Hundreds of Pakistanis now worship Jesus because we serve a God who overcomes geography, technology and unbelief to reach people looking for him.
This great work of the Lord started in 2022. Ruth, who lives in a remote part of Pakistan, had a phone, internet access and one prayer: ‘Lord, lead me to somewhere, someone who would grow my faith.’
God’s answer to the 17-year-old’s request was Hillcrest Church and their Thursday night online prayer gathering. This historic Converge MidAtlantic church in Jamestown, New York, has been missions-minded since the 1880s.
Through their obedience and generosity, God has done far more than Ruth requested: A church of 450 people now praise Jesus on Sundays and serve him the rest of the week.
“The Lord started a church and used our little online prayer gathering on Thursday nights to do it,” said pastor Mark Hinman of Hillcrest in Jamestown, New York.
That new church is Hillcrest Pakistan. They’re located in a rural part of a country where the constitution declares Islam as the religion for more than 250 million people.
Despite the country’s least-reached identity, God’s found faithful servants. Pakistanis like Ruth’s uncle, who has musical gifts, and her father, who owned a sound system and a large TV, have set up a worship space with finances provided by Hillcrest.
That’s where hundreds of Pakistanis praise Jesus and share testimonies of God’s goodness. After the singing and testimonies, Ruth translates Hinman’s preaching to the gathered believers.
“Every week, every week, there will be something that is jaw-dropping and, sometimes, that’s just flat-out miraculous,” Hinman said.
To help more people know Jesus and experience his goodness, both churches also started a school that currently serves about 60 kids. God, who wanted to do greater things, sent Hinman and others on Hillcrest’s missions team to Pakistan in November 2024.
On that trip, they realized there that those greater things are increasing. However, they first had to see with their own eyes that more than a million Pakistanis are indentured slaves. These mostly Christian families make bricks to pay off generational debts.
“They make so little and the odds are stacked against them,” Hinman said, choking up as he recalled the sights and stories. “We were heartbroken. This is so utterly wrong.”
Related: Watch the lives of brick kiln slaves but see how God has transformed lives.
That’s why Hillcrest partnered with Pakistani ministries to pay off the debts of these Christians. Through The Exodus Project, disciples help these families find new jobs and better lives.
So far, thirty families have been freed from their debts and no longer work as slaves. These thirty families were intentionally chosen because they were in the most desperate situations, suffering with two broken legs or severe burns, for example.
Like Converge MidAtlantic, both Hillcrests focus on starting and strengthening churches. At the same time, there is a unique and essential opportunity to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Related: You can join this gospel-centered compassion by helping pay off these debts.
The faith, love and obedience of believers at both churches is what the God who looks to and fro through the earth sees. Now, he’s working through these disciples to do greater things, just like Jesus promised his disciples in John 14.
“We’ve asked the Lord for greater things,” Hinman said. “The church is growing and the gospel is advancing and people are coming to Christ.”
Converge MidAtlantic is a movement of churches working to help people meet, know and follow Jesus. We do this by starting and strengthening churches together worldwide.