Mission Magazine Autumn 2023

Propagation of the Faith:
From Dreams of
Stardom to
Divine Calling
Pakistan
By Inés San Martín
Father Faryadd Anser, who hails from
Pakistan, acknowledged that when he
turned 17, he dreamed of becoming a
famous singer and leading the life of a
wealthy star. But as he was reading the
Bible in the small local Church, his voice
was replaced by one much stronger.
TPMS destines over $650,000 a year
to Pakistan
Population: 231 million
Christian population: 2.6 million
40 percent of the population lives
with less than $4 a day
“I didn’t grow up seeing priests often, so I didn’t know what pastoral life
was until later in life,” he told MISSION Magazine. “During my childhood I
loved singing, I wanted to learn music and become a singer. But I also loved
being in Church, I was always either at school, in Church, or helping my mom
in the fields. Other children my age would join me, and we would read the
Bible together, and we would put our own music to the psalms.”
But one day, while reading the Gospel of Luke, he came across this passage:
“For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits
himself?”