Four Generations of Slavery Broken in a Single Day

At A Glance: 

• After 30+ years in the brick kilns, Mumtaz received the message he had been waiting for: You are free.
• Mumtaz' family had suffered through four generations of the same slavery.
• Through all of it, Mumtaz held onto the hopeful images of Psalm 23.
• 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.

Unimaginably Good News

Mumtaz was picking guavas in the field when his brother came running with the news.

After more than 30 years in the brick kilns – after three back surgeries that only deepened his debt, after watching his 10-year-old son begin the same work at the same age he had – Mumtaz received the message he had been waiting for: Your debt has been paid. You are free.

Shagufta, his wife, couldn't find the words.

"I was very happy, and I don't understand how to explain it," she says through tears. "I was so excited. I was so happy that I have no words to explain how I was feeling at that moment."

Their children were so grateful that they decided to fast, just as they had once fasted and prayed for freedom.

A Cycle That Started Before He Was Born

In central Pakistan, thousands of Christian families live in bonded labor at brick kilns.

The system works like this: A family takes a small loan from a kiln owner, often for a medical emergency or to survive a season without work. To pay it back, they make bricks. But the math never balances. The debt grows – rain destroys a batch, a child gets sick, there's a funeral. What starts at 30,000 rupees becomes 200,000. What starts as a season becomes a lifetime.

For Mumtaz, it started before he was born. His grandfather worked the kilns. His father did, too. Mumtaz began at 10 years old. And when we met him, his own son was working beside him.

Four generations of the same slavery.

"Our prayer is that it stops with him," Mumtaz says, looking at his boy. "That their children do not get into this work."

And thanks to the generosity of donors like you, that cycle of generational debt ends now. Mumtaz’s debt has been paid and a previously unimaginable life has begun for his family.

When We Arrived

When Global Christian Relief visited the family after their freedom, Mumtaz could barely contain himself.

"I am grateful that you are in our home," he says. "It is a great matter of pride for us that, for the first time, someone has come to my home having come such a long way. I never thought that it would be like this."

Shagufta, quiet and shy, speaks softly but with certainty: "When God's servant comes into the home, it's as if God comes through him into our house. So today is just like that – God has come to our home in the form of you people."

The Psalm He Carried Through It All

When asked about his faith, Mumtaz doesn’t hesitate. He begins to recite Psalm 23 from memory — the whole thing, start to finish:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the waters of rest. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. 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 have anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Amen.

This is a man who made bricks every day for 30 years. Who felt his back give out. Who watched his son start down the same road. And through all of it, he held onto the hopeful images of green pastures, still waters, and a table prepared in the presence of his enemies.

What Freedom Means

Mumtaz sees his freedom in biblical terms. He doesn't reach for small comparisons.

"Just as Moses brought them out of Pharaoh's slavery, in the same way today, we, too, have come out of slavery," he tells us. "Just as Christ paid the ransom for our sins, He freed us from sins. Today, through God, God's people who are there – they paid off their debt and set them free."

Standing at the kiln on his freedom day, he found words that carried the weight of a man who had been waiting decades to say them:

"It felt like angels themselves had come for us,” he says. “There is no greater deliverance than this for us. For us, understand it as if we have come out from the underworld of the earth."

A Message for Those Still Trapped

Mumtaz's advice to families still in bondage is direct and unshakeable:

"Put it onto your God. Have faith in your God, because surely when you ask from God, God will definitely pull you out of this slavery. Because there may be delay in the Lord's house, but there is no darkness – one day or another, it is definitely heard."

He waited 30 years. He was heard.

The Ongoing Need

Mumtaz's family is free. But across Pakistan's brick kilns, thousands of Christian families remain trapped in the same system — working off debts they will never be able to repay, watching their children grow up making bricks instead of going to school.

Through our Blueprint for Freedom debt relief program, your giving pays off a family's debt, provides an income-generating opportunity so they can support themselves, and walks with them as they build a new life. For many families, freedom means children enrolling in school for the first time, earning a living without garnished wages to pay off impossible debts, and beginning to rebuild with dignity.

Mumtaz's 10-year-old son will not spend the next 30 years at the kiln. But there are other 10-year-olds still there today.

"And this is slavery, very great slavery," Mumtaz says. "There is no greater deliverance than this."