In an emotional appeal videoed on “the first day of Taliban rule,” an Afghan Christian pleaded with Christians around the world not to abandon the church in Afghanistan as the nation faces the sudden loss of all of its gains over the past two decades.
“I don’t know that the future of this country will be,” he said, according to a translation. “We are not able to control our emotions, because we’ve worked so hard for 20 years. All of our work over the past 20 years has been lost overnight.”
The Christian man, whose voice cracked at times though his message, said the video was produced as a “testimony.”
“We want it to be remembered by our friends and loved ones that today we have been left in the field by ourselves,” he said as “our beautiful country … has now been destroyed by this savage and extremist group.
“Only God understands … how broken our hearts are.”
He said Afghans feel as though the “whole world has abandoned us.”
“Those who said they support us have now abandoned us to the worst situation imaginable. I don’t know what’s going to happen to us,” he said.
“But we are not leaving the field,” he said of Christians. “We will fight harder and will continue in God’s work. If we are no longer with you, remember this word from our unbroken hearts.”
He asked Christians to “remember us, the great difficulties we now face.”
“If any of us remain, if our children remain, I have a request: Please do not leave them alone. Please take care of them. Please do not abandon them.”
The video was posted by Global Catalytic Ministries, which backs underground churches in Islamic countries. The church in Afghanistan is believed to be second-fastest growing church in the world, after the church in Iran.
GCM said it is raising $500,000 to support a network of more than 1,500 Afghan families and ministry partners who are committed to serving their communities with basic needs such as food, water and shelter.
See the video:
Taliban taking names
International Christian Concern, which supports persecuted Christians, says Afghanistan’s Christian community is almost exclusively comprised of converts from Islam. Some estimate the Christian population to be between 10,000 and 12,000, making it the country’s largest religious minority group.
“However, due to extreme persecution, the Christian community remains largely closeted and hidden from the public eye,” ICC says.
The group published an interview with an Afghan church leader who described the current situation.
He said that some Christians cannot even trust their own family members, the Christian Broadcasting Network reported.
“The Taliban come in the area of the mosque, ask how many members of the household are part of that, and they take names of all of the people who live there,” he said.
Those who do not adhere to the Taliban demands risk being killed.
“Definitely, they’re going to kill some of the Christians that have been known, and that way they want to spread that fear,” the church leader said.
He said the Taliban will likely take children away from Christian families and turn them into sex slaves and Islamic fighters.
“Definitely for Christians, it’s just an obvious thing that [the Taliban are] going to take all of their kids, and they have to go through the retraining of that system and marrying the Taliban,” he said.
“And for the boys, they have to go be reeducated in the madrassas and definitely they will be trained as (Taliban) soldiers forcefully.”
See the interview:
‘By Saturday the Taliban were at his door’
Mark Morris, who leads a Christian ministry to refugees in Memphis, Tennessee, said he learned over the weekend that a pastor in Afghanistan received a letter from the Taliban that said: “We know who you are, what you do, and where to find you.”
“By Saturday the Taliban were at his door, but he had gone into hiding. Praise God,” Morris wrote in an article for the Gospel Coalition.
He told of another Afghan Christian whose village had been taken by the Taliban three days earlier.
“This dear brother’s 14-year-old daughter was ripped from his arms and forced into sexual servitude in what the Taliban would dub as ‘marriage’ and her ‘dutiful Islamic privilege and responsibility,'” Morris wrote.
He noted that in early July, Afghan pastors and church leaders made the difficult decision of formally registering their faith with the Afghan government.
“What an absurdity to register as Christians in an Islamic republic that prohibits a person from converting to Christianity!” Morris wrote. “Against the advice of many, these Afghan church leaders felt compelled, for the sake of future generations, to legally declare their true faith in Christ.”
The church leaders argued: “What about our children and our grandchildren? Someone should make this sacrifice so the next generations can openly call themselves followers of Jesus.”
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