2 of 4

Has Shelter Now lost some credibility with either the new government or with the people?

I think exactly the opposite happened. The minister of planning, who ethnically is a Hazara, sat beside me. He started to share with me how much these people suffered under the Taliban. He saw dry wells full of bodies of people who had been murdered by the Taliban. And he was so deeply touched. He said, "You have suffered under the Taliban as we have suffered." And this is the general attitude of people. When we went to the U.N. office to do some business, Afghans recognized me. They said, "First of all, we celebrate." They ordered food. I had to tell my story. Then we celebrated. Later on, when it was finished, we started to do our business. That so far has been my experience with the Afghan people. The people respect me because I suffered in the prisons as they did. And they just can't believe that I have come back.

Dayna and Heather told us (CT, July 8, 2002, p. 26) some workers with Shelter Now were like-minded in wanting to do evangelism. They said that was why they were there. Can you comment on that?

I do not use this word evangelism, and I never use especially the word missions. This could mean in America that people preach the gospel, make campaigns, or whatever. We are all very committed Christians, and as I said before, every day you probably have a chance [to]. … talk about religious things. There are Afghans who come to us and ask us questions, and they want to know more. And since we are Christians, we talk about it. And we always emphasize that people have a right to hear.

In Kabul, a lot of educated people who love us, who think we are honest people, come to us. You don't have to go out and do what we call evangelistic things. You just need to live your life as a Christian, and this attracts people, and they want to know more about what you believe in. People simply ask you, "Are you Muslim? Why are you not a Muslim?" And then you can talk. And it's plain to them why you're not a Muslim and what you believe in.

Did Heather and Dayna tell you they were showing the Jesus film on the day they were arrested?

I wish I had been informed. I wish I would have known about this, because in the evening, we had a meeting and they were arrested. I had no idea where they were.

Now are you going to ask your workers to keep in closer contact with you?

I said during the Taliban [rule], and I often say now, that I really want to know what people are doing. We are getting new people in. I don't know what people have in their minds when they come here, what they have heard. They don't know the culture. I don't want to say that Dayna and Heather were kind of wild people that just went around and did all kind of things. I think these girls tried hard. They didn't go around and show the Jesus film all over.

I don't know. Maybe this was the only time they did this. In a normal case, if they had not been betrayed, nobody would have said anything about it. They did it in the most sensitive way you could do it—on a computer with a cd. I was amazed what a big stir it caused, even amongst the [worldwide] Christian community. They said, "How could you do something like this?" I said, "Well, if you have friends and they want to see a film about the life of Jesus, and Jesus is one of the most respected prophets, what big crime is that?"

next page... |  2 of 4

share this page

January 2003, Vol. 47, No. 1