A church friend, sent me this email and story, for us all to pray about.


Dear Father, Brothers, and Sisters,It is with sadness I share with you those horrible attacks on ourbrothers and sisters in a small village closed to Luxor, Egypt. As thebible says when a member of the body of Christ is suffers, the rest ofthe members suffer too. They're members of this body that we too belongto. It breaks our hearts to see them severely suffer. This is why Iam asking each one to pray for them and for Christians in Egypt.The following are copied from:http://freecopts.blogspot.com/


"Saturday, January 21, 2006Beating and Humiliating Copts in Cairo: Revealing the Egyptian Police'sUgly FaceOn January 9th 2006, a woman named Hanan tried to buy some clothes fromthe Good Shepherd Center in Cairo's district of Shobra, which has ahigh Coptic concentration. The clothes were worth L.E. 270 but thewoman tried to buy them for only 150.Reymond, the owner's son, and Theresa, a shopkeeper refused. One hourlater the woman returned with a large number of police forces anddetectives from the Rod El Farag police station.They ruined the center's goods and arrested Reymond and Theresa in ahumiliating manner. Both were brought to the police station where theywere accused of stealing L.E. 750 from Hanan. There, Reymond andTheresa learned that the woman was a relative of a police officer.Reymond's father was called to the Rod El Farag police station, wherethe officer who runs the station, namely Mahmoud El Sayed, threatenedhim saying: "Either you pay or your son will be humiliated and put injail and tried for theft!" As the father insisted on his son'sinnocence and accused the woman of lying, the officer screamed at himsaying: "Get out you thieves, I can put you in jail as well. As if wedon't have enough problems with Reymonds, Theresas, Georges,Abdelmessihs, and all that garbage." (All are Christian names) Thefather was understandibly troubled, for he realized the story wasreligion-fueled, and that the officer was dicriminating against him,his son, and Theresa because of their Christianity.When the father was taken to where Theresa and Reymond were detained,he found Theresa begging the woman and saying: "Ma'm, I'm like yourdaughter, would you accept for your daughter to be humiliated likethis?" But the woman interrupted her: "Shut up you felth! You arenothing but a thief and a shopkeeper. My daughter is a physician!".Then an officer called Mohamed EL Barbary got up and slapped Reymondand Theresa on their faces a number of times and screamed at thefather's face: "Won't we ever finish with your headache? We can do moreto your son and put him in jail, so you'd better pay the woman L.E. 750and end that story." Fearing for his son and the shopkeeper, the fatherdecided to give the woman the sum she wanted saying: "I entrust thismoney to God." So she pulled the money saying: "As if you (Christians)know God!".The woman subsequently left with the officer in a police car withplates 21/2779.For one last time, the officer looked at the father threating him: "Iwill teach you a good lesson! I will show up at the center and make youpiss on yourselves when you see me!" A complaint was sent to theminister of interior dated Janaury 9th 2006, and another was sent tothe head of the State security. Obviously no action was taked by eitherof them.# posted by Copts @ 9:11 AM 7 commentsEgyptian Security Forces Inspire the Muslim Crowd to Attack the CoptsMuhammad Nour, Security Chief of Luxor tells Fr. Sarabamoun : Theseforces are not here to protect the Copts but to prevent them frompraying in church:Security Chief has asked Fr. Sarabamoun,- the priest of Holy VirginMary Church in the village of Udayasaat, Luxor- to enter the church,once he did and saw the alters he informed the priest not to pray andto leave the church, later on he informed the security forces thattheir mission is not to protect the Copts nor the church but to preventthem from praying. Afterwards the Muslim crowd started attacking thechurch and the Copts in a barbaric way at 7:00 PM on Wednesday night (January 18, 2006) , the raid continued till 2:00 AM despite the heavypresence of security forcesYou can listen to Fr. Sarabamoun's description (in Arabic) of thesorrowful events by clicking hereFr. Sarabamoun is making an urgent plea for HELP to protect theinnocent Copts against the aggression of the Egyptian government andthe barbaric attacks of the Muslims in the village of Udaysaat, Luxor.Mr. Kamal Shakir Megala'a, seen here- died as a result of the injurieshe suffered during the attack