Pakistan (MNN) — U.N. agencies say as of 2021, 50 million people around the world live in some kind of slavery. That’s up by about 10 million in 5 years.

This might look like forced labor or even forced marriage. Slavery exists in nearly every country around the world, the study found.

Kassar

Bruce Allen with FMI says, “This is a global problem. To put a face to it, I’d like to tell you the story of a guy named Kassar. He works at one of the 20,000 brick kilns scattered across Pakistan. Many of the buildings in Pakistan are made with rudimentary bricks. You have these smokestacks dotting the landscape.”

Kassar is 11 years old. He lives with his family in conditions Allen compares to the book of Exodus. They are not allowed to leave or take breaks. The workers don’t ever make enough to erase their debt.

An FMI partner visited the brick kiln, trying to help people in any way he could. Allen says, “Pastor Naveen, who is supported through FMI partners here in the US, has planted multiple churches at various brick kiln sites. He recently gave Kassar’s father an audio Bible on an mp3 device.”

“Now, even as they labor together under the sun, parent and children, the whole family is uplifted by listening to scripture in their own language.”

You can send Bibles to places like Pakistan through FMI. In October, donations to FMI will pay for twice as many Bibles.

Jubilee

Just as God set His people free from slavery in Egypt, He will set them free from all slavery when Jesus comes again. Allen says, “The book of Exodus is about brick kiln workers and their liberation. When Jesus picked up the Torah scroll and read from it, He mentioned that part of His purpose was to set the captives free, to announce the year of Jubilee.”

Ask God to free slaves all around the world.

The header photo shows workers in a Pakistan brick kiln. (Daniel Buckles, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)