All Days
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Day 4-Cities: Peshawar
PSALM 126:5-6
“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
**Pray that P believers would consider Jesus worthy of their very lives.
Luk 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
TRIBAL WATCH Pray for the Afridi Tribe. Mainly living in the Khyber Pass region, along both sides the border cross. They historically exercised right of toll. Pray for many Afridi to hear the goodnews and come the faith and lead many to faith.
More Reading:
The city of Peshawar lies in the heart of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(formerly North West Frontier) province. With a population of over 2.2
million, it serves as the provincial capital. Situated near the Khyber Pass
on the Afghan border, Peshawar has for millennia been a gateway to
Central Asia and to the subcontinent. People from distant lands and
tribal territories adjacent to the Peshawar valley have been drawn to
this vibrant political, economic, cultural, and educational center. The
dizzying mixture of sights, smells, and sounds of one of the world’s
most picturesque bazaars reflects both Peshawar’s ancient past and its
modernizing aspirations. Surrounded by green agricultural land on the
edges of an ever-turbulent frontier, Peshawar is set apart from major
Pakistani cities by the presence, language, and cultural distinctives of the
Pashtuns.
During and after the Soviet-Afghan war (1979 to 1989), Peshawar
and the Province were host to 3.5 million Afghan refugees living in
hundreds of tent villages. This transformed the city, since it served as
the base of operations for UN relief, international NGOs, the Afghan
mujahideen (freedom fighters), as well as a center for weapons and
foreign fighters. Adding to the intrigue were myriads of journalists,
government officials, scholars, spies, and adventurers.
The city continues to function as a transit point for people, ideas,
and commerce – including the smuggling of goods into landlocked
Afghanistan. On a trip to the Khyber Pass, a visitor asked a local leader,
“What is the Pashto word for ‘smuggling?’” He answered with typical
Pashtun wit, “We just call it ‘business!’”
Political instability in Afghanistan, Taliban-related violence along the
Pak-Afg border, and insecurities in Pakistan, continue to impact Peshawar.
Sporadic suicide bombings have traumatized the city and its citizenry.
Peshawar embodies the ongoing tensions between continuity and
reform. Amidst clashing values and an insecure future, the gospel offers
hope for the city – hope for a transformation that begins in the human
heart, by the power of God. Many 19th-20th century missionaries made
this strategic city their home. Some are buried in the city’s Christian
cemetery (Gora Qabristan). An 1876 report from Christian workers in
Peshawar could have been written today:
“In taking a retrospect of the past year, we have no cause for
discouragement, although the actual [believers] have been but few. On
the contrary… we see the quiet under-current which is manifesting itself…
Oftentimes, men who first hear the gospel at Peshawar make an open
profession [of faith, later, elsewhere.] ” “The work is the Lord’s. In obedience to
his command, and in dependence on his Spirit, the seed must be sown patiently,
but in hope.”
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