There is a moment each spring when the campus of Forman Christian College comes fully alive.

Students cross the green lawns between classes. Conversation fills the courtyards. The afternoon light catches a simple chapel and cross visible against the Lahore sky, a quiet marker of what this institution has stood for since 1864.

This is not a scene most people picture when they think of higher education in Pakistan.

But this is Forman Christian College. A 160-year-old Christian university in the heart of Lahore, educating a predominantly Muslim student body. A place where faith and scholarship have coexisted across generations. Through wars, political upheaval, and the daily complexity of building understanding between communities that much of the world assumes cannot learn side by side.

This spring, on this campus, that work continues.

One Voice Among Many
Among the students walking on this campus is Maryam, a chemistry major in her final year.
She lives at home with her family commuting to campus each day as a day scholar. When she arrived at Forman, she described herself as someone who wasn’t naturally inclined to participate in group activities, hesitant to interact, uncertain of what lay ahead.

But through her involvement with the chapel office and the choir, something began to shift both academically and spiritually.

“Because of my visits to chapel, it’s also expanded my interaction with the people,” she says. “I think I have grown, my Christian life has grown in a very wonderful way.”

Today, Maryam stands in front of the chapel and speaks with clarity that would have been unimaginable to her younger self.

She is one student. But she is not an anomaly.
Maryam represents hundreds of students at Forman Christian College this semester who are receiving an education that does more than fill a transcript. It reshapes how they see themselves, their communities, and their futures.

What A Semester Looks Like
Spring 2026 at Forman is not a photograph frozen in time. It is a living institution, classrooms in session, mentors meeting students, research underway, and community learning to navigate differences with respect.

For Maryam, this semester has meant earning a 3.5 GPA, volunteering as an English teacher in the Forman Outreach Program for students from remote areas and serving in the Faculty Retreat Program as part of her community service. And through it all, she has kept showing up to class, to chapel, to choir.

“It has been a very wonderful and great experience at FC College,” she says. “It has broadened my horizons and my eye view.”

Before enrolling, Maryam already had a desire to attend Forman. What she found there confirmed something she already believed:

“Whatever I am and whatever I’m going to be is only with God. I’m nothing without God, Jesus Christ. I’m here just because of Jesus Christ.”

Across campus, the impact of scholarship support is visible in every classroom, every lab, and every conversation. Students who might otherwise never have reached a university are gaining access to rigorous academics, mentorship, and a community that stretches across faiths, regions, and life experiences.

This is the kind of transformation that does not happen in a single moment. It unfolds over semesters, in conversations, in the small accumulation of days spent learning alongside people who are different from you.

What Partnership Makes Possible
Every student on a scholarship at Forman Christian College is there because someone chose to invest in a future they would never fully see.

This past year, Maryam had the chance to meet one of those people face to face. For her, the moment was overwhelming.

“This scholarship helps me a lot. I still feel so blessed, because I don’t think that many people got this opportunity.”

Moments like these are what make the work of Friends of Forman tangible, a church partner standing on the campus where her investment landed, meeting the student it reached.

That investment is specific and measurable. When those students graduate, they return to their communities, some rural, some war-affected, some deeply conservative carrying an education that changes not only their trajectory, but the trajectory of the people around them.

Maryam will graduate soon. She hopes to pursue a PhD. And she is already thinking about what comes after, not what she will earn, but what she will return.

“If God will give me enough, I want to give back to the people,” she says. “Just like you and others. People who donated to the students who are in need. Hopefully in the future, if God will give me enough, I will give back to them.”

This is the work of Friends of Forman: to ensure that a 160-year-old institution in Lahore continues to do what it has always done. Educate across boundaries, develop leaders, and demonstrate that faith and learning belong together.

*All names and photos are changed to protect the identities of individual students.

This Spring, This Campus, This Moment
The videos arriving from campus this spring tell a story that statistics alone cannot be captured.

