At 4:04AM on Saturday morning May 25th I woke up to the most heart wrenching and disturbing video I had ever seen. The shameless beating and torture of Lazer Nazir Masih.
Hi, my name is Daniel, and I serve at Global Catalytic Ministries as a storyteller. My job is to take the untold stories from the underground persecuted church and share them with the world through creative media. From the four corners of the globe and in the darkest of places, in the shadows there is unimaginable light sweeping across these hidden places.
That is the light of the Gospel. That is Christ Himself, the Light of the World, walking the dark streets of cities like Mecca, illuminating His love to the needy and broken. (There are hundreds of stories of the ‘Man in White’ appearing in dreams to Muslims across the Middle East.) It is a remarkable opportunity that I do not take lightly.
I am forever marked by the events that took place in Pakistan on May 25th. That morning, footage started pouring in from our teams in the region. Every few seconds the alert chime would sound off. Dozens of videos and a handful of graphic images capturing the atrocities. What happened to Lazer Nazir Masih? What happened in Pakistan? What happened in the Christian community in Punjab? What follows is a direct report from one of our team members on the ground.
The Report from Punjab
“Hello, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. Today I come to you with a heavy heart and a message that demands our attention and our collective voice. Another tragic and heart wrenching incident of violence against our Christian community in Punjab.
A charged mob attacked and vandalized properties in Sargodha Masjid’s colony. An elderly man in his 80s was dragged through the streets, brutally beaten and at one point thrown into a fire. His injuries were so severe that he submitted to them either on the spot or shortly after being rushed to the hospital. This is not an isolated incident. As Christians in Pakistan, we have faced systematic discrimination and violence for years. Our community has been marginalized, our voice is silenced, and our rights trampled upon. We are often targets of false accusation and brutal attacks simply for practicing our faith and striving for a better life.
Today, I stand before you, not just with righteous anger, but with a call for justice and compassion. The death of this elderly man. The suffering of his family and the destruction of their house and livelihood must not be in vain. As Christians, we are called to stand up for the oppressed, to be a voice for voiceless, and to be embody the love and justice of Christ to the international community, especially our brothers and sisters in the rest of the world. We need your support. We need your prayers, your voice, and your advocacy.
Stand with us against these injustices, raise your awareness, speak out against these acts of violence, and urge your governments to take action to protect minority communities in Pakistan.
Let us not be disheartened. Let us be strengthened by our faith and united in our resolve. Together, we can bring out change and ensure that our Christian communities in Pakistan can live with dignity, peace, and security. Thank you and May God bless you all.”
With great urgency, the Global Catalytic Ministries leadership called the entire creative team along with all staff and volunteers to sound the alarm and raise our voices. It was all hands-on deck, anything, and everything we could do to honor our brother Lazer Nazir Masih and herald his story. The next few hours would be vital and the next 48 hours would be critical.
I cleared the day and communicated with my family I would need to be away. First, I took inventory of all footage and photos. I re-watched video after video. In total there were 24 files: 6 photos, 17 videos and 1 voice memo. While sifting through the footage an immense wave of grief and sorrow overtook me. I was in utter shock and disbelief. There were a million thoughts racing through my mind, and I was completely flooded with profound emotions.
Every image and every video clip I had used up until that point as a creator had been stock footage. It is usually shot in a sterile studio environment, something that a producer scripts and an actor performs. In content creation there are libraries full of sterile studio quality elements available for all creators to implement in their designs. This was different. Heartbreakingly different. Life-altering different. Lazer Nazir Masih transformed me. He changed me. He is still changing me today. He was a real man. He had a family. He was real. He was tangible.
I was completely overwhelmed and needed help. I reached out to our CEO, Mike Patino, who has become more than a boss but a friend. We are a global team and Mike and his family traveled 1,500 miles (about 2414.02 km) to visit our house church community and sit at my dinner table and share a meal together. He is also a retired firefighter and founder of a successful media company. He has seen violence and tragedy. He gets it.
I knew of no better person to reach out to. I sent him a four-minute voice memo through loud sobs and tears streaming down my face asking for help. How do you process a moment like this? We are not professional journalists. We are a global family of disciple-makers serving alongside each other to see the gospel go forth in the darkest places and beyond. Nothing more and nothing less.
I am crying with you. Listening to you. Help people feel what you are feeling. Help people feel that. That is the goal in these types of things. If my blood were spilt, I would want that cost paid to make a difference. The story of Stephen being martyred they recorded in a letter, (Acts 6 & 7). For thousands of years that has honored Stephen and the Lord. Stephen’s life was sacrificed unto the Lord. This is the reality of Sheep Among Wolves. We need to help people understand the cost and how the cost is worth it. What is your price?
By telling that story; hearts are moved to pray and support. What you are feeling is what you should be feeling. If this story does not go out, then our heads are in the sand. We live this comfortable life over here with minimal sacrifice. There is a price, and it is worth every penny. That is the message. The message is Jesus and His example to willfully lay down His life. Being a Christian in these countries. You can lose everything. To so many around the world being a follower of Christ cost everything. It is worth every penny.
It is a message of salvation and hope. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, (2 Corinthians 5:8). The mob was recording this on their phones and celebrating his death. From dishonor to honor. We are reminding believers that Jesus is worth it. He is worth that price. Keep that emotion. Do not apologize for that emotion. Countless times I have been editing videos through tears. The bible is filled with these types of stories. They were told in the modern medium of their day. It is going to honor the Lord.
Our heart is to challenge and call believers to the realities of the price for following Christ. It is a call to pray and support but most importantly to wake up. Why? Because He is worthy. Because He removed the sting of death, (1 Corinthians 15:55). The cross is the symbol of victory. That is what we highlight.
I urge you to read the following two passages detailing Stephen’s martyrdom from Acts 7. As you read, remember our brother, Lazer Nazir Masih. Carry him in your heart. May his last moments be a memorial perpetually before us. A pioneer, a forerunner, into eternity his testimony waves like a banner over us. You are not of this world.
As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (Keep in mind it is believed Paul was an eyewitness to Stephen’s martyrdom.)
Acts 6:8-15 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 7:54-60 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Now that we know, now that we have seen, what do we do? Should we go back to our normal lives? I cannot go back now. How can we honor the persecuted church? How can we honor Lazer Nazir Masih?
Maranatha, Come Lord, Come Quickly
