July 01, 1998 by

Baluchistan, Pakistan Sowing Seed in Nuclear Test-Ground

The history of the advancing Kingdom is a shuffled deck: Some stories of rapid, inexplicable progress mixed in with sacrificial tales of diligent, holy labor with little visible results.

Sadly, the latter has been the tale of the missionary outreach to the Baloch. They are a Muslim, tribal people amidst other Muslims who have persecuted them, leaving them only loosely wrapped with Mohammed's cloak. Originating high on the plateaus east of the Caspian Sea near present-day Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, efforts to reach them have largely been through Pakistan. Intermittently over 50 years, attempts have been made to reach them with the Gospel message. Yet, it was infatuation with the Gospel of Karl Marx that showed initial signs of a people movement - to Communism which promised them deliverance from the grinding poverty so prevalent in their land.

With the crumbling walls of Communism over the last ten years dashing the hopes of true Marxist ideologues and the continued persecution from their Balochi, Muslim brethren, a number of observers held renewed hope for a powerful reception of the person Christ Jesus. Those hopes, however, have not yet materialized.

Several efforts have born some fruit, with conversions that left the Baloch departing from iniquity.