A Pakistani Christian leader called Ashley said to me 21 years ago: ‘Mike, if you really want to help our community, help us educate our children.’
What a challenge for me – especially after many years committed to evangelism in South Asia with Operation Mobilisation. We are deeply grateful for the spiritual foundations in discipleship and leadership formed in those years, which continue to inspire us.
My wife and I have spent much of the past 50 years working, thinking and praying for India, Nepal and Pakistan. In India in the 1960s and ’70s I travelled into the villages and streets preaching and distributing gospel literature alongside a team of young Indians. An educated Hindu came to me one day. ‘Do you believe the Bible?’ he said. ‘Yes, of course,’ I replied. He looked at me. ‘Jesus said that if you drink deadly poison, it will not hurt you. Will you drink a cup of poison if I give it to you? If you survive I will become a Christian.’ We faced many such challenges.
When our stay in India was cut short, we moved to Nepal – and then to Pakistan. There we set out to do as we had done elsewhere, overseeing teams going into the streets with gospel literature and Bibles. Pakistan is an amazingly open and free society and we quickly learned to love it – and to love the Christians who welcomed us and worked alongside us.
But then came this challenge: ‘If you really want to help our community…’ Of course we did, but I had never been a school teacher, nor taught a class, nor had any idea how to do it. But we came to know many local Christians who wanted to serve their community, but needed a helping hand. It started with Ashley.
The Lahore Christian High School
A businessman from East Sussex came to visit me. I asked him if he could help with some projects in Pakistan, including building a school for Christian students. ‘Yes,’ he said. I asked him: ‘Which project would interest you?’ ‘All of them!’ he replied. Does God answer prayer? Yes – above and beyond! To cut a long story very short, I called my friend Ashley and told him: ‘Ashley, you can go ahead and open your school.’ The school is still serving about 150 Christian students and has a 20-year record of exam successes and career launches.
It was the beginning of what came to be registered as Starfish Asia, a charity (CIO no. 1181649) whose aim is to support education with Christian values and teaching for Pakistan’s deprived and poorest Christians. Why Starfish? It comes from the story of a man watching a boy throw starfish back into the sea. ‘There are thousands of starfish on the beach,’ he said. ‘What difference can you make to so many?’ The boy looked at him. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘It makes a big difference to this one,’ and he threw another one back into the sea. We cannot save everyone. But it makes a big difference to those we can save.
Success and failure
We look back now on 21 years of growth and development. From that first school, we are now supporting about 10,000 students in 46 schools and several homes and centres for orphans, the blind, and children from dysfunctional homes.
Space forbids me to tell all the success stories. Each year a new generation of exam successes come through schools that we support, young Christians with the possibility of a future in which they can support their families, confident in their faith. We have provided our own curriculum for daily Bible teaching in classes 1 to7. ‘Starfish has played a pivotal role in my life,’ said Dr Asher who received a scholarship to complete his degree in Medicine and Paediatrics. ‘I am in my final year of study for a doctorate in Physiotherapy,’ wrote Zarish who also received a scholarship. ‘Starfish has had a vital role in my life.’
We have also had our fair share of problems and pain.
15 March 2015 began as a normal Sunday in the Christian community of Youhannabad, Lahore. We were supporting several schools there, an orphanage and a centre for the disabled. On Sunday morning the churches were filled with worshippers. As the services came to a close in St John’s Catholic Church a man wearing a suicide belt tried to climb over the gate. He was stopped by a young man called Akash. They were both killed when the bomb exploded. 17 people died in two suicide bomb attacks on local churches. Akash was a student at the Ghauri Wisdom School, which we have supported from its inception to today’s student body of 600. A memorial to Akash was erected opposite the church in memory of a brave young man who gave his life.
Life is full of risks and sometimes they are painful. When the earthquake struck in the north of Pakistan in October 2005, 80,000 people died. A Hindu village in the mountains was totally flattened and the survivors came down to the town of Hasanabdal, a Sikh pilgrimage centre west of Islamabad. As part of the relief effort, a Starfish Asia friend opened a school for Hindu, Sikh and Christian children. We have supported it for 15 years. The teachers are Christians and have no difficulty sharing their faith in class.
Looking back over 21 years
We have supported the Dean Public School in Lahore since 2014. As all our schools serve very poor communities who find it hard to pay fees, the bulk of our support provides at least a basic salary for the staff. We also arrange training for teachers, many of whom have few qualifications. Last year we also rebuilt Mr Dean’s school, adding more classrooms. ‘Now no class is without a classroom,’ said Naeem Dean. ‘The students are really happy and thankful.’
Mr Dean is a well-qualified maths and science teacher. He could easily get a good job in a private school on a good salary. I asked him why he lived so simply and served with no salary (his wife has a good teaching job to support the family). He smiled. ‘It’s my community,’ he replied. ‘I have to help my community.’ All his students come from poor Christian families in the area, and he is equipping a generation for the future. Such sacrifices motivate us to do more for Pakistan’s Christians.
Looking back over 21 years, from the beginning with the Lahore Christian High School, to the 50 schools and homes that we now support, we are urged to do more. Pakistan has grown, often through massive turmoil, economic and social upheaval, threats from neighbours and social unrest within (ranked eighth on the Open Doors World Watch List). When Starfish Asia was born, the population was just 140 million. Today, 21 years later, it stands at 225 million, of which about 40% are below school-going age!
We want to tell you the stories of our past 21 years – some of them related here, but many more in the Starfish Asia Story booklet we want to send you. It is a gift to help you give thanks and pray for Pakistan’s Christians. Write to me for a copy at mike@starfishasia.com
