Kabul, Afghanistan Report

March, 2005

Chad Moore

The opportunity the Lord provided me to go to Kabul, Afghanistan proved to be an invaluable blessing I will forever cherish. From the point in which the seed that was planted in my mind to go to Afghanistan through to the present day, God’s Hand was and is more apparently involved than with any ventures I have been apart of in the past. From the flood of support from the body of Christ to the uniquely prepared work God led me to, and the working out of even the simplest of details, the Lord made His amazing love for the Afghan people abundantly obvious to me. Simply seeing and even getting to be a part of all the amazing work the Lord is doing in such a beautiful and dark place was an eye-opening, exciting, and very humbling experience.

Kabul, Afghanistan

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth.

Psalms 96:9

The Beauty

After landing in Kabul, the airplane pulled up to a very small rundown airport. As I walked down the stairs from the plane on to the runway, I was immediately struck by the magnificence of the looming mountains surrounding me. The air that day was crisp and clear, the sun was shining brightly, and there was a nice cool breeze. The snow-capped mountains provided a panoramic postcard view in the backdrop of villages that could be seen. I didn’t know what I had expected, but I immediately thought to myself, “This is beautiful!”

The people of Afghanistan were also beautiful. They have many well-known proverbs that are deeply imbedded within their culture, and one of them goes something like, “First time you meet, you’re a friend - Second time you meet, you’re a brother.” This proved to be true, as the people greeted and welcomed me into their families and lives with a hospitality that shames the vast majority of the United States. It also struck me that they are a very honest people with high integrity; and living in a land that has been ravished by war for years, I found their simplicity, humility, and down-to-earth way of living and interaction very refreshing.

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:2-4

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world.

He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

John 8:12

The Darkness

Much of what this part of the world hears and sees regarding Afghanistan and her religion is shrouded in mystery - full of misunderstandings, tainted by biases, and greatly impacted by smaller groups of people amidst a large society. My close-up view, involving meeting and befriending individuals amidst the culture seemed to strip much of this away, but the palpable darkness was still very evident.

The “Blue Ghosts” of Afghanistan: Women Wearing Burqas

The oppression of women was striking. Although things have changed some since the Taliban was taken out of power in 2001, most women are still confined to the home like a jail cell and wear a blue garment in public that covers their entire body so that not even their eyes can be seen through the small prison-bar grate that they squint through. It seemed as if these “blue ghosts” (as I started thinking of them) mysteriously float around just trying not to get run over, even literally by men walking, biking, or driving down the sidewalks and streets.

Out of all the countries in the entire world (including many much less developed), Afghanistan still has the worst maternal mortality rate. Women have only recently been allowed back into schools, so there is a paucity of female physicians. And since men are forbidden in the culture to do female exams, most of the women in Afghanistan deliver their babies in their homes without any health care. As a result, many needlessly die bleeding to death during or after labor. Although it is not the thought of all the men in Afghanistan - especially in cities, like Kabul - I did hear about the sentiment of some meen as being, “if my wife dies while giving birth, I will simply get another wife.” And so the needless deaths of women continue.

The ravaged war-torn buildings were the norm, not the exception. Nearly every building showed the signs of the evils of men - riddled with bullet holes or collapsing roofs and walls, all from the impact of years of war.

The previously modern city of Kabul has been sent back in time 30 years after being trampled on by tanks and demolished by bombs. Much of the area of Kabul, including where I stayed, is still without electricity. This literally brings the darkness at night with only specks of light and the large hum of a motor coming from the few households that can afford a generator. The best streets are full of potholes, the remaining unpaved, and a majority of time the air filled with a dusty thick fog of pollution that is said to be 60% feces.

An All-To-Common Scene: Walls Riddled With Bullet Holes And Bombed Buildings Showing The Impact Of Years Of War

Although improved some in the past few years, religious oppression remains. It is now legal for foreigners who are Christians to live in Afghanistan and gather together for church. However, it is still not without danger and is very secretive. The time of the service was purposefully changed each week, and the meeting was still in a small unmarked house with several watchmen on guard at the front gate. At the beginning of each service, the pastor would explain the emergency plan: if danger was noted, he would blow a large whistle and we would all quickly and quietly escape out a secret back door through the kitchen.

