Visits Behind Bars: News on Pakistan’s Persecuted Church

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Guest: Shaheryar Gill

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 5/8/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:

Thank you so much for listening to this program today, the Stand in the Gap Today program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. And our guest today is a living example of seeing God raise up a voice from one of the nations that we’ve been praying for and that this particular guest actually defends. And that is our good friend, our returning guest, Christian human rights attorney, Shaheryar Gill, who works with ACLJ. He grew up really quite poor. It’s very poor, I guess you could say by world standards. And the Lord has used him. He’s taken him on a journey and he’s now senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice and he has just returned very, very recently. Sharia, I’ll let you tell us how long ago, but very recently from a trip to Pakistan. Shaheryar Gill, it’s great to be talking to you and great to have you back on the program.

Shaheryar Gill:

Thank you, Isaac. It’s an honor to be here as usual and I’m just happy to be able to share what God’s doing in the lives of Christians.

Isaac Crockett:

Shaheryar Gill, actually you may not know this, but quite a few years, many years ago now, because our program has been on air for a long time. Pastor Gary Dull, who Lord willing will be on our program with me next week, introduced me and I think it was on a program somewhat like this too, an evangelist, a Pakistani evangelist who had come over to the states from Pakistan. And I had heard a lot about Pakistan over the years, but through Pastor Gary Doll actually. And this man learned a lot more about Pakistan. And now a few years ago, your friend and my friend Ben Sisney, who at the ACLJ as well, put us together and you’ve been coming on this program now and on our TV program. And I find it so amazing how God’s sovereign plan works things together and where you are now and what you’re doing, what you just returned from was all part of God’s plan.

And I think you shared this on TV, but I’m not sure that you ever shared it on radio, but could you maybe give us a little kind of nutshell version of your testimony and calling and how God has used you and taken you to where he’s using you now?

Shaheryar Gill:

Yes, absolutely. Isaac as believers, we know that God uses the weak people of this world to show his glory. So my life is just a tiny example of his power. A poor, not so smart, actually pretty dumb guy would not imagine that God would just snatch him and change his life. So in a nutshell, about 20 years ago, God gave me an opportunity to observe the injustice that is going on to his people, primarily obviously in Pakistan where I grew up. And then I spent about four years doing some human rights work after my college. During that time, God allowed me to observe all of the cases that we do now, very similar cases. Then he created a desire in me to study law. Then he provided the means to go through that through an American friend who supported my family while I was going to law school, a Christian law school in South Korea.

That school’s mission is to teach students from developing countries to become Christian leaders and one day help their nations. So after graduating from there, I came to Regent University, which has a very similar mission to send out Christian leaders to change the world. And after all that training, God opened the door for me to be with the ACLJ, which provided me the means to be able to do what we’re doing in Pakistan today. And I’m sure we will talk more about some of the cases that we’re working

Isaac Crockett:

On. And our listeners who listen regularly, they’ll recognize your voice and some of these stories if people are just tuning in. It’s so amazing what God is doing all over the world, but especially in Pakistan and Sharia, you’ve talked to us about things going on all over the world, but especially your heart there for the Christians in Pakistan. And I’ve been with you on some of these places you’re going to be talking about, some of these people you’re going to be talking about. The Lord has allowed me to go with you and meet some of them and some of these people I’ve met just via video chat or something, but it’s just so exciting and you’ve just came back. I don’t remember how long ago you were over there, but you just came back from Pakistan and I’m wondering if there’s any kind of recent reflections or something that you saw or heard the last time that you were over there that kind of reminded you of why God has put you in this position for such a time as this.

Shaheryar Gill:

Yeah. So Isaac has been about two weeks that I came back and actually, yes, God has recently humbled me again. I recently met with some people while on the trip to Pakistan and started asking God the same questions that I’ve been asking for the last, I guess 20 years, which is God, why me? With all my sins and falls, I don’t understand why he keeps blessing me and why he provides and open these doors for me to be able to serve his people. I’m just humbled and I’m in fear and awe of God and I just want to be obedient to him.