A young woman speaking confidently into a camera. Students walking between classes in the afternoon sun. The quiet backdrop of a chapel that has watched over this campus for generations.

They are evidence of something that has been working for 160 years and continues because of the people who believe it should.

Maryam said it best: “There are so many people who have everything in their lives, but they don’t give back and they don’t serve the people. I think in this era, it’s very important to stay that grounded and to be that grateful.”

We invite you to be part of what happens next.
Your support ensures that this campus remains a place where students who are ready and capable are not held back by circumstance but are instead given the opportunity to rise.

To learn more about how you can invest in students at Forman Christian College contact Friends of Forman.

*All names and photos are changed to protect the identities of individual students.

When most people think of the international community at Forman Christian College, they picture the institution’s deep American roots, the Presbyterian missionaries who founded it in 1864, the generations of Western educators who shaped its identity, the U.S.-based supporters who sustain it today.

But there is another thread in Forman’s international story that is quieter, deeper, and increasingly vital. It is Korea.

Across the campus in Lahore, Korean educators, researchers, and musicians are living, teaching, researching, and worshipping – contributing to the life of this 160-year-old institution in ways that touch nearly every dimension of what Forman does. From the music program to groundwater science, from trauma care to academic leadership, from language instruction to student exchange, the Korean presence at Forman is not a footnote. It is a defining feature of the university’s present and future.

The Sound of Campus
Ask anyone at Forman about the music program and the conversation will turn quickly to Miss Joy.

A Korean musician living on campus, Miss Joy, has transformed the College’s musical life. She directs the Christmas recitals and other performances that have become landmarks of the academic year. And she wrote the music to the Forman College song, a composition that now belongs to the identity of the institution itself.

It is a remarkable thing: a Korean musician, living in Lahore, composing the song that thousands of Pakistani students will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Solving Pakistan’s Water Crisis
Dr. Shinho heads Forman’s Environmental Studies Department and has been instrumental in securing a major contribution from a Korean international aid program one with implications far beyond the campus.

Through this partnership, Forman has established a water analysis center on campus and two pilot groundwater treatment plants in Punjab: one at Forman itself and the other in the district of Kasur. In a country where groundwater contamination is one of the most urgent public health challenges, this work is not academic. It is lifesaving.

The fact that a Korean scientist at a Pakistani Christian university is leading this effort with support from a Korean aid program speaks to the kind of cross-border collaboration that defines Forman at its best.

From Peshawar to Jeju: A Ministry of Healing
Dr. Matthew may be the Korean most fluent in Urdu in all of Pakistan. He delivers sermons in Urdu and has contributed to Forman’s mission for years. But his most profound work has been in the field of trauma care.

Following the All Souls Church bombing in Peshawar in 2013, an attack that killed 127 people. Dr. Matthew provided direct assistance to victims and their families. That experience led him to connections between trauma care expertise in Pakistan and Korea, particularly in the wake of the Jeju Ferry disaster in 2014, in which approximately 250 school children lost their lives.

Dr. Matthew’s work represents the kind of ministry that may not make headlines but changes lives in the most difficult circumstances.

Language, Leadership, and the Next Generation
The Korean contribution to Forman extends across the academic structure of the university.
Dr. Ruth Park heads the Forman Language Center, which teaches French, German, Spanish, and Korean. She was also instrumental in obtaining a grant from the French Embassy to support the university’s French language program. A Korean educator securing French funding for a Pakistani institution. That sentence alone captures the international reach of Forman’s community.

Dr. Song serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, working at the heart of the Vice Rector’s Office alongside Dr. Trimble and Dr. Gloria. Her role places Korean leadership at the center of Forman’s academic administration.

And later this year, Joshua Moon and his family are expected to join the Forman community at the college level. Joshua is a Korean “missionary kid” who attended Murree Christian School in Pakistan, and his parents still serve as Korean missionaries in the country. He will work alongside Susan Bakker in providing guidance to Christian college students, bringing a unique perspective shaped by a lifetime at the intersection of Korean faith and Pakistani culture.

