Usman’s Story
Usman Ali stocked shelves and dispensed medicine at a busy pharmacy, where customers came and went all day. He was a kind and quiet man, the sort of presence people hardly noticed until they needed him. Two months ago, his mother died, and the loss settled over him like a slow, heavy fog. He carried it to work each morning, and home again each night.
When his mother passed, his family arranged the long journey home, twelve hundred kilometers from the city to the village where she would be buried according to the faith of his fathers. The road trip was not easy. Usman watched relatives recite the prayers, perform the washings, and conduct the rituals he had grown up surrounded by, but for the first time, he could not find meaning in them. Something inside him, beset with grief, began to question whether there was more to life than the traditional customs he had seen since he grew up.
Power of Prayer
In the weeks that followed, I met with Usman often. We would sit together in the evenings, drink tea, and talk. Without pressing him, I shared stories of Jesus: how He healed the sick, comforted the broken, and welcomed those whom others ignored. Usman listened more than he spoke. He never argued, but he never agreed either. I prayed quietly for him, not knowing what was taking root behind his calm expression.
One evening, after closing the pharmacy, Usman came to me with a steadier light in his eyes. “I want to accept Jesus,” he said. “I want to be baptized.” Surprised, I urged him to take more time, to read more, to count the cost. He shook his head. “Jesus is calling me. I cannot wait.” That night, in a small room behind the pharmacy, with only a few witnesses present, Usman was baptized. His smile was wide, and the heaviness that had hung on him for months seemed to lift.
Such moments are precious in Pakistan, but they are also dangerous.
The country consistently ranks among the most difficult places in the world to follow Jesus, with blasphemy laws that carry the death penalty and a strong social code that treats leaving Islam as a betrayal of family and community. Converts from Muslim backgrounds often face the strongest pressure of all: rejection from relatives, threats from neighbors, in some cases violence and implicated in blasphemy which carries a death sentence. Christian communities across the country still carry the memory of mob attacks like the one in Jaranwala in 2023, when entire neighborhoods of Christians were burned in a single day.
Usman knows the road ahead will not be easy. He continues to work at the pharmacy, kinder and more hopeful than before, quietly sharing, when the spirit leads him, what Jesus has done for him. His grief has become a doorway, not a dead end. The pastor who walked with him through those evenings over multiple cups of tea, now asks the wider Church to walk with Usman too, to cover him in prayer as he begins a life that will cost him much, but has already given him a peace he had never known before.
Please pray
Safety and Security: Pray for Usman Ali’s protection as a new believer, that the Lord would shield him from harm, threats, and pressure from those who oppose his faith.
Strengthened Faith: Pray that Usman would be rooted deeply in Christ, that his peace would not fade in seasons of testing, and that the Holy Spirit would guide and comfort him daily.
The Persecuted Church in Pakistan: Pray for Christians across Pakistan, especially converts from Muslim backgrounds, that they would find courage, community, and the perseverance to stand firm in faith
