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Holy Week resources and reflections

Eyewitness account #3: Lahore after assassination of Benazir Bhutto

All was well until Thursday when this country was rocked to its core by Benazir's assassination.  Our lives have since been dominated by watching TV, reading online, and pondering what will come next in this tumultuous environment.  We have no wisdom to impart: we're watching the same news you are. Our Pakistani colleagues don't have a sense of what will happen either.  We've tightened security on campus and closed the college offices until January 2. 

We started the week with the celebration of Jesus’ birth with last minute shopping on Monday followed by a wonderful Christmas Day with Pakistani, German and American friends. We worshipped on campus on Christmas morning and had a relaxing day with good friends and good food.  To end the day, we watched the movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and introduced our European and Asian friends to this classic.

         All was well until Thursday when this country was rocked to its core by Benazir’s assassination.  Our lives have since been dominated by watching TV, reading online, and pondering what will come next in this tumultuous environment.  We have no wisdom to impart: we’re watching the same news you are. Our Pakistani colleagues don’t have a sense of what will happen either.  We’ve tightened security on campus and closed the college offices until January 2.  The main issue right now is that the petrol pumps are nearly all closed bringing transportation to a halt.  There were a few pumps open this afternoon and the lines were long.  Most shops were closed; several that were open didn’t look open, covering the windows and keeping the lights off.  That way the shops can close quickly if trouble flares up. 

         We have American friends staying with us (Dr. Scott and Joann Armistead and their three sons).  Their plans were to stay with us and have some family time in Lahore.  They arrived an hour after Benazir’s death was announced and we’ve all been sharing house #20 ever since. We have five active boys to keep occupied and fed, keeping us all busy!  We are blessed with warm sunshine and the large lawns of Forman’s campus and they spend nearly all the daylight hours outside.  Today we went to the International Museum of Puppetry (bet you never knew that was in Lahore!) and had a lovely lunch in the cabanas and tree house in the gardens.  We found a few shops open in our neighborhood market so stocked up a bit for the next few days.  Nathan called to make sure the neighborhood pizza place was delivering and that was dinner. We’re managing just fine: we worry about those who cannot get out to get food or who don’t have shops open in their neighborhoods.

         We’re hoping that things will return to some form of ‘normal’ on Monday after the three days of mourning.  We must admit that we are beginning to wonder what ‘normal’ is here after all the events of the past six months!

         Thank you for all your emails of concern and prayers for us.  We ask you to pray for the people here who only wish for peace and stability in their country.

Marianne Vermeer and Robert Johnson are Presbyterian mission co-workers serving at Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan.

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