CHRISTIANS UNDER FIRE: YOUR FAMILY IN PAKISTAN

You need to know your Christian family in Pakistan is hurting. Pakistani Taliban militants are urging the country's government to reject aid for flood victims. Instead, by trying to monopolize relief efforts to over 20 million people, Islamists are gaining a powerful foothold in Pakistan.

The Taliban and other Islamic organizations are taking advantage of the crisis in an attempt to garner nationwide support, with an eye to seize total control as soon as possible. If they do, Pakistani Christians stand to suffer persecution comparable only to the death camps of the Holocaust.

Already, Christians in Pakistan routinely face situations that ought to cause global outcry. On July 22 in the Rawalpindi district, seven students from the Jamia Islamia Madrassa gang-raped a 12-year old girl while their classmates looked on, shouting “We will teach these Christians a lesson they will never forget.” The day before, in Farooqabad, three men raped a 16-year old girl, the daughter of their Christian co-worker. When the girl’s father tried to file a complaint with the police, he was attacked by angry Muslims and tortured. “Muslim landowners and their relatives see Christian girls or women as their chattel,” lamented the national director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement. He told Compass Direct News, “Such vicious incidents are not being stopped…day by day the rate of rapes of Christian girls is escalating instead of plunging.”

The situation in Pakistan is deteriorating, and a spiritual and humanitarian crisis looms. The corrupt government cannot cope with the needs of its people, the floods have wiped out millions of acres of vital agricultural land, and the Taliban and al-Qaeda are poised to fill the power vacuum with their ideology of oppression and hatred.

We urge you to:

• Storm the gates of Heaven for our Pakistani family

• Ask the Lord what action you should take

• Then TAKE it! Tell your pastor, contact your Congressman, inform others!

• Support Smyrna as we seek to help the suffering and get the word out to the Church in America

Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)