Staring at the small opening the smugglers had cut in the barbed wire, Sadaf wondered how she would fit through while holding their infant son.
With her husband, Nabi’s, help, she squeezed between the sharp wires, soon finding herself on the other side. They were cut and their clothes were torn, but her family had made it to Pakistan. Sadaf crawled silently along the hard ground, hoping to avoid attracting the attention of the border guards. She allowed her mind to replay the hasty, agonizing goodbyes with her family, the weeks of hiding, the hours of bumping and jostling in the overcrowded truck as it made its way over the rocky terrain in the darkness, then finally the arduous hike through the desert as she and her husband took turns carrying the baby.
This was their second attempt to flee Afghanistan. Through a co-worker’s betrayal, the Taliban had found out that Nabi and Sadaf were sharing the gospel through their humanitarian work and leading an underground church. Escape seemed their only chance for survival. Would the Lord deliver them this time?
Shots rang out as police fired on the men, women, and children who had just crossed the border, forcing Nabi and Sadaf to abandon their meager belongings and retreat back through the barbed wire, with no other option than to return to Kabul and the reach of the Taliban.
A few weeks later, on October 13, 2021, Nabi, Sadaf, and their son were evacuated on a flight from Afghanistan, along with several other underground church leaders. They spent the following year at a refugee camp in Abu Dhabi before the Lord brought them to the US through the Afghan Initiative. Since then, they have served alongside Live Global and EveryEthne missionaries to reach Muslims living in the US while continuing to oversee their humanitarian gospel ministry in Afghanistan.
Sadaf recently spoke with a Live Global director, words of grace and mercy flowing from her heart. Recalling all those who had persecuted her family, she shared, “I knew [I needed] to forgive the people, but now I have learned to pray for them.”
God is doing a miracle of healing in her life—and in the lives of all our Afghan Initiative ministry leaders—as he uses them in the work of the gospel. In collaboration with Live Global and EveryEthne, they are serving previously inaccessible Muslim immigrants and refugees through several ministry ventures:
- Building relationships with fellow Afghans, witnessing to them, and connecting them to churches
- Serving in two Afghan church plants
- Growing healthcare outreach ministry through providing translation between patients and providers
- Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL)
- Reaching out to their communities through food distribution
- Ministering to teen girls through a leadership program
- Overseeing humanitarian work in Afghanistan with “covert” gospel outreach and trauma care
- Discipling new believers in the US and Afghanistan
- Continuing to grow through ministry training opportunities
Please join us in praying for these Afghan Initiative ministry leaders and their families. Even as they face many challenges and unknowns for their safety and future, God is using them to impact unreached Afghan families with the truth of the gospel.
Editor’s Note: Names have been changed to preserve the security of those involved in the Afghan Initiative.
