Over the past 21 years we have produced regular newsletters, mostly four times a year. They tell a great story, as we have progressed from fledgling charity, feeling our way forward, to the present day. We have made mistakes, battled disappointment and failure —and sometimes things have gone wrong. But in the process there have been multiple successes and much blessing for thousands of Pakistan’s Christian young people.
In this book I tell the story through the records of the past years. On each page I show the front cover of one of the newsletters, together with one or two short articles about events covered inside.
The story of Starfish Asia began in a conversation with a Pakistani friend, Ashley Arshad, in Lahore. Having worked with Operation Mobilisation (OM), a mission society in Pakistan, for 20 years, my wife and I had come to know, appreciate, and understand some of the difficulties faced by Pakistan’s Christians. Ashley, a businessman who had worked overseas in his own shipping supply company, was the treasurer of the March for Jesus movement in Pakistan.
He turned to me one day and said:
“Mike, if you really want to help our community, help us provide education for our children.”
Ashley Arshad
It was a significant moment for me. Education? I had never been a teacher, had never taught a class or visited schools except occasionally to preach the Gospel. My background was in preaching, training, administration — and to some extent fund-raising and profile-raising for the work of OM, especially in Pakistan.We had occasionally been involved in helping some projects for the Christian poor — some houses for a community that had lost their homes in a flood, support for a blind community and a school building for the Church of Pakistan in Gujrat. Now Kerstin and I were inwardly challenged to go further in providing help for Pakistan’s Christians, and especially for the poor, the disabled and the illiterate.
The Starfish Asia Story traces the story of the birth, development and growth ofStarfish Asia since 2000 —guided by our reports and newsletters, for which I take full design and editorial responsibility, which have provided the information and underpinned the credibility of our work over the years. We never imagined in those days that 21 years later we would be passing on the baton to another generation, while the commitment to Pakistan’s Christians has led us into areas — and into some wonderful relationships — we could not have dreamed about.
We give thanks first to God, who has amazingly watched over and provided for our progress, and then to the army of Christian co-workers, mostly in Pakistan, who have a passion and a vision to support their own community in sometimes very trying and difficult circumstances.
You can find details of how to obtain your free copy of The Starfish Asia Story, here.
Mike Wakely
Starfish Asia
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13 April 2022
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