An Unknown Hero

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo tells the story in the latest Barnabas Fund magazine of an amazing Christian we know nothing about, but we need to celebrate.  His name is Pervez Masih.  Here’s the story.  On Oct. 20 two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at an Islamic University in Pakistan.  The attack took place in a cafeteria where there were 400 young Muslim female students.  Why were only three killed? As Paul Harvey says, “Here is the rest of the story.”

The bomber was first confronted by a security guard who shot the bomber, but he was not killed.  Pervez then stepped forward to wrestle with the bomber and managed to hold him at the door to the cafeteria.  There the bomber detonated the bomb and blew up himself, Pervez and three girls.  If the bomber had advanced into the cafeteria many many more Muslim women would have been killed.

This is amazing.  Pervez was a very poor day laborer, like so many poor Pakistani Christians.  Each day he had to look for work and hire himself out.  He often found work at this Muslim University.  The contractor who employed him daily said “He was very simple and, by nature, he was quite different from other workers in the university.”  I bet he was!

Christians in Pakistan are despised by the Muslim majority and discriminated against because of their Christian faith.  Yet this wonderful man gave his life for those who despise them.  Oh my gosh.  What a challenge.  I can’t wait to meet him one day.

May this story encourage us to set aside our smallish problems serve Him faithfully.