Speaking of correspondence, I recently received an interesting (though perhaps slightly suspicious) e-mail from Pakistan.  You never know, with these types of things, if they're ultimately con artists trying to butter you up for cash or what... But just before deleting the message, I paused and considered:  What if it is a sincere e-mail?  And even if it were to end up being a back-door plea for wiring money to a faraway land, how would I respond to a sincere, simple, basic request such as this?  What do you think about the following e-mail?

Dear Pastor,

I am from Pakistan and I belong to Hindu religion. I am very interested to learn about other religions, visiting some Christian websites I knew many things about Christianity and it helps me to increase my knowledge. I want to tell you that I want to learn more in deep about Christianity therefore I am writing this email to you in the hope that you will guide me for further teachings.

May I know how is Christian faith based on? How is Christian payer and worships?

Thank you for your help and I hope I have not given you too much trouble. How if some one come to believe in Jesus and become Christian?

Sincerely,

Mir Chand

Pakistan

It's an interesting challenge, to consider distilling the essence of the gospel and the Christian faith into a simple, easy-to-read e-mail.  So how would you respond to Mr. Chand in Pakistan (or to your co-worker, or neighbor, or family member who might ask similar questions someday)?

I'll share my reply here tomorrow (yes, I did already decide to send a response to the e-mail).  But in the meantime, I'd be curious to hear what you think of it...