“Injeel Sharif"

 “Injeel Sharif!" 


My friend exclaimed excitedly as she pulled a Pashto New Testament off my desk. I was standing there cutting okra to make a meal for us to share while she randomly flipped open to the Lord’s prayer and started reading out loud. “Wow I really like this!” She said. She flipped open another passage and began reading out loud about when the Pharisees accused Jesus of eating with sinners. She would ooh and ahh and occasionally ask questions like who the Pharisees were while I continued cutting the vegetables, occasionally helping her read a few words, as most Pakistani Pashtuns don’t learn to read the Pashto alphabet. We shared our meal together, gleefully avoiding another round of oily daal maash in the mess hall, and she went back to looking at my books. I pointed out the Zabur (Psalms) I had, and she again excitedly began to read it, not realizing that one of the Holy Books was poetic, she found it very beautiful and interesting. She asked if it was true that everyone said that these books are corrupted. I said how can that be since the Quran says these are also the Word of God and the Quran also says God’s Word cannot be changed? She thought that answer made good sense. Pray for harvest as many of these girls from remote and closed-off villages suddenly have access to the Good News.

 

I have a roommate this year. She is not Pashtun, she is from Chitral, a small area nestled in the Hindu Kush mountain range with its own distinct people groups, languages, and cultures. She’s from a fringe ethnic group descended from the Greeks who passed through in the time of Alexander the Great who now have their own language, “Khowar”, which is similar sounding to Chinese, drink tea with salt instead of sugar, and are very open, peaceful Muslims. We’ve had many meaningful conversations, and she says she knows God answers my prayers, and that she wants to read the Bible she sees me reading. Pray for her as she is very interested in hearing what I believe and acknowledges that God is with me. Thank God for such a huge area of access as five hundred girls live in and around me and witness the day in and day out walk with Jesus.

Pray for my friend who was arrested on blasphemy charges along with some local brothers and his 9-year-old son. They let him out on bond, but they are trying to decide if they should leave the country for a bit or not, as since they’re not in jail now, the religious party who accused them could come after them. Praise God they were rejoicing while they were locked up and all others there got to hear their praises.

Praise God for a new year back at university. Despite not being granted the facilities promised, I’m still in a better state. Even though I was denied the room reserved for foreign students, I am in a better room than last year as I’m in the main building, so it isn’t as hot, and it’s close to the washrooms and away from foot traffic and occasional riots that take place at the gate. Still, the food is not enough to sustain me and there are shortages of gas, but I have a propane cylinder now, so I can cook my own food anytime, as well as share with my friends. I introduced some girls to things like apples and peanut butter and lavender chamomile tea which my friends in Islamabad supplied. So thank God that even though the girls are continually denied the facilities granted to the boys, God is still providing for me. The latest disturbance is that the girls are not being allowed access to Wi-Fi whilst the boys are. I am just now sending this update as Signal hasn’t worked all week, but yesterday it decided to start up again. Pray for all the girls here as we live under such a corrupt and discriminative leadership.

Thank God for bringing me back to Peshawar. Thank you all for praying, Khodai p amaan⁩

 

Kendall Freeman

Sept 20 2024