News from Orthodox Church in Pakistan. Δυσκολίες και νέα από την Ορθόδοξη Εκκλησία στο Πακιστάν.

Greetings from the Orthodox Mission in Pakistan! A lot has happened in the past few months, and we have plenty of good news to share about the mission.

http://orthodoxpakistan.org/donate/

Pb. Rosy’s Health Has Improved!

Earlier this year, Pb. Rosy was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. For the past several months, she has undergone a painful regiment of chemotherapy and lab tests. We received notice from Fr. John that Pb. Rosy’s doctors are very happy with her progress. She no longer needs to take medication, and is regaining her strength. Pb. Rosy has always been a pillar of prayer, teaching, writing, translation, and counseling for our Orthodox brothers and sisters; she can now resume her work for the church.

Fundraising Efforts

The members of Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Linthicum, MD put together a yard sale to help raise funds for Pb. Rosy’s treatments. The sale brought in over $700, all of which went directly to OMP. Other generous donors contributed an additional $4,336 towards her medical expenses since news of her diagnosis came to light in April. Fr. John sends his thanks to all who contributed, «Thank you so much for your kind concern and love for our family, and the Orthodox Mission in Pakistan.»

A New Road http://orthodoxpakistan.org/donate/

Due to the generosity of all those who contributed to the mission, OMP received more donations than were needed for Pb. Rosy’s treatments. Fr. John and parishoners of the church of the Annunciation in Wazirabad, (shown below) have long worked to replace the old road next to the church due to annual flooding from the rainy season, but progress has been slow due to a lack of funds.

The Old Road

With the windfall of recent donors, Fr. John decided to pave the road next to Annunciation. This will save the mission and Annunciation’s parishoners time and money, enabling them to focus more on helping those in need.

The New Road

Sewing Center Services Expand

Times come when the needs of a community change, and the communities that Fr. John serves are no exception. The OMP Sewing Center in Hafizabad, which opened in 2014 with the assistance of OCMC, was initially formed to teach women to sew, and provide a safe place to stay during the day while the men in their family were away at work. This protected women of any religious background from sexual violence, as well as young Christian girls from being abducted and forced to marry Muslim men. The Sewing Center still functions in this capacity, but has also begun sheltering at risk women, and homeless children beginning last month. Fr. John regularly goes to court so he might help free young girls who have been abducted. The Pakistani courts release the girls into Fr. John’s custody, and he must then find their parents. These girls need a place to stay until their parents can be found, so they also take refuge in the Sewing Center.

Mission Needs

The needs of OMP are many, and Fr. John constantly finds himself short of funds. «Every month, we provide uncooked, nonperishable food to widows and poor families,» he said, «But for the last two months, we have not due to a lack of resources.»

Fr. John’s health has presented concerns for the mission for some time. «For many years, doctors have asked me to have the cataracts removed from my eyes», he said «but I have long since put this off because it would affect my work with the mission.» The doctors informed him that the time for delay has passed, and that he needs to have them removed, otherwise they will begin causing him problems. The surgery to remove the cataracts costs $1000. An anonymous donor has offered to match up to $500 towards the surgery. If you would like to contribute, please visit our website for details.

Prayer Requests

Please continue to pray for the Orthodox Mission in Pakistan, Fr. John, Pb. Rosy, and their family. Pray specifically for their health. If you would like to receive a reminder to pray for the mission on a specific day, please reach out to us via email. «We continue our pastoral work, despite having limited resources,» said Fr. John, «We often find ourselves in painful situations, but we won’t complain… Life is such that, being humans, many times we lose hope and are discouraged because of enormous problems. The fact is this that God lets us feel this way to assure us that He is with us to the end of the world.» Please pray that Christ, our God, through the prayers of His all pure Mother, would help, comfort, and lead our Pakistani brothers and sisters through whatever the evil one throws at them.

http://orthodoxpakistan.org/donate/