14
Sep '26
August 2026: Setting Sheeza and Maria Free in Pakistan | Missions, Extraordinary, Extra Ordinary, or Both?
14
Sep '26
Weeks ago, teen sisters Sheeza and Maria were doomed to a lifetime of slavery. Today, they’re free—thanks to you. Here’s how you changed their destinies in Jesus’s name.Pakistan’s piercing sun peered into their mud dwelling, oven-like—waking them with stinging, sun-baked cheeks.
Sheeza and Maria crawled from bed, hoisted their dad into his wheelchair, and trekked to their brick stacks, layered in sweat before lifting a finger. This was not the life they wanted.
No teen girl would choose this destiny. Suffering as slaves. Caring for their paralyzed father. Hand-shaping thousands of bricks in the punishing sun—hands cramped; hearts exhausted.
And for what? To pay off high-interest debts that never seemed to dwindle, no matter their toil. Sheeza and Maria piled towers of bricks every week—but their debts only grew with the imposing stacks.
Would they ever experience the normal teenage life they’d heard about in stories? Maybe someday. For now, this was the only life they might ever know. They’d hardly known anything else.
Sheeza and Maria weren’t born slaves.
Their plight began almost eleven years ago, when their dad, Tanveer, grew severely ill with polio.
His symptoms crept in slowly, but soon burgeoned into the overwhelming illness that would paralyze his legs, rob his family’s freedom, and threaten their future.
Unable to pay the hospital bills, Tanveer had only one option: borrow a high-interest loan from a brickyard slave owner. That last-ditch loan would save his life—but cost his family’s liberty. Defeated and discouraged, Tanveer and family moved to the slaveyard to work off their debts. From that moment on, they wanted only one thing—to be free again.
For the next ten years, the girls and their parents suffered punishing difficulty.
For almost four thousand nights, they slept in a cramped mud shelter with a single door; skin ever-roasting like those bricks in the kilns; every breath tampered with the yard’s smoke and pollutants.
Healthy food was scarce. Water was filthy, warm, and unsafe—and they never enjoyed the comfort and privacy of a proper bathroom. Broken down by slave treatment, their mother, Fazeelat, grew severe joint pain and fibroid uterus, forcing her to stop making bricks. Now unsupervised, Sheeza and Maria often faced cruel abuse from brickyard managers who would stomp their fresh brickpiles to desecrate their work and shatter their hopes.
What a parable for their lives—shattered progress and shattered hopes. Until you stepped in.
Breaking Sheeza and Maria’s Chains
A few weeks ago, Aneela [IAGM] shared about Sheeza and Maria’s plight, and we relayed the story to our prayer chain.
Some of you gave; others prayed; and one family even felt compelled to raise funds for their liberation. They sent emails and contacted friends, trusting in God to provide. Before long, they had raised enough funds to liberate this family forever!
On August 30, our partner, Aneela, visited the brickyards to deliver the wonderful news, pay their debts, and set them free.
“Are we really no longer slaves?” the girls asked with tears of joy and gratitude. “Yes—you are free now!” Aneela reassured them. Riding to their grandparents’ home in a rickshaw, Sheeza and Maria tasted their first relieved moments of normal teenage life. Yes, now they were free—ten years too late, but free indeed. Praise the Lord!.”
A Taste of the Future
Today, the family is living with Tanveer’s parents, planning to join a church near their home, and praising Jesus for His goodness.
(They’re especially grateful for the roof you sponsored on their new top-floor room!) Fazeelat has already found a stable job at a school to provide for the family. Aneela has encouraged the girls to pursue vocational training in beauty, sewing, or other manual trades since they’re too old to easily begin traditional school. And Tanveer is thrilled that his family’s captivity has finally ended.
His words sum it up the best—“I am very thankful to Christ Jesus that He set us free.”
And it all started with a prayer chain. We thank you so much for liberating this family in Jesus’s name!
Would you like to share Jesus’s freedom with Pakistani slaves? Click the blue button below to explore your opportunities.
