So many suffering people were healed of their diseases that word spread throughout the community of Lahore and the desperately ill would simply appear at her door begging for a prayer.

One day, in August of 2013, a Muslim woman invited Ruqia to their part of town to pray for her and two friends.  Ruqia went with her husband Nazir and her son Naftab.  As they began to pray over the women, suddenly 3 religious leaders burst through the door and began beating Ruqia's husband and son.  

The religious leaders shouted at them that they were insulting the prophet Mohammed and converting Muslims to Christianity.   "You are Murtad, ( a convert) and deserve death - we will not spare you, nor your family. "

This traumatic episode would be the beginning of constant persecution - telephoned threats of death, a vicious beating on the street by young thugs and finally a raid upon their home by police.   Although Nazir was badly wounded in the attack, doctors refused to treat him and lawyers refused to help him sell his house.  Fear had overtaken all their friends and neighbours and the Nazir family had no choice but to leave their home and all their possessions and flee to the country of Thailand. 

The Quaisar family were good citizens in Pakistan, working hard to sustain themselves through the business of car repair and gas station.  They were a family of devoted Christians, whose only crime was helping the sick through healing prayer and God's love.   Yet, they were targeted for practicing their faith, and sentenced to death.

Life in Thailand was another kind of hell for the Nazir family.  The Royal Thai Government had no use for such immigrants no matter how precarious their situation, refusing to allow them to work or send their children to school.  Starvation was only avoided because Christian Churches supported them for the bare essentials.  

The stress levels became unbearable and in July of 2014 Nazir suffered a debilitating heart attack!   In September of the following year, Nazir's wife, Ruqia was arrested and thrown into detention for overstaying her welcome. 

Life in detention is unbearable with virtually nothing to eat, no medical facility and constant harassment by  other inmates as well as prison staff.  Meanwhile Nazir endeavours to raise his 3 children, daughter in law and grandchild without the help of his wife.  

This family desperately needs our help!  We have examined their life situation of faithfulness and courage and have decided to sponsor the family as genuine refugees.

Sana & Sohail

My name is Sana Sohail Nelson. I am the daughter of Mr. Gulbaz Ali and Sajida Ali.  I was born on 5 July 1993 in Lahore, Pakistan. Before I begin my story, I want to share that I believe God gave me a vision before I met Sohail. In my vision, I kept seeing a Mosque, then a church. I did not understand this vision at the time. It was after I met Sohail, that I had this same dream again. When I shared this dream with Sohail, after we met and fell in love…..he said he thought God was telling us both that He had chosen us for each other. The Mosque represented me, while the church represented Sohail. So, I had this vision a total of three times. My given name at birth was Sana Gulbaz Ali. I have four sisters and three brothers. I was born into a Muslim family,and grew up in Muslim culture.

I attended Punjab University, in Lahore, Pakistan. I received my Bachelor’s in Art in Journalism. My first job was in marketing where I worked for three years. This is where I met my husband, Sohail Nelson. I met him for the first time while working on a project of Dabur Hobby in bottom line office. Sohail was my supervisor. I truly loved my job. I was a Brand Ambassador. Sohail and I became friends, but this quickly became a problem for both of us. We began to have many problems from our families and our co-workers due to our friendship. All because I was Muslim and he was Christian. Because of these circumstances, I felt it was best to leave this job and go work for another company. But as far as our feelings for each other, it was too late. We had fallen in love. I knew he was the one for me, and Sohail knew I was the one for him. We were to be life partners. 

Our life was difficult. We had everyone telling us that this relationship could not be. I could not stand the thought of not being able to be with this man. He was my life. He was my everything. The thought of me and Sohail not being together, was like not being able to breathe. It was like having my breath taken away. My eldest sister’s fiancé was constantly threatening Sohail. It was a terrible situation. Then to make matters worse for us, Sohail shared with me that his family had prearranged to have him become engaged to a Christian woman. I could not take this news. My eldest sister was getting ready to marry her fiancé, and so Sohail and I discussed the possibility of us getting married. Sohail decided to end his engagement that his family had arranged. When his family learned of this, they became furious. Their anger was so great that he was beaten severely by members of his own family. The beating was so severe that to this day he still suffers from back pain. His family tried to convince him that our relationship could not be. There are laws against Christians marrying Muslims. They told Sohail that he was not to have any contact with me. If this continued, his entire family could be killed.

During this time, my younger sister was diagnosed with cancer. This was like the worst  thing that could happen. Sohail’s brother, Nayyer, decided to call my mother and tell her everything that had happened, including that Sohail had been beaten. My mother’s reply was that he needed to take care of his brother and she would take care of me. Then it was my turn to be beaten. My mother beat me so severely that I suffered from a bruised eye.

