[Episcopal Diocese of Texas] In between the years of the great earthquake (2005) and the great flood (2010) in Pakistan, Bishop Mano Rumalshah of the Diocese of Peshawar was my guest in Houston. One afternoon, as we drank chai tea, he received word from his diocesan office manager, Humphrey Peters, that there had been a suicide bombing in Peshawar. When he hung up his cell phone, Mano turned to me and said, “This is the first one in Peshawar, and I am afraid, my friend, it is only the beginning.”

Unfortunately, those were prophetic words. Early this Sunday morning, I learned that one of Bishop Mano’s former congregations in Peshawar had been viciously attacked by two suicide bombers. Today, Mano is the bishop emeritus and the Rt. Rev. Humphrey Peters is the diocesan bishop. Today the target of suicide bombers has changed from other Muslims to Christians. Today, my heart is heavy with mourning mixed with disbelief at what has happened to my Anglican brothers and sisters in Christ.

For more than a decade I have worked with two of my fellow clergy, the Rev. Robin Reeves and the Rev. Howard Castleberry, and other lay people to build an organization called Bridges to Pakistan. Our purpose is to create a two-way bridge of Christian fellowship through mutual, cross-cultural relationships and spiritual and financial support. After the great earthquake, we partnered to help house a remote Muslim village with temporary tents after the Red Crescent had passed them by. Later that year, at the Christmas Day service at St. John’s Cathedral in Peshawar, the imam of that village visited unexpectedly and brought Bishop Mano a gift and embraced him in the middle of worship. Following the great flood, we sent tens of thousands of dollars for relief. Likewise, we raised money after the church in Mardan was burned during the 9/11 protests and violence in 2012.

But what do we do now at such a time of great loss?

First, I believe, we must mourn with those who mourn. We must pray for our brothers and sisters, who have suffered at the hand of a great evil in which such a large number of their community have been turned to martyrs. Christians are the minority community in Pakistan, making up less than two percent of the population. They are also the poorest of the population and are discriminated against economically and socially. They are the easiest targets of hatred in an unjust society. One of my friends asked if it would be possible to get them out of Pakistan. From a practical point of view, it is impossible. From the point of view of the gospel, who would witness the gospel of Christ in Pakistan? We do not need to mount a rescue mission; we need to mourn and to pray together as the body of Christ. I hope that all churches in our diocese will pray for the saints of All Saints, Peshawar, this Sunday.

Second, we can share their story. Time and again Bishops Mano and Humphrey have said that their flock craves to know that we care for them and that they are not alone or forgotten. So much of Christianity has been built upon the blood of martyrs, by a witness of fealty to the One who died for us and our sins upon the cross. Our brothers and sisters remain faithful in the most difficult of circumstances. Can we not thank them and support them and love them? If we do not know them, then we cannot. But if we take the time to build relationships, to pray for them, and to share their story, then we will know them as part of the Body of Christ.

And third, we can support them financially. The clergy of the Diocese of Peshawar often work for next to nothing. They have to because their flocks barely make enough to live on. Funds sent today will not bring back lives nor take away the terror of what happened. The teenage boy who lost his father and older sister immediately at the time of the blast and then held his mother in his arms as she bled to death cannot be comforted with cash. But as Paul raised monies for the struggling church in Jerusalem, so too can we raise funds to assist the saints in Pakistan.

Bridges to Pakistan exists for all three of these reasons: to mourn with and pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, to share the story of Christianity in a difficult part of the world and partner with these fellow disciples of Jesus, and to raise financial support for a church that witnesses to the gospel in a hostile environment.

Bishop Mano will return again to Houston, and we will drink chai tea together—I only drink it when he is here—and we will sit and cry together over what has been the greatest act of evil his people have faced. But praise Jesus that we know one another and that those who were slain are not faceless to us because there is a bridge between Pakistan and Texas built by the blood and love of a Savior.

– The Rev. Reagan Cocke is the associate rector of St. John the Divine, Houston.

Checks can be made payable to Bridges to Pakistan, a registered 501 (c)(3) organization. All donations are tax-deductible and should be mailed to Bridges to Pakistan c/o The Rev. Reagan Cocke, 2450 River Oaks Blvd, Houston, TX 77019. Contact Cocke at rcocke@sjd.org for further information or call him at 713.354.2229.