IN SEPTEMBER 2001 the United States of America and the Islamic State of Afghanistan collided on the potholed road of world events. These two virtual strangers suddenly found themselves bloodied, broken, and bewildered by the violent events that slammed them together. Survivors on both sides are still trying to make sense of the resulting chaos and death. But everyone knows the collision was no accident.
Since September 11, 2001, I’ve often had the privilege of telling my experiences during the days surrounding the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. In television interviews, radio talk shows, newspaper and magazine articles, civic and church meetings, I have been asked hundreds of probing questions. You see, I was an American in Afghanistan when three airplanes dove nose first into highly populated buildings in my own country. All but three Americans and Western aid workers went home from Afghanistan shortly after that. I stayed here. And that simple fact sparks the most amazing conversations.
Almost everyone I meet wants to learn about and understand this wild and complicated place called Afghanistan. People say that it helps just to talk to someone who has been here. Their thirst for inside information arises from fear, curiosity, anger, hatred, doubt, and even faith. As someone who loves to teach, I deeply appreciate the chance to help fill in the gaps in their knowledge.
I’ve learned so many humbling lessons as an American living overseas—lessons we all need to know. For instance, we really do need to work harder at understanding how other people see us. We also need to realize that situations in other parts of the world are usually far more complex than we can understand from the short, often biased, news stories we see on television.
Until September 11, 2001, my first year in Afghanistan was spent living and working among people on one side of a vicious civil war that has raged here since 1996. Many relief and development agencies work on each side of the battle lines. Refugee numbers swell daily. Critical human needs transcend religious and political loyalties. The problem is painfully obvious: People all around us are dying and need help.
Shelter for Life (SFL), the agency I serve with in Afghanistan, is a branch of Shelter Now International (SNI), registered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a Private Voluntary Organization (PVO). It’s a relief and development organization that serves and recruits internationally, operating in various countries around the world, with many of its workers coming from a variety of Christian backgrounds and organizations.
SFL has extensive programs that involve relief and disaster response, emergency distributions and food-for-work projects, construction and rebuilding, and education and training. Our vision is to eliminate the need for shelter for every homeless refugee and forced migrant in the world.We try to do exactly what the Bible instructs us to do in Isaiah 58:7b, where it says we are “to provide the poor wanderer with shelter” (NIV).
Our philosophy of work is based on the biblical principles of acting with compassion for those in need and seeking out those who need help the most. However, we function with very clear guidelines and under the authority of the governments we serve.
Relief and development work involves a specific kind of service in the world. Followers of Jesus Christ who are called to relief and development ministries often find themselves in places that are open to their acts of humanitarian assistance but are hostile to their preaching the gospel. Afghanistan, as an officially Muslim nation, does not normally welcome any group whose primary stated purpose is to proclaim Christianity or any other religion. But Christians who are willing to offer service, or who have a particular needed skill, may be permitted to come. However, we must be willing to operate under laws that don’t permit freedom of speech. Those of us who choose to serve in such settings do so with the conviction that what we can do speaks more loudly than what we can say.
We are trying to meet the needs of destitute people displaced by the present civil war, but those are not our original or only reasons for being here. Other long-standing needs demand our daily attention and God’s continual mercy. Catastrophic earthquakes have repeatedly devastated Afghanistan. Years of drought have almost destroyed that region of Central Asia. Decades of war and conflict have demolished homes, mosques, businesses, and schools. Normal life, in almost any sense of the words, has been impossible for a long time.
Through the darkness of the obvious physical and social needs inside Afghanistan, spiritual confusion and hunger for truth cry out. The refugees we help are victims of a religious struggle between two sides, both claiming to rightly represent Islam. Every day I see the chaos that results from attempts to spread and preserve a religious system by force. This principle has historically been proven true—by Jews, Christians (Protestant and Catholic), Muslims, and peoples of other faiths trying to spread their beliefs against the will of their audiences.
I have the priceless privilege of speaking personally about my faith with friends in Afghanistan. They often ask; they are religious, curious, and interested. I also ask my Muslim friends many questions about their faith. Their worldview has much to teach me. I’d be foolish to live among them and not learn about them. I watch them, and they watch me. I listen and learn, but I have made a conscious decision to be a lifelong follower of Jesus, the Messiah. I am in, and hope to stay in, Afghanistan, not to force a message on them, even though I believe that message is vital, but simply to imitate and obey the one I call Master.
Some people I talk to honestly wonder if being in a place like Afghanistan is worth the effort and danger I face. Some question whether it is even possible to make a difference in the face of such incredible needs. Others wonder about the restrictive limitations— laws, war, strange languages and customs, and so few resources. You’ll have to judge for yourself as you read these pages. I only hope my story will provide a sense of inspiration and some answers to your questions. As for me, I’m staying with a people I love in a place where I can wholeheartedly serve . . . inside Afghanistan.