Isaac Crockett:

Anything from this return that you’ve seen that maybe brings you back around from the early cases that you talked about, are there things going on and you’ve been doing this now about two decades. Are there any things that you kind of see kind of the big change happening or maybe you’re seeing some similarities, but the Lord keeps using you to work in those areas?

Shaheryar Gill:

So I think you’ve been there when you look in the eyes of the people we help, you know instantly why you do this work and there are some new cases that we have taken up very recently. I’d be happy to share some of them today, but it’s been about 17, 18 years that we’ve been running this operation in Pakistan through the ACLJ and God has just blessed us with a great team and every time now I go there, I’m encouraged to see how they are faithfully working and God has blessed us with clients that are very strong in faith and for me to just be able to go there and look them in the eye and be there to serve them and to encourage them and I’ve said this on the show before that sometimes we think that we’re encouraging them, but it’s actually true the other way around.

Somebody asked me on the trip, why do I go there? And I told them that it recharges me for the next year when I meet these people and see them, talk to them, see their suffering, it reminds me of God’s blessing and sort of some crazy way it answers my own question that why me? And I think that’s the beauty of the gospel is that he uses, again, the weak people of this world for his glory to help his people. So I’m just honored to see all of that. Again, we have taken up some new cases, some murder cases. There have been two rape cases and we have some victories very recently that I would like to actually share with the audience today.

Isaac Crockett:

And it’s incredible how God pushes and operates things and pushes doors open. We’ve been praying for a number of young men. Well, they started out young, but they’re still relatively young who’ve been behind bars and we want to talk about that today, what’s going on there. Shari, it’s just neat your testimony. I mean, really most of your adult life you’ve spent studying for and doing this task that God has called you to do and that the ACLJ is allowing you to help Christians and you’re there not just for one short trial or case, but you’re there to help their lives, to help the community, to help the body of Christ and all of us that are listening. That should be our goal. We’re going to take a quick break to hear from some of our partners. When we come back, we want to hear about how we can pray for and be involved praying for these persecuted Christians in Pakistan.

Welcome back to the program and today we are looking at this topic of visits behind bars and throughout the history of Christianity, many have been martyred or captured or jailed for their beliefs in Jesus Christ as God’s son, as they only begotten as God the son as our savior and Lord and that good news of the gospel is very good, but unfortunately Jesus himself was killed by sinners and so there are people who will try to stop the good news and the spread of it. And so wherever you look at Christianity, there’s a history of Christians being thrown in jail or even executed. And so that is still going on today in many parts of the world, I could say all over the world. And so we love this opportunity to talk with ACLJ human rights attorney, Shari Argil. And sometimes Sharia, we talk to you and pick your brain about things going on all over the world, but today we want to pick your brain on your heart country, the country you grew up at and in Pakistan and you were talking about your team over there.

I’ve met your team, just such solid godly people who have really risked so much to help those who have been persecuted and the wisdom that you have and that they have and looking through so that you’re doing things the best way possible. You’re not just giving out handouts or something like that asking questions, being harmless as serpents, wise as doves, especially in the courtroom and situations like that and redeeming the time and the evil days. It’s such a privilege to work with a group like that, the ACLJ here in the United States and all over the world is truly looking for true law and justice from a biblical worldview. With all of that said, you’ve given us many cases over the years and some of those are ongoing long cases that could take a lifetime and you have partnered and helped these people and their families while some folks are in jail and things, but in the meantime, in the last six months, last 12 months, it just seems like there’s been a plethora of new cases coming to your team.

Your team is handling, I think, more and more and more, even with the same number of people basically on staff. Could you give us some of those updates? We don’t have time. It would take hours to go over all of them. And I know that many of them because of privacy and things we can’t talk about publicly, but could you maybe start by giving us one or two updates of new or developing cases amongst Pakistani Christians?

