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World celebrates as Shelter Now aid workers go home
After three months of imprisonment by the Taliban, all 24 Shelter Now employees—including 16 Afghans, four Germans, two Americans, and two Australians—are free.

Late Monday night, as the Taliban fled the capital city of Kabul, it rounded up the eight foreign Christians and put them into trucks bound for Kandahar. "We knew that if we ended up in Kandahar we would probably not survive there," Georg Taubmann told reporters (video). Fortunately, they never made it there—the Taliban convoy only made it to Ghazni, 50 miles away, before being stopping at about 1 a.m. (2:30 p.m. CST). As the temperatures dropped near freezing, the Taliban placed the prisoners into a large steel container for the next eight hours. Their next location wasn't much better: a Ghazni prison. "It was a terrible place," said Taubmann. Outside the prison, the Taliban found Ghazni an even more terrible place: local residents and Northern Alliance forces attacked the Taliban, who fled two hours later.

Meanwhile, as Northern Alliance took control of Kabul, they released the 16 Afghan Shelter Now workers. Largely forgotten by the international press, these 16 workers probably faced a harsher future than the foreigners. Had the Taliban been found them guilty of promoting Christianity, they almost certainly would have been killed.

On Monday night in Kabul, the German, American, and Australian Shelter Now workers had heard a knock on their cell door and thought it was the knock of freedom. Tuesday morning in Ghazni, they heard a knock on their Ghazni cell and thought it was the Taliban coming to take them away again. Instead, it was the people of Ghazni celebrating their freedom. "The people came out of the houses, and they hugged us, and they greeted us; they were all clapping," Taubmann said. "They didn't know there were foreigners in the prison, so it was a big attraction … it was like a big celebration for all these people. The biggest day in my life."

The Shelter Now workers were then taken to a local warlord, who contacted the Red Cross to arrange a rescue plan. Early this morning, three U.S. special operations helicopters flew into the city to rescue them. They were unable to land before dawn, but eventually flew all eight workers to Islamabad, Pakistan, arriving at about 8:30 a.m.

"I'm really proud of our Armed Forces, and I'm also thankful for the folks in Afghanistan who helped with this rescue," President Bush said last night. "There have been a lot of people praying for the eight—eight innocent folks."

Among those praying the hardest were the parents of the aid workers. Tilden Curry was in a fitting place when he heard that his daughter, 29-year-old Dayna Curry, had been released from captivity in Afghanistan. He was in his Nashville church, standing in line for dinner.

From the church in Waco, Texas, where Heather Mercer, 24, and Dayna Curry attended, to their hometowns (Vienna, Virginia and Thompson's Station, Tennessee respectively), the good news—and worship—spread quickly.

Pastor Jimmy Seibert, pastor of Waco's Antioch Community Church, was watching television when he heard the news. He didn't believe it at first. When it was confirmed, he jumped into the air and shouted, "Thank you, Lord!"

While logistics of the rescue and release are unconfirmed, loved ones of Mercer and Curry point to one common reason for their safety: prayer. "Thousands of people all over the world have been praying. Truly, God has answered our prayers," Seibert told the Houston Chronicle. For fifteen weeks, 24-hour prayer vigils have been held at the church.

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November (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45