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Following the U.S. military campaign against the Taliban, a radical Islamic school wanted to take over the building. But the progressive-thinking Fayez had other plans. He told 30 educators to occupy the building. "They took it by squatters' rights," says Mitchell. President Hamid Karzai later teased Fayez about this, saying, "How did you accomplish this—setting aside a radical Muslim university to establish an education university? I didn't know you were an occupier, an invader." The difference between Karzai and the leaders who came before him is this: Karzai is joking; others would have been dead serious when uttering the same words.

In March 2003, the University of Education still had "no running water, no telephones, no electricity," McCarthy said. The walls were marked with bullet holes. "There is a crater in one of the hallways from a rocket-propelled grenade," says Mitchell. Some of the windows were blown out. The classrooms were not heated, so both the American lecturers and the Afghan professors left their coats on inside.

The teachers, and their students, lack basic supplies—books, pens, paper, black and whiteboards, chalk, markers. Don't even mention laboratory equipment or computers.

But more than they need basic supplies, the Afghan professors need to know that they can educate a generation of ethical men and women. How do you begin instilling this wild ambition in them, especially when their nation has been ravaged by violence?

You remind them that they're made in the image of God, something that both the Qur'an and the Bible affirm. IICS conveyed this truth as it taught educational philosophy, curriculum development, learning styles, the student-centered classroom, and the university system of academic credit. "We kept what's good in their culture and added what's worked for us," designing a model for Afghan higher education, says McCarthy.

The Afghan professors were so moved when McCarthy told them that they were "the agents of healing for your culture and society" that they burst into tears. "Is there hope for Afghanistan?" they asked.

McCarthy then told them about the time she brought out a bag of candy to street kids and one boy grabbed all the candy. It took one disapproving look from her for the boy to begin giving all of the candy to the other children, with none left for himself.

Hearing her account, the professors "started crying and couldn't recover." The boy's instinctive selfishness was to them a picture of their own hearts, hardened by war. McCarthy summarized what they expressed in a form of public repentance: "We have become so uncivilized and so hardened just to survive against war, oppression, and religious abuse." But what touched them the most was that the war hadn't erased the boy's sense of right and wrong. That's hope.

At a time when U.S. media from Mother Jones to Beliefnet decry the supposed "deceptiveness" of Christian tentmakers, IICS is a stellar example of what businessman and author Bill Diehl calls "the ministry of competence."

The group is very picky about its candidates' credentials (a graduate degree is a must), experience, and Christian witness. Only one of 10 applicants gets accepted. When Communist countries ask CEO Daryl McCarthy for teachers, he says something like this:

"You want experienced, hard-working, ethical professionals? We'll get them for you. In fact, IICS is so particular that we make sure that every one of them is a Christian." Says McCarthy: "It's fun to hear the foreign officials say, 'Ah, yes, very good. That's what we need.' "

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December 2003, Vol. 47, No. 12