Pain and Persecution

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Monday, June 16th, 2014 | Tags: ,

There are no words that can do justice to what we witnessed this evening. None. To witness the love of God, so raw and moving is truly a blessing. Reverend Aftab Gohar, originally from Pakistan is a minister at Abbotsford church in Grangemouth. He is blessed not only with the gift of being a talented preacher but also with the gift of forgiveness.

Last September, two suicide bombers targeted the congregation of All Saints’ church in Peshawar, Pakistan where he was brought up, and where his family and friends still go. Despite discovering that some members of his family had been killed or critically injured, he carried on his way to Abbotsford church to lead morning worship for his congregation there.

He described the horror of the aftermath, the devastation of families with children losing parents and parents losing children – not a single family was unaffected by the suicide bombers; he spoke of a community depleted by death and gripped by grief. But, despite telling of the killing of his mum, uncles, niece, nephew, and close friends, the many horrendous injuries, the slow (if any) rehabilitation of the injured, and the carnage and chaos in his home community, not once did he show any sign of hatred or revenge, but rather he did so with an overwhelming sense of forgiveness.

How humbling to be in the presence of this man who so clearly puts God first; talking about something as simple as going to church, something we take for granted so much that it would be almost ludicrous for us to think we were risking our lives by going!
He told his harrowing story with nothing less than grace and peace, forgiveness and love. Next time you are on your way to church, why don’t you pray for those who don’t have the luxury to freely worship God like we do?


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