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Abdul Khan (not his real name), a Christian well-acquainted with Central Asia, spoke with Deann Alford concerning conditions in Afghanistan shortly after Islamic terrorists attacked the United States on September 11. At the time, refugees were pouring out of Afghanistan, eight aid workers with the German-based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International (SNI) had been jailed about six weeks for preaching Christianity and there was almost no relief work for suffering Afghans. Khan described Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation in late September as “very, very dismal.” “The only hope I have is that God will somehow step in and provide a way out,” he told Alford in that interview. “I think he did that.” Recently, Alford interviewed Khan again.

Q: You told us if enough people prayed for mercy for Afghanistan, God would do something special.
A: That happened. That prophecy came true. We are happy about what happened. We feel that Afghanistan has turned a corner. God is beginning to show favor to the country like we’ve never seen before, and God has been engineering the whole thing.

The role of prayer and worship has been one of the keynotes of the SNI team. Of course, with the SNI team in prison, that generated probably more prayer for Afghanistan than any other single thing. It’s hard to imagine how many people were praying for this group of eight, but apart from the 24-hour prayer chain the Antioch Church (SNI aid workers Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer’s church in Waco, Texas) had, I think that if not millions then hundreds of thousands have been praying consistently day and night. They were there three and a half months, which is fairly intense prayer time for one country and for one group of people. I think we are seeing the results now. I am very thankful and very excited. I think God is beginning to do the new thing I was talking about and I expect there’s going to be a major harvest among the Afghans.

Q: What is the situation now?
A: People I’ve just heard from who are working with Afghans in Jalalabad said the people’s attitude has changed dramatically since the fall of the Taliban. There’s a sense of joy and hope that we haven’t seen for years. The Taliban are gone. It’s like day and night. If you’re watching the news, you can see that people are happy. They’re saying, “We were in bondage, we were in slavery under the Taliban and now we’re free.” Both men and women are thrilled to death. Some refugees are starting to come back, even though the place is still desperate for food and the drought hasn’t been broken, but they’re happy to get out of Pakistan to their homeland. Their situation was hopeless. Now it’s hopeful, but still very desperate.

Q: So there are no new refugees and previous refugees are starting to go back?
A: They’re starting to go back. The majority are going to wait until spring, because Afghanistan, especially Kabul, is cold and there’s very little food there. I think it’s very likely that a large percentage will go back.

Q: The Taliban said it kicked out SNI and another Christian aid agency for showing a CD of the Jesus film. What is your opinion of the SNI workers’ actions in Afghanistan?
A: You can’t believe about 90 percent of what the Taliban said. I spoke with an Afghan diplomat who believed the reason the eight were arrested was basically political rather than religious. The al Qaeda and Taliban were looking for an excuse to get rid of foreign workers because they were building extensive terrorist training camps. They didn’t want foreigners snooping around and being aware of what they were doing. To get rid of the western foreigners they needed to find some group they could accuse of something. SNI seemed to be the easiest target for them.

Q: Do you have any criticism of the ministry?
A: I have no criticism of SNI or how they operated. I think they were quite careful in how they did their witness. They certainly were following orders from above. If they felt the Lord was saying to do something, they would be obedient, which I think was quite commendable. I don’t think they were reckless or in any way irresponsible in the way they operated. I think God was guiding them. I think Afghanistan is basically free today because SNI was faithful.

Q: Are you concerned that what happened with SNI will hinder ministry in other Muslim countries?
A: It’s hard for me to imagine these other countries would brand them. To me, that question doesn’t even add up. I doubt very seriously there’s going to be a problem.

March 8, 2002