An Eyewitness Update

Pakistan has come through its controversial elections, and now the questions remain about the stability of its political and spiritual future. Now hear from an eyewitness to the events and how we can continue to pray for more eyes to focus on Pakistan in the months to come.

The recent elections in Pakistan went GREAT. The incredible tension leading up to the elections pacified into a relative peace as the results came in basically as expected without room for accusations of rigging or foul play.

Election Day was tense and quiet. Later on in the evening as things seemed to be turning out well, our team decided to venture out from where we had been shut-in. Two English-speaking guys came up to us and struck up a conversation with their unhampered Pakistani kindness, hospitality and excitement and they offered to give us a ride. You could feel the tension as the route happened to take us through a hostile party’s area. They hushed us and whispered about the safest direction to go and proceeded slowly and cautiously, breathing a sigh of relief once we passed through.

But the tension of that day subsided into a scattered assortment of parades, celebrations and lots of noise and commotion as Benazir Bhutto’s party had won as expected…and then the whole country breathed a sigh of relief at having passed through.

And yet it still gives perspective and thankfulness for our imperfect, but peaceful political systems as this better-than-expected result meant that “only” 19 people die on election day and “only” four bombs gone off throughout the day.

The remaining question is now, “What happens with Musharraf?” Will the PPP / PML-N alliance try to remove him? If they do will they succeed? What will that mean for the future of Pakistan?

And THE ultimate question is, “What about Pakistan’s spiritual future?” As one of the most unengaged countries on earth (if not THE most), the real issue facing Pakistan is that there are so incredibly few workers for the massive number of Muslims living there. Are we going to wait until Pakistan is “safe” and “stable” before we go and tell them that Jesus died so they could have eternal life? If we do, it will never happen.