POWER POINTS: GOD AT WORK THROUGH WOMEN LEADERS YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Esther John

LEECY BARNETT

“This girl was in love with your Christ. She still speaks even though she is dead.” 1

The girl mentioned above was given the name Qamar Zia when she was born in 1929. Qamar grew up in Madras (now Chennai), India when it was part of the British Raj. The Zia family were devout Muslims yet like other Indians of various religions, they sent Qamar to a Christian high school because of its reputation for giving an excellent education.

This decision had unintended consequences. During the year or so she studied at the Christian school, Qamar was “profoundly moved by the transparent faith of one of her teachers, and she began to read the Bible earnestly.” 2 Islam teaches that God is “distinct from everything else. It would not suit God’s majesty and glory to associate the limited attributes of His creation to Him because He is not restricted in any way, while His creation is.” 3 So she must have been amazed when she read about the Messiah: "But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6 NIV) As she came to realize that God is not aloof from His creation but became a man who died for our sins as Isaiah predicted, she placed her faith in Jesus as her Savior and Lord.

In 1947 when India gained independence, Qamar and her family moved to the new Islamic state of Pakistan. Through her teacher, Qamar was able to contact a Christian missionary in Karachi who gave her a New Testament. Reading the Bible over and over again helped her grow in her faith, which she kept secret from the rest of her family.

Several years later, when her parents had arranged for her to marry a Muslim man, Qamar felt compelled to break with her family and openly declare her faith in Christ. Because “her family still pressed her to return and to marry, …[in] 1955 she took a train north to Sahiwal, in the Punjab.” 4 It was in Sahiwal that she was baptized and took the name Esther John. When she first moved to the Punjab, she worked in the mission hospital there but soon felt a calling to be an evangelist. To prepare for this ministry she attended the United Bible Training Centre in Gujranwala.

After graduation, Esther returned to the countryside near Sahiwal and worked with an American missionary couple to preach the gospel to women in the area. This was a difficult task both physically—they often traveled by bike and slept in tents—and spiritually—Pakistan was and continues to be more than 95% Muslim. Undoubtedly, someone was vehemently opposed to her preaching the gospel. In February 1960, she was found dead, having been brutally murdered in her sleep. It was the “police officer, going through her possessions looking for clues, [who] told Mr. White [the American missionary], ‘This girl was in love with your Christ.’” 5 Although her murder was never solved, it was clear to the authorities that she was killed because of her faith.

In 1998, Esther John was included in the Ten Modern Missionaries whose statues adorn the West entrance to Westminster Abbey in London. These statues remind us that even today, "Our brothers and sisters defeated him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb’s death and by the message they preached. They did not love their lives so much that they were afraid of death." (Revelation 12:11 NCV) Let those of us who enjoy religious freedom never take it for granted, and let us pray for ourselves and for other believers living in hostile environments that we love Christ more than anything, even our lives.

1 Stacey, V. (2012). Esther John. In R. E. Hedlund, J. Athyal, J.Kalapati, J. Richard, & MylaporeInstitute for Indigenous Studies (Eds.), The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity. Oxford University Press, p. 247.

2 Westminster Abbey. (n.d.). Esther John. https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/esther-john

3 Why Islam? (2022). Concept of God in Islam.

4 Westminster Abbey. (n.d.). Esther John. https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/esther-john https://whenwomenspeak.net/blog/disciplining-those-who-pay-a-great-price-for-faith-esther-john-1929-1960/#

5 When Women Speak. (2016, April 4). Discipling those who pay a great price for faith: Esther John 1929 – 1960.