An Afghan Christian has tearfully pleaded with Christians across the globe to not forget the underground church following the Taliban takeover of his country. In a four-minute video, the man says he feels abandoned under Taliban rule but pledges to “continue God’s work” in the conflict-torn country.
Global Catalyst Ministries, a Christian group, published the footage on Aug. 19, several days after the Taliban captured Afghan capital Kabul and established control over the Central Asian country.
In the video, the face of the man is blurred and his voice changed, presumably to protect his identity. He speaks in his native language but the video has English subtitles.
Despite the tears and fears that have gripped the small Christian community, the man declares: “We are not leaving the field.”
The man begins the video with greetings — “Hello, dear sisters and brothers” — on the first day under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
“I don’t know what the future of this country will be. We are not able to control our emotions because we’ve worked so hard for 20 years. All of our work over the past 20 years has been lost overnight,” he says
“Only God understands how much pain we have and how broken our hearts are.” As his voice chokes in emotion, he says it was not the fear but the collapse of the country that had brought tears to Christians’ eyes.
“We are crying not out of fear but because our hearts ache for our beautiful country. It has now been destroyed by this savage and extremist group. Every precious thing of value in our nation is now destroyed,” he says.