By Alan Ch’ng
In 2010, an Afghan medical doctor was taken hostage by the Taliban, and with that event a story began to take shape that would rock the lives of that doctor’s family. God also used the story to impact the family’s eternal lives as they came into contact with Navigator laborers in multiple countries around the world.
I will call the doctor Hamid Abdul (I’ve changed all the names in this article for security). Hamid suddenly found himself in disfavor with the Taliban for working on a military base and helping US forces. When he was kidnapped, his family scraped together the ransom. He came home, but they remained in danger.
Then the oldest of the Abduls’ six children, Ali, began to secretly read the Bible with a roommate who was also a Muslim. The two young men discovered many parallels between the Bible and the Qur’an. As they read more about Jesus in both books, they realized they wanted to follow him. Both men surrendered their lives to Jesus. Later some of their peers found their Bible and plastered the men’s faces all over the news, saying they had converted to Christianity and were trying to brainwash people. When armed men showed up at home and ordered Ali’s mother, Hamdiya, to send him to the mosque, he realized he needed to flee the country. Ali’s father disowned him.
After some difficulty at the border, Ali and his friend were able to convince a taxi driver to take them toward Russia, where they assumed they would be safer as Christians. But the driver abandoned them in one of the Muslim countries of Central Asia. Ali reached out to a church for help with housing. He ended up remaining in that country for seven years. During that time, Ali met a Navigator I will call Les, who lived in a neighboring country but traveled back and forth to visit and disciple Ali. Ali reached out to hundreds of Muslims in Central Asia as Les discipled him faithfully.
In the meantime, Ali lost all contact with his family for six years. They had continued to face threats in Afghanistan, so they fled. They spent time in Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey before settling in South Asia. Ali sought them out through the Red Cross and was finally able to reestablish contact with them by phone. They began talking regularly.
Ali began to share the Gospel virtually with his brothers. One of them, Behrouz, came to faith. Les (still in Central Asia) began to make contact with Behrouz (in South Asia) through WhatsApp. Then Les started studying Scriptures with another of the brothers, Ehsan, who was left traumatized and hopeless by his refugee experience. Ehsan came to faith in 2020 and has become very confident and outgoing. Les began to teach English to another brother, Javeed, using Scriptures. Javeed has since accepted Christ as well. To this day, Les makes a daily WhatsApp call to Ali’s brothers to read and pray with them.
Les was also able to connect the Abdul family in South Asia to another Navigator laborer in South Asia whom I will call David. Now David and his wife are walking with that family in person. They have been able to encourage the believing sons and share Scriptures with Hamid and Hamdiya, who are not yet believers. During the pandemic, David and his wife were the supporting hands and feet of Jesus to the family when Hamdiya fell very ill with Covid.
Ali and Javeed recently migrated to North America. They are in contact with another Navigator leader in North America, John, who is going to continue the discipleship journey with them. The other family members are still in South Asia, where they continue to hear the Gospel in person from David and virtually from Les. Please pray that the Lord brings the rest of this family into his fold.
Our Vision talks about “workers of the Kingdom next door to everywhere.” The story of this family is an example of that principle in action: they received support in their spiritual journey across three countries, because the Lord has Kingdom workers everywhere. We do have people all over the globe, and it is wonderful when they are able to team up together in order to follow up on Kingdom work.
Les, David, and John are good examples of what Kingdom work looks like: being closely involved in the lives of other people to help them move closer to the Kingdom, grow in Christ, and, as our motto states, “help others do the same.” If people all over the world are fully committed to God and his purposes, that can result in movements of the Gospel that stretch across continents and beyond.
