Prayers and Aid for Pakistan

    A few million, (perhaps more than 30 million?) people are suffering greatly in Pakistan due to the floods right now. For weeks. Many people, maybe as many as live in the entire state of Texas or California, are huddling under plastic tarps in 100 degree plus (over 40 degree Celsius) temperatures; there is dirty water and mosquitoes that are getting people sick, and they need food and medicine.

    We know about many international organizations and groups that help people in dire situations. Some of us donate monies to these groups and NGOs. I know that my church has a presence in the country, perhaps as many as 40 congregations. They are Christian groups, which are sometimes targeted or persecuted within a Muslim country like Pakistan. Pakistan was put together as a Muslim country, along with present Bangladesh before they separated violently.

    This past year I became friends with an imam of a Muslim congregation in the Middle East. He discussed with me how there are deep-rooted problems when it came to racial and economic equity in our home United States. Granted, yes, we are not perfect and we have our problems. But I hear about the continued suffering in an Islamic republic like Pakistan, now for weeks with these hordes of people languishing and dying for no better reason that there are not the right infrastructure or systems to help their own.

    This has happened in Puerto Rico in 2017 (Hurricane Maria), and Louisiana in 2005 (Hurricane Katrina), but I think that the levels, the scope of suffering is different.

    Anyway, I will keep advocating for all of us to pool our resources, donate generously to groups, organizations, NGOs, and anyone who can help those in physical, economic, social, spiritual, medical, nutritional, and of course existential distress and agony.

    I feel good about giving of my income and of offerings to alleviate the problems that are going on domestically internationally. I wish we could do more, plan more, and accomplish more in order to mitigate and overcome the worst issues that plague our world populations, to include hunger, poverty, lack of nutrition, violence, poor ecological practices, and waste.

Blog it, blog on.