Shaheryar Gill:

Yes. Let me share two recent victories first and then I’ll share a couple of cases that we have taken up. Since the last time I was here on the show, we have one a blasphemy case. In 2024, an elderly Christian man who has no family was accused of blasphemy by his neighbors. Last month we informed the trial court that we intended to file a motion to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence and surprisingly the judge said there’s no need for that and he acquitted our client. So that’s a big victory and really an example of God working in the horse of judges as well. We recently won another case in which a Christian man was killed by a Muslim neighbor for defending his son after that Muslim man had attacked the son. So we prosecuted the man and the trial court recently sentenced him to death.

I think it was in February. We have received two new cases in which two young Christian men were murdered. These cases have been widely reported on Pakistani media, very high profile cases and the families have entrusted their cases to our team in Pakistan. Then a couple of weeks ago when I was there, we went to an investigation of a case in which a 12 year old Christian girl was a victim of an attempted rape by a Muslim neighbor. He came to their house through the roof and grabbed her, took her to the roof and she shouted and called for help so he wasn’t able to be successful in his attempt, but later he was arrested by the police and we will be prosecuting him. Another case in which a girl was abused was this poor Christian family was sending their daughter to a neighbor, a woman who was a Muslim and she was teaching this little girl how to sow.

One day the woman wasn’t there, her husband let the girl in and raped her and threatened her that if she ever told anybody he would kill her and her parents. So she didn’t tell anybody. Two months later, her mom found out that she was pregnant and that’s when they went to the police. “That guy is arrested. Again, we will be prosecuting him as well. There are a couple of other cases that I’ll be happy to share if you have time, but there has been an increase in cases of where Christian girls, young Christian girls have been there have been attempts to sexually abuse them so we’re taking on all those cases.

Isaac Crockett:

So does this seem to be a pattern, Shaheryar Gill, that you’re seeing that more Christian communities are facing these things where even young girls are being abducted or violated in ways like that, like raped and different things. Does there seem to be more of that or are these just a couple of anomalies that we’re seeing right now?

Shaheryar Gill:

So there has been a lot of news about the abduction of cases and forced conversions to Islam and marriages. I have a very different take on it. We are very careful in defending those cases or working on those cases. We have to really verify whether those cases, what really happened, but the cases that I’m talking about are where basically these girls didn’t know or they didn’t have any connection or gosh, communication with the perpetrator and the perpetrator basically imposed or forced himself on them and they cried out for help. So these are the cases that now again, there are not a whole lot of cases, but there has been at least, we are working on at least five cases like that.

Isaac Crockett:

And Pakistan is a very interesting nation. There’s so much you can be in one spot with all kinds of technology and you feel like you’re in the middle of Times Square or something and then a few miles away can be a completely different world and it can feel that way sometimes I think almost with the legal system or the law enforcement, there’s parts that feel very safe and then there’s parts where I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe you could try to explain some of that of what makes it unique, but the legal system actually has a lot of good laws set up. It’s just a very complicated maneuvering to make it through that system. I don’t know if you could maybe speak to that and then I want to ask about maybe some specific requests that we could be thinking of and praying for the church in Pakistan.

Shaheryar Gill:

Sure, Isaac. Pakistan is a British colony and most of the laws in Pakistan were written by the British. The law is based on British common law, which is also the basis for US law. So it’s for American lawyers who are trained here. Obviously it’s actually very similar for us to be able to work on Pakistani cases all the court system is in English laws are very similar. Yes, there’s some incorporation of Sharia based laws, but that’s really kind of usually in blasphemy type cases, but it’s very similar. If you diligently pursue these cases, if you work hard, you can get justice and the examples that I gave you earlier are sort of really a testimony to what can be done. It’s not the law of the jungle. We go to the courts and we do win cases for our clients.

Isaac Crockett:

Consider for law and justice is the mother company here, the mother ministry and that is important for law and justice and I think it sends a testimony and a light. Are there any specific prayer requests and I know we’ll talk about this more in program too, but are there things that we could be praying for in some of these new cases or just in general some of the things you’re seeing any steps we could be maybe writing down or making a mental note of right now?