A Congregation and a Bridge
For many years, Forman has provided space for a Korean-language congregation that meets on campus. The origins of this community trace back to a Korean company that won a contract to build roads in Pakistan, bringing a group of Korean engineers to Lahore. What began as a small gathering of expatriates became an established congregation, one more thread in the tapestry of faith that defines this campus.

Meanwhile, Forman’s international exchange program with Handong Global University in Korea enables FCCU students to study abroad for a semester while remaining enrolled at Forman. It is one of the university’s most popular programs, giving Pakistani students first-hand experience of Korean culture, education, and daily life.

More Than a Connection
What is happening between Korea and Forman Christian College is more than an international partnership. It is a community.

Koreans at Forman Christian College are not visiting. They are living there, raising children, leading departments, writing music, treating trauma, teaching languages, and worshipping alongside Pakistani colleagues and students. They are woven into the daily life of an institution that has always been defined by the willingness of people from different places to commit to a shared mission.

That mission, educating across boundaries, developing leaders, and demonstrating that faith and learning belong together is not owned by any one country or culture. It belongs to everyone who shows up doing the incredible work happening on the Forman Campus. At Forman Christian College, Korean families are showing up. And the institution is stronger for it.

There are moments when education does more than inform. It transforms identity, confidence, and the
future of an entire community.

This is one of those stories.

At Forman Christian College University, students arrive from vastly different backgrounds. Some come
with opportunity already within reach. Others arrive having never imagined they would step onto a
university campus.

This is the story of one such student.

Where Her Story Begins
She comes from a remote and highly conservative region where opportunities for women are limited and
access to education is rare.

Before arriving at university, she described herself in simple terms:

“Actually, I’m a very shy girl, because I’m not communicated to anyone.”

Her world was small. Her voice, even smaller.

A Different World and a New Beginning
Everything began to change when she stepped onto campus.

For the first time, she was surrounded by people from different communities and backgrounds.

“I meet here with different community people. My roommate is also from different community and I’m
also from different.”

What once felt unfamiliar quickly became something she embraced.

“So it’s a very amazing experience for me because it’s very different from my community. So it’s very
amazing for me and I’m very happy here.”

Finding Her Voice
Through education and daily life on campus, she began to change in ways she had never imagined.

“So I think if I complete my study here, I will be totally different person from the one which I come from
first semester.”

“By communicating, by expressing myself in a better way…”

And perhaps most powerfully:
“Because if I get education, I will not be scared of anyone.”

From Education to Purpose
She is studying psychology with a clear vision for what comes next.

Her focus is not only on her own future, but on the future of others.

She is determined to help her community because they are “war affected people”

What This Story Represents
This story is not an exception.
It is a clear example of what happens when access to education intersects with determination.

Through scholarship support, students like her are able to:

• Receive the financial assistance needed to access a university education
• Learn within a safe and vibrant environment that supports both academic and personal growth
• Benefit from strong leadership and programs that uphold a high standard of education
• Gain the knowledge and confidence to return to their communities prepared to lead and
  contribute

This is transformation in its truest form.

The Role of Partnership
Her journey was made possible through a scholarship.

A single decision to invest in a student creates an entirely new future—not just for her, but for the people
she will one day serve.

This is the work of Friends of Forman.

To ensure that students who are ready and capable are not held back by circumstance, but instead are
given the opportunity to rise.

We invite you to be part of this work.
To invest in students whose potential is waiting to be realized.
To help make stories like this possible.

An invitation to pastors and leaders of The Fellowship Community

Imagine a place in the very heart of the Muslim world where:

• Hundreds of young Christians are equipped and sent out to be a disciple and to make disciples
• Thousands of young women are empowered, given voice and heard
• Over ten thousand Christian and Muslim students live together in an environment of dialogue and
mutual respect

That seemingly unimaginable place is Forman Christian College.
For 160 years, this ministry—often called the crown jewel of Presbyterian mission—has helped make God’s love visible in the world’s fifth most populous and second largest Muslim nation: Pakistan.

