Blue Ridge Bible Church is partnering to provide seed money for a major rescue of impoverished and hopeless Pakistani “brick kiln” children, trapped in darkness and needing the light of Christ and practical support.
What is the Pakistan Children's Rescue?
Who? 10 boys between the ages of 5 to 15 who are orphans or children from dysfunctional families, and expanding up to 20 children. Pakistan’s brick kiln industry widely uses child labor as indentured workers, under the most odious conditions, enslaving them for most of their lives. At present, 1 million people work in these kiln communities and roughly one-third of these workers are children under the age of 10. Many of these children have been sold as indentured workers by their parents due to the family’s poverty.
What? Starting and building a center that provides food, shelter, safety, and education in a loving environment that exposes these children to salvation in Christ.
When? Starting in 2019, over a three-year period. 10 boys over a period of two years and expanding up to 20 children over the full three-year period.
Where? The center’s location will be in Lahore, Pakistan and situated to service children from one of Pakistan’s brick kiln communities, which are located around most of Pakistan’s major cities. The center’s location will be outside of the kiln ghetto and within the nearby city. (Having the center in the city allows access to many necessary services, including electricity and sanitation.)
Why? It is a direct outreach to the unsaved children in the worst of Pakistan’s ghettos – the brick kilns. The project’s primary content goal is to expose the children to God’s salvation, by bringing them, and when relevant their families, out of the brick kiln ghettos over a multi-year process with the goal to be totally self sufficient at the conclusion of three years.
Why now? BRBC’s ministry partner to the persecuted church, Smyrna Ministries, supports a Pakistani-based ministry called Healing Journeys Foundation. Healing Journeys currently provides medical assistance via Dr. Ambrose Emmanuel to the destitute and hopeless families in the brick kiln communities, offering the opportunity to assess the dire need for a rescue project.