Missions: Extraordinary, Extra Ordinary, or Both?
“What stories will we share this month?” That’s our all-consuming question each newsletter week.
It’s often a frenzy—interviews, messages, sorting through transcripts, late nights, abandoned drafts, and plenty of editing elbow grease. Finally, we usually invite you into two or three stories of people who’ve radically encountered Jesus through your generosity. The problem—so much never gets shared this way!
After all, missions is more than mountaintops—and not every testimony reads like the book of Acts.
Those spiritual climaxes are crucial apexes for us to admire and thank God for. But the ordinary is equally crucial—those oft-unnoticed year-in, year-out acts of faithfulness from genuine pastors in unreached cultures. Without that ongoing guidance, few “mountaintop” converts ever grow into mature disciples who thrive in Jesus and teach others to do likewise. Spiritual breakthrough is crucial, but it’s only the beginning.
With that in mind—what about those forgotten ministry moments? What would you see if you explored our missions inbox today?
Mostly, you’d scroll the many everyday cellphone snapshots our partners sent this month—unpolished mementos of God’s simple work through your generosity.
In a few minutes of browsing, you’d smile as you witnessed:
- impoverished Peruvian kids coloring Bible lessons and sharing healthy meals at our feeding centers;
- Cambodian kids—once unreached!—singing and dancing to Jesus in Kampong Thom Province church plants;
- Cambodian Pastor Chea Sorn proclaiming Jesus’s hope at a rustic gospel outreach in Srayov Village, and Pastor Boun Sen doing the same in Sleng Pus;
- Bible students honing their preaching and worship gifts at the Pioneer Missionary Training Center in Thailand;
- smiles all around at a moms outreach hosted by our partner’s Christian daycare in Thailand;
- a brand-new believer learning how to take his first steps with Jesus in Pannkoi Village, Thailand;
- and plenty more!
These simple snapshots aren’t flashy.
You probably won’t remember them next year—or even share them at home group. But this is the “real-stuff” of God’s mission—crucial, steady signs of harvest in spiritual wastelands.
Consider, after all:
- How much hunger has been averted—and hope in Jesus inspired!—by those humble feeding centers in Peru?
- How many will encounter Jesus in the coming years as Chea Sorn, Boun Sen, and others continue to preach Jesus’s good news in Srayov Village, Sleng Pus, and beyond?
- How many thousands might one day meet Jesus through the ministries of those Bible students? How will God use that training to transform their future mission fields? Will they one day train missionaries, also?
- Would those Cambodian kids ever hear the good news if not for those Sunday school songs, dances, and lessons? How will they evangelize their unreached nation as they grow up?
These questions reveal God’s extraordinary plan for our extra ordinary obedience.
It’s amazing, when you think about it. At the judgment, Jesus won’t say:
- “I had legions of demons, and you cast them out.”
- “I was on my deathbed, and you miraculously healed me.”
- “I was a victim of human trafficking, and you set me free.”
Those testimonies are incredible and crucial. But in Matthew 25:34-36, Jesus promises to reward the simplest, steadiest acts of discipleship:
“Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”
Friend, do you hold those words of Jesus close to your heart? We want to encourage you.
Whether you give, pray, or advocate for the unreached—you’re making an eternal impact God can’t forget.
Remember His promise: “Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple . . . shall by no means lose his reward” (Matt. 10:42 NKJV). Together, let’s send Jesus’s living water to those who’ve never heard His good news. It won’t cost us much, but it could grant them everything—eternal life with Jesus!
Want to send God’s lifeline to the unreached this month? Here’s some great ways to start 
Ready to win the unreached to Jesus in 2026? If you’re not already involved, we welcome you to:
- sponsor a missionary for $50-100/month (or $600-1200 one-time),
- become a Sender for $30/month,
- send a one-time gift of any size,
- or help us grow with a review on Google.
Let’s do this, team!
Brian & JJ Weller
ShareGodsHope.com
