I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Revelation 7:9-10
Christians in Pakistan (2002)
International Church Bombed
A grenade attack upon the Protestant International Church in Islamabad on 17 March 2002 killed four Christians. The church was mainly attended by foreign diplomats and their families, and most consider this to have been an anti-Western as well as anti-Christian attack. However, quite a number of Pakistani, Iranian and Afghan Christians also regularly worshipped at the church, some of them from amongst the most influential sections of Pakistani Christian society.
Four of the people killed in the blasts were: Anwar Baizar, an Afghan Christian; Rabia Edward, a Pakistani woman; and Barbara Green and Kristen Wormsley, an American mother and daughter. The fifth victim was believed to be a Pakistani man, and there is speculation that he was in fact the bomber, who may have deliberately killed himself as part of a planned suicide attack. Seven others were injured.
O Lord, in your great mercy, keep us from forgetting what you have suffered for us in body and soul. May we never be drawn by the cares of this life from Jesus our Friend and Saviour, but daily may we live nearer his cross.
Captain Hedley Vicars (1826-55)