Pakistan
Pakistan came into existence in 1947 as a Muslim homeland carved out of British India at partition — a birth accompanied by one of the largest and most violent mass migrations in history, as millions of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs crossed new borders in opposite directions, leaving hundreds of thousands dead. The land itself is ancient: the Indus Valley Civilization flourished here 4,000 years ago; Alexander the Great marched through; Buddhist monasteries once dotted the Gandhara region. Arab traders brought Islam to the Sindh coast in the 7th century, and successive waves of Islamic conquest from Central Asia Islamicized the subcontinent over the following centuries. Today Pakistan is the world's second-largest Muslim country, with Islamic identity inseparably bound to national identity. A small Christian minority — mostly descendants of lower-caste converts from the colonial era — lives under severe legal pressure, particularly from blasphemy laws that have been weaponized against religious minorities.
255,220,000
People live in Pakistan today in the country with the largest concentration of unreached people on earth — 255 million people, 99% of whom have never had a genuine encounter with the gospel. The Christian church is tiny, largely marginalized as lower-caste laborers, and faces constant legal vulnerability under blasphemy laws that carry the death penalty. Open witness is dangerous, conversion is a family catastrophe, and the social pressure of Islamic community life is immense. Yet God is at work: Pakistani house churches are multiplying, diaspora believers are returning, and a generation of young Pakistanis is asking questions that Islam has not answered.
Prayer points
Two Hundred Fifty-Five Million
Pakistan contains the largest concentration of unreached people on earth — more than the entire populations of most countries. Pray for the Pakistani church, small and often marginalized, to receive the vision and resources to reach its own people. Pray for workers from inside and outside Pakistan to go to its cities, villages, and remote regions. Ask God for a movement among the Punjabi, Pashtun, Sindhi, and Baloch peoples — a wave of disciples multiplying from household to household across this enormous nation. "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matthew 9:37–38)
Blasphemy and the Persecuted Church
Pakistan's blasphemy laws have been weaponized against Christians and anyone who challenges Islamic orthodoxy, creating a climate of fear that makes open witness nearly impossible and lands innocent believers in prison on fabricated charges. Pray for Pakistani believers to have courage and wisdom in this context. Pray for justice for those imprisoned under false accusations. Pray for lawyers willing to take these cases, and for the government to protect the rights of religious minorities rather than exploit religious law for political ends. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:10)
God in the Karakoram
The remote north of Pakistan — the Karakoram, Gilgit-Baltistan, the Chitral valleys — is home to millions of unreached people in terrain so rugged that no worker can reach every village. But God speaks from the mountains. Pray for Pakistani Muslims across the country to receive dreams and visions of Jesus — in Karachi's crowded streets, in Lahore's ancient lanes, in the mountain villages of the north where no missionary has yet gone. Ask God to do in Pakistan what no human strategy alone can accomplish. "I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1–2)