Pakistani businessman Parvez Henry Gill says he was sleeping when God crashed into one of his dreams and gave him a job: Find a way to protect Christians in Pakistan from violence and abuse. “I want you to do something different,” God told him.

That was four years ago, and Gill, a lifelong devout Christian, struggled for months with how to respond. Eventually, after more restless nights and even more prayers, he awoke one morning with his answer: He would build one of the world’s largest crosses in one of the world’s most unlikely places.

“I said, ‘I am going to build a big cross, higher than any in the world, in a Muslim country,’ ” said Gill, 58. “It will be a symbol of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry free.”

Now, in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, in the heart of a city where Islamist extremists control entire neighborhoods, the 14-story cross is nearly complete.