My name is Hinnan. When I was eleven years old, I lived in the southern Pakistani town of Multan. My great-grandfather had accepted Christ, and my family and I worshipped at a Methodist church planted by American missionaries. The major source of our worship and faith flowed from Psalms. The lyrics were penned and tunes composed from all 150 psalms. Through Psalms, the congregation knew the Lord as the provider and the protector. The element of personal relationship with Christ, however, was significantly lacking.
Going to church every Friday was an integral part of our family life. We went on Friday because the government decided to have that day off, since the main congregational prayers in Islam happen on Friday.
One Friday, a month before the Oslo Accord, a catalyst of change came into my life. The routine early call to prayer in the loudspeaker, known as Fajr Azan, sung by the Imam of a nearby mosque, woke me early. I—along with my three siblings and parents—slept on wooden-framed, fiber-woven beds arranged in a row under the open sky in the courtyard. A pedestal fan hummed softly, whispering to all with a cooling breeze. I got up early, excited to go to church. I loved to sing psalms and meet the other Christian families who united as one big family. Eventually, everyone rose, readied themselves, and arrived at church in time. The most special thing that day blossomed from our pastor’s announcement that a local team from Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) wanted to show the Jesus Film on a grand multimedia screen.
In the evening, I eagerly joined my mom on our way to the church. Anticipation bubbled within me as I envisioned how the actors would portray the characters of the real Jesus story in the movie. As we entered the worship hall, darkness enveloped the room, but the screen glowed brightly, casting an aura of mystery and anticipation. For those fleeting two hours, I transcended beyond mere cinematic presentation; it felt as though I encountered the living presence of Jesus.
What truly left me awestruck was Christ's unwavering authority, resonating through his every action and word. He called ordinary fishermen, they immediately followed him and, he made them fishers of men. He touched the leprous and made his skin new. His visitation changed the heart of Zacchaeus. And the most powerful moment came when Jesus rose on the third day after his crucifixion, defeating the power of death and sin. With my wide-eyed excitement, raised eyebrows, dropped jaw, slackened facial muscles, and transfixed gaze, it felt as though I was riding a roller coaster. The absolute authority of Jesus Christ challenged me greatly—every individual drawn to Jesus, and those whom Jesus approached, experienced deep impact in their lives.
One thought incessantly echoed within me: Does this exemplify true Christianity—a person deeply transformed by Christ? And this formed my definition of a true Christian person: a person deeply impacted by Christ.
I stayed in a situation of awe for several days. I started to pray, “Lord, how can I become a true Christian person?” I also had a growing sense that the Lord had a special plan for my life. I started to expect—if Jesus can give purpose to ordinary men like Matthew, Peter and John, then there must be a purpose in Jesus’ plan for me.
One night, sitting on my bed while I prayed, I learned a new prayer on my own. It felt as though the Lord taught me a new prayer: “I will praise you; I will spread your message in this world; I will proclaim you in this world.” I was in wonder, because the word “proclaim” was entirely new to me. So, my chief petitions ingrained themselves into the fabric of my existence: “Lord, how can I become a true Christian, and what do you plan for my life?” I prayed every day with the anticipation that the Lord would work in my life the way he powerfully changed the life of Zacchaeus and gave purpose to his disciples.
A year after the attack on the World Trade Center, Pakistan and its neighboring regions continued to grapple with the aftermath of terrorism. I went to Lahore, a capital city of the province of Punjab-Pakistan, to get in accounting. I eagerly anticipated my trip to Lahore, propelled not by a desire to pursue a career as a professional accountant, but by a profound yearning for answers to my prayers: how I could become a true Christian and what God planned for my life.
The city had great churches and I thought that the Lord would respond to my prayers in one of those churches. But he used a crisis in one of my cousin’s lives to respond to my prayers. Shahid and his wife parted after having a marital crisis, which caused a burden on my soul to pray for the couple. And during those times of prayer and reading of the Scripture, I felt like my heart profoundly shattered, and I deeply realized the sinfulness of my heart. I repented of my sins, knowing that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NASB).
The Lord dramatically changed my heart. He delivered me from my sense of rejection, hatred, and pity. This marked my first encounter with compassion and empathy for those ignorant to the gift of new life from Jesus Christ and those suffering challenges in their lives. I loved to sing the Urdu (Pakistani national language) hymn, “Come, come to Jesus, he calls you now.”
He also gave me the purpose of my life to serve him as a full-time pastor. With my heart and my mind transformed, it was the first time that I was able to understand the Scripture, and my hunger for it grew every day. I loved to share the meaning of Scripture with the students and relatives living around me. I treasured Psalm 34:8-10 and Hebrews 11:32-40, and often thought about Isaiah 40:27-31 and how the Lord restores the strength of those who wait for him.
In 2009, after graduating from the local Bible school in Lahore, I started to plant a church in a city called Khanewal in the south of Pakistan. I served there for eight years. For six months of that time, I also served as an evangelist in the Christian Hospital Tank, near the border of Afghanistan. In 2017 I started to serve in Karachi with the Church of Pakistan. In 2022, the Lord opened the door for me to come to Dallas Theological Seminary to do thorough study of all 66 books of Scripture, to be able to serve effectively and preach the Word with clarity and relevance.
Today I am thankful to God for my great-grandfather’s faith and for bringing the Jesus Film to my childhood town. And I am especially thankful that Jesus redeemed and deeply transformed me, and had a plan for me to serve him with my life. I am privileged to introduce him to others so that they, too, can become true Christians—people deeply impacted by Christ.