A Strategic Gospel Presence
Pakistan is home to more than 255 million people. Only 3.5 million are Christians. Fewer than 2% of Pakistan’s Christians receive higher education.
Yet at Forman, more than 12% of the 10,000+ students are Christian. It is widely said there are more Christian students at Forman than at all other universities in Pakistan combined.

For a small and often marginalized minority, Forman is not simply a university. It is an oasis.
In February, I had the privilege of visiting campus with pastors Rich Kannwischer, Mike McClenahan, and Eric Hoey. Our purpose was to deepen collaboration between The Fellowship Community, The Outreach Foundation, and Friends of Forman Christian College—especially in light of recent shifts in denominational world mission strategy. We returned with renewed hope and concrete ideas for engaging our churches.

One Campus, Three Schools, One Mission
Forman’s 120-acre campus houses three distinct schools offering world-class liberal arts education from Pre-K through PhD.

1. Light of Hope School (Pre-K–10)
   The Light of Hope School serves more than 450 students, primarily children of Christian service workers—many from families where parents are illiterate. Today, their children are scoring in the top 5% nationally. During our visit, we honored several national award recipients.
   It is a generational transformation story.
   

2. Intermediate College (Grades 11–12)
Nearly 4,000 young men study in what feels like a residential preparatory academy. Alumni have
risen to senior leadership in politics (including Prime Ministers), law (including Chief Justices), the
military, and business. During our visit, a group of teenage boys blessed us by singing King of Kings.
In that moment, the joy of Christ in a Muslin-majority nation was unmistakable.

3. The University (Undergraduate through PhD)
The University offers 27 bachelor’s, 24 master’s, and 5 PhD programs to more than 6,000 students. It is
in the final stages of accreditation through the New England Commission on Higher Education, the
same body that accredits Harvard, Yale, and MIT.

Forman’s motto—“By love serve one another”—is not ornamental. It shapes campus life. Christian and Muslim students study, live, and lead together in an environment where difficult questions can be asked safely and respectfully.

Strengthening the Church in Pakistan
Friends of Forman recently helped launch the Center for Biblical Teaching and Research (CBTR), modeled in part after Tyndale House in Cambridge.
The CBTR offers:

• A Bachelor’s in Christian Studies
• Hebrew and Greek certificates
• An MPhil in Biblical Studies
• (Lord willing) a future PhD

Why does this matter?
An estimated 80–90% of pastors in Pakistan lack access to formal theological training. During our visit to Islamabad with partners from the Outreach Foundation, we met seven pastors from a Christian slum community. Each pleaded for theological education. In Islamabad alone, 22 Christian slums house over half a million believers.
The CBTR exists for leaders like these.

Stories That Stay With You
One afternoon we visited Samroon, a Computer Science student from a Christian village south of Lahore. His father died 12 years ago. His widowed mother—herself a schoolteacher—has sacrificed tirelessly to educate her children.
After welcoming us with extraordinary hospitality, the family sang a Psalm in Urdu.
Moments like that remind us: this is not abstract mission strategy. These are families, futures, and faithful witness.

Voices from the Trip
Eric Hoey reflected:
“Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Forman Christian College is changing the world one student at a time. From preschool to PhD, 10,000 people fill its bountiful 120 acre campus. The staff are passionate about their work, and lives are being transformed shaped the motto, “By love serve one another.” – Eric Hoey”

Rich Kannwischer shared:
“I gotta tell you it’s so amazing. I mean I’ve known about Forman for a long time. I knew Peachtree‘s long term commitment of 21 years – ever since this place was denationalized and to bring it back to it’s former glory. It’s amazing to just watch it flourish right now. I had no appreciation for how how much scope of the gospel is here. Whether it’s through the Light of Hope school or through the high school or the college or the university level – all the different levels of what God‘s doing in the Christian community here. When you’re dealing with a community that is such a small minority this is literally an Oasis. I mean the joy that is palpable here and the witness that it here and the difference that it’s making in this city is incredible.” – Rich Kannwischer”

