Our time at Concerned Christians for Afghanistan (CCA) was monumental. One person who has worked 40+ years among Afghans summed it up well, “we just experienced a holy moment.” 

From the first gathering 20 years ago of 40 people and 1 Afghan believer to now in 2023 with 400+ people and 50+ Afghan believers, this gathering was rich, special, an Ebenezer moment. Below is our humble attempt to capture what God did at CCA as well as what God is doing. Our hearts are full. If anything, know that Our Father is kind, Jesus is alive, and Spirit is among Afghans across the globe. 

We would like to share three stories from a 4-day gathering. However, before those stories, below are some other significant happenings.

• Testimonies of God’s amazing work among Afghans across the globe including inside of Afghanistan. 
• Use of social media (Facebook Live, TikTok) to meet, gather, and disciple Afghans.
• Seeing an Afghan engagement followed by Afghan dancing. Our son commented, “this was rare and special.”
• Meeting an Afghan living in Luxembourg who believes he may be the only believer in that country and another Afghan who arrived 3 months ago after walking much of the way from Brazil. 

For me (Steve) this was a family reunion of sorts. A delight of connecting with friends from the past 20 years while also introducing them to Angela and the kids. One blessing was meeting friends face-to-face for the first time and introducing them to one another. I particularly remember sitting in rocking chairs on a balcony with a family from Missouri and another family from South Carolina. The younger kids are playing as we sat in a circle getting to know one another. I am grinning from ear to ear. At one point I blurt out, “I love this moment.” It was pure joy to introduce two families that I love and care about so much to each other. I do not even recall what we discussed but I know it was full of deep gratitude and Jesus loved rocking in those chairs with us. 

One of those holy moments occurred during the presentation and dedication of Pashto and Hazaragi Bibles after decades of work. Our dear Hazara brother shared his story about handwriting from Greek into Hazaragi via candlelight before ever meeting a Westerner to assist in the process. Now years later, the newest Hazaragi Bible was dedicated by dozens of Hazara believers while tears streamed down many faces including ours. 

The first ever New Testament Pashto Bible was then dedicated after nearly 100 years of perseverance. Hazara believers prayed over the Pashto Bible to go forth and bless the Pashtun peoples. If you are unfamiliar with Afghan history, then rest assured this was loving your enemies in action. One of the most profound moments we have experienced. At the end of this dedication, an older Afghan man grabbed the microphone and spoke in his heart language. He went on to say, “until this moment, I thought I was the only Pashtun believer in the room. I now know that I am not alone.” Our Father is kind to connect His children in unbelievable ways. 

On the final day, Steve along with our good friends, Susan and Diana, co-facilitated a time called Finding Our Comfort in God After Great Loss. This was a full day of trauma care and joy-building for Afghans via simultaneous Dari translation. The day included lamenting, quieting, understanding grief, and joy-building practices. We had 50+ people attend and we broke them up at round tables of 6-8 people. 

We started by explaining the need to raise joy levels before addressing pain, loss, or suffering. We used an illustration of two buckets – one hand holding pain, loss, suffering, trauma and the other hand holding joy, appreciation, gratitude. After this illustration we moved to raising joy levels by practicing joy or gratitude memories. You can read about this practice here. 

Two things jump out from the joy bucket illustration and the gratitude memory practice. Right after explaining how we need to focus on raising joy before addressing the bucket of pain and loss (not ignoring the pain or pretending it will go away), a man commented, “many of us from Afghanistan only have one bucket.” 

Let that sink in for a minute. Powerful. Sad. Overwhelming. Speechless. Despair. Seemingly hopeless. These are words that came to mind then and now. 

As we continued with the gratitude memory practice to raise those joy levels or even begin to acknowledge the need for them, we paused at the end of the practice to share the title of the gratitude memories. Since we had over 50 participants, we only asked for a few responses. The titles are supposed to be 2-3 words for easy recall. 

One Afghan man pulled out his earpiece which offered the Dari translation to share his title. He said, “mine is called ‘the day that I learned that Jesus is more than a prophet and is the Son of God.’” Everyone erupted with shouts of joy and clapping. Needless to say, this was longer than 2-3 words, but it is definitely easy to recall.  

We left our time at CCA with tears of joy and laughter as well as anguish and pain. Even now, tears fill our eyes. We thank Jesus for this gift to our family.