Simon Allaby, Connexion Trustee and Pastor at Bolney Village Chapel, has recently returned from his 7th visit to Pakistan. Read his account of the trip below:

'As always it was a very busy programme with many opportunities to preach and teach, including pastor’s seminars, youth Bible studies, a nurses’ conference, men’s fellowship meeting and outreach to villages and brick kiln factories. I thought it might be most helpful to use this photo to give a glimpse into the lives of many living in Pakistan today and the difference Christians can make by showing the love and compassion of Jesus.

In the background you can see smoke rising from the chimney above the kiln where the bricks are being fired. There are thousands of such factories and in this part of Pakistan some two million people live and work in them. Families are caught up in bonded slavery with generation after generation trying to gain their freedom by making bricks to repay debts, mostly without success. A family of four have to make 1,000 bricks a day for which they will be paid £3. Living conditions are basic with no schools, shops or healthcare and inadequate diet. But there is hope for some.

In the foreground are two groups of children. The children on the right are able to attend a school which has been set up by the church and which has been permitted by the brick kiln owner (sometimes they refuse permission). As well as schooling they are given a decent meal including an egg, bread, fruit and milk. They might easily have been children from a school in England. But there is only enough funding to pay for half the children. So the children on the left of the picture do not attend school and do not get the meal. The contrast could not be more striking as they looked tired and depressed. My friend who runs the school longs for the day when the school can be expanded to include all the children.

While education provides the best route out of the brick kilns for the next generation, a fortunate few gain their freedom by having their debt paid. My last preaching engagement was at a church in the Butter Colony just outside Lahore. The colony is made up of families who have been redeemed. Why the Butter Colony? In the process of making butter a residue is left behind called lasi. So those who have been redeemed are called the butter, while those still left in brick kiln slavery are known as the lasi.

Thank God that in Jesus we have a Saviour who has paid all our debts so that we can all live in the ‘Butter Colony’. Thank God too that with the wealth he has blessed us with we can improve the lives of others by sharing both our material and spiritual riches.

I hope to return in 2026.'

Simon