And Mike McClenahan concluded:
“I think this is a time where we can engage the world. God is doing so much in all different places in the world and specifically in Pakistan. There are ministries happening all over the country, and Forman is a really integral part of that transformation. I encourage anybody to get on a trip and see for themselves what it looks like, and see how you and others are using your gifts to mobilize the church and helping people to generously give to something important. I mean it’s not just Forman – there are many other things Presbyterians have done in this country, and The Outreach Foundation is very active here, so yeah, it’s great to see all the results and know we have a great heritage, and it’s great to see where those seeds that have been planted and what fruit has grown out from those seeds.” – Mike McClenahan”

An Invitation to The Fellowship Community
Friends, this is a moment for engagement. Forman represents:
• Historic Presbyterian faithfulness
• Strategic gospel witness in a Muslim-majority nation
• Leadership development for the global Church
• A tangible partnership opportunity for Fellowship congregations

If you would like to explore how your church can pray, give, partner, or visit, I would welcome the conversation.

To learn more, please visit FriendsOfForman.org.

Better yet—join us on a future campus visit and see firsthand what God is doing in Pakistan.

As we step into 2026, we do so with deep gratitude—and with confidence in what God continues to do through Forman Christian College University and friends like you. Your generosity, especially through the Ripple of Impact year-end campaign, made a meaningful difference. Together, we not only reached our goal but exceeded it, raising $99,003.50 to strengthen scholarships and provide stability for students beginning this new year with renewed courage and hope.

By love, serve one another.
This past year reminded us of a simple but powerful truth: when education is rooted in faith, discipline, and love, lives are transformed. At FCCU in Lahore, Pakistan, young Christians are growing academically and spiritually, even in the midst of real challenges. They are discovering their voices, building confidence, and stepping into leadership roles that will carry light into some of the hardest places in the region. That spirit is grounded in FCCU’s enduring motto: “By love, serve one another.”  It’s lived out every day, in classrooms, chapels, and shared study spaces where students are formed not only for careers, but for lives of service to their neighbors and their nation. 

A story of hope from the border
One of those students comes from a small Christian village in northern Pakistan and is the first from that community ever to study at FCCU. Home lies near the Afghan border, where daily life is shaped by instability and limited access to food, healthcare, and education. The journey to campus can take nearly 20 hours. This student carries the weight of that reality deeply. Reflecting on the pain many Christians in the region experience, the student shared: “Every Christian is emotionally depressed, and that is why I want to become a psychologist. I need to do something good for my people because they are in pain.”  That longing to return home and serve others is exactly the kind of calling your generosity helps make possible. 

Faith in action on campus 
At Forman, this future psychologist has found more than an academic program. There is mentorship. There is guidance. And there is a Christ-centered community that believes in each student’s God-given potential. Through study and relationships on campus, this young leader is gaining both the professional preparation and spiritual resilience needed to walk alongside people carrying trauma, fear, and discouragement. Because you chose to invest in scholarships and student support, a path that once felt unreachable is now open. This story is just one small reflection of the many points of light that together form a community of hope and possibility at FCCU. 

Looking ahead 
Exceeding our $75,000 year-end goal means more students can remain in school, focus on their studies, and prepare to serve their families and communities with wisdom and grace. It also strengthens the foundation for our 2026 focus on Faith in Action,  as we continue to share stories where education and faith come together to change lives across Pakistan. The year ahead holds great promise. With your continued partnership, we will expand access to Christ-centered education, walk alongside students from vulnerable communities, and continue shining light where it is needed most.

 Give. Go. Pray.
If this story moved you, we invite you to keep the ripple going. Gifts made through the Friends of Forman donation page directly support scholarships and formative experiences for students whose callings are being shaped at FCCU right now. Thank you for being a steady light, helping make what once seemed impossible possible, one student and one story at a time.