to combat trafficking. Lantern operates through a trained international network in order to rescue women and children from sex and labor slavery and facilitates holistic aftercare services.

They're gearing up for operations right now, and you can go to lanternrescue.org to see how you can support them financially. Oh, welcome back to lantern rescue today. We've got, uh, wow. The world is a more and more difficult place. It certainly is. If you're in Pakistan and you happen to be an Afghan refugee, um, John, we got a whole lot going on and you got some more updates on the legislation, right?

Yeah. So, um, we, uh, we do have, so I was just, uh, I'm in a group conversation with some of the legal advisors of voice of Christians in Pakistan. And there was a, uh, press relief, um, refugee petition, um, that, uh, the legal team put together.

And, um, so this was, yeah, this was actually just created yesterday. Um, but basically it is a petition challenging this order of this, this new law coming out where they're going to be just deporting, able to deport, um, all of all past, um, Afghans and in a specifically it's on the basis of their ethnicity. So even though they are trying to remove, um, refugees out of the country, which I think is how they're advertising it, they're, they're specifically targeting Afghans. Um, and I can't, I'm not, I'm not well enough versed in global politics to really speak too far into this. However, um, I will say it isn't a secret that Pakistan is one of the, or maybe it's one of the better kept secrets that Pakistan really is one of the core, you know, dark figures in the world when it comes to terrorism and supporting terrorism.

You hear a lot about Iran, Iraq. I mean, goodness, even in nine 11, the Al Qaeda, all of that was, uh, really was supported by Pakistan and yet Pakistan for some reason, whether through corruption through their own ties, still stay out of the spotlight. Um, but the fact is Pakistan is, uh, they're, they're incredibly devious. They're very corrupt and, and they do a lot of things, you know, based off of selfish interests. And so unfortunately that does mean, um, that when they they're, they're doing something, usually there's alternative motives. There's something that some personal officials have to gain. Uh, and that's why they're doing it political in nature or financial, whatever. Uh, so this is not going to be easy battle. Um, but we do know when we, a lot of, um, some of the lawyers that, that came up with this petition are some of the top lawyers in the country.

Um, and, uh, I don't, there's, I believe there's three or four of them. I know they're in the, I think I said top three, but they're in the top 10 of the most well-known lawyers in the country. So they do know the game. They know how things work. Um, and so if anyone could come together and do some legislation in Pakistan, it would, it would be them. So they did release, um, they did release a, um, um, press release, uh, petition. Um, but then they also sent one directly to the, uh, Supreme court of Pakistan, um, this petition. So may, if you ever, if you look in Pakistan, Pakistan news, I'm not sure if it's showing up yet, but you should see something probably about this, um, there, um, and, and just supporting those kinds of events, obviously is good, whether it's calling your own, um, your own Senator calling, you know, anyone in government that you might be able to get aligned to and just voicing the concern, um, that will just add to the pressure. I understand there are several countries that are adding pressure onto Pakistan that they shouldn't be doing this, but the more we do, um, to add that pressure, the more the pressure that that hopefully will get pushed on out and eventually could make a difference. Sure.

Absolutely. So what, what does the press release essentially, or what does the petition say? So I haven't read through all of it. Um, I just, let me take a, I can take a look and see if I can find a better portion here.

I feel like, um, all right. We do have a few points here, uh, if you'd like me to read it. Um, so, so this was the petition that was sent to the, um, to the Supreme court of Pakistan, uh, points of law and public importance, whether caretaker government has the constitutional lingo and legal mandate to make him ask deportation policy, which effectively refers to this Pakistan's 45 year old tolerant policy toward immigration from Afghanistan. So that's one of the points that they're hitting in this, um, protest. So, so basically whether it's even legally have the right to go ahead and change a 45 year old policy and do, and do this mass deportation, uh, it challenges whether the constitution of the law and the laws of Pakistan allow for mass deportation of persons who are for the time being residing in Pakistan without providing any robust mechanism for identifying genuine asylum seekers, refugees, and Pakistani birthright citizens. Um, so in many of these cases, you literally have pregnant women that cross the border and they delivered, um, there on Pakistan, which technically makes them, you know, Pakistani birthright citizens. Um, and there's no, I mean, this is just those children along with their parents will just get grabbed up in a group of people and sent across the border. And, and now you've got a child growing up in Afghanistan with no legal right to be there.

