(Photo courtesy FMI)

Over 50 Christians died on Easter Sunday when suicide bombers targeted a park. A break-away faction of the Taliban, the Jama’at-ul-Ahrar — an alleged “enemy” of the Pakistani government — quickly took credit for the attack.

According to the Institute for Conflict Management, last week’s attack was the second-worst targeting of Christians inside Pakistan.

This week, Asia Bibi — a Christian woman accused of blasphemy — has Pakistan’s government caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

“The national government in Pakistan, they have these protestors on one side of them demanding her execution,” explains Bruce Allen of Forgotten Missionaries International (FMI).

“They want to ‘pacify’ the radical Muslims. But, then they have the worldwide community saying, ‘What are you doing? Why would you allow that even to happen?'”

Meanwhile, Allen says things on the ground are heating to a boil.

Asia Bibi “offenses”

(Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs Canada)

From the beginning, the intensity surrounding Asia Bibi’s case has garnered a high level of attention.

“Her case has been a ‘lightning rod’ regarding blasphemy law abuses. Hardline Muslims want her dead,” Allen shares.

“Only her family is allowed to see her, and her husband prepares all of her meals for her.”

As explained here, Bibi was charged with blasphemy in 2009, when defending her faith during a conversation with Muslim co-workers. The following year, Asia Bibi became the first woman in Pakistan to receive a death sentence for blasphemy.

Despite years of international outcry on her behalf and numerous appeals, Asia Bibi remains a captive of the state. Please ask the Lord to intervene on her behalf.

“Life in prison has gotten very difficult for her…. She’s been shuffled from one secure location to another.”

Asia Bibi’s life also happens to a concern for Mumtaz Qadri supporters, who swarmed Islamabad last week.

“They have a list of 10 demands,” says Allen. “One of them is the immediate implementation of Sharia law. [Another] is the execution of Asia Bibi.”

Mumtaz Qadri
(YouTube)

Qadri was executed earlier this year — a punishment set forth by Pakistani law — for assassinating his employer, Salmaan Taseer, in 2011. Formerly the governor of Punjab province, Taseer was a known supporter of Asia Bibi and a critic of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

It was for these two “offenses” that Qadri shot the governor multiple times. Today, “People are making him [Qadri] a martyr and a hero.

“There were a few thousand people in Islamabad for several days, marching in protest and [starting] riots.”

What YOU can do about it

Meanwhile, national pastors and church leaders supported by FMI are helping Christians in Lahore overcome the horrors of Easter Sunday.

“A day that was supposed to be one of rejoicing turned into one of mourning,” shares Allen.

“Pastors and other church leaders are dealing with their grieving communities, their churches. They’re [also] thinking about [church security]; ‘How do we deal with security issues so that people can feel free to worship?'”

(Photo courtesy FMI)

Click here to send a note of encouragement to Pakistani Christians via Facebook. Allen says the comments will be collected and shared with believers in Pakistan.

“Those words, those prayers, carry a lot of meaning because it helps people know that they are connected to the Body of Christ and they are not forgotten.”

You can also help by clicking here and contributing to FMI’s Tangible Resources fund. “I have a request right now for several cartons of Bibles; they want to use them for evangelism and discipleship.”

At least 49 of the men, women, and children killed in the attack were Christ-followers, reports Bruce Allen of Forgotten Missionaries International.

Newlywed Christian couple killed in the blast.
(Photo, caption courtesy FMI)

“Our partners and their families are okay, but they’re starting to tell the stories of these victims and showing pictures,” shares Allen.

“A newlywed couple, just fairly-recently married, and both of them were killed. A young man who worked in the hospital.”

Major news outlets like BBC News, The Guardian, and others claim in their reports that “most of the attack victims were Muslim.” However, FMI’s National Director has spoken with victims’ families and gathered documentation to confirm the death toll of Christians is indeed 49.

Please continue to pray, as that number could rise in the days ahead. There are believers among the hundreds of people seriously wounded during the suicide bombing on Easter Sunday. Pray that they will receive the care they need, and that their circumstances could lead to Gospel opportunities.

