Ramesh

Ramesh freedom in Christ.

This is Ramesh he lives in a small village about two hours from Hyderabad Pakistan. He is 9 years old and he has been living with this growth on his face for about 2 years, it had begun to give him some discomfort, and his family had begun to worry because they did not have the finances to get any necessary medical operations. They reached out to us for help, the finances required for the surgery was about $1300, so we told them to hold on while we tried to gather the money. During the time we were gathering the proper finances Ramesh took a turn for the worst and the doctor told the parents that if they did not operate immediately, he would lose his life. In a time of panic, the family borrowed the required money from a local Muslim landlord, (about $1500) he was rushed to the operating room for an emergency surgery, thankfully the operation went well, and he was beginning to recover from the surgery, but they had entered a new trial for their family. In Islam it is forbidden to lend money with interest, but like every rule it can be bent or broken and unfortunately there is a practice of leading money with interest to less fortunate families, especially those of other faiths, Ramesh and his family had just converted from Hinduism to followers of Christ. One of the biggest issues in Pakistan is the "landlord" situation where people from these poor rural communities fall on hard times or someone needs medical attention; most of these families live day by day and have little to no money saved. In order to get a loan, you have to put up your land that was passed down from generation to generation or if you don't have land, you can get a loan and offer to work off the loan. The loan terms for Ramesh family were about $240 per month; to add some perspective to that number the families on average in these villages earn about $130 a month, they would have to almost double their income to pay off just the interest required for the loan. Ramesh had to drop out of school and help work off the expense, as well as the whole family including the grandparents and all the children, it is not unusual to see an entire family working off the debt in Pakistan. This is a very hard-working family and through their efforts they were able to pay off the interest for two months, but they were exhausted and unable to provide the food and other necessities for basic survival, it was unsustainable living. The typical outcome for a situation like this is that the landlord takes the land and tells the family they can work off the remaining debt, he would allow them to remain in their house and continue to work the land but now they would have to pay rent to stay at the house and they would receive meniscal payment for their work on the land. The money they would make would be taken by the landlord and used to pay off the debt and some would be given for food, the debt is not a set price, it would continue to accrue more each month perpetually, most families do not get out of this system for generations. Many of the villages we visit are like this, the whole family work the land with little hope of moving past the difficult circumstances, the worst of these practices take place at the brick factories in Pakistan where entire families are forced to work in deadly conditions for their entire life to pay off a debt that will never be satisfied due to the corruption of the owners. Ramesh and his family were on the verge of falling into this hopeless circumstance, but through this time they did not lose their faith and continued to faithfully trust the Lord, no matter the outcome they would trust the Lord. About three months after they took the loan God answered their prayers, we were able to gather the necessary finances ($1550) to help rescue this family from the unfortunate situation they found themselves in. Thanks to the support of faithful people, we were able to help Ramesh and his family in this time of need, through this effort not only is the family saved from hardship, but the entire village can witness the power of faith in Jesus, even the landlord witnessed the miracle God provided for them, many people bore witness to the freedom and peace that is found in Jesus.