MY ACCOUNT
At A Glance:
Aslam and Alice's story shows how quickly a single medical expense can trap a family in a lifetime of debt slavery.
- Despite his broken arm, Aslam worked until dark every day in bonded slavery to a brick kiln owner.
- But faith that God answers prayer held his family through years at the kiln, making bricks to pay off debts that only grew.
- Freedom seemed impossible, but one day good news came: Their debt would be paid. They would be free.
- Through our Blueprint for Freedom debt relief program, your giving pays off a family's debt, provides an income-generating opportunity, and walks with them as they build a new life.
Generation after generation
Aslam's arm is broken. You can see the bone. Yet he works until dark in a kiln that makes a thousand bricks a day.
He has been doing this since he was 8 or 9 years old. His father did it. His grandfather did it. Generation after generation, the same kilns, the same bricks, the same miserable heat.
When we met him, he was sitting with his wife Alice and two of their three daughters. The third, Muskan, was not there. She has a disability and cannot walk.
How the Debt Grew
It started with his daughters' numerous surgeries. Then rain came and damaged their living space, pushing costs higher. Then Aslam's aunt died, and there were expenses for that, too. He took 30,000 rupees from the kiln owner.
He thought he would pay it back quickly.
"It wasn't anything,” he says. “Then it happened, little by little, it went up there …."
Little by little. That's how bonded labor works in Pakistan's brick kilns. A family borrows a small amount – for a surgery, for a funeral, for a roof repair after the rains. The debt grows. The only way to work it off is to keep making bricks.
Aslam kept making bricks. With a broken arm, with a disabled daughter at home, with medical bills he couldn’t afford.
When asked if he ever believed God would answer his prayers for freedom, Aslam didn't waver: "Yes, I had faith in God. Yes, God works – God does very, very big things."
'We Asked for One, God Gave Two'
Alice and Aslam had no children for 16 years. They prayed for one child. God gave them twins.
“God gave me my daughters,” he says. “God is your shepherd. God does everything. We asked for one. God gave two."
That line carries everything Alice believes about God – that what you ask for, God answers, and sometimes more generously than you imagined. It's the same faith that held them through the years at the kiln, through the operations, through watching Muskan's health challenges while they made bricks to pay off debts that only grew.
When asked if she had a Bible verse that encouraged her, Alice began to recite. What came out was not a textbook recitation. It was her own blend of Psalm 91 and Psalm 23, woven together into something uniquely meaningful:
The Lord is my rock, He will never let me fall, He will keep me sheltered, He will never let me stumble on the path. Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will not be afraid of anyone, because You are with me. Your rod and Your staff comfort me. You spread a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will be with me all my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
"Whatever prayer I ask for, God fulfills it," she says. "Whatever I ask from the Lord, He fulfills that."
Asked about being a Christian in Pakistan, Aslam didn't hesitate: "It's a matter of pride. We are proud of our faith. We are proud to be a Christian."
The Day Everything Changed
For years, Aslam had prayed that his debt would be paid, but the numbers kept growing. Freedom seemed impossible.
But on that fateful day, a pastor who serves the families at the brick kiln brought them the news: Their debt would be paid. They would be free.
"I felt happy,” Aslam remembers. “Thank you very, very much that you are going to free us from the debt. Our whole life, we wouldn't have been able to get out of it. It was not possible for us."
What Comes Next
Aslam estimated it would take about a year to save enough to fully move away from the kiln. When asked what comes next, his mind went straight to his girls.
"In the future, we'll do some kind of work for the girls, some other work, or else their lives will be ruined, they'll be thrown into misery. Like how we're stuck in it."
He knows what this cycle does. He has lived it. He wants to make sure his daughters don't.
The Ongoing Need
Aslam and Alice's story shows how quickly a single medical expense can trap a family for a lifetime. In Pakistan's brick kiln system, there is no safety net. A hospital bill becomes a loan. A loan becomes a decade. A decade becomes a generation.
Through our Blueprint for Freedom program, your giving pays off a family's debt and provides an income-generating opportunity so they can build an independent life. For families like Aslam and Alice's, freedom means their daughters won't end up where they started.
Aslam said it plainly: "It was not possible for us that we could come out from this debt."
It wasn't possible. Until it was.
One church. One family. One goal. Help Free a Christian Family in Pakistan
Across Pakistan, Christian families press bricks from dawn to dark to repay debts they can't outrun. But there's a proven path out. For about $809, you can pay off a family's debt and set them on the road to lasting freedom. They're not a cause—they're kin. Will you help free 500 families this year?
