Key person: Azam and Barbara Gill, Azar, Izia and Eliza
Azam is involved with three churches but is based at Chaklala church which meets in the hall at the Christian Cambridge School (PAK06). There are 60–70 regular attenders and it is growing. Last year they baptized 19 people and there are another 15 about to be baptized.
Azam’s weekend preaching is coordinated by another guy and each Sunday he goes to a different church, Bara Kau, Rawat or Chaklala. Another guy is the main pastor at Chaklala but Azam mentors him. They are really encouraged by this new church. The other two churches are largely based around some families and there is little chance of growth whereas this church is growing from people coming into the area or choosing to make this their church. They come from a variety of backgrounds, Catholic, Brethren, Pentecostal and most are nominal believers when they come.
They are seeing numerous young people coming to faith and are encouraged by this. Barbara started a prayer ministry each Wednesday but one of the younger women is now leading this.
Every two months Azam leads a two day mini Bible school on a Friday / Saturday. They study various books of the Bible and subjects for about 4 hours each day. About 15 people come each time, pastors from small churches and young people mainly.
Azam’s main source of income is book translation from English to Urdu. He gets orders from churches and organizations. This amounts to about $US200 / month spread across a year, depending on how many orders he has and how long they take to complete.
Azam is also responsible for building the school building at Wazir. This takes quite a lot of time managing people and organizing for the right people to come and then overseeing it all. This includes the compliance costs as well as hiring the tradesmen.
Barbara and Azam oversee the adult literacy programme at Rawat and the sewing centres. Azam goes from time to time but it requires a woman to be there as well. However, Barbara’s main work is at the school. This takes a lot of time and energy, especially at certain times of the year and school term. They organized the distribution of 45 sewing machines to the various sewing programmes last year.
The children are doing well at school. Azar is 19 and almost finished secondary school. Izia is 14 and in grade 8 and Eliza is 13 and in grade 6. They are very different kids but easy to talk to and engaging. Every evening around 9:00 they have family devotions and all take part. The boys are mad on European football and both play. Izia is the star of his school team, and being 14 loves to talk about it!
For the next 3-4 years their focus will be the school and getting that into profit. I think that will be a key to this family flourishing.
Getting the kids educated will be a challenge for the next few years. Azar needs to go to University next year and the costs go through the roof. Keeping up with this will provide them with numerous challenges.
The work in Faisalabad does need to be monitored more regularly than it has been in the past and they will have to keep on top of that. Finding the time to go out there is the issue.
1) That the family is doing well and are happy.
2) That they will continue to be protected, Azar had a car crash last year. The roads are very dangerous and they are travelling every day.
They are an engaging family with a lot of personality. The parents are very committed to ministry and helping people. They are providing valuable assistance to many people and communities. It would be hard to calculate how many.
They are overseeing about 20 people currently. This includes the school teachers, the sewing class teachers and literacy teachers. Each month they have to pay their wages and make sure they are on top of their game. They also have to deal with the stuff that goes with being involved with these people, emergencies, illness, family stuff. They get called into it all.