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The main challenge for Hindus living in Sindhi villages in Pakistan is poverty and debt.
“These Hindus are lower caste and ‘untouchable’, so they are working for the Muslim landlords,” Sam explains. “And Muslim landlords are not paying them a full amount for their labour.
“They are in the debt of the Muslim landlords from generation to generation. For example, someone’s parents were working for the landlords. They took a loan and they were not able to pay it back, and once they died and their son had to pay the loan off.
“So it is a generational curse among the Hindus. They have different kind of traditions and they are full time engaged like a slavery of the landlords in Pakistan. So they are very poor.”
In response to this need, Sam and his team of 14 workers are aiming to transform these communities through self-help groups and self-sustaining projects.
The self-help groups provide small business loans to allow Hindus to open small shops in their homes, negating their reliance on their landlords.
Some have used the loan to buy goats, which provide milk, meat and more goats, while others have learnt about kitchen gardening hare been provided with seeds and equipment.
Sam’s wife Sito* works with the women in the villages through the Bliss project, which teaches life saving skills for childbirth.
"Many women died at the time of delivery because of they don't have access of a hospital, they don't have a money,” Sam explains. “Even the children who survive, they don't have full nourishment or there are other complications, so many newborn babies died. So my wife and other women from our team are organising trainings and helping them to learn and understand more.”
Through these support groups, the team is coming to know the villagers more, and is able to offer more resources to help their spiritual growth.
Much of the Hindu population is illiterate. They don't know how to read or write. So in one village, Sam gave one family an audio Bible so that they could listen to God’s Word. Every day in the morning they would listen to the recording, but unknown to them, their neighbours could all hear the stories as well.
One day, the recording stopped working and they called Sam to ask for a replacement. He told them he could come the following afternoon.
The next morning, the family’s neighbours knocked the door. “Why you are not playing the audio Bible? We are listening every day!” they told them.
When Sam delivered the new recording he found two families eager to hear the next chapter. They asked for a second device so that they could play the recordings for more families to listen to. One family started sharing the device with the next family and now there are 10 Hindu families enjoying the audio Bible in this village. More than 100 people are turning to Christ in this small community.
In 2017 a young boy invited Sam to visit his village and home. He shared that his family had become Christians many years ago, before he was born, but that they were the only believers in their village. He described his parents as "not really Christian. We are like our neighbours as Hindus”, and asked Sam to come and have fellowship with them.
Sam visited the family and showed them the Jesus film, then, at the request of the family, held a meeting in that village to share the Word of God.
"God opens the door,” Sam says. “Many woman were standing up and they asked me to pray for them. After that we started our weekly meeting Sunday service in their village, even though the there were only five Christians out of 150.
“We start praying and asking God ‘God, please open the heart of the villagers’. After a few months some of the villagers said ‘we want to repent and follow Jesus Christ’, and we were very happy that God is working.
“Then slowly, slowly, things become changed. We feel the need that to open a school here. Girls are not going to school. Children are not going to school. So it was like a small primary school. We were visiting three times in a week and we became closer to that community. Gradually another family turned to Jesus Christ, then another family, and another family. All 29 families in the village are believers now.
"In the last six years more than 150 people from that village, they became believers, and the guy who invited me to his village, we appointed him as a leader. Later he joined our team and he is working in our team as well now.”
Hindus in Pakistan celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, in a big way, and Sam has found that it can also open doors to talk to people about Jesus, the True Light.
Many people also come to Christ through the healing ministry offered by Sam’s team.
As of summer 2024, there are 35 fellowships among the Hindus, and 26 leaders have been trained. In past 10 years, more than 3,400 people have come to Christ from a Hindu background.
“Hindus are in my heart,” Sam shares. “I want to share the good because they are neglected, they are rejected and they have nobody. I feel that God called me in this area to share the gospel with them.”
* Give thanks that through the audio Bible many people are coming to Christ.
* Pray for Sam and those who work with him in Pakistan to share God’s Word with Hindu communities.
* Pray for more resources to allow Sam and his team to reach more Hindu villages.
* names changed
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