PAKISTAN On Friday, Sept. 21, an angry mob torched St. Paul Lutheran Church in Pakistan’s Mardan district. Protestors destroyed not only the church building but a nearby school attended by Christian and Muslim children. “Nothing is left,” a St. Paul pastor said, 
sitting on a pile of rubble, turning a brick over in his hand. “Pray for the healing of our hearts and hopes, that we may be the real church in this place and be like the Prince of Peace. I do not know if I have the energy for that.”
IRAQ In Iraq, Christians working in a government office in Mosul have started to receive written threats. “Warning to the Dirty Nazeris,” the computer printouts say, referring to the word Nazareth, and ordering Christians to leave the city.
EGYPT Angry Egyptian Muslims had just stormed the American embassy in Cairo. It was well after midnight, and tear gas was in the air. In the nearby Kasr-el-Dobara Evangelical Church, fears were running high. Unable to breach the embassy perimeter, some of the protesters turned their attention to the church. “Death to the worshippers of the cross!” they painted on the wall. Inside, a pastor and about 30 young people prayed. The mob began to damage the downstairs bookshop. Some carried Molotov cocktails.
Then a man emerged from the crowd and started yelling. He said the Christians from the church had come to his aid, tending his wounds, during the 2011 popular uprising against the Egyptian government. Then another man stepped forward, and said the church had offered water, earlier that very day, to wash the feet of Muslims before prayers.
The crowd fell silent, turned, and left. “One day we will discover if they were men, or angels, just there to protect the church,” said a senior member of the church staff.
NIGERIA At least three people were killed and more than 48 injured in a suicide bombing at a church in Bauchi Town, Nigeria. Among those confirmed as deceased are the bomber and a woman and child who died at the scene. Many others are hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
The bomber, a suspected member of Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, detonated his explosives at the church gate after being refused entry.
This attack on Christians comes less than one week after four gunmen opened fire on a church building, killing five at the scene and injuring four who later died in hospital. It is believed that Boko Haram, which translates as “Western education is sin,” is attacking Christians in the north to incite sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians in order to press for the separation of the Muslim-majority north from the Christian-majority south.
Sources: Open Doors News (formerly Compass Direct); Christian Solidarity Worldwide; Christian Post