Testimony · By Rev. Dr. Naeem Nasir, Founding President, Good Samaritan Ministries · October 2026
Some meetings end when the lights go down. Others never end at all. Ten years ago, on 13 and 14 October 2016, thousands of people gathered on a football ground in Shanti Nagar, Khanewal, for a youth conference and a Gospel Crusade. Today, children who sat on that ground beside their parents are young men and women in colleges and universities, and they are still reading the Bible they received that night. This is the story of how God planned those two days, and of the fruit that remains.
A village called Shanti Nagar
Shanti Nagar means “town of peace”. It is a Christian village in Khanewal District in the heart of Punjab, Pakistan, home to faithful families who love the Lord and long to see their children grow up in faith.
In 2016 the Lord placed Shanti Nagar on my heart. We began to plan two meetings on the village football ground: the ARISE Youth Conference on 13 October, and a Gospel Crusade, “The Day of Salvation”, on 14 October.
A diary written nine months before
A few days before the meetings, our team drove to Shanti Nagar to see the preparations and to deliver the posters and flyers. When we arrived, the local team told us about a sister in the village who had been keeping what she called her visionary diary. For several years she had been writing down what she believed the Lord was showing her.
I had never met this sister. She had never met my wife or me. But nine months earlier, before we had made any plan or even thought of coming to Shanti Nagar, she had written in her diary that a Pakistani couple would come from the USA to her village. Then she wrote that there would be a youth conference in Shanti Nagar in 2016.
As the local team read from her diary, we were amazed. She had written:
- that the boys at the conference would wear white shirts
- that food would be given to those who came
- that the meetings would be held on a playground
- that the theme would be the message of salvation
- that Zion would be part of the message
- that there would be gifts from heaven
By then every one of these things was already in our plans. After long conversations with our team, we had agreed that the boys would come in white. Dinner was planned for every participant. Both meetings were booked on the village football ground. Our poster said “The Day of Salvation”. Zion was part of the message God had given me for the conference. And we were preparing to give 2,000 free Urdu Bibles, the greatest gift from heaven anyone can receive.
I had held evangelistic meetings before, but I had never planned a youth conference. This time God put it in my heart, and now I understood why. This was not my plan. God Himself had chosen the place, the theme, the meal, the dress and the gift, and He had shown it to a humble sister in a village nine months before. I have never felt so small and so thankful at the same time.
13 October 2016: the ARISE Youth Conference
On the afternoon of 13 October, the young people of Shanti Nagar and the surrounding villages filled the football ground. The boys came in white shirts, just as the diary had said. Worship filled the open air, the Word of God was preached, and dinner was served to everyone who came.
The message that afternoon was one I had never heard preached in Pakistan, and it was very close to my heart: the faithfulness of God to every promise He has made, from Zion to the cross to the day His Son returns. Young people who had grown up in church heard that the God of the Bible keeps His word, and that He has a plan for their lives too.
At the close of the conference, 1,000 young people received their own free Urdu Bible. The conference was streamed live on Facebook, so friends and believers around the world could watch and pray with us as it happened.
14 October 2016: the Day of Salvation
The next evening the football ground was full of hungry souls. Families came from Shanti Nagar and from villages all around, many travelling long distances to be there. Fathers and mothers came with their children. Grandparents sat beside teenagers.
The theme was the one God had given: The Day of Salvation. “Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). The Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached plainly: His death on the cross for our sins, His resurrection, and the new life He gives to all who turn to Him. When the invitation was given, people came forward across the ground to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Across the two days, more than 20,000 people gathered to hear the Word of God. Lives were changed. Families were renewed. And the Lord sent His angels to protect every person on that ground.
2,000 gifts from heaven
In 2016 I had heard people talk about giving Bibles on this scale, but I had never seen it with my own eyes. Over those two days, more than 2,000 free Urdu Bibles were placed into the hands of young people and families in Shanti Nagar. For many of them it was their first Bible of their own.
The sister had written “gifts from heaven” in her diary nine months before. That is exactly what they were. The Word of God is a gift from the Lord, and it does not return to Him empty. “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose” (Isaiah 55:11).
Ten years later: the fruit that remains
Today, almost ten years later, we are still receiving testimonies from Shanti Nagar and the villages around it.
Many of those who write to us were children and teenagers in 2016. They came to the youth conference and the crusade with their brothers and sisters and their parents. Now they are young men and women studying in colleges and universities, and they still remember those meetings. They remember the white shirts, the dinner, the worship under the open sky and the night they heard that now is the day of salvation. Most of all, they remember the Bible they received, and many of them still read it every day.
The fruit has gone further than we could have imagined. Hundreds of young people from these meetings have gone on to study at Bible colleges. Families who received a Bible that night are still growing in faith together.
We did not see this fruit in 2016. We only sowed the seed. God gave the growth.
What Shanti Nagar teaches us
Shanti Nagar taught me that God plans His meetings long before we do. He knew the place, the people and the message before I had even thought of going. It taught me never to underestimate a child sitting quietly beside their parents at a crusade, because ten years later that child may be the one carrying the Gospel to the next village. And it taught me that one Bible, placed in one pair of young hands, can shape a whole life.
Stand with us for the next generation
Wherever you are reading this, in America, Europe, Africa or anywhere in the world, you can be part of the next village or city in Pakistan. Please pray for the young people of Pakistan who received God’s Word in 2016 and are now growing in faith. Pray for the next Gospel Crusade and youth conference, and for the children who will hear the Gospel there for the first time. If the Lord is calling you or your church to serve in Pakistan, we would love to hear from you: https://www.gsministries.org/gospel-mission-to-pakistan/. To partner with us in Gospel Crusades and free Urdu Bibles: https://www.gsministries.org/donation/
All glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives the vision and brings it to pass.
In Christ’s love,
Rev. Dr. Naeem Nasir
Founding President,
Good Samaritan Ministries
https://www.gsministries.org
One Bible can shape a whole life
Pray for the next Gospel Crusade and youth conference in Pakistan, and help place the Word of God in young hands.
