My family is from a small town in northeastern Pakistan. My parents and grandparents were part of the very small Christian community in our area, and we attended a Catholic church. One of my grandmothers worked as a Sunday school teacher for twenty-six years, and sometimes I would attend her classes. Though I was quite mischievous and did not always engage in the classes, they introduced me to the teachings of Jesus and I learned to practice many Christian values. However, we did not learn about how to receive salvation individually. We were taught that religion is determined through family heritage, and that being born into a Christian family automatically makes a person a Christian.

High school was a dangerous and challenging time in my life. After making some friends who were of a different religion, I became deeply entrenched in sin. Those friends were from families that were more affluent than mine, and envy began to grow in my heart. I longed to be part of what seemed to be a luxurious lifestyle. I thought that if I didn’t act like them, they would make fun of me, so I started using bad language, smoking, and going to parties. I even joined a group that was known for getting into fights at school. Soon, I was consumed with my social life. I became rebellious against my parents, teachers, and elders. I did whatever I wanted, regardless of the consequences. I was on a path of destruction.

An encounter with God

The day before my seventeenth birthday, I was at home studying by myself when suddenly, I started trembling and shouting. My parents rushed over to calm me down, but I could not explain what had happened. Later that night, I woke up trembling again and felt an intense heat. Then the Lord showed me a vision of all the sins I had committed with my friends and others. Feeling scared, an understanding came over me that I needed to get away from those friends and their sinful lifestyle.

The next morning, I told my mother about the second episode. She didn’t say anything right then, but after school that day, she asked me to pray with her. As we prayed, I felt the Lord drawing me, but I was still holding on to sin in my heart and did not receive the answer that I needed. My heart was still troubled.

Realizing that there was a major problem in my life and that I needed something more from God, I started to study the topic of salvation. However, it was difficult to understand because there were varying teachings on the subject, and none of them seemed right to me. Some church leaders were saying that if you gave them a monthly donation, the members would pray for you to receive salvation. That did not make sense to me. At the same time, I was trying to stop sinning in my own strength, but that did not work. My old friends came around enticing me back to their way of life, sometimes even tricking me into temptations, and I was not able to withstand them.

A connection in Canada

During that time, I remember asking the Lord to help me understand His Word and to show me how to forsake sin. In the fall of 2021, God answered my prayer in a wonderful way. While searching different topics on a social media site, I came across a group called “Apostolic Faith Mission – Fort McMurray.” It was a church in northern Canada. There was an encouraging post on that page, and something prompted me to leave a comment. My message said that I was from Pakistan and asked if their church held any Bible studies online so I could join them and learn more. Someone replied that they did have weekly gatherings online.

Because of the time difference between our locations, for me the meetings started at 4:00 in the morning! This was especially difficult considering how cold it gets during wintertime. It seemed impossible to join that group, but the idea would not leave my mind. After a few days, I prayed for God to give me strength to attend. When I did, I heard people share personal experiences of how the Lord had saved them and how He was actively working in their lives. Their testimonies convinced me that the Lord could do the same for me. I began to think, The Lord is the same everywhere. If He can save them, if He can heal them, if He can forgive them, why couldn’t He save me? Even though I am a sinner, I am His creation. If these people can receive what they needed from God, I can too.

Finally finding answers

I reached out to the church’s pastor, Sister Marjorie Reid, and asked her about salvation. She described what it is and how a person can receive it, and she also showed me the website of the world headquarters church where all the church’s doctrines are explained. Much of that information was new for me and there were many misunderstandings to straighten out, but finally it seemed I had found what I was searching for.

After one of the Fort McMurray church meetings, during the altar call I decided to pray that God would do for me what He had done for others in that church. Since I already knew and freely admitted that I was a sinner, I confessed every sin to the Lord with sincere remorse, and asked Him for His mercy and grace. I believed that God is my loving Father, and that if I came to Him in repentance, He would not reject me but would be merciful and receive me. That day was incredibly joyful for me—the Lord forgave me and saved me! I felt a heavy burden of sin lift from my heart, and the stain of sin was washed away. It was as if I had been living in darkness for so long, and finally the Lord brought me into the light!