Shaheryar Gill:

Yes. So the cases that I’ve shared about, but there’s a particular case that I really want all of us to pray is that I met four young girls who were all sisters and their father has been falsely implicated by a Muslim employer in three separate cases just because he wanted to quit his job. So we have applied for his bail and I would like to ask everyone to pray for this dad to come back to his daughter soon. So

Isaac Crockett:

We’re

Shaheryar Gill:

Working on the case now. Next week are the hearings so everybody who’s listening, your prayers are much appreciated.

Isaac Crockett:

So let’s be praying for that. That’s a specific thing. And some of these other ones you’re talking about, we’ve seen the Lord answer prayers like the man who had his blasphemy case acquitted, just incredible. There’s some that sit for years and years and years waiting to see the judge on them and so we can be thankful for that. Are there any other things that you would point to as we look at this family, these four young girls praying that the father would be able to come back home? Anything else before we go to this next break and come back to talk about some cases that we’ve already heard before that you have some updates on?

Shaheryar Gill:

Right. So this recent trip was with some friends from another organization and what they do is they sponsor children whose parents work at Brick Hills. So the ACLJ is providing advice to this organization on how to move forward with the children’s education. And one thing that we have suggested

Is to invest in vocational training for those children. Isaac, you and I have talked about it many times about the importance of education for Christians in Pakistan. So I think my prayer is really that I want to really see the Christian community in Pakistan work harder to uplift their social and economic status. And that’s why I want to see the organizations in the US take some initiative in providing for education to young Christians in Pakistan. If you can do that, I have no doubt that the persecution level will go down. You see these cases of young girls or young guys getting in trouble with the law, with Muslims. I think if they’re in a better position, they’re better placed in a society if they’re better educated. Even in blasphemy cases, if they’re better educated and have a better social status, economic status, I believe that there will be much protection.

They will be protected even before these things happen and there will be much less need of the kind of work that we do.

Isaac Crockett:

So let’s keep praying for these opportunities, some open doors when we come back to talk more about it. All right. Well, welcome back to our program. I’m so glad you’re listening, whether you’re tuning in from our Stand in the Gap app or maybe you’re listening on your favorite podcast platform, maybe you’re listening live on the radio as you’re driving, whatever the case, thank you for tuning in. And I hope that if you are not able to listen to the whole program right now, that you’ll take time to go back and maybe listen to all of it or share the transcript of this with somebody who might be interested in it. Maybe tell your pastor or somebody at church about this as we talk with attorney Shaheryar Gill from the ACLJ who works with all sorts of international cases that deal with especially persecution of Christians, but we’re talking about a country that he loves, especially because it is his home country where he has many family and friends.

We’re talking about what’s going on in Pakistan visits behind bars, news on Pakistan’s persecuted church. And for those of you who have heard Shaheryar Gill on our program or watched him on our television program, you know how big his heart for Pakistan is. You know how much we hear at Stand in the Gap Media, how much we’ve been involved raising awareness of things that are going on. Some of you have even given financially and ways that have made a lot of neat opportunities possible to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves or to help them create something where they can have a better job so they can avoid certain things that are happening. We just thank you for listening and we thank you for praying for the people of Pakistan and for partnering with us in any way that the Lord has led you to do.

And if you would like to do more, I would encourage you to look at aclj.org and you can look at articles that Shaheryar Gill has written. You can go to our website, you can listen or read transcripts from previous programs that Shaheryar Gill has been on and I kind of want to go there right now, Shaheryar Gill, to some of these recent past programs that you’ve been on for several years. We’ve talked about some cases of people who have been in most of these cases behind bars for years. Some of them convicted, falsely convicted of blasphemy charges and things, sentenced to hang and you’ve been right there alongside of them and your team and I know that even when I was over in Pakistan with you, one of the things we tried to do was to maybe see these people in person. I’ve been with you when you’ve had phone conversations with them.