Lahore bombing

On Easter Sunday, thousands of families entered through the gates of the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, a large recreational space in Lahore. The crowd at the park that day was “unusually large,” an eyewitness told Dawn News.

Haroon Wasim was a Christian victim of the deadly Easter deadly attack in Lahore, Pakistan. He worked at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital as a nurse. The young medic was celebrating the holiday in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, when the terrorist of the Taliban blew himself up in the crowded leisure land and claimed the lives of 72 innocent people.
(Photo, caption courtesy FMI)

When a suicide bomber entered the park and triggered his explosives, the resulting detonation took 70 lives and wounded hundreds of people.

“Not all the victims were Christians; there were a significant number of Muslims in the park as well. But, the faction of radical terrorists that claimed responsibility for the attack…made it very clear that they were targeting Christians,” says Allen.

Following the bombing, Punjab–the province where Lahore is located–was put on “red” alert. The leadership team of FMI’s ministry network advised all pastors and church planters in the province to “avoid unnecessary travel.” Ministry is continuing today, but in limited fashion.

Allen is requesting prayer for the following:

• Often, the believers who die in attacks like these are leaders in the Christian community, so there is a significant void to fill.
• Many Christians retreat in fear, and they need to be challenged and mobilized to be salt and light in their communities.
• Because of military or government responses, logistical hurdles increase.

Connection to Mumtaz Qadri

The Taliban’s Pakistani branch–Jamaat-ul-Ahrar–claimed responsibility for the Easter bombing, but the attack isn’t necessarily an isolated incident. Yesterday, the group issued a new threat via Twitter.

Terrorists are not the only threat to Pakistani Christians. At the same time as a suicide bomber wreaked havoc in Lahore, thousands of demonstrators made a set of demands clear on the streets of Islamabad.

According to The Guardian, these are among the protestors’ top requests:

1. Officially acknowledge Mumtaz Qadri as a “martyr.”
2. Grant immunity to anyone killing in the prophet Muhammed’s name.
3. The execution of Asia Bibi.

A montage of people who were killed, injured, and mourning after the park bombing which killed more than 70 people, the majority of whom were Christian.
(Caption, image courtesy of FMI)

As recounted here, Mumtaz Qadri came to fame in Pakistan when he murdered then-governor Salmaan Taseer. Taseer was an outspoken critic of Pakistan’s infamous blasphemy laws, which are often used to persecute the Christian minority.

Qadri was executed at the end of February, in accordance with Pakistani law. However, resolute calls for Bibi’s death have been on the rise ever since.

“The Christian community had the feeling that there would be backlash from Qadri’s execution, especially on festivals like Easter,” Shamoon Gill, a Christian activist and spokesperson for the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, told The Express Tribune.

“We feared that something might happen.”

How to help Pakistani Christians

This week’s events make one thing abundantly clear: Pakistani Christians are in trouble.

“They want people around the world to understand their plight,” says Allen. “When we hear a story like this; it’s easy to focus on [the statistics]: the total number of people killed, the number of people injured.

“Those numbers represent individual lives and individual families that are impacted.”

Now that you know, here’s what you can do to help:

PRAY

• 

  (Photo courtesy FMI)

  Pray for families mourning the loss of their loved ones.

• Pray that wounded believers will receive the care they need, and that their circumstances could lead to Gospel opportunities.
• Ask the Lord to protect FMI-supported Gospel workers and other Pakistani Christians from harm.

“[Pakistani Christians are] trying to come together as a community to support one another. That’s a very crucial element…to ‘bear one another’s burdens,'” Allen says, adding that Christians in the West should follow suit.

“When one part of the Body (of Christ) suffers, we all suffer.”

GIVE

Though short-term mission trips to Pakistan may not be possible, you can still send believers the help they need through FMI. Better yet, that assistance gets multiplied, by God’s grace.

Pakistani Christians gather in the home of a church member in Lahore for Easter worship and fellowship in the hours prior to the bombing.
(Photo, caption courtesy FMI)

“When people provide resources for our church planters and evangelists, the impact isn’t just ‘one-to-one’ accounting,” explains Allen. For example, when donors provide a Bible, “it’s amazing how many people share that one resource.”

