By Sherrie Black
October 12, 2001

(AgapePress) - Two women being held in Afghanistan on charges of proselytizing are reported safe amid U.S. air strikes.

Twenty-nine-year-old Dayna Curry and 24-year-old Heather Mercer are among eight foreign aid workers with the German-based Shelter Now facing charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity -- a serious crime in the Islamic country. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher tells Associated Press that their Pakistani attorney visited with the detainees yesterday, and they appear to be fine.

"He met with all of the detainees for over three hours to go over his response to the indictment," Boucher says. "He's told the U.S. counsel general in Islamabad on the phone that the detainees do continue to appear to be well."

Boucher says the attorney was also told the trial is set to begin tomorrow. "Mr. [Atif] Ali Khan also met with [a] Taliban supreme court justice ... who informed him that the court will begin to hear the detainees' case on Saturday, October 13," he says. "Other than that he had no updates on the trial."

The attorney estimated that the trial could last for two to three days before a verdict is rendered.

Baptist Press reports that Antioch Community Church, the women's home church in Waco, Texas, has maintained a 24-hour prayer vigil for the two graduates of Baylor University since they were arrested on August 3.

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