I’ve met family members thinking of a father and I’m thinking of a wife spent some time with and that you stay in regular contact with. But this last time, this last month when you were over in Pakistan, the Lord literally opened the doors, the prison doors, the jail doors for you to get some inside access. Can you give us an update on some of that and how really this is an answer to prayer and just kind of what it was like when you went inside the actual prisons to visit some of these men that you’ve told us about and just maybe kind of update us on the stories of what’s going on in their lives at this point.

Shaheryar Gill:

Right. So we’ve been praying for Shazad Macy who was 16 years old when he was accused of blasphemy and Isaac, you know, this young man is just so close to my heart. I see a son in him and it breaks my heart to see that he’s in prison for over eight years now over a false accusation of blasphemy by his coworker. I have shared in previous shows how Shazad and three other clients who are also on death row in the same prison. They all pray together and do Bible studies every day and that’s the first update that we ever provided about the case or these cases on this show. Then this update we provided was, I think it was a year ago, a couple of years ago. The prison block in which these four gentlemen are confined is called block seven. There are currently 28 prisoners in that block, all in blasphemy cases.

The four Christian prisoners are our clients. Due to Shazad’s good conduct, he was given the responsibility of getting the essential items from the prison store for all the prisoners of the block. What happens is that the families of these prisoners, they deposit money to the prison and there’s a store where they can get toiletries, toothpaste, snacks, those kind of things and Shazad is responsible for getting that because the person who was getting it before Shazad, a Muslim prisoner was stealing those things from the prisoners. So they all got together and gave the responsibility to Shazad. Here’s the current update. As you know, I haven’t been able to meet him and other prisoners for the last two years, but this time we asked the prison for a special permission for me to be able to meet them so the permission was granted and during this trip I was informed when I met Shazad, he told me that he now has the keys to the cells of the entire block seven.

He opens the cells every morning to allow the prisoners to come out and do whatever they need to do or their duties, their everyday walk and then he’s responsible for closing the doors in the evening. He’s also in charge of all the work that block seven prisoners do. So that’s just an amazing testimony of how God has used Shazad and all these other prisoners or the Christian clients even in the prison. One short update on Shazad is his sister is getting married and earlier you talked about support and giving and all of that. One of my very dear friends, she basically said that she would help Shazad’s family in contributing toward his sisters, taking care of some of the finances of the marriage. So that’s really some of these, how God is working in the lives of these people is amazing.

Isaac Crockett:

It’s neat to observe a wedding in that part of the world where it is still a very large feast celebration and in America sometimes there are some big weddings where a lot of money is spent, but they’re not the same as a wedding in that part of the world and I don’t know how to explain it. Sharia, if somebody’s not been to something like that, but even for a poor family, there’s such a huge emphasis on the blessing of this union and marriages, especially as Christians, as we see ourselves, all the object lessons of this. And so it is a very timely and special gift to go to help this family as they’ve poured so many of their resources into trying to help Shazad, who was trying to help his family. So that’s a lot to pray for, a lot to praise the Lord for.

Sharia, you and I talked about, he’s basically a modern day Joseph that the jailer, he realizes the innocence of this young man and the trustworthiness of this young Christian man to give him literally the keys to the cells. That’s exciting. That’s incredible. Could you talk maybe a little about one of the other men that’s in prison with him Amoon? I think I met his wife if I’m remembering all the networks correctly and just her faithfulness to visit him and the other men to encourage them to try to provide information and things to them. And if I remember correctly, I think for him, this is 10 years or so that he’s been behind bars and for them as a couple, how difficult it is. It’s almost like she’s a widow. They were newly married when he was arrested falsely for blasphemy charges. I don’t know if you could take some time and walk us through some of that situation.

Shaheryar Gill:

Yes, absolutely. Just before I talk about Amoon and his wife Huma, just one thing that I forgot earlier is when you mentioned about how this is a modern day example of Joseph and while we were at the prison, the jailer called us to his office and interested us another case because he saw how we were working and how our clients are. So that’s just another amazing testimony. Okay.

Isaac Crockett:

And this is an unbelieving jail. This is not a Christian, but he sees you all as Christians. Yeah.

