This day started out like any other; spending time with God and preparing myself for whatever lies ahead. However, shortly into the day I quickly realized nothing could prepare me for what I was about to witness…
Arriving at our destination, we climbed out of our vehicle and were greeted by the sight you are about to see…
If this scene isn’t overwhelming enough, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much this little girl resembled my own little princess.
If it’s not already obvious, you are looking at child labor. But it’s more than that. The family you see are actually slaves. Yes, you read that correctly; these are modern day slaves in Pakistan, often referred to as brick slaves or the untouchables of Pakistan. What’s more, they are actually Christians. In fact many of the brick slaves are in fact Christians; as they often have the least access to education and the lowest paying jobs there. Of the 8-10 other families that we met and heard their stories, all of them were Christians.
This first family we met constituted 9 members: father, mother and seven daughters. The mother is ill with asthma. When we approached them, I was trembling. I could hardly hold back my emotions and refrain from weeping. Yet I was being asked to somehow minister to them. I was speechless.
How is this possible?
About now you’re probably wondering how this is even possible?! The way it happens is the family find themselves desperately needing a loan. Typically around $2500usd. Maybe someone in the family is ill and needs medical treatment, maybe they need money for a funeral or a wedding. Whatever the reason, they sign a contract unknowingly signing up to make less money per brick (small fraction of a penny) than what they could ever produce to keep up with basic living costs like food.
And thus they are deceived into a debt they can never repay and the only inheritance they will pass down to their children is that very same debt; generation after generation. There’s only two ways out of this: death or someone comes along and pays the debt they cannot pay and sets them free. Does this scenario sound familiar? It should!
What are the conditions like?
The typical work day begins in the early morning hours and continues for 14 hours through intense sun, heat and extremely dusty conditions. They make hundreds and sometimes thousands of bricks in a day. After drying in the sun the bricks are baked in a giant kiln where smoke is inhaled. The process is dirty, physically demanding and also physiologically degrading to one’s health. We met many people with throat and lung conditions, asthma and skin allergies.
Entire body skin allergy 
On 4 medicines for throat 
Bad asthma
They live in a small room made out of the bricks that has a door; but no roof.
If this place doesn’t already sound like a living hell…
True hopelessness
We met family after family with tragic stories. One couple was in love but didn’t have their families blessing to marry so they took a lone to get married. Now they are married slaves.
I tried to give a lolly pop to a little girl but she was too afraid to take it. I’m not sure if she had never seen one before or she was afraid of what would happen to her if she took it? But I realized in that moment that I had never witnessed true hopelessness. I had seen reduced hope but never hopelessness; until now.
We met a third generation family of slaves. They had been born in slavery and all they or their parents had known was to wake up every day, make bricks for 14 hours, sleep and wake up to do it all over again. That is true hopelessness.
The vile depths of sin…
Brace Yourself
None of these stories hit me harder than this next one.
We met a family with 6 children. One of them was a 15 year old girl who was a complete picture of brokenness. She couldn’t look us in the eyes and was visibly tearing up, but clearly trying to hold back her emotions.
If you’ve ever seen an abused dog before, her expressions had an eerie similarity. When a male tried to approach her to lay hands and pray for her she stepped back instinctively and appeared to be almost trembling.
If you haven’t pieced things together yet, let me be a little more clear what appears to be going on… it is my understanding that the brick factory owners, typically middle aged men, often prey upon the defenseless women trapped in this “arrangement”.
Personally, as a father and husband, I can’t imagine being in a situation where I cannot protect my wife and daughter from predators, however, that is exactly the situation many of these brick slave families find themselves in.
Factory Owner not pleased with his unwelcomed guests. Still he’s the only one with a smile in this place. 
Our invitation to drop by 😉
(He’s w/ us!)
Okay now that you and I have reached peak disgust and anger, this is where the story takes a sharp turn.
Moved with Compassion
While we were at the two factories, I had a battle raging within me. Our team raised enough funds to release at least one family and I had placed one of the team in charge of that decision. Meanwhile I was so moved by the first family of 9 with 7 girls and the last family of 8 with 6 children including the 15-year old that I had decided to myself that if we didn’t release those families I was prepared to do whatever it takes to see them released, even if I needed to take out a personal loan.
Seeking wisdom, finding one accord
Returning to the hotel, we received a list of the families we met and their debts and situations. We literally pooled every spare penny we had and determined we had just enough to save a second family. After some time of prayer and discussion we were all led independently to the same two families. As I type this, the liberation of those two families is in process! God provided enough funds to get them started with a small business of their own. Soon they will be rescued and the church there will be able to help them get back on their feet!
Worship & Praise! 
Waiting upon Him
Just One More
This is obviously all bitter sweet given the families that remain enslaved. When we arrived in Pakistan we thought we had enough to rescue one family. While we were there I asked the intercessory team to cry out for one more (2nd) family and God provided. As a team, we began asking God to help us raise enough to rescue one more (3rd) family when we returned home.
Their story is they have two young children and the wife is pregnant, but the husband is quite sick in his throat and needs 4 medicines before he even begins each work day. In researching for this blog I discovered a story that answered one of my questions…a pregnant enslaved woman gave birth and the very next day they had her back in the heat again making bricks all day. Praise God, this mother-to-be will have a different fate…God has already brought forth the funds to rescue them before I could even post this!
This couple has 4 children. When their parents didn’t approve of their marriage, they took a loan to pay for their wedding. They feared the past 12 years of slavery were a result of the curses declared over them by their parents.
I believe Jesus’ blood speaks a better word! Heb 12:24
You could probably guess my prayer at this point… Join me in praying, “Lord Jesus, can we save just one more?!”
He cares
Oh yeah I almost forgot… I could hardly believe this but I wrote much of this post Saturday night. Sunday morning after church my kids were looking at something in the lobby and asked me if the picture was the brick slaves I saw? I looked down and said, ‘That’s odd it totally does look like a picture of the brick factories!?’ Curious at what they were looking at I picked it up and discovered it was in fact a picture of brick slaves in Pakistan. Flipping to the cover… it just so happens to be the October edition of Voice of the Martyrs!
Ya’ll, I believe this is a matter near and dear to God’s heart! These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Please join me in praying for these families, for the rescue effort currently under way and for the healing of any wounds of abuse and sickness. And if you would pray for the other families we visited that this wouldn’t further destroy their hope but that God would raise up answers to end this evil once and for all.