They don't have citizenship and I mean causes just the more you think about the more problems, um, it's going to create a point. Number three is whether the constitution and laws of Pakistan allow for expropriation of the property of foreigners residing for years in Pakistan. If they do not have valid visas or other documents, entitling them to stay in Pakistan, um, whether course of deportation of illegal immigrants whose asylum applications are still pending violates the principle of non-refoulement, thereby undermining Pakistan's international obligation and causing a breach of article four. So, um, I'm not familiar with article four, but I do know that a lot of these immigrants are, are currently in processing with, um, the United nations humanitarian, uh, relocation program. I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact name, but basically it's how most of the world transfers refugees. Um, so there's refugee programs that are in place and once you apply, it can take years, but you'll get sent to usually a European country, sometimes America or Canada or something like that, Australia. Um, but one of these countries will accept you as a refugee and there's a whole system in place. Well, some of these people are in that process and they've been waiting for several years. Their turn could be coming up anytime. And now instead they're getting pulled out of that whole system and getting thrown back into, um, to there and to Afghanistan, uh, which some of them haven't lived from lived in for almost a decade, or I've heard stories of people, you know, being in, um, Pakistan for 12 years.

Uh, there was one family that were there for 12 years before they got, um, the, uh, the approval that they were sent to, I think it was Brazil. So it's, it's really, uh, it's really unfathomable, uh, the levels that this, this disruption is affecting people's lives and in many cases on a very, very serious life threatening way. Yeah. And it also, did I hear, understand that they were just appropriating their property?

In other words, taking everything they have. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the concern because, um, you have a landowner or house owner or even, you know, they're going, arresting them and taking them in whatever belongings they have are getting left in that property. So now who's the owner of that, uh, property and in a corrupt government governance system, it wouldn't surprise me. And it appears that this is what, what something they're challenging, um, that the local government there is going to, to take over ownership of their properties or their, their belongings and cars or anything, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Anything. Like I said, Pakistan, unfortunately is, um, honestly, it's probably one of the most, there's a lot of corrupt countries in the world as anyone who's ever traveled. But honestly, Pakistan is, is one of the top, uh, most corrupt just throughout. I mean, your officials all the way to the highest, um, order of the land that, although they do have a good system, it seems like they do have a good system with their Supreme court, which isn't necessarily, um, you don't necessarily see that everywhere. And so that's why I really am hoping and praying that some of these cases is, um, legal cases, protests against what's going on do at least get heard in the Supreme court. Yeah, absolutely. And add that to write our urgent prayer request that uh, all of us can take up that, that the Lord would give them favor with a Supreme court.

And as the Supreme court would act quickly, um, as clearly, you know, you know, there's lives at stake and unbelievable heartache and evil, even children having to go out that are sick. Right. I mean, it's, it's unthinkable. Yeah.

Yeah. Especially the parent. I couldn't imagine, um, what it's like for some of these people. It's, it's hard. It's honestly, it's hard. I mean, these people are sending me pictures of their kids and sending me, you know, begging pleading requests and it's challenging even mentally, um, you trying to support them, trying to love on them and trying to encourage them, but, but knowing how desperate the situation is, um, and as a parent, that's, it's hard to look at that and not just feel your heart, you know, bleeding for them.

Um, I hate, we're out of time, John. Um, but God bless you. And, and, and clearly, um, I know that our listeners who are going to be praying and, and obviously continue to support land and rescue at land and rescue.org, where there'll be updates there. And again, just, just thank you for, for your compassion for what's going on and, and for being there for those folks as well, John, God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. This is the truth network.