Shaheryar Gill:

Exactly. Okay. So Amoon and his wife. So Amoon and his older brother, they have been in prison for the last almost 11 years now, maybe more. And we have been working on their case there on both on death row for a false allegation that they posted some blasphemous material on a website. Amoon’s wife is been … Her story is sort of something that you see maybe once in a lifetime. As I have shared before, she has been visiting her husband in prison once every week for more than 10 years. The only week she misses is if there is a government holiday and the prison doesn’t allow a visitation that day. For the last 10 years, that’s what she’s been doing. So this recent trip, our team went to the prison with her. It was the day of their wedding anniversary and we all had a meal that she had prepared.

We all sat together. They were in their cells on the other side. We were outside on the other side and the only thing between us was just the bars of the door. So it was very encouraging to see how they’re doing. They’re asking for prayers. They thank everybody, all the people who are praying for them and supporting them, but our real prayer is that we soon have that meal outside the prison.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. I’ve talked with people who spent time in hard labor and concentration type camps in former Soviet Union and in Romania and people in other parts of the world, communist countries, especially where they’ve been locked up and have read so much from people and something … The spirit of the Lord works in us when the spirit of God’s people is united in prayer together They don’t know you who are listening. They don’t know me. They don’t know how many of you are listening. They don’t know how many of you are praying. But when millions of Christians gather together in prayer, we know the Lord hears. We know he answers in ways that we don’t always expect or understand, but it’s incredible in talking to Christians who’ve been imprisoned and in reading biographies how there’s something special about praying for them that there’s unity there that the Holy Spirit works in it.

So let’s be praying for Amoon and Shazad and all the rest of the men with them. Let’s be praying for their families and for their church families and for all the Christians in Pakistan. We’re going to take another quick time out to hear from some of our partners and then we’ll come back and wrap things up with Shaheryar Gill and I hope all of us will go away with a deeper appreciation of what God has done and what he’s going to do. Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I’m joined today by human rights attorney, Shaheryar Gill, who works with the American Center for Law and Justice, but he works all over the world with their international cases. And today we’ve been focused on Pakistan. I think back as a child, I grew up in a pastor’s home and I think of some of the foreign pastors that would come in and talk with my dad and sometimes talk to our whole church and they would open our eyes as Americans to the reality of life in many other countries.

And I think of on pastor from a country where they were dealing with very brutal Islamic militia and pictures that probably nowadays we wouldn’t necessarily have shown in a group with children in it, but pictures of the deadly reality of what these people were living. And I remember being moved to especially pray for them. I remember when my dad came back from at that time, it was still the Soviet Union. The Paris Droyka hadn’t happened with Gorbachev yet. And my dad had been smuggling Bibles into the underground church. And I just remember it was kind of life changing in some ways for him to not just know about and hear about what was going on, but to be there and to see the difference of what it was when the gospel was illegal like that. And Shari, you grew up in Pakistan and you’ve been in other countries and yet now you’re an American citizen and this is your home now, but what would you say to us in America?

What would you say to the American church? I don’t know if maybe one message or something that the persecuted believers with whom you’ve just visited and with whom you spend the focus of your life, what kind of message, if you could give one to the church, would that look like from persecuted believers?

Shaheryar Gill:

I have not one but two messages.

Isaac Crockett:

One is

Shaheryar Gill:

From me and the other one is from our clients like Shazad, Asan, Amoon, Intazar, and their families really as well. The client’s message is that thank you for all your prayers and support. I cannot tell you enough or I cannot emphasize enough how much grateful these people are. When I see them, when you see them in person, you see them in their eyes the gratefulness they have for all the support and the help they’re getting and the prayers they’re getting. So thank you so much. My message is that we all need to be encouraged that our brothers and sisters are staying strong in their faith, even in the midst of these sufferings. And I think that should as Americans should give us a pause to really reflect on how God has blessed this nation and where we are going with that and how to be obedient to God and protect the liberties and freedoms that God has provided here.

