Christmas-2017 in Pakistan



At Zeph Education where we not only give formal education to our students but we teach them many skills along with self-defense techniques and English language we have over 206 students and just a few of them are Christians our goal is not only to educate girls but to bring religious harmony among people too because we belong to a culture where people live for religion and they die for religion and majority of people are still illiterate and those who have some education they are also victim of our education system which mostly make followers not thinkers



That’s why it is easy for extremist religious clerics to misguide people in the name of religion.



Just yesterday some of those misguided people have attacked on a Church in Quetta Pakistan they killed nine Christians while 56 are injured.



I saw that news on TV but it is not possible to see that whole news little girls wearing white frocks who were ready to play the role of angels on the stage so that they could celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ are injured, they are bleeding, they are holding shoppers full of flowers in their hands and are running ,they are crying, they saw dead bodied, people cut into pieces, ,meat of their dead bodied, cries all over the place and some of them lost their love once.



My students who are preparing for the Christmas celebration since two months, show this would be our 20th annual show and this time our children were going to give a message of non- violence through a drama, they were going to dance on Christian songs, we would give food and would decorate the whole area with lights as always.



All those who are going to perform in that show they are from age 4 to 20 years the voice of their laughter is a most beautiful sound of the world, they are making new dresses, they are excited that I will cook so much good food for them, I will give them Christmas gifts, their relatives and parents will clap on their performances and will appreciate them.



These are children who have to do child labor, they see violence and hunger in their houses every day, they see their mothers being beaten, and being humiliated every day, they have to suffer a lot to access to education, they have to suffer for basic things of life, they rarely get a chance to live a worry free day even during childhood.



But we try to give them an opportunity to have their say, to gain confidence in themselves, to speak to the society on our annual Christmas show



But I have just received a call from the Pastor of our Church that High ups of Police in Gujranwalahaveordered tocancelall the Christmas celebrationsfor the security reasons only 24th and 25th December's prayers will be given security.



I know our Government is doing all that for our security, I believe that we Pakistani Christians are living in one of the best countries in the world where our government takes care of us a lot, our Army is the best army of the world who fights for all Pakistanis without any discrimination and truth is that if there were no security officials in that Church in Quetta Yesterday we would have seen a big number of causalities of Christians



I am still struggling to conduct the show on 24th instead of 23rd but one thing which is not leaving my mind is that if we do the show we might have to face the same consequences as Quetta Church had to face because according to authorities dozens of suicide bombers has left to attack during this week, but if we do not do the show ‘’ Will I teach my students to live in a fear, will I tell them that they have to be afraid even when they are doing rehearsal since two months to give a message of peace and what will I tell them, why are we cancelling the show? Because otherwise they can be killed, what if they will ask me for which crime they can be killed, what if they ask me what wrong they have done?



What if they will ask me? Is it wrong to walk on the path of peace?



I do not know how I will handle them, I do not know from where I will get this much courage to see their smiles turning into tears, to see their excitement turning into sorrow.



But I want to tell those terrorists who has tried to divide the nation of Pakistan on religious bases that



I am a Christian and I am Pakistan and we all Christians who live in Pakistan we are all Pakistan and we are proud to be Pakistanis, we were born from this soil and we will be buried in this land and they cannot make us apart from our homeland, from our beloved Country, we Love Pakistan and we live for Pakistan and can proudly die for Pakistan, we all Pakistanis are united against them and they cannot set us apart from each other as a Nation of Pakistan.



http://www.france24.com/en/20171217-deadly-attack-methodist-christian-church-southwest-pakistan-quetta

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