On Sunday mornings in Kasur, the week looks a little different. The brick kilns are part of ordinary life here, and for families who work in debt bondage the days are long and the work is hard on the body. But Sunday brings our families together for worship, and it brings the children together for Sunday school. That is real work of Rising Stone Mission, led by Pastor Nemat — not a program on paper, but people gathering, singing, praying, and opening the Bible together in a place where hope has to be held on to tightly.
Psalm 78 was written by people who understood that a story can be lost if nobody tells it. It says, “We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done” (Psalm 78:4). Their descendants were the children in front of them — and ours are too. A child may be small, and the room may be simple, but what that child hears about God is not small at all.
Think about what a Bible story does in a young heart. It gives a child words for God before the world gives him other words. It tells a girl who may spend much of her life being overlooked that she is seen and loved. It plants something patient. Faith rarely grows all at once. It grows the way most lasting things grow — a song repeated, a story heard again, a prayer said out loud until a child begins to make it her own. That is why Sunday school matters so much to us. We are not filling an hour. We are building faith that can stand.
Teaching is one part of a wider picture, and we want you to see it whole. At Rising Stone Mission we pray with families, because prayer nurtures spiritual growth. We share food, because hungry people need to eat. We encourage children into education and schooling, because learning opens doors. We arrange medicines for the sick as far as our small means allow — and we say honestly, that part is small today. And as far as possible, we seek freedom for families from brick-kiln debt bondage. One family’s Rs 300,000 debt was cleared, and that family now lives free. Every part belongs together: body, mind, and spirit.
We are doing all of this today at a very small scale, and we will not pretend otherwise. Partners make it grow. A partner praying in another country, a church that remembers these children, a friend who gives what they can — God uses such kindness to keep the stories being told. So please, care with us. Pray for the children who will sit in Sunday school this week, that the stories stay with them long after the singing ends. And if you can help this teaching continue, know that a small room full of listening children is a very good place for hope to begin.