So I think that’s really what’s on my heart.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, thank you for that. I’m wondering just on maybe more of a practical level or maybe even comical sometimes, but are there ever any questions or maybe misunderstandings about the connection between you and Pakistan, what you’re doing over there, maybe something you say, “I wish everybody knew this about what’s going on in Pakistan or what my role is with what I’m doing.” And then maybe are there certain other specific ways that we could be praying for you and your team, praying for the persecuted Christians while we are here in the states or people are listening to this from all over the world, but wherever we are praying for those persecuted in Pakistan.

Shaheryar Gill:

So I think the questions would be really, I think a lot of the things that we have covered as to what is the nature of the persecution a lot of times it’s not by the Pakistani government and basically it’s not by the government at all, but it’s by the individual Muslims or groups of Muslims that are fundamental or even disputes among Christians and Muslims just because Christians happen to be poor. So most of the persecution is really in Pakistan is really by individuals as opposed to India where the government itself is sort of involved in making anti conversion laws and helping or acquiescing in attacks against Christians by Hindu groups. So in terms of how we must look at it, I think one way is we should, we have a lot of information available on ACLJ.org first I would say pray for our clients, pray for all these persecuted people and the next I think thing to do would be to go ahead and read those stories to get familiar with what is happening to these people, what kind of challenges they face, what kind of prayers can we pray for them.

And if you can come alongside us and support the ACLJ, that would be awesome.

Isaac Crockett:

And it’s been so neat for me to see just how effective. Here in the States, we talk with your friend Ben Sisney who’s a friend of mine about things that are going on here in the United States where the ACLJ comes in and helps churches or Christians or ministries when they’re being persecuted if you want to say, but it doesn’t feel as much of persecution maybe as some of these other countries, but when they’re being taken to court for things, but especially over there, it’s incredible. The high level that you and your team are working at the quality that is there, the love for the Lord and the love for these people and making sure that things are done right, but that things are done with concern for people and I’ve been so impressed with that. Well, Sharia, the program is almost over, but before we close, as we pray for those who are persecuted, any last remarks, any words of encouragement or any final thoughts for us to take away from the program today?

Shaheryar Gill:

I think I would say yes, there’s a lot of encouragement that we should have. God is working. As we talked about earlier, we have been very successful in a lot of these cases. Yes, these blasphemy cases are a little bit difficult because of the societal pressure on judges who are at the lower courts. Usually they do allow convictions, but at the higher level courts there is a lot of hope and with dedication and hard work and knowing that these clients or these people are sent by the Lord to us. It’s not a commercial enterprise where we represent clients. We represent people of God and there’s a certain level of sensitivity but certain level of, I guess, wisdom and prayer that goes into it to be able to represent these people. So I’m very encouraged by my recent trip. The Lord is working there. The number of cases that we’re working on are growing.

Not that it’s a good thing that things are happening, but we are glad that God has given us the opportunity to be able to serve his people. So I just again, thank you for what you guys do. Thank you for raising the voice on behalf of the ACLJ and on behalf of all these clients. We’re just thankful.

Isaac Crockett:

That’s so good. We are thankful because God has raised up all of this for such a time as this and the testimony is out there. The word of ACLJ.org that people are realizing when they need help, how to get in contact with your office and so this is great. Well, let’s go to Lord here as we close this program in prayer. Father, this program has been powerful today. It’s been a reminder of your providence and all things even in persecution, even behind bars. We pray for those men and women who are affected by this. We think of some of these young men that Shaheryar Gill was just meeting with. We think of their wives and their sisters and their parents and especially Mother’s Day coming up. We think of their mothers and we just think of so many in persecuted situations all around the world. We pray that you might work in these and that you might open doors and we pray specifically for what’s going on in Pakistan, that you might open doors maybe in bureaucracy and courts and other things so that your will would be done and that your light would be shown and that the gospel would go forth.

We pray all of this in Jesus’ name. We love you, Father. Amen. Well, thank you for listening, Shaheryar Gill. Thank you for taking the time to join us. Please, all of you, please pray for us. Please pray for the persecuted church and until next time, I hope that you’ll stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today.