Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NIV
ATLANTA – Insar Gohar has been preparing for his vocation as counselor for a long time. More than a decade ago, he was a youth leader at All Saints Church, Church of Pakistan, in Peshawar. Sometimes the members of the youth group would approach him for guidance, and, in an unofficial way, he would listen and do his best to counsel them. This was challenging, yet he found it rewarding.
However, on September 22, 2013, his life and that of his family drastically changed. During Sunday services, their church in Peshawar was the target of two suicide bombers. All Saints’ Church was in the middle of Sunday School lessons when the extremists detonated their explosives. Eighty members were killed in the blast, 140 more injured. Insar lost his mother that day and his two young children, a boy and a girl. The church counts them among those martyred for their faith.
“Although I myself was going through this traumatic situation, I started visiting the families of other victims of our church to console and comfort them,” Gohar noted in a recent interview. “They said, ‘When you come to visit us, it gives us courage, reassurance and comfort.’ This very comment was a motivation for me toward a call for my present ministry.”
The Church of Pakistan is a Protestant communion, a united church of several different founding denominations, including Methodists. Christianity is a minority religion in Pakistan, which has a majority Muslim population. Gohar mentioned that these violent and traumatic incidents against Christians are rare, generally carried out by people with extreme ideology. But Christians, as a religious minority, are often misunderstood and experience repercussions for practicing their faith.
For a time after the tragedy, Gohar and his family resided in the U.S., where they received family counseling in New Haven, supported by Global Ministries. Later, they traveled to Los Angeles, California, where Gohar entered Claremont School of Theology, also with scholarship support from Global Ministries. He earned a Master of Divinity and followed that with a Master of Arts in Christian Counseling. But the family’s plan was always to return home.
Care and counseling ministry finds a way
When the Gohars returned to Pakistan, Insar was certain he was guided by God and his church to use the knowledge and skills he gained through his studies. The Church of Pakistan applied for Nationals in Mission funds to support the salary of the Coordinator for Care and Counseling Ministry through the Diocese of Peshawar. The Diocese, in turn, hired Insar Gohar for this role.
However, it seemed people were not ready to receive his services. “Counseling is simply not part of the culture here,” Gohar explained. So, he set his hours for 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., hours convenient for most people after work, but no one came. “Well, very few came,” he clarified. The fact was, seeking counseling comes with a stigma.
After 6 ½ years of this work, Gohar has figured out ways to go where he is needed. He began to visit the families who lost loved ones in the All Saints Church bombing, about 90 families, as more victims had succumbed to their injuries. Many had not recovered from the tragedy, still grieving and still seeking consolation and a way to cope with unbearable loss. House by house, family by family, Gohar visited, and because he too had survived this experience, he was accepted and trusted to hold their confidence.
A second way he found to promote healing was to bring the families together for “Care Camps,” working with partners to provide a week away from home in the beautiful hills of Murree. There was time for recreation and games, good food, fellowship, a bit of learning and discussion and also time for quiet reflection. During camp events, a few more people might seek his counsel and share their struggles.
His counseling ministry grew, and he has worked with other families, new families, at All Saints Church as well…but he still has to go to them. In other situations, such as marriage counseling, couples come to the office. The diocese’s marriage counseling ministry has grown to include visits to churches across the country.
Equipped for new situations
In 2023, in Jaranwala, some distance from Peshawar, another Christian community experienced unbearable tragedy when a false accusation was made against a Christian man. A mob, stoked by an extremist group, rampaged the community. By the time they were finished, 26 churches and the homes of 80 Christian families had been looted and burned to the ground.
Gohar asked for a grant from Global Ministries to travel to Jaranwala and meet with the pastors and the families. He was counseling them but also providing skills and training for the pastors to counsel their parishioners. Many of the youth and young adults ran to the fields during the violence. They didn’t know what else to do. “They were so afraid,” Gohar said. “They were traumatized because in front of their eyes their churches and houses were burned. They sat in that field and watched. And I visited them many times, as I realized that these young people really needed counseling.”
This year, for the second year, Gohar has worked with his partners to gather the Jaranwala youth together for a youth camp in Muree. “They were really happy there,” Gohar explained. “One of their pastors mentioned that coming to Murree is already counseling for them. Just to visit this place is counseling. We didn’t do any one-on-one counseling with the youth, we just gave them some time for recreation, for games and fun activities.”
The fun and recreation in a new location loosened the grip that fear had on them and they felt safe again. This kind of retreat and camp ministry in this setting greatly helps to build community in people who have experienced trauma together, and they begin to understand they can also recover together, leaning on one another and building their resilience in an uncertain world.
“As Father God comforted me, now it is my responsibility to comfort those who are suffering like me,” Gohar said. In his quiet and patient way as a National in Mission, he impacts his community from the inside, allowing deep healing to accompany their deep pain.
Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries.
Media contact:
Susan Clark, Chief Communications Officer
media@umcmission.org
800-862-4246