On another occasion, Sohail came to the hospital to visit my sister. Haider, my eldest sister’s fiancé, was also there. Upon seeing Sohail, he began to beat Sohail. This became very common for us. I was beaten on a daily basis. Our lives became a living hell. I was told one day, by my own mother that I should die, all because I had committed this awful sin……falling in love with a Christian. I also heard this over and over from my sister’s future husband. It was terrible even then before they married, but continued to get worse after their marriage on 19 October 2013. It became so bad for me that I even thought about ending my own life. I shared this with Sohail. He convinced me this was not the solution. We loved each other deeply and we decided we would secretly get married. So on 25 October 2013, we decided to get married without telling anyone. I had decided to be baptized first, then follow up with marrying the man of my dreams. So on this day, I also converted from Muslim to Christianity and became a new bride to the man I loved with all my heart.

We thought we could go back to each of our homes and not tell anyone of our secret. But this was not meant to be. On one occasion I shared with one of other sisters about what I had done asking her to not tell anyone. She could not keep my secret, and within a short period of time, she had gone to our elder sister and told her everything. Our elder sister in turn told her husband about our secret marriage. This prompted her husband to enter into my family’s house and demanded me to tell him the truth of this matter. He did not come along. He had brought many men with him. This scared me. I refused to tell him what he wanted to know. I denied his accusations. He became angry and stormed out of the house. I assumed he was heading over to Sohail’s house next, and so I called to warn my husband. I became deathly ill and so my mother took me to the doctor. It was while we were out on this trip that I confided to her about our secret wedding. She became so angry that she began to slap with many times. She yelled at me to leave my home, and to never come back!  She went on to tell me if I were ever to return I would surely be killed!

All I could think of was is how can this be? Why is it that I cannot be happy? Why do I have to leave my house, and my family? This did not seem fair to me all. I called Sohail that morning after I left for work. I told him everything that had been done and said. He was confused and did not know what to do. We thought we could possibly live in hiding but soon found out after only two short months that this was not going to work out either. It was then we were forced to make a hard, serious decision. We would leave all the people we knew and our homeland. We would go to another country where we did not know anyone and start over with a new life. And so in December of 2013 my husband and I boarded a plane and flew to Bangkok, Thailand. We thought we would be able to live in freedom and peace. We were both in for a frightening surprise.

It was just our third day in this new country when I was confronted with a disturbing fact. I witnessed my husband being targeted by a Muslim all because he was Christian. I thought we had left all that behind us in Pakistan. But here we were, just three days into this new way of life, and the same thing was happening again. Our Visa expired only after two months and so we were seen as illegal then. My husband and I, along with a close friend, were arrested in February 2014. Because we still had some money at this time, we were able to bribe the Thai officers to release us.

Within a few months, we discovered that we going to be blessed with a baby. We became the proud parents of a precious little girl in November of 2014. I had seen a vision prior to me becoming pregnant. In this vision I believe I saw Jesus Christ kneeling down giving me something. I know now, this “something” was our blessing, our baby girl. We named her Ashley Marriam Nelson. On one occasion, during a police raid, which happens on a regular basis, I felt desperate to keep her quite. I feared if the Thai Police were to hear her cry or even make a sound, we would risk being arrested. So, this is when I felt I had to make a most difficult decision. I placed my hand over my little girl’s mouth to keep her quite. She was only 3-4 months old. I still to this day feel so much guilt and pain for having to do this. But I felt I had no other choice. Our close friend was arrested a few months later and we learned first-hand what hell it was to be a prisoner in the Immigration Detention Center.

It is so hard to live here. We have placed our faith in God, and He has protected us and provided for us. But it is still hard at times. We were blessed this past Christmas with another blessing. This time, God gave us a little boy. He was born on 25 December 2015. His name is Moses Sohail Nelson. He is precious just like his sister.It was during this time while I was still in the hospital that my husband and I learned of something that had been done to us without our known consent. We were told that I had also had my tubes tied and could not become pregnant any more. When my husband heard this, he was shocked, and so was I. We said we did not agree to this. We were shown the paperwork where my husband had indeed signed. But due to the language barrier, we had no idea what we were signing. This was a great time of distress for us. We have had to trust God in this matter as well. But it is very difficult for us. Our children are not allowed to go outside much, and they do not understand this at all. They cannot be loud, like children normally are. They cannot run around outside in a yard full of green grass. We struggle to feed them good food that they need to grow and thrive. Churches help a little, as well as some individuals. But this is not enough all the time. We have no rights. We cannot work. Yet we are expected to pay our rent, our bills, purchase food to sustain our families, and have transportation to attend church. Our children are not old enough yet to attend school, but even if they were, our children are not allowed. Why? Because we are seen as illegal immigrants. We are not even Refugees yet. That is supposed to be determined 3-4 years after you arrive into the country. UNHCR has their hands full and they are not able to process the high number of Christian Asylum-Seekers….. or this is what we are told.

When I first arrived here in Bangkok, before I had my children, I volunteered to teach Pakistani Christian Asylum-Seeker and Refugee children. I wanted to help and contribute to the community. I did this for about one year before they were forced to close the school. We currently live in a small house with three other families. We have three bedrooms and one washroom. We have to be quite all of the time. We cannot come and go in freedom. We are always taking a chance when we venture outside that we will be arrested. Our dream is to live in freedom and peace. Thank you for your time and careful consideration. May God bless you more and more.

Love in His Name,

Sana Gulbaz Ali