Yesterday, I sat in a small hotel room with two BTJ missionaries who are serving in Afghanistan. They drank nice warm cups of tea while I sat with a tall cold glass of Coke Zero. I flew directly to the Middle East to hear about their work in Afghanistan, but nothing could have prepared me for what they told me.
To be a Christian in Afghanistan is extremely dangerous, but to be a missionary is deadly. The Taliban is actively hunting for any signs of Christianity in the country, even launching raids on homes looking for Bibles, religious teachings, or Christian applications on phones or computers.
The country’s current extremism, support for terrorism, economic instability, and rule by the Taliban are contributing factors that are keeping many missionaries out of the country. Christian humanitarian workers and educators are largely staying away and praying that the situation will get better, but the two missionaries that I met with yesterday had a completely different report to share than what I expected to hear.
“I have been living in Afghanistan for more than twenty years,” one of the missionaries shared. “I have never seen so many people come to Christ as I have in the last two years.” To safeguard the identity of the missionaries, we are not able to report their names, what they do, what nationality they are, or even where we met.
When asked how many have come to Christ in Afghanistan in the last two years, one of the missionaries responded, “We have seen 200 families come to Christ since last year.” The missionary went on to explain that each family can have anywhere from 4-8 children, so the number of new believers could be as many as 1,000.
The missionaries showed pictures of the people that they have been baptizing and gave details about the discipleship training they are currently conducting to train local pastors and teachers. “We currently have about 70 stable believers who are dedicated and are currently attending our discipleship training,” one of the missionaries happily reported.
BTJ has been responding to many natural disasters in Afghanistan and has been working through our network of believers on the ground to help in the various areas, but this is the first time that we have heard of so many Afghanis coming to Christ.
I found you on utube I share many of the same convictions about the church and the condition of her body. I have been a follower of Christ for many years, and I have seen and experienced the miracles of God. I believe Jesus is returning very soon, and it’s time for the sheep to come off the comfy church pews The great commission is to go out into the highways and byways to share the good news with everyone, and to start healing the sick, the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the captive to be set free and the dead to rise so the unbelieving would become believers. And these signs shall follow to them that believe Mark 16:17
I am hearing from other ministries toward the Muslim world that there are deep stirrings and an ‘awakening’ taking place in Afghanistan. I work in one ministry to the Muslim world and we are hearing of a deep disappointment and emptiness in Islam and a hunger for something that brings peace and satisfaction. Another man said “I realized that Allah just doesn’t like me, why am I holding on to him.” Thanks for this article, good stuff, encouraging.
Amen. We have had it so easy in America (in the past). In the past we were allowed to speak freely about our faith. I used to go door to door and preach or talj about salvation and Jesus. I worked on a bus route in Chicago in a mainly Mexican neighborhood. Wed do what we called “bus calling”. Also you used to be able to go door to door in any neighborhood and share your faith. The worse thing that would happen is someone might slam the door in your face. Now it is much worse. I don’t have a “bus calling partner” anymore. I have to go witnessing alone. I went to the psychiactric ward seven, maybe eight times for prophesying about the last days (which usually meant I talked about what the Bible says about the last days.). So I think the anti-Christ is rising up or at least alive because people are getting little microchips in the right hand that has your identification, bank card info. etc . inside of them. The antiChrist or “beast” will mark people in the right hand also. In the forehead too, but most people don’t want a little bump in their forehead. So I thought, ” what kind of technology could be used and placed on the forehead that would be not easily noticed?”. My reply to myself was “invisible tattoos.”. And sure enough I found a company already producing them! Y’all research this. Stay aware that technology is at the point to be able to “mark” everybody on the planet.