After that, the Lord gave me the strength to stay away from my old friends and sinful habits. My family was very happy about the change in my life because they had been worried about the path I was on. When I shared what I had learned about salvation with several of my relatives, the Lord demonstrated His power and many of them were also saved.

When God saved me, he also healed me. Before salvation, I was always dealing with different health problems, including a diagnosis of tuberculosis in 2019. When Jesus came into my life, I received divine healing and my health has remained good since then.

I continued to participate in online church meetings and started asking Sister Marjorie even more questions. Soon, a group of my relatives were all hungry to know more about the teachings of the Bible and to hold prayer meetings. Sister Marjorie sent me sermons to translate into Urdu and share with them. We all rejoiced as more people received salvation, healing, and other blessings from God.

Very quickly, I came to realize that the teachings of the Apostolic Faith Church are all based on the Bible. The true teachings from the Bible are so important, yet it was something I had never heard in Pakistan. This was also my first time to hear about sanctification and the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

There are many others in Pakistan who are just like my family—they have a Christian background and consider themselves to be Christians, but they have a limited understanding even of salvation. My heart was touched with a desire to let all of them know what I had found. A few of us who had received salvation started reaching out to people in different villages, cities, and regions. We shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, and the Fort McMurray church members gave us funds to distribute hundreds of Bibles. The Gospel message was well received. People asked us to come back again, and some told us with tears, “Today, salvation and joy came into our home.”

A beautiful experience in Zimbabwe

In 2022, Sister Marjorie put me in touch with the Apostolic Faith Superintendent General, who was Brother Darrel Lee. I was so happy to talk with him and to share about what God was doing in Pakistan. He was very encouraging and prayed for me, and also invited me to attend an Apostolic Faith camp meeting in Zimbabwe later that year.

The Lord made a way for me to go to the camp meeting, and it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. The Lord showed me many things and answered my many questions. I also met several church leaders and heard amazing testimonies that filled me with more joy and strengthened my faith.

On one of the nights, a musical concert was held. The music was so peaceful and beautiful. The presence of God came over me in a powerful way, so I knelt to pray. A scene from the Day of Pentecost appeared before me—I saw a rushing wind and flames of fire, and people praying in different languages. I heard the words, “Walk before me and be thou perfect.” The presence of God was so strong, I lost myself in prayer.

Different brothers came and prayed with me as God sanctified me, removing the sin nature from my heart and mind. Then God also filled me with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, giving me power to spread the Gospel in Pakistan. That night, the joy in my heart was outstanding—it was the most joyful time in my life. God cast out all fear and gave me a boldness to follow Him regardless of the consequences. He gave me new strength to do His will. I can only thank Him for His mercy and grace upon my life. Before I returned home, I was also baptized in water, which I hadn’t had an opportunity to do previously.

A complete transformation

The Lord has done amazing things for me. I was a young man who was pursuing a life of sin and had no desire for holiness or the things of the Lord. I disliked pastors and preachers and looked down on them. But God humbled me in an amazing way. He saw that I was miserable in my old life, and He sought after me and found me. He freed me from a life of sin that was filled with heartache and depression. Then, He equipped me to do His work and opened doors for me to bring the Gospel to thousands of people in Pakistan. He has also given me the blessing of sharing with others and witnessing them receive salvation, sanctification, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. God has given me more than I could have ever imagined. The transformation in my life is proof that God can do the impossible, and if He could do this for someone like me, He can do it for anyone.

My desire is for all of Pakistan to be saved, and I know that is also God’s desire. Wherever He sends me, I will go; I have no more fear because when God is with me, there is no need to fear. Please pray that God will continue to help us at the Pakistan headquarters church, and especially that the Gospel will reach every soul in countries like Pakistan. The rest of my life I have committed to Him.