A single Bible is often shared by 6 Christian families. Listening groups of up to 20 people gather on a regular basis to hear God’s Word from Scripture CDs.

Equip national missionaries through FMI’s Tangible Resources Fund. Or, you can partner with a Pakistani pastor through monthly sponsorship.

“To support one of the church planters is a great encouragement to them– to know that there is someone praying for them and their ministry…and supporting them financially, so they don’t have to leave the ministry.”

Mumtaz Qadri is regarded by some as a hero in Pakistani culture.
(Picture obtained via Facebook)

To repay last week’s execution of well-known assassin Mumtaz Qadri, a suicide bomber killed more than a dozen people outside of Islamabad. A splinter group belonging to Pakistan’s Taliban soon claimed responsibility for the court bombing.

Reuters credits an e-mailed statement: The court bombing “was especially done as vengeance for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri.”

In 2011, Punjab governor Salman Taseer called for the reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy law and was subsequently murdered by his then-bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri. Pakistan’s blasphemy law is a source of contention for believers as it’s often used as legal support for persecution.

According to FMI’s Bruce Allen, sectarian tensions have reached a new high in Pakistan.

“There have been demonstrations, riots, fires in the streets, things like that, in major cities across the country,” he says.

How the court bombing impacts Christians

In 2015, residents and re-settled ‘alumni’ of the safe houses had more than 2,000 significant spiritual conversations with people in their communities in which they also distributed Scripture audio CDs (because of low literacy rates, hearing Scripture is in one’s own language is more effective than reading a Bible) and JESUS Film DVDs.
(Photo, caption courtesy FMI)

Christians are caught in the middle of this widespread unrest. An FMI-supported safe house–      designed to protect persecuted Christians and Muslim-background believers–was recently raided.

“The persecuted believers that were staying there…were apprehended. They were tortured, including waterboarding of the father of this family,” adds Allen.

Thankfully, *Nehemiah, FMI’s national director, was able to rescue this family of Muslim-background believers (MBBs) and bring them to a safe location unknown to the Pakistani government. However, Nehemiah and his family have become a new target: officials recently brought Nehemiah in for another round of questioning.

“We’re asking Mission Network News listeners to be…praying for our national director and his family. [Nehemiah] now is getting interrogated by authorities.”

• Please pray for Nehemiah’s wisdom in knowing how to best respond to questioning, in order to protect the church planters he leads in the FMI ministry as well as all safe house guests.
• Pray for Nehemiah’s deliverance against the schemes of wicked men (for example, agents from the “Cyber Crime” division will also be on hand during this interrogation, and Nehemiah has been asked to bring his laptop with him).
• Pray for God’s blessing on the family who is now caring for these persecuted and tortured Christians, and for the Lord’s healing of any injuries sustained by the safe house residents during their torture.
• Pray for the funding to establish a new safe house in the Kerith Brook network of safe houses in Pakistan (which FMI supports) to replace the compromised one which police have now sealed off. ($6000 is needed to create a safe house, with monthly costs running about $200 for each safe house.) Cover a share of that expense by contributing to FMI’s Kerith Brook Safe House account.
• Pray that Allen would be an encouragement to FMI-supported church planters as well as the safe house shepherds when he returns to Pakistan in the coming weeks.

Heavy persecution has caused Pakistan to rise a few spots on the Open Doors USA World Watch List. It’s also increased the need for FMI’s safe house ministry.

Members of a family of persecuted Christians watches the JESUS film during their stay at one of the Kerith Brook shelters in Pakistan. This network of safe house is named after the place where the Lord miraculously sheltered and sustained the Old Testament prophet Elijah during a time of crisis.
(Photo, caption courtesy FMI)

“Many of them [persecuted Christians] are fairly new believers. It’s only because they have embraced Christianity…that their families have either poisoned them [or] tried to kill them,” explains Allen.

Along with physical necessities like food, water, and medicine, FMI provides spiritual discipleship for persecuted Christians through their safe house ministry.

“As these ‘victims’ of persecution are getting dimpled, they’re learning about their identity in Christ,” Allen adds.

“They are no longer seeing themselves as victims but as victors, because ‘we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us.'”