Start by praying
If you have found this site from a church in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Gulf or anywhere else, the most useful thing you can do is the thing we ask for first: pray.
Pray for the volunteer teachers who prepare a lesson after a full day’s work. Pray for children learning to read Scripture in a language the world does not print much of. Pray for Christian families under pressure, and for pastors planting churches in places where a new congregation is not welcome. Praise the LORD for what He has already done, and ask Him for the teachers this work still needs.
A church that prays for a Sunday School by name is a real partner, whatever else it does or does not do.
Ways your church can partner
Pray for a specific Sunday School
Rather than praying generally for Pakistan, ask to be linked with one Sunday School. You will be told where it meets, roughly how many children come, and what the teachers are asking God for. Missions committees find that a named class holds a congregation’s attention in a way that a country never does.
Help train teachers
Training days are the single most effective thing this ministry does for Sunday Schools, because one trained teacher reaches a new group of children every year for as long as they serve. If your church has experience in children’s ministry, that experience is worth more than you think.
Put Scripture into children’s hands
Through Urdu Bibles the ministry has already given more than 50,000 illustrated children’s Bibles to Christian schools and Sunday Schools. Many children still have no Bible of their own at home. This remains one of the clearest needs, and one of the easiest to pray about specifically.
Share the curriculum
If your church supports work in any Urdu-speaking community — in Pakistan or among the diaspora — pass this curriculum on. It is free to use, free to print and free to translate. Sharing it costs nothing and takes a teacher from having no material to having forty lessons.
Come and teach
Teams do visit, and a team that comes to train teachers leaves something behind that outlasts the visit. If your church is considering sending people, write early, because it takes time to arrange well.
What partnership looks like in practice
Get in touch through the contact page and say who you are, what your church is able to offer, and whether you would like to be linked with a particular Sunday School. You will hear back from the team with something specific to pray for — not a newsletter, but the actual situation of an actual class.
Frequently Asked Questions
We are a small church. Is there any point in us partnering?
Yes. A congregation that prays faithfully for one Sunday School for a year does more good than a large gift that arrives once. Small churches make some of the steadiest partners.
Can we see where our partnership goes?
Yes. Partners are told which Sunday School they are linked with, and are sent word of how that class is doing.
Do you want money?
This site does not run appeals, publish targets or list amounts. Prayer is asked for first and asked for most. Churches that wish to discuss supporting the work in other ways are welcome to write directly, and will be answered honestly.
Can we use your lessons in our own children’s ministry at home?
Please do. The curriculum is free to anyone, anywhere, and Urdu-speaking families in your own congregation may value the Roman Urdu memory verses.
Who do we deal with?
You correspond with the ministry team, who are on the ground in Pakistan and know the Sunday Schools personally.