It does remain illegal and very dangerous to share the Good News of the love of Jesus Christ, and an Afghan who converts from Islam to Christianity is often beaten, killed, or disowned by their family. I heard a recent story about one young Afghan man who had become a Christian that was beaten within an inch of his life. It turned out it was his own father who had hired the people to beat him to death. I heard other firsthand stories of people who had converted to Christianity that had been disowned by their family (a fate they thought worse than death), nearly killed by Muslims previously their friends, or remained secretly a Christian in fear of their lives.

Three Young Afghan Doctors, Dr. Hamilton, And Myself At Cure International Hospital

So the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

Exodus 4:2

The Medicine

I worked with a medical doctor from America who had been a missionary in Africa for over a decade and had been called to Afghanistan over a year ago. He worked in a rebuilt hospital with an outpatient clinic and at another small clinic a few miles from the hospital, and is currently teaching and mentoring 5 young Afghan doctors while developing a Family Medicine residency program. The inpatient ward had just been developed in December of 2004, and we rounded on 3-7 hospitalized patients each day. My previous experience as an engineer working extensively with computers was evidently part of the Lord’s means for preparing me for a project while I was there: I developed a computerized system for keeping track of patient records and daily orders.

In the clinics, I precepted a few young Afghan doctors who had recently graduated from medical school in addition to seeing some ‘private’ patients of my own (foreigners, missionaries, and locals who desired to be evaluated by an American doctor). Much to my surprise, one of the first patients I saw in clinic I ended up admitting for a large heart attack confirmed by EKG. Although we could offer little more than medical treatment and supportive care (there are no current cardiac catheterization labs in Afghanistan), she did thankfully live to be discharged some days later. Other than some very strange neurological diseases and advanced cancer, the vast majority of what I encountered was infectious disease, including many cases of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (with huge ulcerating neck masses, or scrofulas).

Young Afghan Lady With Her Child At Clinic

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. Luke 9:23-24

The Ministry

The tensions regarding ministry were extremely high. Not only did I feel huge tensions immediately arise in me, I felt and saw it in other missionaries and throughout the secret Afghan church there. The truth and reality of spiritual warfare was blatantly evident, and many verses of scripture came alive and more powerful than ever for me - feeding me with constant meditation and delight, and driving me constantly in prayer to the throne of grace. In my past mission trips to South America, I was freely able to share the Gospel, which is my passion. On the other hand, Afghanistan proved to be a whole different situation. There is already some division within the church in Afghanistan about the means of evangelism and amount of boldness with which to go forth. It took much discretion, prayer, and of course leading of the Holy Spirit to know when to remain silent and when to speak out. There had been times when bolder Christians had come for short periods of time and caused much grief and problems with the long-term missionaries that had been laboring there for many years, even causing some to get in trouble with the law, kicked out of the country, or even killed. In any event, the Lord did provide opportunities to share His Gospel with several people.

The highlight of the trip was meeting secretly several times - one-on-one - with a new young Afghan believer. It took us awhile to organize a meeting, determining when and where to meet so that no one would see us together, but after some minor mishaps we were able to meet. He told me how he had been ill-treated by the Taliban many years before and had grown extremely dissatisfied with the fruits of Islam and the darkness of his culture. One day, he heard the message of salvation through Jesus Christ on a radio station beamed in from Pakistan. In prayer, had repented and believed in the truth of the Gospel. He told no one of his conversion to Christianity, did not own a Bible, and knew very little about the faith. He especially did not tell his own wife and family, or else he said, “they would burn me in a fire.” He had been praying for months that he would obtain a Bible and meet someone to teach him more about Jesus. By God’s providence, I met him and was able to obtain and give two Bibles to him - one in English and one in his own language. In our meetings, he asked amazingly fresh questions, was transfixed by every scripture we went through, and quickly grasped concepts and truths that normally seem to take years to comprehend! Surely, the Holy Spirit was guiding him into all truth, even as it is written. Even when I left, he had plans of continuing to meet with some other missionaries and possibly going to the secret Afghan church I heard and told him about. I was blessed to tears, as I was able to excitedly share everything the Lord had revealed to me since becoming a Christian in 1995. I felt as if all my studies of scripture were a means to prepare me to meet with him, and has given me a newfound passion to study and share God’s Word, especially where He is almost or completely unknown.

Afghan Family Celebrating Their New Year (March 21) On A Hill Overlooking Kabul (NOT A Picture Of Man Spoken Of Above)

Thanks for all your prayers and financial support!

Chad Moore

Why to Kabul, Afghanistan

My Testimony

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