Sialkot, Sunday 12 September
I arrived here in Sialkot at the St Coumba's religious Training Centre on Sunday evening. This was an excuse for some of the teachers who live at the hostel here to prepare a special rice & beans meal with potatoes and finished off with sweet rice. Following our meal we went over to the hostel where over two hundred girls who board at St Columba's watched some of their peers perform two sketches based on two parables - the Three Servants and the Ten Virgins. This was carried off with some aplomb and with typical Punjabi enthusiasm and gusto - who knew bhangra dancing could illustrate the parables?!
It was great to see Catherine Nicol again, retired for ten years but still running the show at St Columba's and telling me the life stories of the female students, many from very disadvantaged backgrounds who have a great opportunity to go to school and college and grow up in a safe place.
After I had arrived in Lahore on Saturday I went with my friend Bishop Azariah to Pandoki village on the outskirts of the city. A new church building was being dedicated and that was another happy occasion with yet more delicious Punjabi food.
Since Pastor Terry Jones did not go ahead with his threatened Koran burning there were no protests so I was able to join the congregation at Central Church, currently worshipping in St Peter's School as the almost-completely rebuilt Central Church ion Warris Road is not quite ready. I had the opportunity to assure the congregation that their fellow Christians in Scotland and elsewhere were aware of the difficulties facing Pakistan and the Christian community.
I have already had a number of meetings with people who working with us on the tricky question of property and there will be more of these in the next couple of days.
